Social Innovation and Psychometric Analysis

Social innovation is defined as new ideas or solution proposals to the needs of humans which have not been fulfilled to increase their life standards and welfare. Although after 1990s social innovation has started to attract academicians attentions, there are few empirical studies on this subject yet. The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable social innovation instrument at individual level. In this regard, a comprehensive field study was conducted. The field study consists of 767 senior university students from various faculties of 10 universities reflecting different geographical and socio- economic levels to provide a country-wide generalization. According to the findings, a reliable and valid social innovation scale is employed unidimensionally with eight items. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.