Organizations are seeking ways to become more innovative as a response to increased global competitiveness. While innovation is clearly important, many strategies have been attempted with this goal but no clear method has proved successful. This study shows that firms who are considered to have innovation as one of their core competencies utilize mentoring to facilitate and cultivate innovation. Utilizing a qualitative, case study approach, interviews were conducted with key stakeholders at four major U.S. companies considered to be among the most innovative in the world. The transcripts, archival data, and popular magazine and newspaper articles were included in the content analysis. Findings support that mentoring is a key aspect of creating and sustaining a culture of innovation at large U.S. corporations.

The concept of social innovation is increasingly becoming a subject of interest particularly due to the challenges associated with the crisis of the welfare state. The high rate of ex- offending is an example of a current challenge and mentoring is a social innovation which seeks to take up this challenge. The main goal of this thesis is to interrogate the process of social innovation using mentoring of ex-offenders as an example and to explore mentoring and its implementation within the Czech Republic. The theory of the process of social innovation, as documented in the overseas literature, guided the extensive research conducted in Czech non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provide mentoring approach. The empirical part of this thesis provides a valuable insight into the process of social innovation from NGO perspective. It includes a comprehensive description of developmental stages of the process as well as highlights the limitations that NGOs encounter in implementing mentoring in the Czech Republic.