Social Impact and Operational Efficiency: Towards a Lean Corporate Social Innovation Model at the Mexico-United States Border
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The central objective of the study was to analyze whether the diversity of business and social practices surrounding the TechSpark-Microsoft initiative in the Ciudad Juárez-El Paso Borderplex met the characteristics of an emerging Lean Corporate Social Innovation (LCSI) model. The methodology involved field visits from 2021 to 2023, 11 qualitative interviews with managers of multinational companies, local SMEs, a research center, and individuals leading the TechSpark project, as well as a review of secondary sources, including official organization reports and social media. The systematization of this diverse data was conducted through an innovative use of the ChatGPT-4o large language model (LLM). The main findings suggest that TechSpark integrates Corporate Social Innovation (CSI) characteristics -such as meeting social needs, collaboration, and sustainability- with Lean Culture (LC) principles -like efficiency and continuous improvement-. Unlike a previous analysis that excluded it from CSI due to a lack of alignment with Microsoft’s business model, this study demonstrates that TechSpark is aligned, generating sustainable economic and social value. We therefore propose to identify this initiative under the emerging concept of Lean Corporate Social Innovation (ICSI), which describes the integration of Corporate Social Innovation and Lean Culture principles.
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