This contribution contrasts the institutionalization trajectories of the Social Solidarity Economy (SSE) in two countries, South Korea (hereafter: Korea) and France, which have chosen to develop specific public policies dedicated to the SSE. It stresses on the one hand that far from a path dependency, one can observe a convergence process based on the increasing heterogeneity of SSE actors in each of the national contexts. It shows on the other hand that these processes of institutionalization of SSE are implemented according to two conceptions of social innovation which jointly characterize the renewal of public action. In Korea, they are based on the production of goods and services with a social purpose by private actors, and in France on co-construction