A Scoping Review of Evaluation and Implementation in Complex Social Innovation Projects

Abstract

Social innovation projects are increasingly used to address complex societal challenges, yet many struggle to achieve sustainable implementation and lasting social impact. While the fields of social innovation, evaluation, and implementation science have each developed relevant insights, knowledge remains fragmented across disciplinary boundaries. This scoping review addresses fragmentation by synthesizing literature from social innovation, systems thinking and complexity science, evaluation, and implementation science through a design lens. Drawing from these fields, three objectives are explored: systemic social impact, monitoring social impact, and competencies for sustainable implementation. Findings highlight the importance of actor involvement for contextual understanding, while limited attention to power dynamics raises concerns about ethics and relevance. Success is context-dependent, requiring shared vision, trust, and engagement. However, accountability remains challenging due to the unpredictability of complex systems. A shift toward adaptive, learning-oriented approaches and capacity building is evident. The discussion explores both how complexity-aware approaches from different fields can be integrated into design practice and highlights design’s potential to mitigate the identified challenges. The principal contribution of this review is the integration of complementary bodies of knowledge on impact, evaluation, and implementation in complex social innovation contexts. By identifying shared themes and disciplinary blind spots, the review provides a conceptual foundation for future interdisciplinary research. By adopting a design lens, this review proposes new pathways for cross-disciplinary collaboration and emphasizes the need for context-sensitive, ethically grounded approaches to support lasting social change.