Europe

Articles — 1660

• Choreography in Inter-Organizational Innovation Networks

  Giovanna Ferraro, Antonio Iovanella · 2014 · arXiv preprint, University of Rome Tor Vergata

  Introduces 'choreography' as a concept for inter-organizational innovation networks — a self-organizing coordination mechanism that shapes connectivity and cohesion among hubs, semi-peripheral, and peripheral members lacking hierarchical authority.

• Innovation and Networking in Peripheral Areas — a Case Study of Emergence and Change in Rural Manufacturing

  Seija Virkkala · 2007 · European Planning Studies, 15(4), 511-529

  Case study of rural manufacturing in a peripheral region, tracing how innovation and networking emerge and change. Foundational reference for thinking about innovation systems beyond core regions.

• Innovation networks for social impact: An empirical study on multi-actor collaboration in projects for smart cities

  Emilene Leite · 2022 · Journal of Business Research, 139, 325-337

  Examines what drives the formation of innovation networks for smart-city projects involving companies, government, and society. Identifies searching, acting, and convincing as core activities; argues smart-city innovation requires public-private-citizen configuration.

• Management of innovation networks: a case study of different approaches

  Jukka Ojasalo · 2008 · European Journal of Innovation Management, 11(1)

  Empirical case study of two software-business SMEs with contrasting approaches to managing innovation networks. Surfaces six dimensions for mapping innovation network management: duration, rewards, fundamental meaning, organisational nature, planning/control/trust, and hierarchy.

• Creating value in ecosystems: Crossing the chasm between knowledge and business ecosystems

  Bart Clarysse, Mike Wright, Johan Bruneel, Aarti Mahajan · 2014 · Research Policy, 43, 1164-1176

  Studies 138 innovative start-ups in Flanders to compare their knowledge ecosystem and business ecosystem. Finds the knowledge ecosystem well-structured but the business ecosystem nearly absent locally — implications for ecosystem policy.

• The role of knowledge, attitudes and perceptions in the uptake of agricultural and agroforestry innovations among smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa

  Seline S. Meijer, Delia Catacutan, Oluyede C. Ajayi, Gudeta W. Sileshi, Maarten Nieuwenhuis · 2014 · International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability

  Agricultural innovation adoption by smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa is slow because existing frameworks overlook intrinsic factors. This paper argues that farmers' knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions significantly influence adoption decisions alongside external factors like adopter characteristics and environment. Using agroforestry as a case study, the authors present a framework combining both intrinsic and extrinsic variables. They conclude that understanding how these factors interact is essential for designing sustainable, appropriately targeted agricultural technologies.

• Nanotechnology in Agriculture: Which Innovation Potential Does It Have?

  Leonardo Fernandes Fraceto, Renato Grillo, Gerson Araújo de Medeiros, Viviana Scognamiglio, Giuseppina Rea, Cecilia Bartolucci · 2016 · Frontiers in Environmental Science

  Nanotechnology offers significant potential to improve agriculture by enhancing productivity and food security while reducing environmental harm. Nanomaterial-based systems—including controlled-release nutrient delivery, pesticide application, and nanosensors for monitoring soil and food quality—can support sustainable intensification and waste management. These innovations address agricultural challenges while promoting economic and social equity.

• Agriculture 4.0: Broadening Responsible Innovation in an Era of Smart Farming

  David Christian Rose, Jason Chilvers · 2018 · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

  Smart farming technologies like AI and robotics promise productivity gains, but their social implications are often overlooked. Farmers and the public express concerns about how these technologies might reshape agricultural communities. The authors argue that responsible innovation—emphasizing anticipation, inclusion, reflexivity, and responsiveness—must guide Agriculture 4.0. They call for systemic approaches that map innovation ecosystems, broaden participation beyond traditional stakeholders, and test frameworks in practice to ensure technologies develop responsibly.

• Why do Social Innovations in Rural Development Matter and Should They be Considered More Seriously in Rural Development Research? – Proposal for a Stronger Focus on Social Innovations in Rural Development Research

  Stefan Neumeier · 2011 · Sociologia Ruralis

  Social innovations—new organizational forms, practices, and services—are critical drivers of rural development but remain underexamined in rural research. The author defines social innovation conceptually, models its process, and argues that weak social innovation capacity constrains rural community vitality in developed countries. An actor-oriented network approach offers a promising methodology for studying how social innovations emerge and function in rural contexts.

• Rural entrepreneurship or entrepreneurship in the rural – between place and space

  Steffen Korsgaard, Sabine Müller, Hanne Wittorff Tanvig · 2015 · International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research

  This paper distinguishes two ideal types of entrepreneurship in rural areas. The first type—entrepreneurship in the rural—pursues profit-driven, mobile ventures with weak local ties. The second type—rural entrepreneurship—leverages local resources and maintains deep place-based connections, showing greater commitment to staying and optimizing local development. Both contribute to rural economies, but place-embedded ventures demonstrate superior potential for sustainable local growth.

• Beyond agricultural innovation systems? Exploring an agricultural innovation ecosystems approach for niche design and development in sustainability transitions

  Ashlee-Ann E. Pigford, Gordon M. Hickey, Laurens Klerkx · 2018 · Agricultural Systems

  This paper argues that agricultural innovation systems need to adopt an ecosystems approach to better support sustainability transitions. The authors show that innovation ecosystems thinking enhances traditional approaches by emphasizing power dynamics, including diverse actors and ecological factors, and enabling cross-sector collaboration. This framework enables design of transboundary innovation niches that support sustainable agriculture across multiple scales and paradigms.

• Towards a Better Conceptual Framework for Innovation Processes in Agriculture and Rural Development: From Linear Models to Systemic Approaches

  Karlheinz Knickel, Gianluca Brunori, Sigrid Rand, Jet Proost · 2009 · The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension

  This paper argues that agricultural innovation requires moving beyond linear, technical models to systemic approaches that recognize farming's multifunctional role. The authors identify gaps between societal demands for change and farmers' capacity to innovate, showing that technical and economic factors alone cannot explain innovation processes. They propose that successful innovation emerges from collaborative networks where social and institutional factors, farmer knowledge, motivations, and values drive change. Extension services and institutions often become barriers when they fail to recognize shifted farmer and societal needs.

• Transport poverty meets the digital divide: accessibility and connectivity in rural communities

  Nagendra R. Velaga, Mark Beecroft, John D. Nelson, David Corsar, Peter Edwards · 2012 · Journal of Transport Geography

  Rural communities struggle with poor physical transport infrastructure and limited digital connectivity, creating compounded accessibility challenges absent in urban areas. This paper examines how information technologies and demand-responsive transport services can address rural transport poverty. It identifies that most research focuses on urban environments, leaving rural solutions underdeveloped, and explores barriers and opportunities for integrating transport and technology to improve rural accessibility.

• Social innovation in rural development: identifying the key factors of success

  Stefan Neumeier · 2016 · Geographical Journal

  Social innovation succeeds in rural development through three layers of factors: overall innovation process conditions, the actor network's operational space, and participation mechanisms. Most success factors resist external control, but rural policy can influence the room to maneuver available to innovation actors. Top-down steering of social innovation proves ineffective, questioning whether policymakers can instrumentalize social innovation for rural development.

• Rural entrepreneurship in Europe

  Σοφία Σταθοπούλου, Demetrios Psaltopoulos, Dimitris Skuras · 2004 · International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research

  Rural entrepreneurship in Europe operates within a distinct territorial context shaped by physical geography, social capital, networks, and governance structures. The authors argue that rurality itself functions as a dynamic entrepreneurial resource, creating both opportunities and constraints. They present entrepreneurship as a three-stage sequential process influenced by specific territorial characteristics and propose a research agenda addressing both theoretical understanding and policy development for supporting rural entrepreneurs.

• The digital divide: Patterns, policy and scenarios for connecting the ‘final few’ in rural communities across Great Britain

  Lorna Philip, Caitlin Cottrill, John Farrington, Fiona Williams, Fiona Ashmore · 2017 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Rural areas across Great Britain face an entrenched digital divide compared to urban regions. The paper analyzes Ofcom data to map broadband infrastructure gaps and documents how digital exclusion affects rural households and businesses, particularly in remote areas. Current UK policy proves inadequate, so the authors evaluate community-led broadband, satellite, and mobile solutions as pathways to connect remaining unserved populations and prevent the divide from widening further.

• Strengthening agricultural innovation capacity: are innovation brokers the answer?

  Laurens Klerkx, Andy Hall, Cees Leeuwis · 2009 · International Journal of Agricultural Resources Governance and Ecology

  Innovation brokers—intermediaries who connect actors in agricultural systems—emerge as key players in strengthening innovation capacity. Using Dutch agriculture as a case study, the paper argues that brokers facilitate interaction between farmers, researchers, and other stakeholders. The authors conclude that innovation brokerage works in developing countries too, but requires public investment and supportive policies that enable local embedding and institutional learning.

• Resources and bridging: the role of spatial context in rural entrepreneurship

  Sabine Müller, Steffen Korsgaard · 2017 · Entrepreneurship and Regional Development

  Rural entrepreneurs succeed by leveraging local resources and building connections beyond their immediate area. This study of 28 ventures identifies two key strategies: using place-specific assets and bridging to external networks. The research reveals that rural entrepreneurs are more diverse than previously recognized, and that spatial context significantly shapes how they operate and create value for their communities.

• Twenty Years of Rural Entrepreneurship: A Bibliometric Survey

  Maria Lúcia Pato, Aurora A.C. Teixeira · 2014 · Sociologia Ruralis

  This bibliometric analysis of 181 articles on rural entrepreneurship reveals the field remains underdeveloped theoretically despite growing research interest. Rural entrepreneurship research concentrates in Europe, particularly the UK and Spain, and focuses on organizational characteristics, policy, and governance. Empirical work emphasizes developed nations like the UK, USA, and Finland. The authors argue that weak theoretical foundations limit the field's progress and call for expanded research in less developed countries where rural entrepreneurship holds significant potential.

• Enhanced broadband access as a solution to the social and economic problems of the rural digital divide

  Leanne Townsend, Arjuna Sathiaseelan, Gorry Fairhurst, Claire Wallace · 2013 · Local Economy The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit

  Rural areas face a growing digital divide that limits access to essential services and economic participation. While broadband is increasingly vital for health, education, business, and social services, rural communities remain excluded from fast broadband development. Technological and economic barriers make rural deployment costly, and adoption remains low even where infrastructure exists. The paper examines broadband provision challenges in rural Britain and recommends policy priorities for government intervention.

• Capacity development for agricultural biotechnology in developing countries: an innovation systems view of what it is and how to develop it

  Andy Hall · 2005 · Journal of International Development

  Agricultural biotechnology capacity in developing countries requires more than building research infrastructure and human capital. Using an innovation systems framework, this paper argues that countries must develop broader innovation capacity—the ability to use knowledge productively. The author examines six capacity development approaches and concludes that effective policy must take a multidimensional approach that integrates diverse innovation systems strategically.

• INNOVATION PLATFORMS: EXPERIENCES WITH THEIR INSTITUTIONAL EMBEDDING IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT

  Marc Schut, Laurens Klerkx, Murat Sartas, Dieuwke Lamers, M.M. Campbell, IFEYINWA OGBONNA, Pawandeep Kaushik, K. Atta-Krah, Cees Leeuwis · 2015 · Experimental Agriculture

  Innovation Platforms bring farmers, researchers, and stakeholders together to drive systemic agricultural innovation in sub-Saharan Africa. The paper finds that successful platforms require fundamental institutional changes within agricultural research organizations—including new mandates, incentives, procedures, and funding structures. Without these changes, platforms risk becoming superficial rebranding of traditional technology-focused approaches rather than enabling genuine paradigm shifts toward system-oriented development.

• Pathways for impact: scientists' different perspectives on agricultural innovation

  N.G. Röling · 2009 · International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability

  Agricultural scientists often misunderstand how their research reaches farmers and creates real-world impact. This paper examines five pathways for agricultural innovation—technology transfer, farmer-driven innovation, market-induced innovation, participatory development, and innovation systems—and argues that scientists must better understand these mechanisms to improve smallholder productivity and reduce rural poverty. The author calls for changes in scientific training, promotion criteria, and funding to embed impact thinking into agricultural research professionalism.

• Digital innovations for sustainable and resilient agricultural systems

  Robert Finger · 2023 · European Review of Agricultural Economics

  Digital innovations are transforming agriculture by enabling farms to increase productivity, reduce environmental impact, and build resilience. However, realizing these benefits requires addressing economic, social, and ethical challenges. The paper recommends specific policies to maximize opportunities while mitigating risks, and identifies priorities for future agricultural economics research.

• Rural entrepreneurship in place: an integrated framework

  Pablo Muñoz, Jonathan Kimmitt · 2019 · Entrepreneurship and Regional Development

  Rural entrepreneurship requires a different analytical approach than agglomeration-based theories used in urban contexts. The authors develop a place-sensitive framework that identifies the specific conditions enabling entrepreneurship in rural communities. This meso-level framework helps policymakers and researchers understand rural entrepreneurial places holistically, moving beyond generic ecosystem models to address the distinct characteristics of rural contexts.

• In-migrant entrepreneurship in rural England: beyond local embeddedness

  Christos Kalantaridis, Zografia Bika · 2006 · Entrepreneurship and Regional Development

  In-migrant entrepreneurs in rural England rely less on local networks and resources than locally-born business owners. Instead, they draw on national and international connections for materials, capital, and markets. This enables them to integrate rural economies into broader markets but weakens local community ties and may undermine rural localities as cohesive entities.

• Advances in Knowledge Brokering in the Agricultural Sector: Towards Innovation System Facilitation

  Laurens Klerkx, Marc Schut, Cees Leeuwis, Catherine Kilelu · 2012 · IDS Bulletin

  Agricultural extension has evolved from pushing research findings to farmers toward collaborative models that recognize innovation emerges from interactions among multiple actors. Knowledge brokers now facilitate systemic change by building linkages and creating enabling contexts for technical, social, and institutional innovation. This innovation systems approach applies beyond agriculture to other sectors, requiring knowledge brokers to move beyond research uptake to broader innovation facilitation activities.

• Developing entrepreneurship and enterprise in Europe's peripheral rural areas: Some issues facing policy-makers

  David North, David Smallbone · 2005 · European Planning Studies

  This paper examines policies supporting rural entrepreneurship across ten European peripheral areas. It categorizes existing policies, identifies lessons from their implementation, and highlights barriers to enterprise development. The authors argue that peripheral rural regions need more strategic, coordinated policy approaches to build entrepreneurial capacity and clarify enterprise's role in future rural development.

• Local Embeddedness and Rural Entrepreneurship: Case-Study Evidence from Cumbria, England

  Christos Kalantaridis, Zografia Bika · 2006 · Environment and Planning A Economy and Space

  Rural entrepreneurs in Cumbria, England operate within complex local contexts that extend beyond simple geographic boundaries. The paper challenges the assumption that economic activity depends primarily on territorial embeddedness. Instead, it shows that locality functions through multiple dimensions of social connection and context. The research demonstrates how entrepreneurs navigate between local place-based factors and broader networks, requiring policymakers to move beyond territorial approaches to understanding rural economic development.

• Fitting in and Multi‐tasking: Dutch Farm Women's Strategies in Rural Entrepreneurship

  B.B. Bock · 2004 · Sociologia Ruralis

  Dutch farmwomen starting new income-generating activities adopt a distinctive entrepreneurial approach characterized by fitting new work into existing family and farm responsibilities rather than expanding operations aggressively. Research from 1995–2001 shows women deliberately multi-task and prioritize family stability over business growth. However, when women experience successful work-life balance and financial rewards, they expand their enterprises. Current rural development policies fail farmwomen because they promote male-typical entrepreneurial models rather than supporting women's actual strategies.

• Self-employment and entrepreneurship in urban and rural labour markets

  Giulia Faggio, Olmo Silva · 2014 · Journal of Urban Economics

  Self-employment, business creation, and innovation correlate strongly in urban areas but not in rural areas. Rural workers become self-employed more often in weak labour markets, yet this doesn't translate to entrepreneurship. When accounting for local labour market conditions, the rural gap disappears. The findings suggest self-employment in rural areas reflects necessity rather than genuine entrepreneurship, unlike in cities where these measures align.

• The Rural Creative Class: Counterurbanisation and Entrepreneurship in the Danish Countryside

  Lise Byskov Herslund · 2012 · Sociologia Ruralis

  Well-educated urban professionals move to rural Denmark to start small businesses, seeking less stressful lives while maintaining careers. Initially, most businesses serve metropolitan markets in media and business services. Over time, these enterprises evolve into regional lifestyle businesses that blend urban-sector work with local market adaptation, reducing travel to cities. While their local impact remains limited, they extend regional networks and provide organizational energy across broader areas.

• Innovation adoption in agriculture : innovators, early adopters and laggards

  Paul Diederen, Hans van Meijl, Arjan Wolters, Katarzyna Bijak · 2003 · Cahiers d Economie et sociologie rurales

  Dutch farmers adopt agricultural innovations at different rates based on structural and behavioral factors. Farm size, market position, solvency, and farmer age distinguish innovators and early adopters from laggards. Innovators and early adopters share similar structural traits but differ behaviorally: innovators actively seek external information sources and participate in developing new technologies, while early adopters do not.

• Innovation Systems, Institutional Change And The New Knowledge Market: Implications For Third World Agricultural Development

  Norman Clark · 2002 · Economics of Innovation and New Technology

  This paper applies information theory to analyze innovation systems in developing countries, focusing on agricultural poverty. It argues that Third World agricultural research and development requires fundamental institutional reform, not just technological fixes or policy adjustments. The author examines knowledge markets in industrialized countries as models and contends that without restructuring institutions—particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa—technological innovations cannot reach their economic potential.

• Opening design and innovation processes in agriculture: Insights from design and management sciences and future directions

  Elsa Berthet, Gordon M. Hickey, Laurens Klerkx · 2018 · Agricultural Systems

  Agricultural innovation requires more open, participatory design processes that move beyond traditional approaches. This paper synthesizes research on co-design and co-innovation in agriculture, drawing insights from management and design sciences. It identifies three priorities: expanding design tools to engage multiple senses, opening innovation networks to support sustainability transitions while addressing power dynamics, and including non-human actors like materials and ecosystems in innovation processes.

• Enterprising expatriates: lifestyle migration and entrepreneurship in rural southern Europe

  Ian R. Stone, Cherrie Stubbs · 2007 · Entrepreneurship and Regional Development

  Northern European expatriates who migrated to rural France and Spain for lifestyle reasons started businesses at higher rates than expected, despite lacking entrepreneurial experience. Self-employment emerged as their primary mechanism for sustaining their desired lifestyle. French expatriates established more sophisticated businesses than Spanish counterparts, partly due to better language skills enabling stronger local networks. The study reveals that migration motivations and location-specific factors shape entrepreneurial outcomes more than individual business experience.

• Identifying social innovations in European local rural development initiatives

  Gary Bosworth, Fulvio Rizzo, Doris Marquardt, Dirk Strijker, Tialda Haartsen, Annette Aagaard Thuesen · 2016 · Innovation The European Journal of Social Science Research

  This paper examines social innovation in European rural development by analyzing community-led local development initiatives across five countries. Using a Schumpeterian framework, the authors identify how new resource combinations create social value in rural areas. They find distinct processes and outcomes that generate positive change, and argue these insights should inform the design and evaluation of future rural development policies and programmes.

• Adoption of agricultural innovations as a two‐stage partial observability process

  Efthalia Dimara, Dimitris Skuras · 2003 · Agricultural Economics

  This paper argues that partial observability models better explain agricultural innovation adoption than standard statistical approaches. The authors show that adoption operates as a two-stage process where farmers first decide whether to consider an innovation, then decide whether to adopt it. They apply this framework to organic farming adoption in Greece, demonstrating that the model accounts for non-adopters and incomplete information more accurately than conventional methods.

• Structural Conditions for Collaboration and Learning in Innovation Networks: Using an Innovation System Performance Lens to Analyse Agricultural Knowledge Systems

  Frans Hermans, Laurens Klerkx, D. Roep · 2015 · The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension

  This study examines structural conditions in eight European agricultural innovation systems that enable or block collaboration and learning in multidisciplinary networks. Using an Innovation System Failure Matrix, researchers identified key barriers including insufficient funding, fragmentation between actors, and weak evaluation criteria for collaborative networks. The findings show each country's system has distinct features, requiring tailored policy approaches rather than one-size-fits-all solutions for promoting collaboration.

• Tapping the full potential of the digital revolution for agricultural extension: an emerging innovation agenda

  Jonathan Steinke, Jacob van Etten, Anna Müller, Berta Ortiz-Crespo, Jeske van de Gevel, Silvia Silvestri, Jan Priebe · 2020 · International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability

  Agricultural extension in the Global South can leverage digital technologies far more effectively by adopting user-centred design and problem-oriented approaches. The paper reviews why many agro-advisory initiatives failed—typically because they pushed specific technologies rather than addressing actual user communication needs. It identifies eight emerging ICT applications for agricultural extension and emphasizes that successful digital innovation requires supportive institutions alongside technological development.

• Romancing the rural: Reconceptualizing rural entrepreneurship as engagement with context(s)

  Johan Gaddefors, Alistair R. Anderson · 2018 · The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

  Rural entrepreneurship research often romanticizes rural contexts in misleading ways. This paper argues that understanding rural entrepreneurship requires examining how entrepreneurs actually engage with the specific contexts that define rural areas, rather than relying on idealized notions of rurality. The authors propose new methods to better understand rural entrepreneurial processes through context-focused analysis.

• Understanding place-based entrepreneurship in rural Central Europe: A comparative institutional analysis

  Richard Lang, Matthias Fink, Ewald Kibler · 2013 · International Small Business Journal Researching Entrepreneurship

  This study examines how local institutions shape entrepreneurial behavior in rural Central Europe across five countries. The researchers find that normative and cognitive institutions—like social norms and shared beliefs—matter more than formal regulations in driving entrepreneurship. The fit between different institutional types determines whether entrepreneurial practices emerge in specific locations. Entrepreneurs in rural transition and non-transition contexts adopt different strategies based on place-specific institutional conditions.

• Agricultural innovation: invention and adoption or change and adaptation?

  Marijke van der Veen · 2010 · World Archaeology

  Agricultural innovations arise from farmers and craftspeople making practical modifications to existing tools and practices rather than from radical new inventions. Most improvements target crops, animals, growing conditions, implements, or management practices. Farmers adapt existing technologies to their needs rather than simply adopting new ones. When multiple improvements across different farming areas reach critical mass simultaneously, they can produce revolutionary societal impacts.

• Creative Outposts: Tourism's Place in Rural Innovation

  Patrick Brouder · 2012 · Tourism Planning & Development

  Tourism drives innovation in rural communities by fostering social capital and enabling local entrepreneurs to diversify their economies. A case study of Jokkmokk, an Arctic village, reveals that tourism firms and local institutions co-evolve through loose, project-based networks. Tourism acts as a catalyst for institutional change and strengthens community leisure spaces, helping rural communities survive and thrive as complementary coping strategies.

• Implications of the digital divide on rural SME resilience

  Jonathan Morris, David R. Morris, Robert Bowen · 2022 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Rural SMEs in Wales face reduced resilience during economic crises due to the digital divide. While broadband infrastructure investments improved connectivity, many rural businesses still lack reliable digital connections. Distance from urban areas significantly predicts poor connectivity, limiting businesses' ability to diversify activities and develop resilience. The pandemic accelerated digital-dependent business operations, leaving poorly connected rural SMEs more vulnerable.

• Community-driven social innovation and quadruple helix coordination in rural development. Case study on LEADER group Aktion Österbotten

  Kenneth Nordberg, Åge Mariussen, Seija Virkkala · 2020 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Social innovations in rural areas emerge through collaboration between universities, industry, government, and civil society—the quadruple helix model. This study of Finland's LEADER programme shows that community-driven projects succeed when local knowledge combines with external actors' expertise. Cultural events, nature activities, and social gatherings strengthen community identity and spark entrepreneurial ventures in tourism and social services. Local community involvement proved decisive for project success.

• Public-private partnerships as systemic agricultural innovation policy instruments – Assessing their contribution to innovation system function dynamics

  Frans Hermans, Floor Geerling-Eiff, Jorieke Potters, Laurens Klerkx · 2018 · NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences

  Public-private partnerships function as systemic policy tools within agricultural innovation systems. This study evaluates four Dutch agricultural PPPs by examining how they influence innovation system functions and feedback loops, rather than just direct organizational benefits. The research reveals that different PPP types have varying strengths and weaknesses as systemic instruments and different capacities to coordinate other policy tools, depending on whether they target sustainability or international competitiveness.

• The rural university campus and support for rural innovation

  David Charles · 2016 · Science and Public Policy

  Rural university campuses in the UK can contribute to local innovation systems, but face significant challenges. Campuses pursuing narrow disciplinary specialization can engage niche industry clusters, though development takes years. Those focused on broad educational access struggle to connect with business. The paper concludes that using new campuses to boost rural innovation requires long-term commitment and may conflict with goals of expanding higher education access.

• Factors Affecting Farmers’ Adoption of Agricultural Innovations: A Panel Data Analysis of the Use of Artificial Insemination among Dairy Farmers in Ireland

  Peter Howley, Cathal O. Donoghue, Kevin Heanue · 2012 · Journal of Agricultural Science

  This study analyzes why Irish dairy farmers adopt artificial insemination (AI) technology at different rates using panel data. The researchers found that both farmer characteristics and farm structure significantly influence adoption decisions. Understanding these differences helps policymakers design targeted programs to promote AI adoption and improve reproductive management practices among dairy farmers.

• Economic growth and broadband access: The European urban-rural digital divide

  M. de Clercq, Marijke D’Haese, Jeroen Buysse · 2023 · Telecommunications Policy

  Broadband access drives economic growth differently in European urban and rural regions. Lower-speed broadband boosted growth in both areas but with weaker effects in rural regions. High-speed broadband significantly accelerated rural economic growth while having no impact in cities. Rural high-speed expansion shows increasing returns to scale and represents critical infrastructure for rural development, supporting policies to close the urban-rural digital divide.

• Innovation gaps in Scandinavian rural tourism

  Anne‐Mette Hjalager, Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, Martin Østervig Larsen · 2017 · Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism

  Rural tourism in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden has significant growth potential, but five innovation gaps prevent its realization: portfolio limitations, fragmented policy, knowledge deficits, weak change motivation, and misaligned resource interpretation. Consumer surveys reveal that new customer groups, especially from Germany, demand higher-quality, diversified products like outdoor activities and cultural events. Rural tourism businesses innovate slowly despite having assets to expand offerings without losing authenticity. The gap between customer expectations and spending patterns partly explains this sluggish innovation.

• Entrepreneurship Within Urban and Rural Areas: Creative People and Social Networks

  L. Carlos Freire-Gibb, Kristian Nielsen · 2013 · Regional Studies

  Creativity drives entrepreneurship in urban areas but not rural areas, despite urban environments being more competitive and supportive. Social networks prove especially critical for rural entrepreneurs, likely because rural areas have stronger personal ties but fewer institutional support systems. Creativity itself does not improve survival rates for new businesses in either setting.

• Shaping agricultural innovation systems responsive to food insecurity and climate change

  Sally Brooks, Michael Loevinsohn · 2011 · Natural Resources Forum

  Agricultural innovation systems must adapt to climate change and food insecurity by learning from smallholder farmers' strategies in developing countries. The paper examines three regional cases and identifies four key features that strengthen food security: recognizing agriculture's multiple functions, ensuring access to diversity for resilience, building decision-maker capacity at all levels, and maintaining sustained commitment to farmer well-being. These insights guide policymakers in reshaping innovation systems.

• Entrepreneurship and rural economic development: a scenario analysis approach

  Nerys Fuller‐Love, Peter Midmore, Dennis Thomas, Andrew Henley · 2006 · International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research

  This paper demonstrates how scenario analysis helps rural policymakers and entrepreneurs understand barriers to small business growth and economic development. Researchers in Mid Wales used structured scenario development with stakeholders to build shared understanding of uncertainties affecting rural entrepreneurship. The findings show that effective rural enterprise support must be tailored to local context and account for diverse external factors.

• Marketing and innovation: Useful tools for competitiveness in rural and peripheral areas

  Anabela Dinis · 2005 · European Planning Studies

  Rural entrepreneurship drives competitiveness in peripheral areas, but low population density creates obstacles. The paper argues that innovative rural firms succeed by adopting niche marketing strategies tailored to their organizational context. This approach lets rural businesses capitalize on emerging social trends. The author offers policy recommendations to support this model.

• Exploring business models for open innovation in rural living labs

  Hans Schaffers, Mariluz Guerrero Cordoba, Patrizia Hongisto, Tünde Kállai, Christian Merz, Johann van Rensburg · 2007

  Living Labs are user-centered innovation environments where rural communities collaborate with stakeholders to develop solutions through rapid prototyping. The paper identifies critical business model design elements needed to sustain these partnerships while protecting intellectual property. It provides practical guidance on structuring open innovation initiatives that balance collaborative development with commercial interests, enabling rural regions to benefit from participatory innovation.

• European Rural Development under the Common Agricultural Policy's ‘Second Pillar’: Institutional Conservatism and Innovation

  Janet Dwyer, Neil Ward, Philip Lowe, David Baldock · 2007 · Regional Studies

  The EU's Rural Development Regulation, launched in 2000 as the Common Agricultural Policy's second pillar, aimed to promote sustainable rural development through decentralized, participative delivery and multi-sectoral approaches. A European study found that institutional conservatism hindered effective implementation of these new principles. The authors argue that further institutional adaptation is necessary for success and identify lessons from EU regional policy that could improve future CAP reforms.

• Social Innovation and Food Provisioning during Covid-19: The Case of Urban–Rural Initiatives in the Province of Naples

  Valentina Cattivelli, Vincenzo Rusciano · 2020 · Sustainability

  During Covid-19 lockdowns in Naples, Italy, self-organized urban-rural initiatives emerged to improve food access when mobility was restricted. The paper maps these initiatives and identifies Masseria Ferraioli, which distributes vegetables from mafia-confiscated land to people unable to afford food, as a leading social innovation example. Local communities and volunteer associations proved essential in addressing food provisioning challenges and reviving interest in local food systems.

• Food and agricultural innovation pathways for prosperity

  Thomas P. Tomich, Preetmoninder Lidder, Mariah Coley, Douglas Gollin, Ruth Meinzen‐Dick, Patrick Webb, Peter Carberry · 2018 · Agricultural Systems

  Agricultural research investments can reduce poverty and improve rural prosperity through multiple pathways affecting farmers, laborers, value chain actors, and urban poor. The authors identify 18 plausible impact mechanisms linking agricultural research to poverty reduction outcomes and examine how urbanization and climate change reshape development contexts in low-income countries. They emphasize that measuring success requires understanding who benefits and loses, incorporating gender equity and nuanced definitions of prosperity beyond income metrics.

• Can broadband access rescue the rural economy?

  Laura Galloway · 2007 · Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development

  Broadband access alone cannot rescue rural economies. While governments promote broadband rollout for rural competitiveness, current technologies are unsuitable for remote areas. More fundamentally, rural businesses lack growth propensity and entrepreneurial drive, making technology access secondary to deeper enterprise challenges. Technology deployment without addressing these underlying limitations will fail to deliver expected economic benefits.

• Economic and Social Sustainable Synergies to Promote Innovations in Rural Tourism and Local Development

  Giovanni Quaranta, Elisabetta Citro, Rosanna Salvia · 2016 · Sustainability

  A rural tourism network in southern Italy demonstrates how territorial collaboration strengthens local development. The initiative connected local producers with quality-conscious consumers, reduced transaction costs, and increased competitiveness in tourism and production chains. The case reveals that rebuilding trust and social capital through traditional and hybrid institutions—supported by research organizations—is essential for rural areas to develop sustainable tourism and achieve broader socio-economic growth.

• Strategic management implications for the adoption of technological innovations in agricultural tractor: the role of scale factors and environmental attitude

  Eugenio Cavallo, Emanuele Ferrari, Luigi Bollani, Mario Coccia · 2014 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  Larger Italian farms adopt more advanced tractor technologies than smaller operations. Older farmers with longer agricultural experience show stronger commitment to environmental protection and workplace safety. The study reveals that farm size and farmer demographics significantly influence technology adoption decisions, with implications for designing innovations that meet farmer needs and promote efficient, safe modern agriculture.

• Determinant factors for the development of rural entrepreneurship

  Francisco del Olmo García, Inmaculada Domínguez Fabián, Fernando Javier Crecente-Romero, María Teresa del Val Núñez · 2023 · Technological Forecasting and Social Change

  Rural entrepreneurship in Spain depends on market opportunities rather than unemployment rates. R&D investment and available credit encourage rural business creation. Surprisingly, highly educated professionals are less likely to start rural ventures than those with secondary education. The findings suggest policymakers should focus on innovation funding, credit access, and employment policies to revitalize rural economies and combat depopulation.

• Provoking identities: entrepreneurship and emerging identity positions in rural development

  Karin Berglund, Johan Gaddefors, Monica Lindgren · 2015 · Entrepreneurship and Regional Development

  This ethnographic study of a declining rural community over six years reveals how entrepreneurship reshapes local identity and agency. Entrepreneurs challenged dominant narratives by repositioning their community's assets—locality, history, and place—as resources rather than liabilities. Four key tensions (change versus tradition, rational versus irrational, spectacular versus mundane, individual versus collective) shaped how local actors negotiated new identity positions and opportunities through entrepreneurial action.

• Public-private sector partnerships in an agricultural system of innovation: Concepts and challenges

  Andy Hall · 2006 · International Journal of Technology Management and Sustainable Development

  Public-private partnerships in agriculture face institutional barriers rooted in trust, habits, and practices rather than technical obstacles. The paper argues partnerships succeed when embedded within local agro-enterprise networks that drive rural development. Building social capital within agricultural innovation systems, tailored to local contexts, is essential for overcoming these constraints and enabling effective collaboration between public research organizations and private actors.

• Broadband and the creative industries in rural Scotland

  Leanne Townsend, Claire Wallace, Gorry Fairhurst, Alistair R. Anderson · 2016 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Broadband connectivity is essential for rural creative professionals in Scotland. The study finds that download speeds of at least 2 megabits per second are critical for creative sector workers. Without adequate broadband access, rural creative practitioners face significant disadvantages, and communities risk losing talent to areas with better digital infrastructure, threatening rural economic viability.

• The Digital Divide and ICT Learning in Rural Communities: Examples of Good Practice Service Delivery

  Robert Huggins, Hiro Izushi · 2002 · Local Economy The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit

  Rural communities face barriers to ICT adoption and skills development. This paper identifies successful approaches to building digital culture in rural areas, including community resource centres for hands-on experience, internet cafés and gaming to lower entry barriers, user management strategies to build ownership, mobile service delivery, integration of ICT into existing services, and targeted financial support.

• Rural tourism and the development of Internet-based accommodation booking platforms: a study in the advantages, dangers and implications of innovation

  Stefan Gößling, Bernard Lane · 2014 · Journal of Sustainable Tourism

  Internet-based accommodation booking platforms like Booking.com have grown rapidly and now dominate rural tourism markets. While small rural businesses benefit from cheap global reach, these platforms concentrate market power and divert revenue from local and regional booking organizations that provide training, marketing, and destination promotion. The paper studies rural Norwegian accommodation providers to show how platform adoption reshapes competition, pricing, and business operations, then proposes new roles for regional organizations.

• Interactions between Niche and Regime: An Analysis of Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture across Europe

  Julie Ingram, Damian Maye, James Kirwan, Nigel Curry, Katarina Kubinakova · 2015 · The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension

  This study examines how 17 learning and innovation networks for sustainable agriculture across Europe interact with mainstream agricultural systems. The researchers found five distinct interaction modes based on compatibility levels, which determine how sustainable practices spread into conventional agriculture. Effective interaction requires specific connecting processes like certification, regulatory exemptions, and networking support. The findings suggest agricultural transition happens through multiple adaptive changes rather than wholesale regime replacement.

• Entrepreneurship in rural hospitality and tourism. A systematic literature review of past achievements and future promises

  Arun Madanaguli, Puneet Kaur, Stefano Bresciani, Amandeep Dhir · 2021 · International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

  This systematic review of 101 articles from 2000–2020 examines entrepreneurship in rural hospitality and tourism. The authors identify six key research themes: barriers and enablers, entrepreneur roles, women entrepreneurs, firm performance drivers, innovation, and value creation. They find that entrepreneurship journals have given limited attention to rural hospitality, most studies are qualitative, and research concentrates heavily in Europe. The review proposes an ecosystem framework and outlines six future research directions.

• Hybrid wireless-broadband over power lines: A promising broadband solution in rural areas

  Angeliki M. Sarafi, Georgios I. Tsiropoulos, Panayotis G. Cottis · 2009 · IEEE Communications Magazine

  A hybrid wireless-broadband over power lines network deployed across 107 km of medium voltage power grid in rural Greece successfully delivers broadband access and smart grid applications to sparsely populated areas. The system exploits existing power infrastructure combined with wireless technology to overcome the low profitability and adoption barriers that typically prevent broadband projects in rural regions, demonstrating this approach as a viable alternative solution.

• Rural women entrepreneurship within co‐operatives: training support

  Ευγενία Πετρίδου, Νiki Glaveli · 2008 · Gender in Management An International Journal

  Rural women running cooperatives in Greece participated in a training program that improved their entrepreneurial skills, business opportunity identification, and decision-making flexibility. The training also strengthened their attitudes toward entrepreneurship, enhanced cooperative growth prospects, and improved work-family balance. Training programs are most effective when designed to address specific organizational needs through prior needs analysis.

• Social Innovation for Sustainability Transformation and its Diverging Development Paths in Marginalised Rural Areas

  Tatiana Kluvánková, Maria Nijnik, Martin Špaček, Simo Sarkki, Manfred Perlik, Robert Lukesch, Mariana Melnykovych, Diana Esmeralda Valero López, Stanislava Brnkaľáková · 2021 · Sociologia Ruralis

  Social innovation—collaborative responses from civic society to societal challenges—drives sustainable development in marginalised rural areas facing biophysical limits and funding shortages. Analysis of 211 social innovation examples and 11 in-depth cases identified four distinct development paths for social innovation. The research shows that social innovation requires both local and external actors, but depends critically on internal local activity and knowledge to succeed in transforming marginalised rural communities.

• Transition Management and Social Innovation in Rural Areas: Lessons from Social Farming

  Francesco Di Iacovo, Roberta Moruzzo, Cristiano Rossignoli, Paola Scarpellini · 2014 · The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension

  Social farming in Italy demonstrates how rural areas can manage transitions toward sustainability by integrating agricultural, health, and education sectors. The study shows that linking public and private actors through collective learning creates social innovation and new economic value. Extension services must be redesigned to support these cross-sector partnerships, helping rural communities adapt to welfare state challenges and build inclusive, sustainable development.

• Agricultural Innovation and the Role of Institutions: Lessons from the Game of Drones

  Per Frankelius, Charlotte Norrman, Knut Johansen · 2017 · Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics

  Unmanned aerial systems (drones) offer Swedish farmers significant benefits including reduced costs, higher yields, and environmental gains. However, camera surveillance legislation unexpectedly classified drones as surveillance devices, creating institutional barriers that inhibited their agricultural adoption. The study demonstrates how legislative institutions can obstruct responsible innovation and reveals conflicts between competing ethical frameworks governing technology use.

• Quantifying entrepreneurship and its impact on local economic performance: A spatial assessment in rural Switzerland

  Daniel Baumgärtner, Tobias Schulz, Irmi Seidl · 2012 · Entrepreneurship and Regional Development

  This study measures entrepreneurship in 1,706 Swiss rural municipalities and tests whether it drives local economic growth. Results show entrepreneurship correlates with higher business tax revenues and lower welfare dependency, but has weak effects on employment. The researchers conclude that while entrepreneurship helps rural economies, policymakers should temper expectations about its short-term impact on endogenous rural development.

• Can Social Innovation Make a Change in European and Mediterranean Marginalized Areas? Social Innovation Impact Assessment in Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, and Rural Development

  Elisa Ravazzoli, Cristina Dalla Torre, Riccardo Da Re, Valentino Marini Govigli, Laura Secco, Elena Górriz‐Mifsud, Elena Pisani, Carla Barlagne, Antonio Baselice, Mohammed Bengoumi, M.W.C. Dijkshoorn-Dekker, Arbia Labidi, Antonio Lopolito, Mariana Melnykovych, Manfred Perlik, Nico Polman, Simo Sarkki, Achilleas Vassilopoulos, Phoebe Koundouri, David Miller, Thomas Streifeneder, Maria Nijnik · 2021 · Sustainability

  Social innovation initiatives in European and Mediterranean marginalized rural areas produce measurable impacts across economic, social, environmental, and governance dimensions. The study evaluated nine social innovation projects in agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and rural development. Results show these initiatives generate cross-sectoral and multi-level benefits that improve societal well-being and reduce marginalization within their territories.

• Farmer First Revisited: Innovation for Agricultural Research and Development

  Peter McWilliam · 2011 · Development in Practice

  This paper revisits the 'Farmer First' approach to agricultural research and development, examining how farmer-led innovation shapes the design and implementation of agricultural technologies and practices. The work argues that centering farmer knowledge and participation in research processes produces more effective and sustainable agricultural innovations adapted to local conditions and needs.

• Whose Narrative is it Anyway? Narratives of Social Innovation in Rural Areas – A Comparative Analysis of Community‐Led Initiatives in Scotland and Spain

  Néstor Vercher Savall, Carla Barlagne, Richard J. Hewitt, Maria Nijnik, Javier Esparcia Pérez · 2020 · Sociologia Ruralis

  Social innovation in rural communities relies on compelling narratives that mobilize people around shared challenges. This study analyzes narratives from three community-led initiatives in Scotland and Spain using a framework examining problematization, solutions, actors, and plot. The research finds that marginalisation, environmental concerns, and community activation dominate these narratives. Collective leadership and supportive policies strengthen narratives over time, improving project sustainability and reducing power imbalances.

• Diverse diversities—Open innovation in small towns and rural areas

  Rahel Meili, Richard Shearmur · 2019 · Growth and Change

  Innovation thrives in small towns and rural areas, not just cities. This study of seven successful Swiss firms shows that rural innovation depends on three types of diversity: internal workforce diversity, multiplexed interactions across hierarchical levels, and external connections beyond the region. The findings challenge the assumption that geographic density and agglomeration are necessary for innovation, demonstrating that rural networks can be equally diverse along certain dimensions.

• The potential of management networks in the innovation and competitiveness of rural tourism: a case study on the<i>Valle del Jerte</i>(Spain)

  Patrícia Romeiro, Carlos Costa · 2009 · Current Issues in Tourism

  Rural tourism businesses in Valle del Jerte, Spain form management networks that boost competitiveness and innovation. Through social network analysis, the study shows that these cooperative structures create cohesive destinations where businesses share resources and develop innovative local responses to global market pressures. Networking enables rural tourism enterprises to overcome traditional obstacles and strengthen their competitiveness as tourism products.

• How digitalisation interacts with ecologisation? Perspectives from actors of the French Agricultural Innovation System

  Éléonore Schnebelin, Pierre Labarthe, Jean-Marc Touzard · 2021 · Journal of Rural Studies

  French agricultural actors—conventional farmers, organic farmers, and digital technology promoters—all engage with agricultural digitalization, but they perceive different benefits and risks. Organic and conventional actors implement distinct innovation processes despite apparent convergence. Digital actors fail to recognize these differences in perception, which risks excluding organic farming and agroecology from digital development benefits.

• Key actors in community-driven social innovation in rural areas in the Nordic countries

  Leneisja Jungsberg, Andrew Copus, Lise Byskov Herslund, Kjell Nilsson, Liisa Perjo, Linda Randall, Anna Berlina · 2020 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Nordic rural communities facing demographic decline and service closures have developed social innovation projects. Analysis of 18 projects reveals that community members, civil society organizations, and local government drive project initiation, while civil society organizations dominate implementation. Success depends on local actors' ability to generate ideas, secure resources, and manage decisions effectively.

• Social Innovation in Rural Regions: Urban Impulses and Cross‐Border Constellations of Actors

  Anika Noack, Tobias Federwisch · 2018 · Sociologia Ruralis

  Social innovation in rural German regions emerges through cross-border networks of actors and urban influences rather than in isolation. Ethnographic research in the Eifel, Lower Lusatia, and Uckermark regions shows that rural communities adopt knowledge and practices from urban areas, creating hybrid rural-urban innovations. These connections strengthen rural-urban relationships and reduce traditional antagonisms between them.

• Rurality and social innovation processes and outcomes: A realist evaluation of rural social enterprise activities

  Artur Steiner, Francesca Calò, Mark Shucksmith · 2021 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Rural social enterprises drive social innovation through both push and pull factors. The paper finds that rural context shapes how innovation happens—not the outcomes themselves. Different rural areas deploy distinct mechanisms to address similar challenges based on local resources. Rural social innovation policies should remain flexible rather than prescriptive, since context determines both the problems and the solutions available.

• Measuring Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture: Innovations and evidence

  Agnes Quisumbing, Steve W. Cole, Marlène Elias, Simone Faas, Alessandra Galié, Hazel Malapit, Ruth Meinzen‐Dick, Emily Myers, Greg Seymour, Jennifer Twyman · 2023 · Global Food Security

  This paper reviews how women's empowerment in agriculture is measured and what interventions actually work. The authors use the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index to analyze 11 agricultural development projects and livestock interventions. They find evidence linking women's empowerment to improved agricultural productivity, incomes, and food security. The paper offers recommendations for better measurement approaches and policy design.

• ‘Sharing the space’ in the agricultural knowledge and innovation system: multi-actor innovation partnerships with farmers and foresters in Europe

  Andrew F. Fieldsend, Evelien Cronin, Eszter Varga, Szabolcs Bíró, Elke Rogge · 2021 · The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension

  This paper reviews 200 European agricultural and forestry partnerships involving farmers and foresters to assess how multi-actor networks foster knowledge sharing and co-innovation. The researchers found that various EU and non-EU funding instruments effectively engage users in collaborative innovation across agriculture, forestry, and value chains. The study reveals that successful co-innovation requires recognizing diverse partnership approaches—both formal and informal—and better coordination between programs to reach currently underengaged actor groups.

• Learning and Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Development: The Use of the Concepts of Boundary Work and Boundary Objects

  Tālis Tīsenkopfs, Ilona Kunda, Sandra Šūmane, Gianluca Brunori, Laurens Klerkx, Heidrun Moschitz · 2015 · The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension

  Boundary work and boundary objects—tools that bridge different groups and perspectives—drive learning and innovation in multi-actor agricultural networks. Analysis of six case studies shows these mechanisms take diverse forms depending on context and goals, helping align conflicting viewpoints, secure external support, and advance sustainable agriculture. Skilled facilitation of boundary work strengthens both internal network cohesion and external communication.

• Urban and rural differences in geographical accessibility to inpatient palliative and end-of-life (PEoLC) facilities and place of death: a national population-based study in England, UK

  Emeka Chukwusa, Julia Verne, Giovanna Polato, Ros Taylor, Irene J Higginson, Wei Gao · 2019 · International Journal of Health Geographics

  Rural patients in England live farther from hospices and palliative care facilities than urban patients, and this distance significantly affects where they die. Patients more than 10 minutes' drive from inpatient palliative care were substantially less likely to die in hospices or hospitals and more likely to die at home. The geographic barrier was stronger in rural areas than urban areas, indicating that distance to facilities shapes end-of-life outcomes and that policy must address rural-urban disparities in care access.

• Local development through rural entrepreneurship, from the Triple Helix perspective

  Elisabete Sá, Beatriz Casais, Joaquim Silva · 2018 · International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research

  University-industry-government collaboration programs effectively support rural entrepreneurs by creating knowledge-rich environments that benefit both individual businesses and local communities. Nascent rural entrepreneurs value this Triple Helix partnership and recognize their own contributions to economic, social, and cultural development. The study reveals how low-tech rural entrepreneurs experience and benefit from multi-stakeholder collaboration at the micro level.

• Innovation for sustainability through co-creation by small and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMEs): Socio-cultural sustainability benefits to rural destinations

  Evelina Maziliauske · 2023 · Tourism Management Perspectives

  Tourism SMEs in rural Norwegian destinations co-create sustainable innovations with local stakeholders, generating socio-cultural benefits for their communities. Through practices like local sourcing, education, and resource sharing, these businesses strengthen rural sustainability. The study shows that rurality's defining features—local embeddedness, personal relationships, and trust—enable SMEs to collaborate effectively and improve quality of life in their destinations.

• Social innovation in rural governance: A comparative case study across the marginalised rural EU

  Georgios Chatzichristos, Hennebry Barraí · 2021 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Rural marginalisation across the EU intensified after 2008, as traditional state governance failed to serve remote communities. This study examines how beyond-the-state governance systems—horizontal, networked, and collaborative—address this gap. Comparing three marginalised regions in Austria, Portugal, and Greece, the authors identify key factors enabling socially innovative governance: decentralised government structures, strong interregional networks, stakeholder discourse, and institutional stability. The findings reveal conditions necessary for embedding social innovation in rural governance.

• Smart Villagers as Actors of Digital Social Innovation in Rural Areas

  Nicole Zerrer, Ariane Sept · 2020 · Urban Planning

  Rural inhabitants drive digital social innovation to address problems like poor mobility, demographic decline, and digital inequality. Two German villages demonstrate how local innovators—termed Smart Villagers—create solutions like community apps and car-sharing systems. These bottom-up actors work as drivers, supporters, and users, collaborating with external professionals. The research shows Smart Villagers are motivated and skilled but require outside support to sustain their initiatives.

• Social Innovation to Sustain Rural Communities: Overcoming Institutional Challenges in Serbia

  Ivana Živojinović, Alice Ludvig, Karl Hogl · 2019 · Sustainability

  Social innovations in rural Serbia address poverty, inequality, and migration despite institutional obstacles like weak law enforcement, poor infrastructure, and low trust. The study of nine rural initiatives reveals that social innovators operate through subsistence, idealistic, or lifestyle goals, creating new social values. Solutions to institutional gaps include developing context-specific organizations, strengthening legal frameworks, and designing innovative financing mechanisms.

• Business models for maximising the diffusion of technological innovations for climate-smart agriculture

  Thomas B. Long, Vincent Blok, Kim Poldner · 2016 · The International Food and Agribusiness Management Review

  Current business models for delivering climate-smart agricultural technologies fail to optimize diffusion because they misalign with farmer needs. The study identifies critical gaps in value propositions, distribution channels, customer relationships, resources, partnerships, and cost structures. Innovation providers and potential users hold conflicting views about what works. The authors recommend redesigning business models to better match farmer adoption requirements and accelerate climate-smart agriculture uptake.

• Understanding Farmers’ Adoption of Sustainable Agriculture Innovations: A Systematic Literature Review

  José Rosário, Lívia Madureira, Carlos Peixeira Marques, Rui Silva · 2022 · Agronomy

  Farmers adopt sustainable agriculture innovations at low rates globally, especially in the Global South. This systematic review examines sociopsychological factors driving adoption decisions. Researchers find that existing models rely on constructs borrowed from other sectors and repeat variables like attitude and subjective norms while neglecting agriculture-specific factors like knowledge. The review concludes that better-tailored determinants and context-specific measurements are needed to explain farmer adoption behavior.

• Innovation as a booster of rural artisan entrepreneurship: a case study of black pottery

  Carla Susana Marques, Gina Santos, Vanessa Ratten, Ana B. Barros · 2018 · International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research

  Young artisan entrepreneurs in northern Portugal have revitalized black pottery production by introducing design and process innovations while preserving traditional knowledge and local culture. These innovators built networks with other young artisans, generating commercial growth and contributing to rural development. The study shows that innovation, entrepreneurial behavior, and artisan networks are essential drivers of rural artisan business success.

• The entrepreneur–opportunity nexus: discovering the forces that promote product innovations in rural micro-tourism firms

  Jonathan Moshe Yachin · 2017 · Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism

  This study examines what drives product innovation in small rural tourism businesses by analyzing 40 new tourism products created by micro-firm owners in rural Sweden. The research identifies three types of forces that trigger innovation: internal factors within the firm, supply chain dynamics, and reactions to external changes. The findings show that entrepreneurial opportunities emerge through a specific nexus between entrepreneurs and opportunities, with triggering forces playing a critical role in initiating the innovation process.

• INNOVATION PLATFORMS IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT

  Marc Schut, Josey Kamanda, Andreas Gramzow, Thomas David DuBois, Dietmar Stoian, Jens Andersson, IDDO DROR, Murat Sartas, R. Mur, Shinan Kassam, HERMAN BROUWER, A. Devaux, Claudio Ríos-Velasco, Rica Joy Flor, Martin Gummert, DJUNA BUIZER, Cynthia McDougall, Kristin Davis, Sabine Homann-Kee Tui, Mark Lundy · 2018 · Experimental Agriculture

  Innovation platforms bring together agricultural stakeholders to learn, negotiate, and solve development challenges collaboratively. However, this study warns they are not universally applicable. The authors provide a decision-support tool for agencies to critically assess when innovation platforms are genuinely needed versus when simpler, cheaper alternatives exist. The tool helps determine what resources and conditions are necessary for platforms to succeed in achieving agricultural development outcomes.

• DO MATURE INNOVATION PLATFORMS MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT? A META-ANALYSIS OF CASE STUDIES

  Marc Schut, Jean‐Joseph Cadilhon, Michael Misiko, Iddo Dror · 2016 · Experimental Agriculture

  Innovation Platforms in agricultural research for development generate local enthusiasm and bring stakeholders together, but rarely achieve impact at scale. The study analyzed eight mature platforms across three continents and found that while they can produce locally adapted, economically feasible innovations, scaling remains limited. Platforms work best when demand-driven, participatory, and embedded in broader extension networks. The authors call for rigorous measurement of platform performance to understand what process designs actually work.

• The long way to innovation adoption: insights from precision agriculture

  Margherita Masi, Marcello De Rosa, Yari Vecchio, Luca Bartoli, Felice Adinolfi · 2022 · Agricultural and Food Economics

  Italian farms adopt precision agriculture technologies at low rates despite their potential for sustainable soil management. This study uses the awareness-knowledge-adoption-product framework to identify barriers to adoption, including farm characteristics, socio-economic factors, and psychological complexity. The research finds that agricultural knowledge and innovation systems play a critical mediating role in promoting technology uptake, and strengthening these systems across all adoption phases could increase farmer understanding and reduce adoption barriers.

• Rural entrepreneurship: the tale of a rare event

  Lúcia Pato, Aurora A.C. Teixeira · 2018 · Journal of Place Management and Development

  Most new ventures in rural Portuguese areas are simply businesses located in rural settings, not true rural entrepreneurship. The study of 142 rural ventures in business incubators and science parks found they tend to be smaller, serve mainly local markets, and underperform compared to urban counterparts. Only a small fraction represent genuine rural entrepreneurship that leverages rural-specific advantages.

• ‘Stuck Out Here’: The Critical Role of Broadband for Remote Rural Places

  Leanne Townsend, Claire Wallace, Gorry Fairhurst · 2015 · Scottish Geographical Journal

  Broadband connectivity is essential for economic and social sustainability in remote rural Scotland. Research with small rural business owners shows that internet access directly enables business development and sustainability while supporting education, leisure, and social participation. Without broadband, remote rural communities face significant disadvantages in maintaining viable livelihoods and quality of life.

• The Increasing Multifunctionality of Agricultural Raw Materials: Three Dilemmas for Innovation and Adoption

  Michael Boehlje, Stefanie Bröring, Boehlje, Michael, Broring, Stefanie · 2011 · The International Food and Agribusiness Management Review

  Agricultural raw materials now serve multiple industries beyond food and fiber, including energy, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. This expansion creates three critical challenges: competing goals among different sectors, competition between established and new companies, and blurred industry boundaries. The paper reviews innovation and adoption research in the bioeconomy and proposes conceptual frameworks to address these dilemmas.

• Women's Entrepreneurship and Rural Tourism in Greece: Private Enterprises and Cooperatives

  Stavriani Koutsou, Ουρανία Νόττα, Vagis Samathrakis, Maria Partalidou · 2009 · South European Society & Politics

  Women entrepreneurs in rural Greece pursue agro-tourism through two distinct models: private enterprises and cooperatives. A survey of 199 women reveals significant differences between the two groups. Women choosing private enterprises tend to be younger, better educated, and more self-confident, while cooperative members are typically older, less educated, and more hesitant about business decisions.

• Thinking Together Digitalization and Social Innovation in Rural Areas: An Exploration of Rural Digitalization Projects in Germany

  Ariane Sept · 2020 · European Countryside

  This paper examines how digitalization and social innovation work together in rural German communities. The author develops a conceptual framework connecting these two areas, which are typically studied separately, and uses it to analyze existing rural digitalization projects in Germany. The framework helps identify the range of initiatives and provides a systematic approach for supporting smart villages that integrate both digital technologies and social innovation.

• Farmers’ Demand and the Traits and Diffusion of Agricultural Innovations in Developing Countries

  Karen Macours · 2019 · Annual Review of Resource Economics

  Agricultural innovations developed by international research often fail adoption among smallholder farmers in developing countries despite yield potential. This review examines why, analyzing technology traits and farmer constraints. Farmers frequently prioritize reducing variance, water use, or labor over maximizing yields. When external constraints ease, farmers reallocate resources in ways that don't increase yield intensity. Agronomical trial results poorly predict actual farmer demand in real conditions, requiring research and policy adjustments.

• Barriers to Business Model Innovation in Swedish Agriculture

  Olof Sivertsson, Joakim Tell · 2015 · Sustainability

  Swedish small farms face multiple barriers when attempting to innovate their business models to improve competitiveness and profitability. The study identifies three types of obstacles: human factors like attitudes and traditions, contextual barriers related to industry and company settings, and abstract barriers including government regulations, value chain position, and weather. Agricultural consultants and farmers confirmed these barriers significantly impede business model innovation efforts.

• Reconnecting Farmers with Nature through Agroecological Transitions: Interacting Niches and Experimentation and the Role of Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems

  Cynthia Giagnocavo, Miguel de Cara García, M. González, Melchor Juan, José Ignacio Marín-Guirao, Sepide Mehrabi, Estefanía Rodríguez, Jan van der Blom, Eduardo Crisol‐Martínez · 2022 · Agriculture

  Farmers in Almeria's greenhouse sector reconnect with nature through agroecological practices like biological control, soil health management, and ecological restoration. The study shows that experimental niches within conventional agricultural systems help farmers develop deeper ecosystem understanding and transition toward sustainability. By engaging with nature-based practices, farmers gain ecosystem services and move away from industrial agriculture's disconnection from natural systems.

• Rural resilience through continued learning and innovation

  Jane Glover · 2012 · Local Economy The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit

  Rural businesses in England build resilience through continuous learning and incremental innovation. When facing economic adversity, small rural enterprises adapt by leveraging available resources and developing new practices to survive. The study shows that learning from challenges creates a resilient organizational culture, with innovation becoming essential for business continuity during difficult economic periods.

• Assessing Sustainability Perspectives in Rural Innovation Projects Using Q‐Methodology

  Frans Hermans, Kasper Kok, Pieter J. Beers, A. Veldkamp · 2011 · Sociologia Ruralis

  This study uses Q-methodology to identify distinct perspectives on sustainable agriculture among participants in a Dutch innovation program called TransForum. The research reveals two main competing viewpoints: radical perspectives reject technology and favor multifunctional rural landscapes, while prosaic perspectives embrace technology and prioritize agricultural production. Notably, no ecological modernization perspective emerged, prompting the authors to propose a new concept of 'metropolitan agriculture' to address this gap.

• The transformative innovation potential of cellular agriculture: Political and policy stakeholders’ perceptions of cultured meat in Germany

  Jana Moritz, Hanna L. Tuomisto, Toni Ryynänen · 2021 · Journal of Rural Studies

  German political and policy stakeholders recognize that conventional animal agriculture faces serious environmental and economic problems, but they doubt cultured meat will transform the food system soon. The study identifies drivers and barriers to cellular agriculture adoption, finding that while stakeholders understand change is necessary, they view large-scale transition to cell-based farming as unlikely in the near term.

• Entrepreneurship, the informal economy and rural communities

  Colin C. Williams · 2011 · Journal of Enterprising Communities People and Places in the Global Economy

  Rural entrepreneurs and self-employed workers in England operate substantially in the informal economy, trading off-the-books at higher rates in deprived communities than affluent ones. The study of 350 households reveals a hidden enterprise culture beneath legitimate businesses. Deprived rural areas show greater entrepreneurial activity than recognized, suggesting that legitimizing informal enterprises could unlock economic development potential.

• ‘Workable utopias’ for social change through inclusion and empowerment? Community supported agriculture (CSA) in Wales as social innovation

  Tezcan Mert-Cakal, Mara Miele · 2020 · Agriculture and Human Values

  Community supported agriculture (CSA) projects in Wales function as social innovations that address food system problems through bottom-up initiatives. These CSA models meet demand for ecologically sound, ethically produced food while empowering individuals and communities. The study finds CSA initiatives operate as viable small-scale social enterprises, but identifies barriers preventing their replication, policy participation, and scaling up that must be overcome for broader transformative impact.

• Place-Based Rural Development and Resilience: A Lesson from a Small Community

  Rosanna Salvia, Giovanni Quaranta · 2017 · Sustainability

  Community resilience drives rural development. This case study of a small economically disadvantaged community identifies three key factors for building resilience: rebuilding social ties and trust within the community, creating a cascade effect where initial projects spark additional initiatives, and adopting systemic approaches that connect previously disconnected sectors and areas. Place-based policies succeed when they rely on resilient actors and communities.

• How Can Innovation in Urban Agriculture Contribute to Sustainability? A Characterization and Evaluation Study from Five Western European Cities

  Esther Sanyé‐Mengual, Kathrin Specht, Erofili Grapsa, Francesco Orsini, Giorgio Gianquinto · 2019 · Sustainability

  Urban agriculture in five Western European cities generates innovations driven by specific problems farmers aim to solve. The study identified 147 novelties across environmental, social, and economic dimensions, with more innovations in environmental and social areas than economic ones. External stakeholders significantly supported these projects. The research demonstrates that greater innovativeness directly enhances overall sustainability outcomes in urban agriculture.

• Innovations in Sustainable Agriculture: Case Study of Lis Valley Irrigation District, Portugal

  Maria de Fátima Oliveira, Francisco Gomes da Silva, Susana Ferreira, Margarida Ribau Teixeira, Henrique Damásio, António Ferreira, José Manuel Gonçalves · 2019 · Sustainability

  Portuguese agricultural innovation in the Lis Valley Irrigation District reveals a gap between policy frameworks and practical outcomes. The Rural Development Program's narrow definition of innovation fails to capture social innovation and process improvements essential to agriculture. The study shows that implementing water management innovations for sustainability requires policy reform to align agricultural priorities with environmental protection and rural development goals.

• The Community Reclaims Control? Learning Experiences from Rural Broadband Initiatives in the Netherlands

  Koen Salemink, Dirk Strijker, Gary Bosworth · 2016 · Sociologia Ruralis

  Four Dutch rural broadband initiatives reveal that communities struggle to maintain control over digital infrastructure despite participatory ideals. Local groups must navigate competing interests from commercial providers and government authorities while managing limited social, intellectual, and financial resources. Volunteer burnout threatens project sustainability. Communities succeed only when members develop professional expertise to compete in complex broadband markets, yet learning remains secondary to achieving broadband access itself.

• Promoting innovations in agriculture: Living labs in the development of rural areas

  Giulio Cascone, Alessandro Scuderi, Paolo Guarnaccia, Giuseppe Timpanaro · 2024 · Journal of Cleaner Production

  Living Labs represent an effective approach for developing agricultural innovations in rural areas. This systematic review of 18 studies shows that agricultural Living Labs vary significantly by geography, theme, and organization. The research identifies two core dimensions: the innovation process and the actors involved. The findings emphasize that successful agricultural Living Labs require examining how different actors interact and adapting flexible approaches to fit specific local agricultural contexts for sustainable development.

• Addressing the politics of mission-oriented agricultural innovation systems

  Kristiaan P.W. Kok, Laurens Klerkx · 2023 · Agricultural Systems

  Mission-oriented agricultural innovation systems are increasingly used to transform agri-food systems, but their political dimensions demand greater attention. This paper argues that MAIS must address four critical areas: directionality (how power shapes innovation direction), diversity (multiple pathways, actors, and knowledge types), distribution (just resource allocation across communities), and democracy (deliberative knowledge production). The authors contend that researchers must recognize how their work influences and is shaped by these political dynamics to ensure transformations are sustainable, equitable, and socially desirable.

• Developing a framework for radical and incremental social innovation in rural areas

  Néstor Vercher Savall, Gary Bosworth, Javier Esparcia Pérez · 2022 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Social innovation in rural areas takes two forms: radical and incremental. Using case studies from Spain and Scotland, the authors show that radical social innovation requires conflict management and new skills, while incremental innovation suits communities with different aspirations. Both pathways drive sustainable development, but they reshape communities differently. Public actors should recognize local aspirations and support appropriate innovation types.

• Unpacking sustainable business models in the Swedish agricultural sector– the challenges of technological, social and organisational innovation

  Henrik Barth, Pia Ulvenblad, Per‐Ola Ulvenblad, Maya Hoveskog · 2021 · Journal of Cleaner Production

  Swedish agri-food companies employ eight distinct sustainable business models, grouped into three archetypes. A survey of 1,143 companies found no regional differences in technological or social innovation, but significant regional variation in organisational innovation. Northern Sweden showed stronger organisational innovation than southern and eastern regions, likely driven by greater environmental and economic pressures. The study identifies pathways for translating social and environmental value into competitive advantage.

• A land of cheese: from food innovation to tourism development in rural Catalonia

  Francesc Fusté‐Forné, Lluís Mundet i Cerdán · 2020 · Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change

  Artisanal cheese production in rural Catalonia drives economic innovation and community development through food tourism. Small producers diversify income by attracting visitors to cheese-making operations, which preserves cultural heritage and local landscapes. The research shows how cheese tourism enables rural agri-food companies to survive economically while strengthening regional identity and entrepreneurship in the Catalan Pyrenees.

• Superfast Broadband and Rural Community Resilience: Examining the Rural Need for Speed

  Fiona Ashmore, John Farrington, Sarah Skerratt · 2015 · Scottish Geographical Journal

  Superfast broadband enhances rural community resilience by enabling greater control over daily activities and providing reliable access to high-capacity services like video. Interview data from 36 rural UK residents shows that faster internet supports personal skill-building and individual empowerment. However, the relationship between broadband speed and community resilience proves complex and sometimes contradictory, with users primarily viewing the internet as an individualized tool rather than a collective resource.

• What can rural agencies do to address the additional costs of rural services? A typology of rural service innovation

  Sheena Asthana, Joyce Halliday · 2004 · Health & Social Care in the Community

  Rural health and social care agencies face higher costs delivering services across sparsely populated areas while meeting national quality standards. This paper identifies six categories of service innovations that rural agencies have developed to address these challenges. The typology reveals practical approaches at the health and social care interface, offering models for transferring successful practices between regions and directing future research.

• Rural women entrepreneurship: a systematic literature review and beyond

  Monika Aggarwal, Ramanjit Kaur Johal · 2021 · World Journal of Science Technology and Sustainable Development

  This systematic literature review examines 192 academic papers on rural women entrepreneurship published over 20 years. Research interest surged in the last decade, with India leading in publication volume and the United Kingdom in citation impact. Studies focus on factors influencing entrepreneurship, gender effects, and government support schemes. The review identifies underexplored areas including entrepreneurial education, microcredit, and information technology's impact on rural women entrepreneurs.

• Incentives for Developing Resilient Agritourism Entrepreneurship in Rural Communities in Romania in a European Context

  Mihaela Cristina Drăgoi, Irina-Eugenia Iamandi, Sebastian Mădălin Munteanu, Radu Ciobanu, Ramona Iulia Ţarţavulea, Raluca Georgiana Lădaru · 2017 · Sustainability

  Economic factors like regional GDP and road infrastructure positively influence agritourism business creation in Romanian counties. Tourism-related factors—including employment, tourist numbers, and tourism sector turnover—also drive agritourism entrepreneurship. The study demonstrates that agritourism development directly supports sustainable regional development and resilient rural communities.

• Rural Digital Innovation Hubs as a Paradigm for Sustainable Business Models in Europe’s Rural Areas

  Simona Stojanova, Nina Cvar, Jurij Verhovnik, Nataša Božić, Jure Trilar, Andrej Kos, Emilija Stojmenova Duh · 2022 · Sustainability

  Rural Digital Innovation Hubs improve sustainability in European rural areas by connecting local businesses, people, and authorities with digital technology and skilled support. A case study of a wine hub in Slovenia shows that DIHs reduce costs, create jobs, optimize operations, lower environmental impact, and increase digital inclusion. The authors conclude that rural DIHs should be integrated into smart rural development policies.

• Introducing ‘microAKIS’: a farmer-centric approach to understanding the contribution of advice to agricultural innovation

  Lee‐Ann Sutherland, Pierre Labarthe · 2022 · The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension

  This paper introduces microAKIS, a farmer-centered framework for analyzing how agricultural advice systems contribute to innovation on farms. The approach shifts focus from institutional structures to individual farmer experiences and decision-making, examining how advisory services actually influence farmers' adoption of new practices and technologies. The framework helps identify which advice mechanisms most effectively support agricultural innovation at the farm level.

• Implementing SDGs to a Sustainable Rural Village Development from Community Empowerment: Linking Energy, Education, Innovation, and Research

  Isabel del Arco Bravo, Anabel Ramos-Pla, Gabriel Zsembinszki, Álvaro de Gracia, Luisa F. Cabeza · 2021 · Sustainability

  Rural areas worldwide suffer from depopulation and lack access to modern energy services, education, and healthcare. This paper describes the ALMIA project in Almatret, Spain, which transformed a small rural municipality through community empowerment. The project created networks connecting local residents with experts and researchers to drive energy transition, involved local administration, and promoted technological and socio-community development. The authors demonstrate how these activities align with UN Sustainable Development Goals and argue that community empowerment is key to reversing rural decline.

• Organisational Innovation Systems for multi-actor co-innovation in European agriculture, forestry and related sectors: Diversity and common attributes

  Andrew F. Fieldsend, Evelien Cronin, Eszter Varga, Szabolcs Bíró, Elke Rogge · 2020 · NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences

  This study examined 200 multi-actor co-innovation partnerships across European agriculture and forestry sectors. Partnerships succeeded when they brought together actors with complementary knowledge, involved stakeholders throughout the innovation process, and fostered effective knowledge sharing. Most partnerships co-designed objectives, prioritized communication beyond their boundaries, and received external funding. The research reveals that current policy interpretations of agricultural knowledge systems may not adequately reflect regional differences in how European co-innovation partnerships actually operate.

• Quality of life and rural place of residence in Polish women - population based study.

  Paweł Zagożdżon, Emilia Kolarzyk, T Marcinkowski · 2011 · PubMed

  Rural Polish women aged 45-60 report worse physical health but better mental health than urban counterparts. Rural residence independently predicts poor physical health outcomes. Retirement, social pension receipt, prolonged illness, and specialist consultations increase physical health risks. Higher education and medical access protect mental health. The study identifies rural residence as strongly linked to environmental and psychosocial factors affecting women's wellbeing.

• Eco-efficiency and agricultural innovation systems in developing countries: Evidence from macro-level analysis

  Christian Grovermann, Tesfamicheal Wossen, Adrian Müller, K. Nichterlein · 2019 · PLoS ONE

  This study examines how agricultural innovation systems contribute to eco-efficiency across 79 developing countries. The researchers found that public research spending significantly boosts eco-efficiency in emerging economies, while foreign aid for extension services matters most in less developed countries. Foreign aid for research showed no significant effect. The findings demonstrate that effective agricultural innovation requires context-specific policy interventions tailored to each country's development level, rather than uniform global approaches.

• Entrepreneurial Origin and the Configuration of Innovation in Rural Areas: The Case of Cumbria, North West England

  Christos Kalantaridis, Zografia Bika · 2011 · Environment and Planning A Economy and Space

  Rural entrepreneurs in Cumbria, England access innovation knowledge from beyond their region, creating innovation systems that cross regional and national boundaries. New arrivals and immigrants innovate most frequently, while locally born and returnee entrepreneurs show lower innovation rates. The study reveals that rural areas possess weaker local knowledge systems but entrepreneurs overcome this by tapping nonlocal infrastructure, suggesting innovation systems are constructed by individual actors rather than confined to regional boundaries.

• The Institutional Limits to Multifunctional Agriculture: Subnational Governance and Regional Systems of Innovation

  Julian Clark · 2006 · Environment and Planning C Government and Policy

  This paper examines how regional governance in England's East Midlands implements multifunctional agriculture policies. The author uses a regional innovation systems approach to show that while multifunctionality is promoted across Europe, translating this concept into actual policy faces significant institutional challenges. The study reveals gaps between the theoretical appeal of postproductivist agricultural strategies and the practical capacity of subnational governance to deliver them.

• Exploring the readiness of publicly funded researchers to practice responsible research and innovation in digital agriculture

  Áine Regan · 2021 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  Irish publicly funded researchers show alignment with responsible research and innovation principles in digital agriculture, but face challenges implementing integrated RRI approaches. Interviews with 15 scientists and funders revealed three key concerns: unintended cultural consequences of technology, ensuring farm-level usability, and clarifying scientist responsibilities. The study identifies gaps in how RRI frameworks are framed and supported within academic institutions.

• Making room for manoeuvre: addressing gender norms to strengthen the enabling environment for agricultural innovation

  L.B. Badstue, Marlène Elias, Víctor Kommerell, Patti Petesch, Gordon Prain, Rhiannon Pyburn, Anya Umantseva · 2020 · Development in Practice

  Gender norms significantly shape whether agricultural innovation succeeds or fails at the local level, yet development research has largely overlooked them. Drawing on the GENNOVATE research initiative, the authors show that gender norms interact with individual agency to determine agricultural outcomes. Effective agricultural development requires explicitly addressing these norms and challenging underlying inequality structures, not just focusing on policies, markets, and institutions.

• Innovation – A Useful Tool in the Rural Tourism in Romania

  Smaranda Cosma, Dragoș Păun, Marius Bota, Cristina Fleșeriu · 2014 · Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences

  Romanian rural tourism companies, predominantly small and medium enterprises, implement product, service, and marketing innovations to compete in global markets. The study examines innovativeness across the rural tourism sector using Eurostat's Community Innovation Survey definitions. Small tourism firms must adopt innovation as an ongoing, comprehensive strategy to differentiate themselves and survive in competitive environments.

• Agricultural Innovations for Sustainable Crop Production Intensification

  Michele Pisante, Fabio Stagnari, Cynthia A. Grant · 2012 · Italian Journal of Agronomy

  Sustainable crop production intensification requires linking farmers' local knowledge with science-based innovations through institutional arrangements. The paper reviews agronomic practices supporting sustainable systems, including crop selection, ecosystem-based farming, pest management, nutrient management, and irrigation technologies. It proposes seven contextual changes that demand examination of how agricultural innovation occurs and spreads to farm level.

• Bridging the urban-rural digital divide: taxonomy of the best practice and critical reflection of the EU countries’ approach

  Marek Feurich, Jana Kouřilová, Martin Pělucha, Edward Kasabov · 2023 · European Planning Studies

  EU countries use fragmented approaches to reduce the urban-rural digital divide. This paper creates a taxonomy of European rural digitalization strategies and groups countries by their implementation patterns. The analysis reveals that digital infrastructure and virtual sphere coherence are critical challenges preventing successful bridging of the divide across EU member states.

• The Role of Actors in Social Innovation in Rural Areas

  Néstor Vercher Savall · 2022 · Land

  Social innovation in rural areas depends on specific types of actors playing distinct roles. This study interviewed key informants from three socially innovative initiatives in rural Spain and Scotland. Local actors and processes prove central, while facilitators and neutral intermediaries significantly impact outcomes. Social economy organizations coordinate networks effectively, and public sector involvement through LEADER programs shapes how rural communities address social needs and opportunities.

• Social Innovation in Rural Areas of the European Union Learnings from Neo-Endogenous Development Projects in Italy and Spain

  Francisco Antonio Navarro Valverde, Marilena Labianca, Eugenio Cejudo García, Stefano De Rubertis · 2022 · Sustainability

  Social innovation in rural EU areas, particularly in Spain and Italy, succeeds through public-private partnerships and the LEADER approach. Local leaders, social enterprises, and Local Action Groups drive participation by overcoming community resistance. Effective projects require collective learning, sustained long-term commitment, and integration of both external and internal knowledge. Network complexity influences outcomes, and intangible contributions often go undervalued in rural development practice.

• Entrepreneurship and Innovation Towards Rural Development Evidence from a Peripheral Area in Portugal

  Maria Lúcia Pato · 2020 · European Countryside

  Rural entrepreneurship and innovation in Portugal's Montemuro region demonstrate how endogenous, community-driven initiatives reverse depopulation and economic decline. Over thirty years, local entrepreneurs developed innovative projects that increased population, revitalized socio-economic activity, and created jobs. The study shows that leveraging internal resources and community energy proves essential for rural development in peripheral, mountainous areas facing crisis.

• A Systematic Literature Review of the IoT in Agriculture—Global Adoption, Innovations, Security, and Privacy Challenges

  Asma Naseer, Muhammad Shmoon, Tanzeela Shakeel, Shafiq Ur Rehman, Awais Ahmad, Volker Gruhn · 2024 · IEEE Access

  This systematic review examines Internet of Things applications in agriculture from 2018 to 2023, analyzing 96 papers. IoT technology connects agricultural equipment, sensors, and specialists to improve production, reduce costs, and increase efficiency in remote regions. The review covers enabling technologies, machine learning applications, security challenges, and implementation barriers. It synthesizes current developments and future directions for IoT-based agricultural systems.

• Service-Learning for Sustainability Entrepreneurship in Rural Areas: What Is Its Global Impact on Business University Students?

  Almudena Martínez Campillo, María del Pilar Sierra Fernández, Yolanda Fernández‐Santos · 2019 · Sustainability

  Service-learning in sustainability entrepreneurship improves business students' outcomes in Spain. Students working with rural entrepreneurs to develop business plans reported gains in social responsibility, sustainability commitment, and professional skills. Service-learning participants achieved significantly higher academic performance than non-participating peers, demonstrating the method's effectiveness for holistic business education.

• Barriers to Sustainable Business Model Innovation in Swedish Agriculture

  Jennie Cederholm Björklund · 2018 · Journal of Entrepreneurship Management and Innovation

  Swedish agriculture faces declining farm numbers and employment while regulatory demands and sustainability expectations increase. This qualitative study of six family farms identifies barriers preventing farmers from adopting sustainable business model innovation. The research finds that barriers are external, internal, and contextual in nature, explaining why Swedish farmers rarely pursue sustainable business model innovation despite its proven benefits for creating sustainable businesses and societies.

• The digital divide in Europe's rural enterprises

  Lois Labrianidis, Thanassis Kalogeressis · 2005 · European Planning Studies

  Rural enterprises across ten European regions show significant digital divides in ICT adoption. While north-south geographic differences exist, sectoral factors, firm size, and network connections matter more. Human capital characteristics—skills and knowledge of workers—emerge as the strongest predictor of whether rural businesses adopt digital technologies. Regional and national context also shapes adoption patterns beyond simple geographic location.

• Transforming Agricultural Productivity with AI-Driven Forecasting: Innovations in Food Security and Supply Chain Optimization

  Sambandh Bhusan Dhal, Debashish Kar · 2024 · Forecasting

  AI-driven forecasting models, including machine learning and deep learning, transform agricultural productivity and food supply chains by enabling real-time crop monitoring and resource optimization. Integration of IoT, remote sensing, and blockchain technologies improves decision-making across European hydroponic systems and Southeast Asian aquaponics. AI also enhances food preservation through advanced processing techniques. However, data quality, model scalability, and prediction accuracy remain significant barriers, especially in data-poor regions. Success requires context-specific implementations and public-private collaboration.

• Social Entrepreneurship in Agriculture, a Sustainable Practice for Social and Economic Cohesion in Rural Areas: The Case of the Czech Republic

  Eliška Hudcová, Tomáš Chovanec, Jan Moudrý · 2018 · European Countryside

  Social farming in the Czech Republic uses agricultural enterprises to address rural social exclusion and service gaps through therapeutic activities, sheltered employment, and educational programs. The study examines fifteen Czech social farms to determine whether they meet social entrepreneurship criteria and assesses their contribution to rural development. Social farms successfully integrate vulnerable populations while supporting economic sustainability and social cohesion in countryside communities.

• What really matters? A qualitative analysis on the adoption of innovations in agriculture

  Erika Pignatti, Giacomo Carli, Maurizio Canavari · 2015 · Journal of Agricultural Informatics

  Agricultural innovation adoption depends on multiple interconnected factors beyond technology alone. Research across Italy, Greece, and Turkey identified that farmers prioritize ease of use, effectiveness, usefulness, resource savings, and compatibility. Adoption accelerates through trials, demonstrations, knowledge sharing, and expert support. Public funding, agricultural policies, and market conditions significantly influence whether farmers ultimately adopt new technologies.

• The Role of Agency in the Emergence and Development of Social Innovations in Rural Areas. Analysis of Two Cases of Social Farming in Italy and The Netherlands

  Cristina Dalla Torre, Elisa Ravazzoli, M.W.C. Dijkshoorn-Dekker, Nico Polman, Mariana Melnykovych, Elena Pisani, Francesca Gori, Riccardo Da Re, Kamini Vicentini, Laura Secco · 2020 · Sustainability

  This paper examines how agency—the ability to turn challenges into opportunities—drives social innovation in rural agriculture. Researchers studied two social farming cases in Italy and the Netherlands, developing a framework to evaluate agency dimensions using both quantitative and qualitative data. The findings show that a strong innovation idea, agency resilience, and the agency's embeddedness in local context are critical for social innovations to emerge and develop in rural areas.

• Enterprise and entrepreneurship on islands and remote rural environments

  Kathryn Burnett, Mike Danson · 2017 · The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

  Island and remote rural entrepreneurs face distinct challenges beyond typical rural business obstacles, shaped by isolation and peripheralization. The paper compares SME experiences across developing countries and Northern Europe, finding that social capital, cultural values, and local norms drive success. It argues policymakers must account for geographic differences and recognize how remoteness can become a competitive advantage as place-based distinctiveness gains market value.

• Understanding social innovation processes in rural areas: empirical evidence from social enterprises in Germany

  Katrin Martens, A. L. Wolff, Markus Hanisch · 2020 · Social enterprise journal

  German rural communities increasingly rely on social enterprises called community cooperatives to address infrastructure loss and provide public goods. This study examines how these cooperatives drive social innovation through formalized collective action. The research finds that macro-level policy financing matters, but local public actors rarely initiate innovation alone—they need private incentives. Actor networks and resource patterns differ between establishing new infrastructure versus maintaining existing services, yet all successful innovations require legitimizing formal processes.

• Evaluating Innovation in European Rural Development Programmes: Application of the Social Return on Investment (SROI) Method

  Paul Courtney, John Powell · 2020 · Sustainability

  This paper evaluates social innovation outcomes from England's Rural Development Programme using Social Return on Investment methodology. Analysis of 196 beneficiaries found that innovation support generated £170 million in benefits through individual behavior changes, operational improvements, relational shifts, and institutional reforms. The authors argue that traditional performance measures fail to capture social innovation's full value and call for comprehensive evaluation approaches that better connect innovation outcomes to rural policy decisions.

• Supporting rural entrepreneurship in the UK microbrewery sector

  Victoria Ellis, Gary Bosworth · 2015 · British Food Journal

  The UK microbrewery sector has grown rapidly, but declining pub numbers threaten sustainability. This study finds that rural microbreweries generate value beyond economics—including job creation, heritage preservation, and tourism benefits. Funding boosted entrepreneurial activity but risked distorting competition. As the market intensifies, microbrewers must innovate to survive, and policymakers need better tools to assess how grant funding affects local economies and entrepreneurship.

• Finance, technology, and values: A configurational approach to the analysis of rural entrepreneurship

  Noelia Romero Castro, Ángeles López Cabarcos, Juan Piñeiro Chousa · 2023 · Technological Forecasting and Social Change

  Rural entrepreneurship requires understanding how multiple factors interact, not in isolation. This study examines religious tourism development in rural areas, analyzing how combinations of financial resources, technology, and cultural values shape entrepreneurship levels. The research finds that successful rural ventures depend on interdependent relationships between these factors rather than single conditions, challenging oversimplified policy approaches.

• On the role of key players in rural social innovation processes

  Ralph Richter, Gabriela B. Christmann · 2021 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Rural social innovation projects succeed when led by assertive key players embedded in strong communities capable of collective action. This study of two German communities building rural infrastructure systems reveals that key players navigate internal opposition and external barriers by combining micro-, meso-, and macro-level strategies. Communities seeking independence from remote political and economic control benefit most when leaders and residents work together to overcome resistance to novel approaches.

• Systemic Innovation Areas for Heritage-Led Rural Regeneration: A Multilevel Repository of Best Practices

  Aitziber Egusquiza, Mikel Zubiaga, A. Gandini, Claudia De Luca, Simona Tondelli · 2021 · Sustainability

  This paper analyzes 20 case studies of heritage-led rural regeneration projects across multiple countries. Using the Community Capitals Framework, researchers identified six systemic innovation areas that enable successful capital transfer in these projects. The study created a repository of best practices showing how cultural and natural heritage drives economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability in rural communities, positioning culture as essential to sustainable rural development.

• Social innovation and rural territories: Exploring invisible contexts and actors in Portugal and India

  Maria de Fátima Ferreiro, Cristina Sousa, Fayaz Ahmad Sheikh, Marina Novikova · 2021 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Social innovation in rural areas drives personal and socioeconomic development by meeting citizen needs and promoting empowerment. This study compares social innovation emergence in rural Portugal and India, revealing how top-down and bottom-up approaches shape innovation differently across contrasting socioeconomic contexts. The research fills a gap by examining rural innovation dynamics in both western and non-western settings.

• The influence of multi-stakeholder platforms on farmers' innovation and rural development in emerging economies: a systematic literature review

  Carlos Luis Barzola Iza, Domenico Dentoni, Onno Omta · 2020 · Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies

  Multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) in emerging economies create interfaces connecting diverse actors to support farmer innovation. This systematic review of 44 studies finds that MSPs achieve different innovation outcomes depending on their organizational goals and activities. The research identifies key gaps: disciplinary fragmentation, linear thinking, insufficient attention to informal institutions, and overlooked power dynamics that affect how MSPs influence farmer innovation.

• Agricultural innovation and socio-economic change in early medieval Europe: evidence from Britain and France

  Pam Crabtree · 2010 · World Archaeology

  During the Middle Saxon period (650–850 CE) in eastern England and early medieval France, animal husbandry shifted from subsistence-focused to specialized production targeting wool and pork surpluses. Zooarchaeological evidence shows this innovation coincided with state formation, urban development, and monasticism. Both monastic and secular estate centers drove these agricultural changes, suggesting innovation emerged from rural centers rather than top-down imposition.

• Innovation and Rural Development: Some Lessons from Britain and Western Europe

  Malcolm J. Moseley · 2000 · Planning Practice and Research

  Rural innovation in Britain and Western Europe requires integrating economic, social, and environmental objectives rather than pursuing growth alone. Successful rural development combines local entrepreneurship with strategic infrastructure investment, particularly in broadband and services. The paper argues that innovation thrives when communities engage in planning processes that balance modernization with preserving rural character and quality of life.

• Firms’ eco-innovation and Industry 4.0 technologies in urban and rural areas

  Luca Cattani, Sandro Montresor, Antonio Vezzani · 2023 · Regional Studies

  Rural firms eco-innovate more than urban firms despite lower digital adoption, but urban location amplifies the eco-innovative impact of Industry 4.0 technologies. The study analyzed European firms and found that rural areas show unexpected strength in environmental innovation, though urban firms better leverage digital tools for eco-innovation purposes.

• Supporting bottom-up innovative initiatives throughout the spiral of innovations: Lessons from rural Greece

  Alex Koutsouris, Eleni Zarokosta · 2019 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Bottom-up innovative initiatives emerge in rural areas even under difficult conditions. The Spiral of Innovations framework, applied non-linearly, helps track how these initiatives develop. Innovation Support Services tailored to each initiative and its development stage prove critical for success. Networking between diverse actors—farmers, researchers, businesses, policymakers—drives innovation co-generation and strengthens rural economies.

• Interpretations of Innovation in Rural Development. The Cases of Leader Projects in Lecce (Italy) and Granada (Spain) in 2007–2013 Period

  Francisco Antonio Navarro Valverde, Marilena Labianca, Eugenio Cejudo García, Stefano De Rubertis, Angelo Salento, Juan Carlos Maroto Martos, Angelo Belliggiano · 2018 · European Countryside

  This study examines how the Leader initiative interprets and implements innovation in rural development across Granada, Spain and Lecce, Italy from 2007–2013. The researchers analyzed projects Local Action Groups labeled as innovative and found that while social innovation is programmatically central to Leader, local implementation faces significant obstacles. Key problems include limited local understanding of social innovation's role and weak institutional support structures in these peripheral regions.

• Innovations, food storage and the origins of agriculture

  Geoffroy de Saulieu, Alain Testart · 2015 · Environmental Archaeology

  The paper argues that nomadic hunter-gatherers transitioned to sedentary agriculture by building on existing skills in foraging, pottery, and food storage. As their tool kits grew heavier and more diverse, settling in one place became practical. Sedentarism then enabled specialization in the very activities that had burdened them—plant cultivation and food storage—ultimately driving the global emergence of agriculture.

• Entrepreneurship in rural regions: the role of industry experience and home advantage for newly founded firms

  Antoine Habersetzer, Marcin Rataj, Rikard Eriksson, Heike Mayer · 2020 · Regional Studies

  Industry experience improves survival rates for new firms across all regions, but home advantage—where local entrepreneurs outperform outsiders—only benefits firms in rural areas. Native rural entrepreneurs create substantially more jobs than non-local founders, suggesting that local knowledge and networks matter most in rural contexts.

• Rural Entrepreneurship Strategies: Empirical Experience in the Northern Sub-Plateau of Spain

  M. Valiente López, Adolfo Cazorla, Milagros del Pilar Panta · 2019 · Sustainability

  Rural entrepreneurship strategies in Spain's depopulated Northern Sub-Plateau work best when designed and evaluated by local beneficiaries from the start. The authors implemented a participatory entrepreneurship strategy in Ávila province using an adapted 'Working With People' model, finding that community-led approaches significantly strengthen rural entrepreneurship initiatives in aging, depopulated regions.

• The contingent nature of broadband as an engine for business startups in rural areas

  Chloé Duvivier, Claire Bussière · 2022 · Journal of Regional Science

  Ultrafast broadband deployment in rural France increased business startups, but only in municipalities with strong existing conditions like good economic climate, natural amenities, and favorable demographics. Broadband alone cannot revitalize structurally weak rural areas; it requires complementary local assets to be effective.

• Testing a Framework to Co-Construct Social Innovation Actions: Insights from Seven Marginalized Rural Areas

  Valentino Marini Govigli, Sophie Alkhaled, Tor Arnesen, Carla Barlagne, Mari Bjerck, Catie Burlando, Mariana Melnykovych, Carmen Rodríguez Fernández‐Blanco, Patricia R. Sfeir, Elena Górriz‐Mifsud · 2020 · Sustainability

  This study tested a governance framework for developing social innovation actions across seven marginalized rural areas in Europe and the Mediterranean. The researchers found that early-stage support for social innovators and local actors is critical for addressing rural challenges. Defining social innovations requires ongoing engagement and refinement. Feasibility assessments helped identify key success factors: managing social networks, ensuring financial sustainability, and building local knowledge. The framework's lessons apply broadly across rural sectors.

• Exploring the impact of innovation adoption in agriculture: how and where Precision Agriculture Technologies can be suitable for the Italian farm system?

  Giorgia Bucci, Deborah Bentivoglio, Adele Finco, Matteo Belletti · 2019 · IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science

  Precision agriculture technologies using IoT and ICT can improve farm efficiency and sustainability by reducing inputs while protecting resources. This study identifies barriers to adoption in Italy, including cultural resistance to innovation, limited awareness of benefits, and small average farm sizes that make investment difficult. Analysis shows northeastern Italy is most suitable for precision agriculture technology adoption.

• Adoption of ICT in agricultural management in the United Kingdom: the intra-rural digital divide

  Martyn Warren · 2002 · Agricultural Economics (Zemědělská ekonomika)

  UK farming businesses adopting information and communication technology gain significant benefits, but a digital divide is emerging within the agricultural sector. Farmers who fail to adopt ICT face severe competitive disadvantages. The paper argues that Central and Eastern European countries will experience similar divides, warranting policy intervention and further research to address technology adoption gaps.

• Reconstructive Social Innovation Cycles in Women-Led Initiatives in Rural Areas

  Simo Sarkki, Cristina Dalla Torre, Jasmiini Fransala, Ivana Živojinović, Alice Ludvig, Elena Górriz‐Mifsud, Mariana Melnykovych, Patricia R. Sfeir, Arbia Labidi, Mohammed Bengoumi, Houda Chorti, Verena Gramm, Lucía López Marco, Elisa Ravazzoli, Maria Nijnik · 2021 · Sustainability

  Women-led social innovations in rural Canada, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco, and Serbia address gender equity challenges by reconstructing discriminatory practices, institutions, and beliefs. The study identifies a reconstructive social innovation cycle—cyclical processes where women engage through civil society initiatives to question and transform marginalizing norms. These innovations operate across everyday practices, institutional structures, and cognitive frames, offering concrete pathways for rural women to overcome patriarchal barriers and create opportunities for education and employment.

• Social Innovation in Rural Areas? The Case of Andalusian Olive Oil Co-Operatives

  José Domingo Sánchez Martínez, Juan Carlos Rodríguez Cohard, Antonio Garrido Almonacid, Vicente José Gallego Simón · 2020 · Sustainability

  Andalusian olive oil cooperatives function as social innovations that address rural development challenges by helping farmers compete internationally while preserving rural livelihoods. The study finds that these cooperatives are slowly adopting organizational and management innovations with broader social benefits. Despite historical market competition difficulties, cooperatives maintain rural populations and improve quality of life, warranting government support as public goods.

• Evaluation of renewable energy sources in peripheral areas and renewable energy-based rural development

  József Benedek, Tihamér Tibor Sebestyén, Blanka Bartók · 2018 · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

  This paper develops an integrated methodology to evaluate renewable energy potential in peripheral rural areas by combining three energy sources: biomass, solar, and wind. Using mapping techniques, wind farm simulation software, and geographical information systems, the authors create a comprehensive assessment framework that measures total renewable energy capacity. This approach addresses the gap in existing methods and supports evidence-based renewable energy development for rural economic growth and climate protection.

• Renewable energy for sustainable rural development: Synergies and mismatches

  Laura Tolnov Clausen, David Rudolph · 2020 · Energy Policy

  Renewable energy development in rural areas is promoted as an economic opportunity, but this potential remains largely unfulfilled because the link between energy transition and rural development has been assumed rather than actively cultivated. This review examines experiences in Denmark and Scotland, revealing policy mismatches that prevent renewable energy from effectively supporting rural development. The authors argue that rural communities and their needs must be central to energy transition planning for genuine synergies to emerge.

• The challenge of rural financial inclusion – evidence from microfinance

  Tania López, Adalbert Winkler · 2017 · Applied Economics

  Microfinance institutions serving rural borrowers face sustainability challenges that limit financial inclusion in rural areas. Analysis of 772 microfinance institutions from 2008–2013 shows that while rural lending doesn't directly harm sustainability, institutions with more rural borrowers struggle to achieve economies of scale and productivity gains. This structural disadvantage explains why rural financial inclusion progresses more slowly than urban inclusion.

• Chefs as change-makers from the kitchen: indigenous knowledge and traditional food as sustainability innovations

  Laura Pereira, Rafael Calderón-Contreras, Albert V. Norström, Dulce Espinosa, Jenny Willis, Leonie Guerrero Lara, Zayaan Khan, Loubie Rusch, Eduardo Correa Palacios, Ovidio Pérez Amaya · 2019 · Global Sustainability

  Kitchens and chefs drive food system transformation by leveraging traditional knowledge of local food species to create nutritious, delicious dishes. The paper identifies cooks as key innovators addressing food security and sustainability challenges. By connecting indigenous food knowledge to contemporary culinary practice, chefs help build more equitable and environmentally sustainable food systems.

• Energy Management Strategy for Rural Communities’ DC Micro Grid Power System Structure with Maximum Penetration of Renewable Energy Sources

  M. Gunasekaran, Hidayathullah Mohamed Ismail, C. Bharatiraja, Lucian Mihet‐Popa, Sanjeevikumar Padmanaban · 2018 · Applied Sciences

  This paper develops an energy management strategy for DC microgrids serving rural communities that integrates solar, wind, fuel cells, and batteries. The strategy balances power between renewable sources and storage systems to meet variable loads while minimizing diesel generator use. The authors tested their approach through simulation and laboratory experiments, demonstrating it effectively handles dynamic load variations and improves system reliability for rural power systems.

• 'Remote from what?' Perspectives of distance learning students in remote rural areas of Scotland

  Ronald Macintyre, Janet Macdonald · 2011 · The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning

  Distance learning students in remote rural Scotland experience remoteness differently depending on geography and personal circumstances. Most students valued contact with personal tutors, but peer networks were rare. The researchers found that distance education provides valuable connections for isolated learners, though weak peer networks may threaten retention and progression.

• Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems for Sustainable Rural Development: Perspectives and Challenges in Energy Systems Modeling

  Lauren E. Natividad, Pablo Benalcazar · 2023 · Energies

  Hybrid renewable energy systems effectively electrify rural areas while reducing costs and emissions. Computational optimization models can design these systems while accounting for social factors like health, education, and income. The paper argues that energy modeling tools must evolve to integrate interdisciplinary perspectives and address broader societal transformations beyond traditional cost optimization approaches.

• The Importance of Local Investments Co-Financed by the European Union in the Field of Renewable Energy Sources in Rural Areas of Poland

  Aldona Standar, Agnieszka Kozera, Łukasz Satoła · 2021 · Energies

  Polish rural municipalities invested heavily in renewable energy projects between 2014 and 2020 using EU co-financing. The study of 1,117 projects found that agricultural municipalities in Eastern Poland showed the highest investment activity. Less developed municipalities pursued these projects most aggressively, viewing renewable energy as a path to economic growth. Municipal income and investment capacity were key factors determining success in securing EU funds.

• Renewable Energy for Rural Sustainability in Developing Countries

  Judith Alazraque-Cherni · 2008 · Bulletin of Science Technology & Society

  Renewable energy technologies offer significant benefits for rural sustainability in developing countries, but their actual performance falls short of expectations. This paper identifies technological, economic, and institutional barriers to success, but argues that previous analyses have overlooked household perspectives and stakeholder needs. Survey findings reveal gaps between installed renewable energy technology capabilities and user satisfaction in remote communities.

• Analysing citizens’ perceptions of renewable energies in rural areas: A case study on wind farms in Spain

  Rosa Duarte, Álvaro García‐Riazuelo, Luis Antonio Sáez Pérez, Cristina Sarasa · 2022 · Energy Reports

  Wind energy installations in rural Spain create mixed socio-economic effects that vary significantly by location and stakeholder group. A survey of residents in Campo de Belchite found heterogeneous perceptions of wind farms' impacts on employment, demographics, and local economies. The study shows that management models critically influence social acceptance, and recommends more decentralized, participatory, and transparent governance approaches to maximize rural development benefits.

• Rural tourism development and financing in Romania: A supply-side analysis

  Daniel Bădulescu, Adriana Giurgiu, Nicolae Istudor, Alina Bădulescu · 2015 · Agricultural Economics (Zemědělská ekonomika)

  Rural tourism businesses in Romania can drive sustainable development by leveraging natural and cultural resources, but they struggle to secure bank financing. Banks identify these ventures as risky due to poor management, seasonality, and small scale, yet recognize their resilience. Rural tourism firms must diversify income, form associations, and maintain healthy debt levels to attract funding. Private domestic banks prove more willing to finance rural tourism than other bank types, and EU co-financing programs offer promising pathways for growth.

• Rurality and access to higher education

  Sheila Trahar, Sue Timmis, Lisa Lucas, Kibashini Naidoo · 2020 · Compare A Journal of Comparative and International Education

  Rural populations face significant barriers to accessing higher education compared to urban populations, both globally and within individual countries. These disparities reflect historical inequalities rooted in colonialism and neo-imperialism, which continue to marginalize rural knowledge systems. The paper examines how rurality mediates educational access and employment opportunities across diverse geographic contexts, revealing that rural-urban inequalities persist in both the global South and North, though often more starkly in the South.

• Assessment the role of renewable energy in socio-economic development of rural and Arctic regions

  Sergey Tishkov, Anton Shcherbak, Valentina Karginova-Gubinova, Alexander Volkov, Arsen Tleppayev, Antonina Pakhomova · 2020 · Journal of Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues

  Renewable energy can drive socio-economic development in rural and Arctic regions by replacing depleting traditional energy sources. The study examines Russian and international renewable energy policies, assesses market growth potential in Russia's Northwestern region, and identifies applications for energy-deficient peripheral areas lacking electrical grids. Effective energy policy must balance environmental and economic goals while prioritizing renewable deployment in remote regions.

• Energy Saving, Implementation of Solar Energy and Other Renewable Energy Sources for Energy Supply in Rural Areas of Russia

  Olga V. Shepovalova · 2015 · Energy Procedia

  This paper presents a staged implementation plan for solar and renewable energy systems in Russian rural settlements. The research analyzes regional climate, social, economic, and technical factors to develop a comprehensive energy supply strategy. The work identifies priorities, implementation sequences, and performance targets for deploying renewable energy and energy-saving measures across sparsely populated rural territories.

• Rural Off-Grid Electricity Service in Sub-Saharan Africa [Technology Leaders]

  Henry Louie, Elizabeth O’Grady, Vincent Van Acker, Steve Szablya, Nirupama Prakash Kumar, Robin Podmore · 2015 · IEEE Electrification Magazine

  Sub-Saharan Africa faces severe electricity access challenges, with installed generation capacity far below demand for its 860 million people. Nineteen of the world's twenty least-electrified countries are in this region, and rural electrification rates fall below 15%. Decades of underinvestment have created a critical infrastructure gap that impedes development across the region.

• Understanding the Antecedents of Entrepreneurship and Renewable Energies to Promote the Development of Community Renewable Energy in Rural Areas

  Noelia Romero Castro, Vanessa Miramontes Viña, Ángeles López Cabarcos · 2022 · Sustainability

  Community renewable energy projects in rural areas depend on entrepreneurship and renewable energy technology adoption. This systematic review identifies five interconnected capital factors—economic, human, social, physical, and natural—that enable or constrain these projects in developed countries. Northern Europe leads in community renewable energy development while Southern Europe lags. The study maps causal relationships between these factors to guide policymakers in designing strategies that strengthen rural renewable energy initiatives.

• Renewable Energy Project as a Source of Innovation in Rural Communities: Lessons from the Periphery

  Sorin Cebotari, József Benedek · 2017 · Sustainability

  Renewable energy projects in northwest Romania failed to boost employment or local revenue, contrary to expectations. However, community-owned projects sparked policy innovation and interest in technological change, while privately-owned projects merely prompted consideration of similar ventures. The study shows that who controls renewable energy infrastructure—not the technology itself—determines whether rural communities experience genuine innovation and development.

• Renewable energy communities in rural areas: A comprehensive overview of current development, challenges, and emerging trends

  Zhan Shi, Feihong Liang, Andrea Pezzuolo · 2024 · Journal of Cleaner Production

  This review of 86 articles examines renewable energy communities in rural areas across 2004–2024. Rural energy development, community engagement, and agricultural integration drive growth. Systems are shifting from localized solutions to integrated hybrid systems and smart grids. Key challenges include financial constraints, infrastructure gaps, regulatory barriers, and low participation rates. Environmental benefits matter most in China, Thailand, and Italy, while economic gains dominate in the U.S., Poland, and India. Success requires resilience, scalability, innovation, supportive policies, and strong community involvement.

• The Dynamism of Nations: Toward a Theory of Indigenous Innovation

  Edmund S. Phelps · 2018 · Journal of applied corporate finance

  Phelps argues that standard economic models fail to explain modern economies because they ignore indigenous innovation—genuinely new ideas driven by human creativity, not just technological parameter shifts. Western nations have lost dynamism because corporatist values, regulation, and social protection have replaced the modern values of individualism and visionary thinking that historically fueled mass innovation and prosperity. Restoring economic vitality requires cultural change, not just policy reform.

• Effectiveness of Rural Microfinance: What We Know and What We Need to Know

  Ana Marr · 2012 · Journal of Agrarian Change

  Rural microfinance shows uncertain effectiveness in improving livelihoods, constrained by weaknesses in program design and the rural financial environment itself. Evidence indicates that microfinance impact remains limited. The paper argues that effectiveness requires developing new impact methodologies, expanding financial service types, and critically reducing risks and operating costs to make rural clients economically viable for financial intermediaries.

• Investments in Renewable Energy Sources in Basic Units of Local Government in Rural Areas

  Bogdan Klepacki, Barbara Kusto, Piotr Bórawski, Aneta Bełdycka-Bórawska, Konrad Michalski, Aleksandra Perkowska, Tomasz Rokicki · 2021 · Energies

  Rural local governments in Poland's Świętokrzyskie region invested minimally in renewable energy between 2016–2019, with only 28% of communes participating. EU funding proved essential for these investments to occur. Budget size and property expenditures correlated with renewable energy spending only in mixed urban-rural communes. The study reveals that without external EU support, local governments lack sufficient resources to transition away from coal dependence.

• THE RURAL SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH RENEWABLE ENERGY. THE CASE OF ROMANIA

  Mirela Ionela Aceleanu, Andreea Claudia Șerban, Diana-Mihaela Țîrcă, Liana Badea · 2018 · Technological and Economic Development of Economy

  Romania possesses substantial renewable energy resources—solar, wind, and water—that remain underutilized in rural areas. The study finds a strong correlation between renewable energy adoption and reduced import dependency from 2004–2014. Developing rural renewable energy projects would create jobs, decrease energy imports, lower emissions, and boost rural economies. The authors argue Romania must adopt supportive policies to unlock this potential.

• Local action groups and the LEADER co-financing of rural development projects in Slovenia

  Alenka VOLK, Štefan Bojnec · 2014 · Agricultural Economics (Zemědělská ekonomika)

  This study examines how Local Action Groups in Slovenia evaluate rural development projects for LEADER funding. Researchers surveyed 103 LAG board members and analyzed projects funded in 2008-2009. They found that informal systems of board performance—such as personal relationships and trust—significantly influenced members' judgments about project suitability, while formal procedures had minimal impact on these decisions.

• Methodology for strengthening energy resilience with SMART solution approach of rural areas: Local production of alternative biomass fuel within renewable energy community

  Lukáš Janota, Kamila Vávrová, Rut Bízková · 2023 · Energy Reports

  This paper presents a methodology for rural energy resilience through local biomass fuel production. The approach involves cultivating short rotation coppice on degraded or erosion-prone land, then processing the woody plants into pellet biofuel within community-based energy systems. The method delivers environmental benefits, reduces energy costs, and modernizes heating infrastructure in rural areas.

• Startup process, safety and risk assessment of biomass gasification for off-grid rural electrification

  Md. Mashiur Rahman, Ulrik Birk Henriksen, Daniel Ciolkosz · 2023 · Scientific Reports

  Biomass gasification offers promise for off-grid rural electricity generation, but startup procedures pose serious safety risks including fire, explosion, and toxic emissions. This study analyzes hazards during the heating startup phase of downdraft gasifiers and identifies heating temperature as the critical safety factor. The authors propose safety protocols that reduce risks from fire, explosion, and harmful emissions, enabling more reliable operation of gasification systems in rural areas.

• Optimization of Electric Bus Scheduling for Mixed Passenger and Freight Flow in an Urban-Rural Transit System

  Ziling Zeng, Xiaobo Qu · 2022 · IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems

  This paper proposes an integrated passenger-freight transit system for urban-rural corridors that addresses low bus utilization and scattered freight demand. The authors develop an optimization model using mixed-integer linear programming to schedule electric buses that alternate between dedicated passenger trips and mixed on-demand passenger-freight trips, accounting for charging needs and service time windows. Testing on real and simulated networks shows the approach reduces travel costs while improving connectivity and resource efficiency in rural areas.

• Two years’ experience of implementing a comprehensive telemedical stroke network comprising in mainly rural region: the Transregional Network for Stroke Intervention with Telemedicine (TRANSIT-Stroke)

  Katharina M. A. Gabriel, Steffi Jírů-Hillmann, Peter Kraft, Udo Selig, Viktoria Rücker, Johannes Mühler, Klaus Dötter, M. Keidel, Hassan Soda, Alexandra Rascher, Rolf Schneider, Mathias Pfau, Roy Hoffmann, Joachim Stenzel, Mohamed Benghebrid, Tobias Goebel, Sebastian Doerck, Daniela Kramer, Karl Georg Hæusler, Jens Volkmann, Peter U. Heuschmann, Felix Fluri · 2020 · BMC Neurology

  A telemedicine stroke network in rural Bavaria, Germany, improved quality of care across hospitals of different specialization levels over two years. Level-I hospitals without specialized stroke units showed significant improvement in diagnostic processes and organization, while level-II and level-III hospitals maintained high quality standards throughout. By the end of the study period, ten of thirteen quality indicators met predefined targets, demonstrating that comprehensive telemedical networks enhance stroke care delivery in rural regions.

• Renewable Energy Utilization in Rural Residential Housing: Economic and Environmental Facets

  Aleksandra Siudek, Anna M. Klepacka, Wojciech J. Florkowski, Piotr Gradziuk · 2020 · Energies

  Rural Polish homeowners can dramatically reduce energy costs and carbon emissions by retrofitting houses with renewable energy systems like solar panels and heat pumps. The study compares construction costs and operating expenses across scenarios, finding that energy-neutral homes cost more upfront but cut energy bills substantially and reduce annual CO2 emissions by roughly 90 percent compared to coal-heated homes. Retrofitting existing rural houses offers greater environmental and economic benefits than new construction alone.

• Theoretical Framework of Organizational Intelligence: A Managerial Approach to Promote Renewable Energy in Rural Economies

  Nicolae Istudor, Minodora Ursacescu, Cleopatra Șendroiu, Ioan Radu · 2016 · Energies

  Energy companies promoting renewable energy in rural communities need stronger organizational intelligence systems. This study proposes a framework combining economic intelligence, knowledge management, and organizational enablers to help companies innovate and adapt. Testing the framework at Romania's Transelectrica reveals that developing these intelligence elements enhances capacity to deploy renewable energy projects and maintain competitive advantage in changing markets.

• Addressing rural energy poverty and rural-urban energy access gap in developing countries: does international remittances matter?

  Alex O. Acheampong, Mariem Brahim, Janet Dzator · 2024 · Applied Economics

  International remittances significantly reduce rural energy poverty and narrow the rural-urban energy access gap in developing countries, particularly where financial development and GDP per capita are higher. The study analyzed 135 developing nations from 2000–2020 and found that remittance inflows enable households to afford energy access. Effects vary by income group, suggesting that credit availability and economic development amplify remittances' impact on rural energy inequality.

• Use of Renewable Energy Sources for Energy Generation in Rural Areas in the Island of Crete, Greece

  John Vourdoubas · 2020 · European Journal of Environment and Earth Sciences

  Crete's rural areas harness diverse renewable energy sources—solar, wind, hydro, biomass, and geothermal—which currently supply 30% of installed capacity and generate over 20% of annual electricity. The island possesses sufficient renewable resources to meet nearly all energy needs, enabling transition to a low-carbon economy. Future grid interconnection and emerging technologies will expand renewable applications, creating local jobs while reducing fossil fuel imports and meeting EU climate targets.

• Financing as a key factor of the strategy of sustainable rural tourism development in the Republic of Serbia

  Gordana Radović, Kristina Košić, Dunja Demirović · 2018 · Ekonomika poljoprivrede

  Rural tourism in Serbia remains underdeveloped due to unclear strategic direction and insufficient financial investment. The authors argue that Serbia needs an adopted strategy for sustainable rural tourism development with defined priorities and financing mechanisms across all tourism segments. New and innovative funding sources are essential, as current options are limited. This strategy would support rural economic development, reduce regional inequality, and reverse rural depopulation.

• TIAR: Renewable Energy Production, Storage and Distribution; A New Multidisciplinary Approach for the Design of Rural Facility

  Franco Cotana, Paolo Belardi, Piergiorgio Manciola, Claudio Tamagnini, Annibale Luigi Materazzi, Marco Fornaciari, Alessandro Petrozzi, Anna Laura Pisello, Gianluca Cavalaglio, Valentina Coccia, Giacomo Pagnotta, Valeria Menchetelli, Silvia Di Francesco, Diana Salciarini, Nicola Cavalagli, Filippo Ubertini, Fabio Orlandi, Tommaso Bonofiglio · 2014 · Energy Procedia

  This paper presents TIAR, an integrated renewable energy system designed for rural facilities in Italy. The project combines solar, geothermal, and hydroelectric technologies within a retrofitted rural tower structure, adding energy and thermal storage systems plus weather monitoring to balance variable renewable production with demand. The multidisciplinary approach addresses land use concerns and grid stability issues while preserving the architectural character of traditional rural buildings.

• Optimal renewable energy systems for industries in rural regions

  Stephan Maier, Ariadni Gemenetzi · 2014 · Energy Sustainability and Society

  This paper applies Process Network Synthesis to design optimal renewable energy systems for rural industries. Using a case study in Austria, the authors modeled how to supply industrial complexes and households with bio-based energy while avoiding competition with food production. Results show that anaerobic digestion, combined heat and power, and wood gasification emerge as economically viable technologies. The study demonstrates that sustainable regional energy systems are achievable at current market prices, though success depends heavily on heat demand, feed-in tariffs, and local resource availability.

• Sustainable energy transition and circular economy: The heterogeneity of potential investors in rural community renewable energy projects

  Noelia Romero Castro, Ángeles López Cabarcos, Vanessa Miramontes Viña, Domingo Ribeiro Soriano · 2023 · Environment Development and Sustainability

  Rural communities show diverse attitudes toward investing in local renewable energy projects. A survey of a Galician village identified four investor profiles—skeptics, financial illiterates, enthusiasts, and yield investors—each with different risk perceptions and financial concerns. Project developers and policymakers must tailor incentive strategies to these distinct groups to successfully promote community renewable energy and rural sustainable development.

• Acceptance and Potential of Renewable Energy Sources Based on Biomass in Rural Areas of Hungary

  Alexander Titov, György Kövér, Katalin Tóth, Géza Gelencsér, Bernadett Horváthné Kovács · 2021 · Sustainability

  This study surveyed 310 residents in a rural Hungarian microregion to understand public acceptance of biomass-based renewable energy. The researchers found that trust in local authorities, knowledge about biomass technology, and education level significantly influence whether rural residents support biomass energy projects. The analysis identified distinct acceptance groups that local development strategies should consider when planning renewable energy initiatives in economically disadvantaged rural areas.

• Renewable Energy Perception by Rural Residents of a Peripheral EU Region

  Özgür Kaya, Wojciech J. Florkowski, Anna Us, Anna M. Klepacka · 2019 · Sustainability

  Rural residents in eastern Poland were surveyed to understand their attitudes toward renewable energy. The study found that residents are more likely to support renewable energy if they already practice energy-saving behaviors, have specific demographic characteristics, and recognize health risks from coal pollution. These findings can guide future programs to build rural support for renewable energy installations.

• Indigenous women as entrepreneurs in global front line innovation systems

  Maria Ude ́n · 2008 · Journal of Enterprising Communities People and Places in the Global Economy

  This paper examines entrepreneurship among Sámi indigenous women, analyzing their unique business practices and decision-making logics at micro and mezo levels. The research reveals how indigenous women operate as entrepreneurs within global innovation systems, highlighting entrepreneurial approaches that differ from mainstream models and demonstrating their role as innovators on the global front line.

• Framings in Indigenous futures thinking: barriers, opportunities, and innovations

  Jessica Cheok, Julia van Velden, Elizabeth A. Fulton, Iain J. Gordon, Ilisapeci Lyons, Garry Peterson, Liz Wren, Rosemary Hill · 2025 · Sustainability Science

  Indigenous peoples bring distinctive perspectives to futures thinking—shaped by colonisation, unique knowledge systems, and commitment to biodiversity—that enable innovative solutions to climate change and social injustice. This paper identifies four framings of Indigenous futures thinking (Adaptation oriented, Participatory, Culturally grounded, and Indigenising) and finds that innovation increases when Indigenous people lead research teams, co-design projects, use Indigenous methodologies, and apply decolonisation approaches. The authors create a glossary to standardise terminology across this emerging field.

• Global urbanization and ruralization lessons of clean energy access gap

  Andrew Adewale Alola · 2024 · Energy Policy

  This study examines clean energy access inequality between urban and rural areas across high, low, lower-middle, and upper-middle income economies from 2010 to 2021. Economic growth and gender literacy parity worsen the urban-rural clean energy gap, while innovation significantly reduces it. The findings offer policy guidance for achieving sustainable development goals related to energy access and inequality reduction.

• SPEAR (Solar Pyrolysis Energy Access Reactor): Theoretical Design and Evaluation of a Small-Scale Low-Cost Pyrolysis Unit for Implementation in Rural Communities

  Cesare Caputo, Ondřej Mašek · 2021 · Energies

  This paper presents SPEAR, a low-cost solar-powered pyrolysis reactor designed for rural Sub-Saharan Africa. The system converts agricultural waste into biochar for soil improvement and generates electricity for energy access. The design achieves 72% optical efficiency and produces at least 5 kg of biochar daily. Financial analysis shows positive returns in most scenarios, making it competitive with small-scale solar systems while delivering environmental and social benefits.

• Energy access investment, agricultural profitability, and rural development: time for an integrated approach

  Giacomo Falchetta · 2021 · Environmental Research Infrastructure and Sustainability

  Rural sub-Saharan Africa faces severe electricity poverty, blocking development despite smallholder farmers driving 80% of agricultural output. High infrastructure costs and low payment security deter private investment and overwhelm governments. This paper argues that rural electrification must integrate with agricultural productivity improvements, generating local income that attracts private energy investment across residential and productive sectors. Data modelling and policy research are essential to enable this synergistic approach.

• Renewable Energy and Rural Autonomy: A Case Study with Generalizations

  F. Woch, Józef Hernik, Hans-Joachim Linke, Edward Sankowski, Milena Bęczkowska, Tomasz Noszczyk · 2017 · Polish Journal of Environmental Studies

  A Polish rural municipality currently uses no renewable energy but could meet 7.6% of electricity demand and 10.3% of thermal demand from solar, wind, water, and biogas sources. With development of thermal energy and biomass from set-aside land, the municipality could eventually supply 76.1% of resident energy needs by 2025. The study demonstrates how renewable energy can increase rural autonomy and support sustainable development.

• Perceptions of local population on the impacts of substitution of fossil energies by renewables: A case study applied to a Spanish rural area

  Pilar Gargallo, María Nieves García Casarejos, Manuel Salvador · 2019 · Energy Reports

  This study surveyed 231 people in a Spanish rural region to understand how local communities perceive the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The research measured willingness to pay for complete renewable energy replacement and identified which economic, social, and environmental impacts matter most to rural residents affected by this energy transition.

• Adoption of renewable energy innovations in the Portuguese rural tourist accommodation sector

  Luís Silva · 2022 · Moravian Geographical Reports

  Portuguese rural tourism accommodation owners hold positive views toward renewable energy but rarely adopt it. The study identifies a significant gap between perception and action, driven by unfavorable market conditions and institutional barriers including legal and regulatory obstacles. Geographic location influenced adoption, but unit characteristics and owner demographics did not.

• Analysis of load shedding strategies for battery management in PV-based rural off-grids

  Jeyakrishna Sridhar, Gautham Ram Chandra Mouli, Pavol Bauer, E. Raaijen · 2015

  Off-grid PV-diesel hybrid systems with battery backup serve rural communities but suffer from poor energy management, causing outages and excess diesel use. This paper analyzes load shedding strategies to efficiently distribute battery energy at night, prioritizing critical loads like hospitals and telecom towers to maximize energy security.

• High performance work systems, workforce productivity, and innovation: a comparison of MNCs and indigenous firms

  James P. Guthrie, Wenchuan Liu, Patrick C. Flood, Sarah MacCurtain · 2008 · Arrow@dit (Dublin Institute of Technology)

  Foreign-owned multinational corporations in Ireland adopt high-performance work systems more extensively than Irish-owned firms, resulting in higher workforce productivity and innovation rates. The study shows that differences in organizational effectiveness between foreign and indigenous firms are explained by variations in how intensively they use these human resource practices.

• Context matters: Co-creating nature-based solutions in rural living labs

  Katriina Soini, Carl C. Anderson, Annemarie Polderman, Carlone Teresa, Debele Sisay, Prashant Kumar, Matteo Mannocchi, Slobodan B. Mickovski, Depy Panga, Francesco Pilla, Swantje Preuschmann, Jeetendra Sahani, Heikki Tuomenvirta · 2023 · Land Use Policy

  Rural living labs co-create nature-based solutions with local stakeholders, but context shapes these processes differently than in urban settings. This study identifies eighteen contextual factors influencing co-creation in rural areas, including stakeholder engagement challenges. The authors recommend treating co-creation as a dynamic interplay of interconnected local factors rather than a standardized approach, arguing this place-based method increases the success and real-world impact of nature-based solutions in rural territories.

• Promoting and sustaining rural social innovation

  Malin Lindberg · 2017 · European Public & Social Innovation Review

  Rural social innovation requires addressing rural decline through innovative service delivery, empowering vulnerable groups like immigrants, and involving multiple local stakeholders. The study identifies key mechanisms: identifying urgent societal challenges, increasing rural attractiveness, mobilizing marginalized populations in service design, and using participatory workshops to develop and implement community-driven solutions.

• The UK Department for Environment, Food And Rural Affairs ("Defra") publishes the final report of the Cave review of competition and innovation in water markets

  Nicole Kar, Michael Cutting, Paula Riedel, Oliver Black · 2009 · e-Competitions Bulletin

  The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs published the final Cave review report examining competition and innovation in water markets. The review analyzes how competitive market structures affect innovation in England and Wales's water sector, providing policy recommendations for enhancing efficiency and technological advancement in water service delivery.

• Social Innovation in Rural Regions: Older Adults and Creative Community Development*

  Anika Noack, Tobias Federwisch · 2020 · Rural Sociology

  Disadvantaged rural regions face demographic decline and economic challenges while being pressured to innovate. This paper examines how social innovations actually emerge in these regions and challenges the assumption that older adults cannot be innovators. Drawing on a research project in rural municipalities, the authors show that older adults actively drive and participate in socially innovative community development projects, with their contributions shaped by personal motivations, community interests, and available resources.

• Understanding the process of social innovation in rural regions: some Hungarian case studies

  Judit Kovács, Ezster Varga, Gusztáv Nemes · 2016 · Studies in Agricultural Economics

  This paper examines social innovation processes in rural Hungary through case studies in the Balaton Uplands region. The research identifies key actors—entrepreneurs, scientists, and local action group managers—who drive innovation in this tourism-focused area. The innovations studied include GIS systems, smartphone applications, and entrepreneurial networks that leverage the region's natural, human, and social resources.

• &gt;Intersectional knowledge as rural social innovation

  Swati Banerjee, Luciane Lucas dos Santos, Lars Hulgård · 2021 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Rural communities develop locally-rooted solutions shaped by intersecting identities of caste, race, gender, ethnicity, and class. The paper argues these grassroots innovations deserve recognition as legitimate social innovation. By centering rural actors' own knowledge and experiences—particularly marginalized groups—the authors expand how we understand and value rural social innovation beyond conventional frameworks.

• Living labs fostering open innovation and rural development: Methodology and results

  Javier García Guzmán, Hans Schaffers, Vilmos Bilicki, Christian Merz, Monica Valenzuela · 2008

  Rural living labs enable user-driven ICT innovation for economic and social development through open partnerships among stakeholders. The paper presents three case studies from Hungary, South Africa, and Spain, examining how living labs are established, how users participate, and what innovations emerge. Successful approaches include stakeholder platforms, user communities, cyclic innovation processes, and participatory action research—all requiring strong adaptation to local contexts.

• Social Innovation: The Promise and the Reality in Marginalised Rural Areas in Europe

  Bill Slee, Robert Lukesch, Elisa Ravazzoli · 2022 · World

  Social innovation offers a practical approach to addressing challenges in marginal rural European areas, but the concept lacks clear theoretical grounding and suffers from definitional confusion. Three European case studies demonstrate that when committed local actors, enabling institutions, and supportive policies align, social innovation delivers positive social, economic, and environmental outcomes in specific places. However, the concept faces competition from established frameworks like community-led local development and emerging approaches like smart villages.

• Innovation and technology for achieving resilient and inclusive rural transformation

  Preetmoninder Lidder, Andrea Cattaneo, Mona Chaya · 2025 · Global Food Security

  This paper identifies five key levers for achieving resilient and inclusive rural transformation through innovation and technology. The authors call for increased investment in participatory agricultural research and development, amplifying marginalized voices in innovation processes, ensuring equitable technology access, limiting corporate dominance while supporting small enterprises, and prioritizing rural employment as automation reshapes value chains. These changes aim to generate rural employment, improve smallholder livelihoods, reduce malnutrition, and address climate impacts.

• Analyzing social innovation as a process in rural areas: Key dimensions and success factors for the revival of the traditional charcoal burning in Slovenia

  Todora Rogelja, Alice Ludvig, Gerhard Weiss, Jože Prah, Margaret A. Shannon, Laura Secco · 2023 · Journal of Rural Studies

  A 20-year case study of Charcoal Land in Slovenia reveals how social innovation revived traditional charcoal burning in a remote rural area. The research identifies five key dimensions of the social innovation process and three critical success factors: innovators embedded in multiple networks, strategic use of narratives to secure resources, and legitimization by local and public actors. The revival scaled beyond the original territory and became recognized as an intangible cultural practice with sustainable forestry applications.

• Transformative Social Innovation in Rural Areas: Insights from a Rural Development Initiative in the Portuguese Region of Baixo Alentejo

  Marina Novikova · 2021 · European Countryside

  A rural development initiative in Portugal's Baixo Alentejo region demonstrates transformative social innovation by acting as a knowledge broker, resource broker, and network enabler that bridges stakeholders and promotes cooperation. The initiative triggered bottom-linked governance and knowledge exchange, though it faced implementation challenges. The study refines an analytical framework for assessing how social innovation creates broader systemic change beyond meeting immediate service gaps.

• Social Innovation Impacts and Their Assessment: An Exploratory Study of a Social Innovation Initiative from a Portuguese Rural Region

  Marina Novikova · 2022 · Social Sciences

  This case study examines how a social innovation initiative in rural Portugal creates measurable impacts across multiple sectors and timeframes. The research finds that the local development association ADC Moura generates effects spanning social, economic, institutional, and environmental domains, with strongest influence at the municipal level. The study demonstrates that social innovation assessment in rural contexts requires multi-dimensional frameworks capturing impacts beyond single sectors.

• Social Entrepreneurship in Marginalised Rural Europe: Towards Evidence-Based Policy for Enhanced Social Innovation

  Matthias Fink, Richard Lang, Ralph Richter · 2017 · Regions Magazine

  Social entrepreneurs in marginalised rural European regions drive innovation by addressing local social and economic challenges. The paper calls for evidence-based policymaking to support these entrepreneurs, arguing that targeted policies can strengthen social innovation capacity in disadvantaged rural areas and improve outcomes for communities facing decline and limited opportunities.

• Risks Identification and Management Related to Rural Innovation Projects through Social Networks Analysis: A Case Study in Spain

  Diego Suárez, José M. Díaz-Puente, Maddalena Bettoni · 2021 · Land

  This study identifies and maps risks in rural innovation projects by analyzing stakeholder networks. Using a Spanish irrigation optimization project as a case study, researchers conducted interviews and applied social network analysis to uncover risk factors. The analysis revealed that technical, economic, and time-related risks were most significant, concentrated among irrigation communities and project developers. The approach provides a visual framework for rural innovation managers to better assess and mitigate project risks.

• Rural Living Labs: Inclusive Digital Transformation in the Countryside

  Johanna Lindberg, Mari Runardotter, Yomn Elmistikawy, Anna Ståhlbröst, Diana Chronéer · 2021 · Technology Innovation Management Review

  Rural areas lag behind cities in digital transformation research and implementation. This study develops a Rural Living Lab framework to support user-centered digitalization in sparsely populated regions. Based on the DigiBy project in northern Sweden, the authors identify five key components for designing digital transformation pilots: rural context, digitalization, governance and business models, facilitating methods, and multi-stakeholder engagement. The framework helps rural communities understand and apply digital opportunities for service development.

• Local Development Initiatives as Promoters of Social Innovation: Evidence from Two European Rural Regions

  Marina Novikova, Maria de Fátima Ferreiro, Tadeusz Stryjakiewicz · 2020 · Quaestiones Geographicae

  Local Action Groups and Local Development Associations in rural Austria and Portugal actively promote social innovation to address regional problems. These organizations drive rural development through community-led initiatives, though they face significant operational challenges. The study fills a gap in rural innovation research by demonstrating how local institutions catalyze social change in peripheral areas.

• Converging for deterring land abandonment: a systematization of experiences of a rural grassroots innovation

  Inês Campos, André Vizinho, Mónica Trüninger, Gil Penha‐Lopes · 2015 · Community Development Journal

  Rural grassroots initiatives in Portugal's Alentejo region build resilience against land abandonment and degradation through participatory governance, shared sustainability vision, and social capital. The study documents how these socially innovative projects preserve traditional land management knowledge while creating ecological and social resilience in a climate-vulnerable area.

• Rationale and Methods of Evaluation for ACHO, A New Virtual Assistant to Improve Therapeutic Adherence in Rural Elderly Populations: A User-Driven Living Lab

  Jerónimo Luengo-Polo, David Conde Caballero, Borja Rivero Jiménez, Inmaculada Ballesteros‐Yáñez, Carlos Alberto Castillo, Lorenzo Mariano Juárez · 2021 · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

  ACHO is a voice assistant designed to help elderly patients remember medications and medical appointments. Researchers developed and tested this technology using a user-driven living lab approach, where elderly patients and multidisciplinary teams worked together to identify needs and improve the prototype across three phases. This method ensures the technology matches how elderly people actually use it, ultimately improving medication adherence and health outcomes.

• Social Innovations for the Disadvantaged Rural Regions: Hungarian Experiences of the New Type Social Cooperatives

  Róbert Tésits, Alpek B. Levente · 2017 · Eastern European Countryside

  Social cooperatives in disadvantaged Hungarian rural regions have successfully created long-term local employment and met social objectives, but failed to significantly develop local economies or reintegrate workers into broader labor markets. Capital shortages and limited creditworthiness prevent expansion. The study recommends developing marketing strategies targeting county and national markets to enable sustainable growth.

• Decreasing the Digital Divide by Increasing E-Innovation and E-Readiness Abilities in Agriculture and Rural Areas

  Miklós Herdon, Szilvia Botos, László Várallyai · 2014 · International Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Information Systems

  Rural farms in Hungary lag in digital adoption compared to service and commercial enterprises, viewing network services as unnecessary despite their potential benefits. The paper identifies e-skills gaps across EU member states and proposes targeted agri-informatics education programs to increase e-readiness and reduce the digital divide in agriculture and rural areas.

• Digital social innovations in rural areas – process tracing and mapping critical junctures

  Carola Sommer, Tobias Chilla, Lisa Birnbaum, Stephan Kröner · 2024 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Digital social innovation projects in rural areas succeed when they combine bottom-up community participation with strategic use of both digital and non-digital tools. The study identifies four critical factors: innovation can start locally or externally with different long-term effects; participatory processes are essential; blending digital and traditional approaches reduces barriers; and collaborative learning supports lasting institutionalization. These elements help rural digitalization projects create sustained impact beyond their initial scope.

• A roadmap to becoming a smart village: Experiences from living labs in rural Bavaria

  Lisa-Marie Hanninger, Jessica Laxa, Diane Ahrens · 2021 · JeDEM - eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government

  Rural communities in Bavaria, Germany implemented digital solutions through the government-funded 'Digitales Dorf' project since 2016 to achieve living conditions equivalent to urban areas. The paper documents measures taken in pilot communities, identifies requirements for digital transformation, and extracts best practices for promoting digitalization in traditional rural areas. It emphasizes the transformation process itself rather than individual technological solutions.

• Hacking Hekla: Exploring the dynamics of digital innovation in rural areas

  Magdalena Falter, Gunnar Þór Jóhannesson, Carina Ren · 2022 · Sociologia Ruralis

  This study examines a hackathon called Hacking Hekla in rural Iceland to understand how digital innovation actually works in practice. The researchers found a significant gap between regional policies promoting digitalization and what actually happens in rural communities. Digital innovation in rural areas proves far more complex than policymakers assume, requiring long-term commitment rather than quick fixes to produce meaningful results.

• Key Drivers of the Engagement of Farmers in Social Innovation for Marginalised Rural Areas

  Antonio Baselice, Mariarosaria Lombardi, Maurizio Prosperi, Antonio Stasi, Antonio Lopolito · 2021 · Sustainability

  Farmers in marginalised rural areas engage in social innovation initiatives when two key conditions exist: unmet social needs and the presence of a local agency that facilitates relationships. This study tested that framework using Vàzapp', a rural hub in Southern Italy that connects farmers to revitalise their communities. The findings confirm that both factors drive farmer participation, offering policymakers and social innovators concrete guidance for designing similar projects elsewhere.

• Social innovation in service delivery to youth in remote and rural areas

  Andra Aldea-Partanen · 2011 · International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development

  This paper examines a social innovation program in Finland's Kainuu region that uses art and technology to reintegrate marginalized youth in remote areas facing population decline. Rather than pursuing purely economic goals, the program focuses on helping young people reconnect with their identities and rebuild self-worth. The analysis applies quadruple helix and social living labs frameworks to understand how regional governance institutions support youth art training.

• Application of a Comprehensive Methodology for the Evaluation of Social Innovations in Rural Communities

  Antonio Baselice, Maurizio Prosperi, Valentino Marini Govigli, Antonio Lopolito · 2021 · Sustainability

  This paper applies a comprehensive evaluation framework based on OECD criteria (relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability) to assess a social innovation initiative in rural Southern Italy. The evaluation methodology successfully identifies strengths and weaknesses across multiple dimensions, with 48% of indicators rated high and 36% medium. The results support communication strategies, help project managers address gaps, and provide evidence for policymakers designing cost-effective rural development policies.

• Preparation of future teachers for the introduction of digital innovation in a Rural School: problems and prospects

  Olena Budnyk, Наталія Матвеєва, Kateryna Fomin, Тетяна Назаренко, Vira Kalabska · 2021 · Revista Brasileira de Educação do Campo

  Rural schools struggle to attract qualified teachers prepared for digital innovation. This study surveyed future teachers about their readiness to work in remote rural areas and found a significant gap between their professional expectations and actual rural school conditions. The research emphasizes that preparing teachers for digital technologies in distance learning requires cooperation between schools, parents, communities, and local businesses to improve rural education quality.

• The Importance of Social Innovations in Rural Areas

  Katalin Lipták · 2019 · DETUROPE - The Central European Journal of Tourism and Regional Development

  Social innovations—new ideas addressing existing social problems—play a critical role in rural development that technical innovations alone cannot fulfill. The paper distinguishes social from technical innovation and examines how social innovations expand employment and support rural development. Successful rural strategies require active participation from citizens and civil organizations, supported by strong local identity and community cohesion. Technical solutions are insufficient; social innovations addressing disadvantaged groups and underdeveloped regions are essential for sustainable rural progress.

• Social Innovations for the Achievement of Competitive Agriculture and the Sustainable Development of Peripheral Rural Areas

  Jadranka Deže, Tihana Sudarić, Snježana Tolić · 2023 · Economies

  This study analyzes social innovations across peripheral rural areas in Finland, Croatia, and France, examining nine good practice examples to understand how social innovations drive sustainable rural development and competitive agriculture. The research identifies distinct types of social innovations shaped by regional social conditions and demonstrates that these innovations significantly impact rural economic activities and sustainability outcomes, with notable differences in social, environmental, and economic effects across the three European regions.

• The Value of Digital Innovation for Tourism Entrepreneurs in Rural Iceland

  Magdalena Falter, Gunnar Þór Jóhannesson · 2023 · Academica Turistica

  Rural tourism entrepreneurs in Iceland don't necessarily view digital innovation and digitalization as connected, despite global policy emphasis on smart tourism. Through interviews with 34 entrepreneurs and support system members, the study reveals a gap between policy expectations and ground-level practice. Rural Icelandic tourism businesses show limited engagement with digital innovation, suggesting that policy-driven digital transformation agendas don't automatically translate into meaningful adoption or perceived value among rural entrepreneurs.

• A rural laboratory in the Austrian alm—Tracing the contingent processes fostering social innovation at the local level

  Sune Wiingaard Stoustrup · 2022 · Sociologia Ruralis

  Social innovation in rural areas emerges through evolving ecosystems and infrastructures rather than isolated projects. This study of Austria's Mühlviertel region shows how local perceptions and development ideas become institutionalized through governance networks over time, combining incremental and radical innovations in contingent, temporally dependent processes.

• Rural Community Development Click-by-Click. Processes and dynamics of digitally supported social innovations in peripheral rural areas

  Nicole Zerrer, Ariane Sept, Gabriela B. Christmann · 2022 · Raumforschung und Raumordnung / Spatial Research and Planning

  Digital tools are transforming how peripheral rural communities address local challenges in communication, healthcare, and mobility. This study of five German villages identifies how digitally supported social innovations develop through three phases: inspiration, emergence, and consolidation. The process follows a linear-circular pattern, combining targeted problem-solving with creative feedback loops that generate new ideas throughout implementation.

• Modes of spread in social innovation: A social topology case in rural Portugal

  Jamie-Scott Baxter · 2021 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Social innovation spreads through rural regions via material and discursive configurations that circulate across spatial scales and territorial boundaries. Using a network of young farmers in Portugal (EPAM) as a case study, the research demonstrates that social innovation operates simultaneously as a bounded regional object and as a trans-scalar relational process where objects, subjects, and spaces reconfigure each other. Images and infrastructure prove agential in how social innovation diffuses through peripheral rural territories.

• From technological to social innovation: objectives, actors, and projects of the European rural development program (2007-2013) in the Puglia region

  Marilena Labianca · 2016 · Norois

  This paper examines how the European LEADER program interpreted innovation in Puglia's rural development strategy from 2007-2013. The analysis shows that innovation shifted from purely technological focus to include social and cultural dimensions. Local action groups implemented governance-centered strategies that emphasized knowledge and territorial development, particularly in economically disadvantaged rural areas, reflecting a broader European shift toward socially-oriented rural innovation.

• An exploration of potential growth pathways of social innovations in rural Europe

  Bill Slee, Nico Polman · 2021 · Innovation The European Journal of Social Science Research

  This paper develops a typology of growth pathways for social innovations in rural Europe. The authors synthesize existing frameworks from literature to clarify how social innovations expand and develop differently across rural contexts. They apply rural development theories to explain why certain pathways emerge in rural areas, addressing the lack of clear conceptualization around both social innovation itself and its scaling mechanisms.

• Public Institutions and Ngos Cooperation for Social Innovations in Post-Socialist Rural Poland

  Katarzyna Zajda, Damian Mazurek · 2022 · European Countryside

  Public institutions in rural Poland implement social innovations to address community problems, often partnering with NGOs. A survey of 330 public institutions and 400 NGOs found that cooperation with NGOs does not distinguish institutions that successfully implemented social innovations from those that did not. The financial and human resources available to NGOs also had no significant effect on whether public institutions chose to collaborate with them.

• Challenges of impact assessment in Social Innovation: A qualitative study from two European rural regions

  ISCTE - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Marina Novikova · 2021 · European Public & Social Innovation Review

  Social innovation initiatives in rural Austria and Portugal struggle to assess their impacts despite recognizing its importance. Local development organizations face conceptual and practical challenges in measuring outcomes because no uniform assessment method exists. The study reveals tensions between different approaches to impact evaluation and difficulties in determining what counts as impact across different levels of analysis.

• Digital Transformations in Agri-Food Systems: Innovation Drivers and New Threats to Sustainable Rural Development

  Olena Borodina, Oksana Rykovska, O. V. Mykhailenko, Oleksii Fraier · 2021 · SHS Web of Conferences

  Digital technologies transform agri-food systems globally, improving efficiency and creating new markets. However, corporate monopolization of digital processes threatens food security, biodiversity, and rural livelihoods. The paper proposes ICT-based safeguards to strengthen food security and rural development while protecting small producers from corporate concentration of land, power, and resources.

• How Social Innovation can be Supported in Structurally Weak Rural Regions

  Gabriela B. Christmann · 2020

  Social innovation initiatives flourish across rural Europe, driven by residents and entrepreneurs addressing societal challenges. This paper analyzes conditions enabling rural social innovation to emerge and identifies critical factors supporting or hindering its success. The research reconstructs actor constellations and innovation phases, pinpoints obstacles that derail initiatives, and determines which support strategies help social innovation develop in structurally weak rural regions.

• Unveiling the Resources of Digital Pioneers: an Agency Perspective on Digital Social Innovation in Rural Germany

  Tobias Mettenberger, Julia Binder, Julia Zscherneck · 2024 · European Countryside

  Digital pioneers in rural Germany access resources through three pathways: personal motivation, social networks, and regional conditions. The study of 40 interviews reveals these key actors can serve as intermediaries in regional governance, but need policy support to strengthen network and regional resource access. Success depends on combining individual agency with structural conditions, not infrastructure alone.

• Municipal Social Innovation in a Rural Region

  Malin Lindberg, Mikael Sturk, Julia Zeidlitz · 2020 · Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration

  Swedish rural municipalities in Norrbotten recognize social innovation as essential for improving public services, but adoption varies significantly. Resource constraints from declining populations, aging demographics, shrinking tax bases, and labor shortages limit their capacity to implement social innovation despite national and international promotion efforts.

• Living labs in integrated agriculture and tourism activities: Driving innovation for sustainable rural development

  Ekaterina Arabska, Ivanka Shopova, Vihra Dimitrova · 2019 · Zeszyty Naukowe Małopolskiej Wyższej Szkoły Ekonomicznej w Tarnowie

  Living labs—structures that involve end-users directly in research and innovation—offer promise for rural development in Bulgaria. The paper analyzes living labs through SWOT analysis to assess their potential for driving sustainable agriculture and tourism in rural areas. It examines how living labs can encourage entrepreneurship, ensure quality and safety, and address the practical challenge of reviving rural regions through integrated agricultural and tourism activities.

• Landscapes of practices, social learning systems and rural innovation.

  Chris Blackmore · 2012 · Open Research Online (The Open University)

  Rural innovation systems benefit from understanding how communities of practice connect across boundaries. This paper applies Wenger's concept of 'landscapes of practices' to rural innovation, showing how learning and innovation potential increases when strong core practices link through active boundary processes. Examples of rural innovation communities demonstrate how systems thinking can help practitioners enhance their collective learning and innovation capacity across multiple interconnected groups.

• Women-Led Social Innovation Initiatives Contribute to Gender Equality in Rural Areas: Grounded Theory on Five Initiatives From Three Continents

  Simo Sarkki, Alice Ludvig, Jasmiini Fransala, Mariana Melnykovych, Ivana Živojinović, Elisa Ravazzoli, Mohammed Bengoumi, Maria Nijnik, Cristina Dalla Torre, Elena Górriz‐Mifsud, Arbia Labidi, Patricia Sfeir, Diana Esmeralda Valero López, Katy Joyce, Houda Chorti · 2024 · European Countryside

  Women-led social innovation initiatives in rural Canada, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco, and Serbia advance gender equality by strengthening women's collective agency. The study identifies three structural features—gendered identity, women's independence, and control over rules—that enable or constrain these initiatives. Key enabling factors include women's self-confidence, peer networks, and capacity building. These initiatives increase economic independence, reduce cultural skepticism about women's roles, and shift political dynamics, demonstrating that women's collective action effectively overcomes structures that marginalize rural women.

• Valuation in Rural Social Innovation Processes—Analysing Micro-Impact of a Collaborative Community in Southern Italy

  Federica Ammaturo, Suntje Schmidt · 2024 · Societies

  This paper examines how valuation processes embedded within social innovation activities drive rural development in a southern Italian agricultural community. The researchers identify three valuation phases—contesting norms, accumulating symbolic capital, and redefining values—that generate micro-level impacts on the agro-economic system, local culture, and place-making. The study demonstrates that collaborative valuation occurring during social innovation implementation, not just afterward, produces tangible community empowerment and societal change through joint sense-making.

• Rural development as the propagation of regional ‘communities of values’: A case study of local discourses promoting social innovation and social sustainability

  Sune Wiingaard Stoustrup · 2024 · Sociologia Ruralis

  Rural development initiatives in Austria's Mühlviertel region use social innovation to address economic and demographic decline by reconstructing how communities understand themselves and their places. The study shows that social innovation efforts succeed by promoting shared regional values and reshaping social bonds, creating new visions of sustainable countryside life that counter narratives of rural decline.

• Integrating Local Food Policies and Spatial Planning to Enhance Food Systems and Rural–Urban Links: A Living Lab Experiment

  Francesca Galli, Sabrina Arcuri, Giovanni Belletti, Andrea Marescotti, Michele Moretti, Massimo Rovai · 2024 · Land

  This study examines how spatial planning and food policy integration strengthen local food systems in peri-urban areas. Using a Living Lab experiment in Lucca, Italy, researchers worked with stakeholders to reclaim abandoned land and identify rural-urban connections. The research reveals weak recognition of rural-urban linkages and insufficient dialogue between rural stakeholders and urban planners. The authors recommend formalizing public-private partnerships and cross-sectoral projects connecting agriculture with education, tourism, and landscape management.

• Determinants and problems of well-being of farming population in Poland and local social innovations in rural areases

  Michał Dudek, Agata Mróz, Elwira Wilczyńska, Łukasz Komorowski · 2025 · Bulletin of Geography Socio-economic series

  This study identifies key factors affecting farmer well-being in Poland: access to health and social services, internet connectivity, farm succession, and community trust. Researchers interviewed farmers and local leaders in three counties to understand how these factors impact physical, mental, and social well-being. Social innovations—including activity diversification, community integration, and mobile healthcare services—successfully improved farmers' quality of life.

• Rural–Urban Features of Social Innovation: An Exploratory Study of Work Integration Social Enterprises in Ireland

  Lucas Olmedo, Ruíz Rivera, Mary O’Shaughnessy, Georgios Chatzichristos · 2024 · Societies

  Work Integration Social Enterprises in Ireland show similar organizational structures across rural and urban settings, but deliver different socioeconomic impacts based on location. Urban enterprises generate significantly more employment and income than rural ones, despite comparable governance models and funding diversification. The study demonstrates that spatial context shapes how social innovations create sustainable opportunities and contribute to local economies.

• Living lab approaches in rural healthcare: a scoping review

  Rose Joyal, Fatoumata Korinka Tounkara, Diane N. Singhroy, Richard Fleet · 2026 · BMJ Open

  Living labs use user-centered co-design to solve real-world healthcare problems in rural areas. This scoping review examined 11 studies from 2016–2025 across Canada, the USA, Australia, Guatemala, Uganda, and France/Portugal. Studies applied various methodologies including theory-driven frameworks, participatory research, and human-centered design to address cardiovascular disease, diabetes, perinatal care, and other conditions. Most studies did not explicitly use the living lab term, revealing limited adoption of this approach in rural healthcare innovation.

• Transformative social innovation and rural collaborative workspaces: assembling community economies in Austria and Greece

  Colm Stockdale, Vasilis Avdikos · 2025 · Open Research Europe

  Rural collaborative workspaces in Austria and Greece demonstrate transformative potential through social innovation processes. Community-led workspaces strengthen rural actors' capacities, shift individual perspectives toward collective action, and reshape economic relationships. The study finds these spaces can foster community economies by changing social relations and economic subjectivities. However, workspaces need greater institutional support and resources to progress beyond early transformation stages and achieve lasting societal impact.

• Can Social Innovation and Agriculture Serve as a Turning Point in Rural Areas? Insights from a Bibliometric Literature Review

  Mattia Mogetta, Deborah Bentivoglio, Giulia Chiaraluce, Giacomo Staffolani, Adele Finco · 2025 · Metrics

  This bibliometric review of 178 publications examines how social innovation and agriculture address rural challenges. The analysis identifies agriculture, digitalization, and forestry as key research areas, alongside emerging organizational models like rural hubs, living labs, and community cooperatives. These initiatives aim to revitalize rural social fabric and improve quality of life in rural populations.

• Teatro Povero di Monticchiello: Community-based Social Innovation and Intangible Heritage in Rural Tuscany

  Marko Senčar Mrdaković · 2025 · Traditiones

  Teatro Povero di Monticchiello in rural Tuscany stages autodrama annually, blending community participation with cultural heritage. The paper shows how this fifty-year practice functions simultaneously as intangible heritage and social innovation, driven by place attachment, collective memory, and collaborative leadership. Local residents view autodrama as both cultural preservation and a vehicle for social change.

• Frugal innovation and sustainable development: a holy grail for rural transformation

  Vrushal Khade, Christophe Estay · 2025 · International Journal of Sustainable Development

  Frugal innovation—affordable, accessible, and sustainable solutions—offers rural communities a pathway to development. Multinational companies can drive positive change by aligning with UN Sustainable Development Goals, establishing local partnerships, and empowering local entrepreneurs. This approach addresses rural poverty, healthcare, education, and energy access while creating social impact, economic growth, and environmental sustainability.

• A three-pronged approach to the digitalization–innovation–sustainable rural development nexus among Italian farms

  Marcello De Rosa, Luca Bartoli, Concetta Cardillo, Chrysanthi Charatsari, Evagelos D. Lioutas · 2025 · AIMS Agriculture and Food

  Italian farms show highly uneven adoption of digital innovations and their links to sustainable development. Using census data and cluster analysis, the study identifies distinct geographic patterns across Italian regions, revealing that farms differ significantly in how they combine digitalization, innovation, and sustainability practices. These scattered adoption patterns create varied rural development outcomes across territories.

• Co-creation of social innovations for healthy ageing in rural Europe – a process evaluation of a volunteer-led guided conversation toolkit using Normalisation Process Theory (NPT)

  Basharat Hussain, Mahrukh Mirza, Shukru Esmene, Catherine Leyshon, Michael Leyshon, Arunangsu Chatterjee · 2024 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  Researchers evaluated a volunteer-led toolkit for healthy ageing in rural European communities using Normalisation Process Theory. They interviewed 25 project partners and volunteers across Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The study found that effective toolkits must address ageing holistically by considering person-centred and place-based factors. Normalisation Process Theory proved valuable for understanding how context shapes implementation of social innovations.

• The Impact of Dissonance? A Valuation Perspective on Rural Social Innovation Processes

  Jonathan Hussels, Ralph Richter, Suntje Schmidt · 2024 · Societies

  Social innovation in rural areas produces impacts that are constructed iteratively through the innovation process itself, not predetermined outcomes. The authors introduce 'dissonance'—tensions and conflicts at key moments like impulses, turning points, and lock-ins—as a critical mechanism shaping how value emerges and gets assigned. Using case studies from Northern Germany, they show that understanding rural social innovation requires examining how stakeholders experience and negotiate value throughout the process, rather than measuring fixed results.

• Living Lab, interrupted? Exploring new methods for postdigital exchange on WeChat with urban-rural Living Labs in China and Germany during COVID-19

  Kat Braybrooke, Gaoli Xiao, Ava Lynam · 2023 · Journal of Science Communication

  This paper tests a postdigital ethnographic method using WeChat photo exchanges to engage with Living Labs in China and Germany during COVID-19. Researchers created a photo-sharing group where participants documented everyday experiences, revealing the approach effectively builds rapport and captures local practices. However, the method faced challenges around trust, bias, and ethics. The authors propose four design principles for conducting Living Lab research when in-person collaboration is impossible.

• Therapy Farms as Social Innovations Shaping Social Transformations in Rural Areas: Case Study Analysis

  Vitalija Simonaitytė, Erika Ribašauskienė · 2026 · Societies

  Therapy farms in rural Lithuania provide real benefits for mental health and social inclusion, helping young people reconnect with education and employment. However, these farms operate within structural constraints that limit their broader impact. The study finds therapy farms create localized positive change but struggle to transform wider systems due to project-based funding and fragmented policies. Sustainable impact requires long-term funding and cross-sector collaboration.

• New Model of Home Hospice Care—Social Innovation in Rural Areas: Facing Depopulation and a Services Crisis in Poland

  Sylwia Michalska, Dominika Zwęglińska-Gałecka · 2026 · Health & Social Care in the Community

  Researchers studied a social innovation in rural Eastern Poland that improves end-of-life care in depopulating areas. The model combines home hospice teams, local support networks, and a new Dependent Care Coordinator role. The initiative expanded service access, strengthened coordination between health and social care, and reduced staff burden. However, workforce shortages, fragmented institutions, and resistance to palliative care limit its ability to scale and sustain long-term.

• Social Innovation in Rural Areas: Evidence from Italian Community Cooperatives

  Mattia Mogetta, Deborah Bentivoglio, Giulia Chiaraluce, Giacomo Staffolani, Adele Finco · 2026 · Sustainability

  Community cooperatives in rural Italy generate social innovation that addresses depopulation and economic decline. These organizations create positive community impacts through sustainable development initiatives, though their effects remain limited in many cases. The study finds that supportive policies and dedicated resources are essential to strengthen these cooperatives' capacity to drive rural growth.

• Fostering CraftsDesign-Based Social Innovation in Rural Communities through Participatory Workshops

  Dalia Sendra Rodriguez, Ana Margarida Ferreira, Carlos M. Duarte · 2026 · The International Journal of Design in Society

  This paper presents a participatory workshop method designed to foster social innovation in rural communities through crafts and design. Researchers conducted three pilot workshops across Spain and Portugal with designers and experts, testing a toolkit featuring a canvas and card deck to help participants co-create sustainable solutions. The method leverages local cultural heritage and resources to address rural challenges, training participants to develop context-specific innovations that engage local crafts, skills, and community agents.

• Social and Solidarity Economy and Social Innovation in the Agri-Food Sector: A Conceptual Synthesis of Contributions to Sustainable Local and Rural Development

  Αντώνιος Κώστας, Vasileios Zoumpoulidis, Maria Fragkioudaki, Anastasios Karasavvoglou · 2026 · Social Sciences

  Social and solidarity economy initiatives drive transformation in agri-food systems by reconfiguring governance, deepening producer-consumer relationships through proximity and transparency, and redistributing value more equitably across territories. The paper synthesizes evidence that these place-based models address biodiversity loss, rural inequality, and farm livelihoods while advancing sustainable local development. Policy coordination among public, private, and social stakeholders can scale these innovations effectively.

• A Living Lab-inspired Double Diamond approach to co-creating cross-border rural digital policy

  Abdolrasoul Habibipour, Johanna Lindberg, Lotta Haukipuro, Sameera Bandaranayake, Pasi Karppinen, Netta Iivari, Magdalena Pfaffl, Dajana Sabljak, Diana Chronéer, Hamza Ouhaichi, Priyanka Sebastian, Sanna Pitkänen · 2026 · Frontiers in Sustainability

  Researchers used a Living Lab-inspired Double Diamond design approach to co-create digital policy for rural border regions in Sweden and Finland. Through participatory workshops, field visits, and stakeholder engagement, they identified that trust-based facilitation, informal communication, and institutional learning are critical for rural policy development. The study produced a draft policy framework with a prioritization matrix aligned to sustainable development goals and demonstrated a transferable methodology for inclusive digital policy in underrepresented rural areas.

• Developing a Living Lab for Cross-Sectoral Collaboration in Sport, Physical Activity, and Health in the Rural Region Zeeland

  Kalina Mikolajczak-Degrauwe, Anne Muilenburg, Olaf Timmermans · 2026 · Baltic Journal of Sport and Health Sciences

  This project establishes a Living Lab in rural Zeeland to strengthen collaboration between sport, education, and health sectors in promoting physical activity. Researchers, professionals, policymakers, and citizens work together to identify local challenges like low sports participation and declining youth motor skills. Using participatory action research, the initiative develops real-world solutions through co-creation, continuously evaluates outcomes, and scales successful approaches across regions.

• Taste of the Isles: community engagement and digital innovation in rural food and drink services

  Jaylan Azer, Julie Sloan · 2026 · International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences

  Three digital initiatives developed with the Outer Hebrides Tourism Community improved visibility for local food producers and service providers, enhanced community engagement, and expanded access to digital markets. The projects demonstrate how visual storytelling combined with community co-design can overcome limited digital infrastructure and financial constraints, strengthening rural economies and building economic and social resilience.

• The rural in democratic innovations: a comparative proposal between Latin America and Europe

  José Duarte Ribeiro, João Moniz · 2025 · Cadernos Metrópole

  Democratic innovations in rural Europe focus on development, environment, and local economics within existing political structures, emphasizing institutional strengthening and sustainability. Rural Latin America uses democratic innovations differently—as tools for emancipatory struggles including indigenous rights defense and food sovereignty. The paper argues these innovations challenge fundamental notions of development and rights in Latin America, whereas European innovations primarily improve public policies without questioning the political model.

• Empowering Rural Communities on Rural Pact Implementation: A Human–Ecological Perspective on Social Innovation and Rural Young Entrepreneurship

  Maria João Horta Parreira, Iva Pires · 2025

  This study examines how rural communities can implement the European Rural Pact through social innovation and youth entrepreneurship. Using human ecology principles, the researchers analyzed interviews to identify six key dimensions for reducing rural-urban disparities. They found that local experimentation, higher education partnerships, national-level monitoring, and youth engagement—particularly among young people and women—drive transformative change in rural areas.

• Narratives of Change or Changing the Narrative? An Exploration of Narratives in Rural Social Innovation

  Marina Novikova · 2025 · Sociologia Ruralis

  Rural social innovation initiatives in Portugal and Austria construct narratives that challenge dominant stories about rural decline, decision-making divides, and competition. The paper identifies how these initiatives frame change through narratives of bringing rural communities back into focus, promoting experimentation, and pursuing opportunity-led development. These counter-narratives represent attempts to reshape how rural social innovation is understood and valued.

• Social Innovation in Rural Development Policy: Strengthening Participation, Representation and Accountability

  Gary Bosworth, Ruth McAreavey, Matt Kennedy · 2025 · European Countryside

  European rural development policies increasingly use community-led approaches like LEADER to build on local strengths, but these programs face criticism for being overly technical and constrained by national priorities. This paper examines two methods for improving participation and accountability in place-based rural innovation: Northern Ireland's Community-led Local Development program and the Social Value Engine tool. Both approaches aim to strengthen community inclusion, accountability, and representation in rural development processes.

• Rural digital social innovation for health and social care: A systematic review

  Eric Ping Hung Li, Trina Kushnerik, Cherisse L. Seaton, Kathy L. Rush, Puneet Aulakh, Mike Zajko, Khalad Hasan, Rajeev Manhas, Vida Nyagre Yakong, Robert Janke · 2025 · SSM - Health Systems

  This systematic review of 25 studies examines how digital technology enables social innovation in rural health and social care. Healthcare innovations typically address geographical distance between providers and patients through collaborative processes, while community initiatives tackle local challenges through grassroots efforts. Most innovations showed positive outcomes on health service use and community health. Digital tools expanded innovation scope and reach, but success required substantial human investment and genuine rural community engagement alongside technology.

• Challenges of smart solutions for rural ageing: Critical reflections illustrated by social innovation directed to older rural women in southeastern Poland

  Ilona Matysiak, Katarzyna Zajda · 2025 · European Urban and Regional Studies

  Social innovation projects addressing rural ageing in southeastern Poland face significant barriers to sustainability and scaling. A study of an NGO-led initiative for older rural women found limited visibility, weak collaboration between organizations, and funding challenges caused the project to end despite participant appreciation. The research reveals that NGOs and local action groups view social innovation as risky and business-focused, making them reluctant leaders. The authors recommend blended financing, micro-grants, and training to strengthen rural innovation capacity.

• Innovación Social en Áreas Rurales: El proyecto ESIRA (Social innovation in rural areas. The ESIRA Project)

  Marcos, S., Marcos, L., Azcona, S. · 2025 · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

  ESIRA is a four-year European project (2024–2027) funded by Horizon Europe that promotes social innovation in rural areas across eight countries. It establishes community-led Innovation Spaces where local actors conduct self-diagnosis and identify opportunities in social economy, entrepreneurship, culture, digitalization, and green transition. Through participatory multi-actor platforms, rural communities lead initiatives to build resilient, prosperous regions with inclusive policies and collaborative social returns.

• Social Innovation for Rural Bioeconomies

  Celik, Duygu, Caneva, Silvia, Ma, Chuan · 2025 · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

  The SCALE-UP project identifies how social innovation strengthens rural bioeconomies by building multi-actor partnerships among companies, governments, civil society, and researchers. Analysis of regional bioeconomy projects reveals that inclusive approaches—where local communities shape and benefit from bio-based value chains—drive sustainable development. Cross-sector collaboration proves essential for scaling these practices, offering rural stakeholders a framework for integrating social dimensions into bioeconomy initiatives.

• The contribution of agritourism to social innovation and sustainable development in the rural areas of the Portuguese Beja region

  Sandra Bailôa, Jorge Pires, Maria Isabel Valente, Joaquim Gomes · 2025 · Social Entrepreneurship Review

  Agritourism businesses in Portugal's Beja region drive social innovation and sustainable development. A qualitative study of eight microenterprises found strong consensus that agritourism contributes environmental, economic, and social benefits to rural areas. While perceptions of social innovation varied among managers, the research validated that agritourism serves as an effective alternative to traditional agriculture and promotes regional sustainability.

• Co-creating rural digital policy across borders: A Living Lab-based double diamond approach

  Abdolrasoul Habibipour, Johanna Lindberg, Lotta Haukipuro, Sameera Bandaranayake, Pasi Karppinen, Netta Iivari · 2025 · KTH Publication Database DiVA (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

  Researchers used Living Lab methodology and design thinking to co-create rural digital policy with communities in Sweden and Finland. They engaged diverse stakeholders through workshops, interviews, and design activities to develop a draft policy prototype and action plan aligned with sustainable development goals. The approach demonstrates how participatory methods can produce context-sensitive policies for underrepresented rural regions.

• Digital Innovations for Rural Industry Create Socio-Economic and Environmental Impacts

  Per J. Nesse, Gabriel Linton, Anne Jørgensen Nordli · 2025

  Digital innovations using 5G and IoT technology in rural forestry operations reduce operational time and costs while improving environmental outcomes like flora preservation and reduced contamination. The study identifies two organizational pathways to successful implementation, involving factors like process innovation experience, agility, and digital competence. Results come from field trials in the Horizon Europe COMMECT project.

• Integrating Digital Innovation and Sustainability to Build Resilient NGOs and NPOs in Global Rural Contexts: An Interdisciplinary Approach

  Alex Louis Thannippara · 2025 · Journal of Interdisciplinary Knowledge

  Digital innovation and sustainability frameworks together strengthen NGOs and NPOs in rural areas by improving operational efficiency, transparency, and organizational resilience. The study across Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America shows that digital tools like blockchain and cloud systems, combined with sustainability goals, enhance governance and community trust. However, digital illiteracy, infrastructure gaps, and data privacy concerns remain significant barriers that require culturally adapted solutions.

• CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY, DIGITAL AND GREEN INNOVATIONS IN RURAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

  Ksenija Furmanova, Gunta Grīnberga-Zālīte, S. Zēverte-Rivz̆a, Baiba Rivža, Līga Paula · 2025 · International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM ...

  Consumers increasingly prefer rural businesses that pursue sustainability and digital innovation. This study surveyed consumers nationwide about their attitudes toward sustainable practices, greenwashing, and digitalization in rural tourism and agriculture. The research identifies what drives consumer choices for environmentally friendly products and digital services, examines consumer awareness of greenwashing, and reveals barriers to adopting digital tools in rural tourism. Consumer trust, legislation, and technology adoption shape sustainable rural development.

• Taste of the isles: community engagement and digital innovation in rural food and drink services

  Azer, Jaylan, Sloan, Julie · 2025

  Three digital initiatives developed with the Outer Hebrides Tourism Community improved visibility for food producers, crofters, and service providers while enhancing community engagement and access to digital markets. The projects combined visual storytelling with community co-design to overcome limited digital infrastructure and financial constraints, strengthening economic and social resilience across the islands and demonstrating how rural food and drink services can adopt digital innovation.

• Transformative social innovation and rural collaborative workspace assemblages as a means of prefiguring community economies

  Colm Stockdale, Vasilis Avdikos · 2024 · Open Research Europe

  Rural collaborative workspaces in Austria and Greece function as sites of social innovation that transform community economies. These community-led spaces shift individual perspectives toward collective action and build local capacities. The study finds they hold transformative potential by changing social relations and economic subjectivities, though they need stronger institutional support to move beyond early developmental stages.

• Enhancing the digitalization of rural areas by utilizing the potential of the knowledge, business, and innovation ecosystems.

  Chiara Mignani, Annapia Ferrara, Maria Bonaria Lai, Fabio Lepore, Livia Ortolani, Gianluca Brunori · 2024 · UNICA IRIS Institutional Research Information System (University of Cagliari)

  Rural digitalization requires integrating knowledge, business, and innovation ecosystems. This case study of Pecorino Toscano cheese production in Tuscany examines how these three ecosystem types interact to support agricultural innovation. The research develops a theoretical framework showing how universities and research centers, businesses creating value networks, and innovation actors work together to drive digital and green transitions in rural agri-food systems.

• Bridging the Digital Divide in Rural Europe. A Morphological Box to Support the Innovation of Collaborative Business Models for Rural Digital Services

  T. Oukes, R.A.M. Gisling, A. Kerstens · 2024 · TNO Repository

  Rural European areas lack viable business models for digital services due to insufficient broadband infrastructure investment, unreliable service delivery, and low demand from digital illiteracy and sparse populations. The paper presents a morphological box framework to support innovation of collaborative business models that can overcome these barriers and make rural digital services economically sustainable.

• THE ROLE OF SOCIAL CAPITAL AND INNOVATIONS FOR TRANSFORMATION OF RURAL AREAS IN BULGARIA

  Maria Ilcheva · 2023 · Knowledge International Journal

  Social capital—built through trust, cooperation, and civic engagement—drives rural transformation in Bulgaria. The paper examines how social networks and collective voluntary action revive depopulated settlements and restore community identity after economic transition. Local action groups and social innovations enable community-led development by strengthening social bonds and fostering cooperation among rural residents, particularly during crises.

• THEORY AND PRACTICE OF SOCIAL INNOVATION IN RURAL AREAS

  Evgenii Vladimirovich Rudoi, Marina Sergeevna Petukhova, М.В. Кондратьев · 2023 · Регион Экономика и Социология

  Social innovation projects in Russian rural regions directly improve quality of life and activate local communities. The study finds that relying solely on local sources for innovation is insufficient; diversifying funding to include business investment is essential, since businesses benefit from increased rural purchasing power. These findings provide guidance for federal and regional authorities planning rural development policies.

• Open for innovation: the role of openness in explaining innovation performance among U.K. manufacturing firms

  Keld Laursen, Ammon Salter · 2005 · Strategic Management Journal

  U.K. manufacturing firms that search widely for external ideas and sources show better innovation performance, but only up to a point. Beyond optimal breadth and depth of external search, performance declines. The relationship follows an inverted U-shape, meaning firms benefit from open innovation strategies but face diminishing returns when searching too extensively.

• Developing a framework for responsible innovation

  Jack Stilgoe, Richard Owen, Phil Macnaghten · 2013 · Research Policy

  This paper presents a framework for responsible innovation governance in emerging science and technology. The authors identify four key dimensions—anticipation, reflexivity, inclusion, and responsiveness—developed through a UK geoengineering research project. They argue this framework helps democracies manage controversial innovations and has broad applicability beyond the UK research context.

• 'Mode 3' and 'Quadruple Helix': toward a 21st century fractal innovation ecosystem

  Elias G. Carayannis, David F. J. Campbell · 2009 · International Journal of Technology Management

  This paper argues that successful innovation systems in the 21st century must combine multiple knowledge and innovation paradigms simultaneously through co-evolution and co-specialization. The authors introduce the 'Quadruple Helix' model, which extends traditional triple-helix frameworks by adding media and culture as essential components. They contend that adaptive capacity to integrate diverse knowledge modes creates competitive advantage in knowledge economies.

• Open Source Software and the “Private-Collective” Innovation Model: Issues for Organization Science

  Eric von Hippel, Georg von Krogh · 2003 · Organization Science

  Open source software development represents a hybrid innovation model combining private investment and collective action. Developers solve their own problems while freely sharing innovations without capturing private returns, creating public goods. This private-collective model offers society advantages of both approaches and raises new research questions for organization science. The authors provide guidance on accessing open source project data and conducting empirical studies.

• Absorptive capacity, learning, and performance in international joint ventures

  Peter J. Lane, Jane E. Salk, Marjorie A. Lyles · 2001 · Strategic Management Journal

  This paper examines how international joint ventures learn and perform by breaking absorptive capacity into three components: understanding new knowledge (influenced by trust and relative capacity), assimilating knowledge (shaped by learning structures), and applying knowledge (driven by strategy and training). A longitudinal study of Hungarian joint ventures confirms that understanding and application affect performance, while trust and management support correlate with performance but not learning itself.

• Absorptive capacity: Valuing a reconceptualization

  Gergana Todorova, Boris Durisin · 2007 · Academy of Management Review

  This paper critiques and refines the concept of absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply external knowledge. The authors identify gaps in a previous reconceptualization and propose improvements: redefining how organizations recognize valuable knowledge, clarifying transformation processes, distinguishing potential from realized capacity, emphasizing socialization's role, accounting for power dynamics, and incorporating feedback loops into a dynamic model.

• Open R&amp;D and open innovation: exploring the phenomenon

  Ellen Enkel, Oliver Gassmann, Henry Chesbrough · 2009 · R and D Management

  Open innovation—where organizations combine internal and external knowledge for R&D—has become strategically important. Research shows three main processes: outside-in (acquiring external knowledge), inside-out (sharing internal knowledge), and coupled approaches. The paper argues that organizations must understand where open innovation creates value and adapt their R&D management methods accordingly, considering strategic, organizational, and business implications.

• Match your innovation strategy to your innovation ecosystem.

  Ron Adner · 2006 · PubMed

  Innovation ecosystems require firms to coordinate with complementary innovators to create customer value, but this coordination introduces three types of risk: initiative risks, interdependence risks, and integration risks. The HDTV failure demonstrates how even superior technology fails without complementary products and infrastructure. Companies that systematically assess ecosystem risks holistically can develop more realistic expectations, better contingency plans, and robust innovation strategies that lead to profitable outcomes.

• The future of open innovation

  Oliver Gassmann, Ellen Enkel, Henry Chesbrough · 2010 · R and D Management

  Open innovation practices are gaining traction across organizations and research institutions. This overview synthesizes nine key perspectives needed to strengthen open innovation theory and examines recent evidence about how open innovation actually works in practice and organizational settings.

• Responsible research and innovation: From science in society to science for society, with society

  Richard Owen, Phil Macnaghten, Jack Stilgoe · 2012 · Science and Public Policy

  This paper defines responsible research and innovation as an emerging EU policy framework emphasizing democratic governance of research purposes, integration of anticipation and deliberation into innovation processes, and collective responsibility for uncertain outcomes. The authors trace the concept's development and identify three core features: steering innovation toward beneficial impacts, institutionalizing reflection and responsiveness, and recognizing innovation's unpredictable consequences as shared responsibility.

• National Innovation Systems—Analytical Concept and Development Tool

  Bengt‐Åke Lundvall · 2007 · Industry and Innovation

  This paper develops the national innovation systems concept as a framework for understanding how knowledge and learning drive innovation within specific national contexts. The author argues that innovation systems perform better when their core institutions align with their wider economic and social settings. The framework requires understanding both individual actor behavior and systemic conditions, and the author emphasizes that developing countries need stronger institutions supporting learning, more equitable power distribution, and more open innovation systems.

• University–industry relationships and open innovation: Towards a research agenda

  Markus Perkmann, Kathryn Walsh · 2007 · International Journal of Management Reviews

  Universities and industries increasingly collaborate to drive innovation through networks and partnerships. This paper examines how these relationships work across different industries and scientific fields, distinguishing them from technology transfer or hiring. The authors find collaborative research, research centers, and consulting are common practices, but organizational dynamics remain poorly understood. They propose a research agenda focusing on how universities and firms find and match with each other, and how to effectively manage these collaborations.

• The Process of Innovation Assimilation by Firms in Different Countries: A Technology Diffusion Perspective on E-Business

  Kevin Zhu, Kenneth L. Kraemer, Sean Xin Xu · 2006 · Management Science

  This study examines how firms across 10 countries assimilate e-business innovations through three stages: initiation, adoption, and routinization. Competition drives early adoption but hinders effective implementation. Large firms gain advantages initially but face structural barriers later. Regulatory environments matter more in developing countries, while technology readiness dominates there and technology integration dominates in developed economies, showing how innovation assimilation shifts with economic context.

• PERSPECTIVE—Absorbing the Concept of Absorptive Capacity: How to Realize Its Potential in the Organization Field

  Henk Volberda, Nicolai J. Foss, Marjorie A. Lyles · 2010 · Organization Science

  This paper reviews twenty years of research on absorptive capacity—an organization's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new knowledge. The authors identify major gaps in existing literature: most studies focus on tangible outcomes while neglecting organizational design and individual-level factors. They propose an integrative model showing how individual, organizational, and inter-organizational factors work together across multiple levels to influence innovation and firm performance, and call for research bridging micro and macro antecedents.

• The open book of social innovation

  Robin Murray and Julie Caulier-Grice and Geoff Mulgan · 2010

  This volume catalogs hundreds of methods and tools for social innovation being used globally, creating a knowledge base of diverse initiatives. It showcases entrepreneurs, campaigners, organizations, and movements worldwide addressing pressing social issues through innovative approaches, demonstrating the vitality and diversity of the emerging social innovation economy.

• From Creativity to Innovation: The Social Network Drivers of the Four Phases of the Idea Journey

  Jill Perry-Smith, Pier Vittorio Mannucci · 2015 · Academy of Management Review

  Social networks influence innovation differently across four distinct phases: idea generation, elaboration, championing, and implementation. Each phase requires different network characteristics—cognitive flexibility, support, influence, and shared vision respectively. Network features beneficial in one phase become detrimental in another. Successful innovators navigate this paradox by reframing their approach and activating different network strengths at appropriate moments, moving ideas from conception to tangible field-changing outcomes.

• A Capability‐Based Framework for Open Innovation: Complementing Absorptive Capacity

  Ulrich Lichtenthaler, Eckhard Lichtenthaler · 2009 · Journal of Management Studies

  This paper develops a capability-based framework for open innovation by extending absorptive capacity theory. The authors identify six critical knowledge capacities—inventive, absorptive, transformative, connective, innovative, and desorptive—that firms use to manage knowledge both internally and externally. Knowledge management capacity acts as a dynamic capability that reconfigures these six capacities over time. The framework explains why firms differ in their innovation performance, alliance strategies, and organizational boundaries.

• Triple Helix, Quadruple Helix and Quintuple Helix and How Do Knowledge, Innovation and the Environment Relate To Each Other?

  Elias G. Carayannis, David F. J. Campbell · 2010 · International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development

  This paper introduces the Quintuple Helix framework, expanding on earlier Triple and Quadruple Helix models. It integrates universities, industry, government, media/culture, and the natural environment into a unified system for understanding knowledge and innovation. The framework positions eco-innovation and eco-entrepreneurship within sustainable development and social ecology, showing how environmental considerations must shape innovation policy and practice.

• Open Platform Strategies and Innovation: Granting Access vs. Devolving Control

  Kevin Boudreau · 2010 · Management Science

  This study examines how technology platform owners can foster innovation through two strategies: granting access to independent developers or relinquishing control entirely. Using data from 21 handheld computing systems between 1990 and 2004, the research finds that granting access to hardware developers accelerates new device development up to fivefold, while giving up control produces smaller incremental gains. The findings reveal that these two opening strategies activate different economic mechanisms.

• Absorptive Capacity, Environmental Turbulence, and the Complementarity of Organizational Learning Processes

  Ulrich Lichtenthaler · 2009 · Academy of Management Journal

  This study examines how organizations learn from external knowledge through three complementary processes: exploration, transformation, and exploitation. Using data from 175 industrial firms, the research shows that technological and market knowledge together form the foundation for absorptive capacity. The findings reveal that firms balancing all three learning types achieve better innovation and performance outcomes, particularly when facing rapid technological and market changes.

• The open innovation research landscape: established perspectives and emerging themes across different levels of analysis

  Marcel Bogers, Ann‐Kristin Zobel, Allan Afuah, Esteve Almirall, Sabine Brunswicker, Linus Dahlander, Lars Frederiksen, Annabelle Gawer, Marc Gruber, Stefan Haefliger, John Hagedoorn, Dennis Hilgers, Keld Laursen, Mats Magnusson, Ann Majchrzak, Ian P. McCarthy, Kathrin M. Moeslein, Satish Nambisan, Frank T. Piller, Agnieszka Radziwon, Cristina Rossi‐Lamastra, Jonathan Sims, Anne L. J. Ter Wal · 2016 · Industry and Innovation

  This paper reviews open innovation research across organizational, inter-organizational, and ecosystem levels of analysis. The authors identify established perspectives and emerging themes, arguing that future research must integrate insights across multiple analytical levels rather than studying open innovation in isolation. They propose new research categories and cross-domain questions to advance the field.

• Inbound Open Innovation Activities in High-Tech SMEs: The Impact on Innovation Performance

  Vinit Parida, Mats Westerberg, Johan Frishammar · 2012 · Journal of Small Business Management

  This study examines how small and medium-sized high-tech firms benefit from open innovation practices. Using data from 252 SMEs, the researchers found that different inbound open innovation activities drive different types of innovation outcomes. Technology sourcing strengthens radical innovation performance, while technology scouting improves incremental innovation performance. The findings show that SMEs must match their open innovation strategies to their desired innovation goals.

• Value Creation by Toolkits for User Innovation and Design: The Case of the Watch Market

  Nikolaus Franke, Frank T. Piller · 2004 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Customers using design toolkits to create personalized watches show high design diversity and willingness to pay substantial premiums—averaging 100% more than standard watches. The study of 717 participants demonstrates that even simple toolkits enable meaningful customization, creating real value by letting consumers express individual preferences. Customer designs vary widely yet show coherent patterns, indicating heterogeneous but non-random preferences.

• The role of technology in the shift towards open innovation: the case of Procter &amp; Gamble

  Mark Dodgson, David Gann, Ammon Salter · 2006 · R and D Management

  This paper examines Procter & Gamble's 'Connect and Develop' open innovation strategy to understand how technology enables collaborative innovation. The authors identify two key technological roles: information and communications technologies that facilitate knowledge exchange across distributed partners, and specialized 'innovation technologies' including data mining, simulation, prototyping, and visualization tools that support product development. The study reveals that technology is fundamental to implementing open innovation, not merely supportive.

• Research and Development, Spillovers, Innovation Systems, and the Genesis of Regional Growth in Europe

  Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose, Riccardo Crescenzi · 2008 · Regional Studies

  This paper combines three approaches to understanding regional innovation in Europe: R&D investment analysis, regional innovation systems, and knowledge spillovers. Using regression analysis across EU-25 regions, the authors show that regional economic growth depends on complex interactions between local and external research combined with local and external socio-economic and institutional conditions. Knowledge spillovers are strongest over short distances, indicating that geographic proximity matters significantly for transmitting economically productive knowledge.

• Finding Commercially Attractive User Innovations: A Test of Lead‐User Theory^*

  Nikolaus Franke, Eric von Hippel, Martin Schreier · 2006 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  This study tests lead-user theory by analyzing kite-surfing enthusiasts who modified equipment. The researchers found that both key components of lead-user theory—high expected benefits and being ahead of trends—independently predict which user innovations become commercially attractive products. Adding measures of users' local resources further improved identification of valuable innovations. The findings confirm lead-user theory's core principles and provide practical guidance for firms seeking to commercialize user-developed innovations.

• Innovation diffusion in global contexts: determinants of post-adoption digital transformation of European companies

  Kevin Zhu, Shutao Dong, Sean Xin Xu, Kenneth L. Kraemer · 2006 · European Journal of Information Systems

  This study examines why European companies adopt and use digital transformation technologies at different rates. The researchers found that compatibility with existing systems drives adoption most strongly, while security concerns matter more than cost. Technology competence, partner readiness, and competitive pressure accelerate usage. Large firms move slower due to structural inertia. Economic and regulatory differences across European countries create uneven adoption patterns even among developed nations.

• Microfoundations of Internal and External Absorptive Capacity Routines

  Arie Y. Lewin, Silvia Massini, Carine Peeters · 2010 · Organization Science

  Organizations develop absorptive capacity—the ability to learn from and apply new knowledge—through specific internal and external routines. This paper identifies how firms balance creating knowledge internally with acquiring and assimilating external knowledge. The authors argue that successful early adopters of innovations implement complementary configurations of these routines, while most firms remain imitators because they fail to develop the right combination of organizational practices.

• Regional Innovation Systems: Theory, Empirics and Policy

  Björn Asheim, Helen Lawton Smith, Christine Oughton · 2011 · Regional Studies

  This paper synthesizes theory and evidence on regional innovation systems, examining how regions develop competitive advantage through innovation networks. The authors identify three core questions: the nature of regional systems themselves, the boundaries between industrial clusters and knowledge transfer mechanisms, and the role of labor markets in facilitating learning. The work reveals gaps in current understanding and proposes directions for future research on how regions can address inequality through innovation policy.

• To recover faster from Covid-19, open up: Managerial implications from an open innovation perspective

  Henry Chesbrough · 2020 · Industrial Marketing Management

  The paper argues that open innovation approaches are essential for economic recovery from Covid-19. It examines how organizations have responded to the pandemic and extracts lessons about managing innovation during recovery. The author contends that opening innovation processes—collaborating across organizational boundaries—enables faster adaptation and problem-solving in crisis situations.

• Open Innovation in Practice: An Analysis of Strategic Approaches to Technology Transactions

  Ulrich Lichtenthaler · 2008 · IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

  This study surveyed 154 companies to identify how firms actually practice open innovation through technology transactions. The research reveals that companies pursue distinct strategic approaches by balancing two activities: acquiring external technology and commercializing their own technological knowledge. The findings show that open innovation operates as an integrated process rather than separate acquisition or exploitation activities, providing the first large-scale empirical picture of how firms strategically manage technology transactions across their innovation processes.

• Open Innovation: Past Research, Current Debates, and Future Directions.

  Ulrich Lichtenthaler · 2011 · Academy of Management Perspectives

  This paper reviews open innovation research and debates whether it represents a sustainable business practice or temporary management fashion. The author examines key topics including technology transactions, user innovation, business models, and innovation markets. The paper develops a conceptual framework addressing critical open innovation processes and their management implications across organizational, project, and individual levels.

• Open innovation practices in SMEs and large enterprises: evidence from Belgium

  André Spithoven, Wim Vanhaverbeke, Nadine Roijakkers · 2012 · Document Server@UHasselt (UHasselt)

  Open innovation practices produce different results in small and medium-sized enterprises than in large firms. SMEs gain more innovation performance by combining multiple open innovation practices simultaneously, while large firms benefit more from their search strategies. SMEs drive new product revenue through intellectual property protection, whereas large firms rely on broader external search approaches.

• Absorptive Capacity and Productivity Spillovers from FDI: A Threshold Regression Analysis*

  Sourafel Girma · 2005 · Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics

  Foreign direct investment boosts productivity growth, but only when local firms have sufficient absorptive capacity. Manufacturing sectors show nonlinear effects: productivity gains increase with absorptive capacity up to a threshold, then decline. Below a minimum capacity level, FDI spillovers become negligible or harmful. Technology-sourcing FDI produces no productivity spillovers.

• Incremental and Radical Innovation in Coopetition—The Role of Absorptive Capacity and Appropriability

  Paavo Ritala, Pia Hurmelinna‐Laukkanen · 2012 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Firms collaborating with competitors on innovation succeed differently based on two factors: absorptive capacity (ability to acquire external knowledge) and appropriability (ability to protect innovations from imitation). A Finnish cross-industry survey shows both factors boost incremental innovation outcomes. For radical innovation, strong appropriability matters most, though absorptive capacity helps when appropriability is already high. Firms pursuing incremental innovation should balance knowledge sharing with protection; those pursuing radical innovation should prioritize protecting core knowledge.

• Conversion to Organic Farming: A Typical Example of the Diffusion of an Innovation?

  Susanne Padel · 2001 · Sociologia Ruralis

  This paper reviews twenty years of studies on organic farmers across multiple countries to test whether organic farming adoption fits the diffusion-of-innovation model. Early organic farmers shared characteristics with innovators in other fields: they faced community opposition, social isolation, and operated when the sector was small. The author concludes the diffusion model successfully explains organic farming adoption patterns and the individual conversion decisions farmers make.

• Closed or open innovation? Problem solving and the governance choice

  Teppo Felin, Todd Zenger · 2013 · Research Policy

  Open and closed innovation represent distinct governance structures with different costs and benefits. The authors argue that innovation problems should be matched to appropriate governance forms based on problem type. They identify four open innovation models—markets, partnerships, contests, and user communities—and compare them with two closed forms: authority-based and consensus-based hierarchies. Each governance form uses different communication channels, incentives, and property rights mechanisms.

• How to Respond to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or the Second Information Technology Revolution? Dynamic New Combinations between Technology, Market, and Society through Open Innovation

  MinHwa Lee, JinHyo Joseph Yun, Andreas Pyka, DongKyu Won, Fumio Kodama, Giovanni Schiuma, HangSik Park, Jeonghwan Jeon, KyungBae Park, Kwangho Jung, Min-Ren Yan, SamYoul Lee, Xiaofei Zhao · 2018 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  Eleven international scholars define the Fourth Industrial Revolution and propose institutional, technological, and firm-level responses to it. The paper establishes a framework for understanding how organizations can adapt through open innovation by combining technology, market dynamics, and societal needs. Rather than providing final answers, it creates a template for ongoing research into industrial transformation.

• Frugal Innovation in Emerging Markets

  Marco Zeschky, Bastian Widenmayer, Oliver Gassmann · 2011 · Research-Technology Management

  Western multinational corporations struggle to develop frugal innovations—affordable, good-enough products for resource-constrained consumers—because their business models target affluent markets. Local R&D subsidiaries in emerging countries prove more effective at creating these innovations. Granting these subsidiaries substantial autonomy, including control over product portfolios, enables Western firms to successfully compete in frugal innovation markets alongside local corporations.

• Networking as a Means to Strategy Change: The Case of Open Innovation in Mobile Telephony

  Koen Dittrich, Geert Duysters · 2007 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Nokia used different innovation networks to manage technological change in mobile telephony between 1985 and 2002. The company pursued exploitation strategies for early-generation mobile development through stable, long-term partnerships, then shifted to exploration strategies for third-generation technologies using flexible networks with higher partner turnover. This open innovation approach enabled Nokia to become a world leader and adapt to radical market shifts.

• Cultural Transmission and the Diffusion of Innovations: Adoption Dynamics Indicate That Biased Cultural Transmission Is the Predominate Force in Behavioral Change

  Joseph Henrich · 2001 · American Anthropologist

  This paper challenges the assumption that people adopt innovations through individual cost-benefit analysis. By analyzing adoption curves, the author demonstrates that biased cultural transmission—learning from others based on social preferences—drives innovation diffusion far more than environmental learning alone. The characteristic S-shaped adoption curves observed in real innovations require cultural transmission as the dominant mechanism, suggesting social influence matters more than rational individual decision-making in how new practices spread.

• Expatriate Knowledge Transfer, Subsidiary Absorptive Capacity, and Subsidiary Performance

  Yi-Ying Chang, Yaping Gong, Mike W. Peng · 2012 · Academy of Management Journal

  Expatriate managers transfer knowledge to foreign subsidiaries through three competencies: ability, motivation, and opportunity-seeking. This knowledge improves subsidiary performance, but only when the subsidiary has strong absorptive capacity to receive and use it. A study of British subsidiaries of Taiwanese firms confirms that absorptive capacity determines whether expatriate knowledge transfer actually boosts performance.

• Heterogeneity and Specificity of Inter‐Firm Knowledge Flows in Innovation Networks

  Alessia Sammarra, Lucio Biggiero · 2008 · Journal of Management Studies

  This study examines how firms in Rome's aerospace cluster exchange different types of knowledge through innovation networks. Using social network analysis, the researchers found that technological, market, and managerial knowledge flow unevenly among collaborating partners. Most successful collaborations combine all three knowledge types, revealing that innovation requires diverse knowledge recombination. This pattern holds for both large companies and small-to-medium enterprises.

• Absorptive capacity and innovative performance: A human capital approach

  Anker Lund Vinding · 2006 · Economics of Innovation and New Technology

  This study examines how human capital affects firms' ability to absorb knowledge and innovate. Using data from 1,544 Danish manufacturing and service firms, the research finds that highly educated employees, strong human resource management practices, and partnerships with suppliers and research institutions boost innovation while reducing imitation. However, in science-based and ICT-intensive sectors, experienced managers actually hinder innovation, suggesting these high-tech fields require continuous skill updates.

• The role of absorptive capacity and innovation strategy in the design of industry 4.0 business Models - A comparison between SMEs and large enterprises

  Julian M. Müller, Oana Buliga, Kai‐Ingo Voigt · 2020 · European Management Journal

  This study examines how German industrial companies redesign their business models in response to Industry 4.0 by analyzing absorptive capacity and innovation strategy. Using data from 221 enterprises, the research shows that companies' ability to acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit external knowledge enables both exploratory and exploitative innovation strategies, which then drive either efficiency-centered or novelty-centered business model changes. SMEs and large enterprises exhibit distinct patterns in this process.

• OPEN VERSUS CLOSED INNOVATION: A MODEL OF DISCOVERY AND DIVERGENCE.

  Esteve Almirall, Ramon Casadesus‐Masanell · 2010 · Academy of Management Review

  Open innovation enables firms to discover product feature combinations that closed innovation misses. However, when partners have conflicting goals, open innovation limits the firm's control over technological direction. The optimal innovation approach depends on balancing discovery benefits against coordination costs from partner divergence.

• What is frugal innovation? Three defining criteria

  Timo Weyrauch, Cornelius Herstatt · 2016 · Journal of Frugal Innovation

  Frugal innovation lacks a clear definition despite growing interest across emerging and developed markets. This paper identifies three defining criteria: substantial cost reduction, concentration on core functionalities, and optimized performance level. The authors conducted a literature review and interviewed 45 managers and researchers to establish these criteria, enabling organizations to better understand and develop frugal innovations in diverse market contexts.

• The Disruptive Nature of Information Technology Innovations: The Case of Internet Computing in Systems Development Organizations1, 2

  Lyytinen, Gregory M. Rose · 2003 · MIS Quarterly

  This paper develops a theoretical model of disruptive IT innovations and applies it to Internet computing adoption. The authors studied eight systems development organizations in the United States and Finland, finding that Internet computing fundamentally transformed their development processes and service offerings. The research shows how architectural innovations in computing technology create cascading changes across organizational practices and outcomes.

• Users' contributions to radical innovation: evidence from four cases in the field of medical equipment technology

  Christopher Lettl, Cornelius Herstatt, Hans Georg Gemuenden · 2006 · R and D Management

  Users in medical equipment technology drive radical innovation by inventing and co-developing new solutions. Innovative users possess diverse competencies, strong motivation, and operate within supportive environments. They act entrepreneurially by building and organizing innovation networks that transform radical concepts into prototypes and marketable products. Manufacturing firms can leverage these user-innovators in early-stage radical innovation projects.

• The ecosystem as helix: an exploratory theory‐building study of regional co‐opetitive entrepreneurial ecosystems as Quadruple/Quintuple Helix Innovation Models

  Elias G. Carayannis, Evangelos Grigoroudis, David F. J. Campbell, Dirk Meissner, Dimitra Stamati · 2017 · R and D Management

  This paper develops a theoretical framework for understanding regional innovation ecosystems using the Quadruple/Quintuple Helix model, which integrates government, universities, industry, civil society, and environmental actors. The authors argue that regions function as complex, multi-level systems where organizations pursue both competitive and cooperative goals through entrepreneurial activities. They conceptualize these ecosystems as fractal structures with dynamic assets and propose that innovation systems can be organized by geographical and research-based properties.

• Value Creation and Value Capture in Open Innovation

  Henry Chesbrough, Christopher Lettl, Thomas Ritter · 2018 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Open innovation research has focused on collaborative invention but neglected how actors create and capture value from these collaborations. This paper argues that understanding value creation and capture is essential for sustaining open innovation and gaining competitive advantage. The authors clarify conceptual confusion around value capture and propose a framework linking open innovation to value creation and capture processes among interdependent actors.

• WHY 'OPEN INNOVATION' IS OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES

  Paul Trott, Dap Hartmann · 2009 · International Journal of Innovation Management

  This paper critiques the open innovation concept, arguing it presents a false choice between open and closed models. The authors examine six core principles of open innovation and demonstrate that the framework misrepresents how firms actually operate. They show that while closed innovation has real limitations, most companies don't actually follow purely closed models, making open innovation's framing misleading rather than genuinely novel.

• Living Labs as Open-Innovation Networks

  Seppo Leminen, Mika Westerlund, Anna‐Greta Nyström · 2012 · Technology Innovation Management Review

  Living labs function as open-innovation networks that help organizations understand user needs and develop business opportunities. These collaborative environments create competitive advantages by enabling companies to co-create solutions with users in real-world settings, emerging as a practical approach for innovation development that goes beyond traditional research methods.

• Outbound open innovation and its effect on firm performance: examining environmental influences

  Ulrich Lichtenthaler · 2009 · R and D Management

  This study examines how firms benefit from outbound open innovation—transferring technology externally—and identifies environmental conditions that strengthen these benefits. Using data from 136 industrial firms, the research finds that technological turbulence, active technology markets, and competitive intensity all enhance the positive relationship between outbound open innovation and firm performance. Stronger patent protection, however, does not improve outcomes. The findings clarify when companies should pursue outbound open innovation strategies.

• Living Lab: an open and citizen-centric approach for innovation

  Birgitta Bergvall Kareborn, Anna Ståhlbröst · 2009 · International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development

  Living Labs represent a new approach to managing innovation that combines an innovation milieu with citizen-centered methods. The paper examines Botnia Living Lab and the FormIT approach, demonstrating how involving citizens in designing e-services for municipal governance strengthens innovation processes. Key structural components of Living Labs enhance both the innovation process and its underlying principles.

• Open innovation and its effects on economic and sustainability innovation performance

  Romana Rauter, Dietfried Globocnik, Elke Perl-Vorbach, Rupert J. Baumgartner · 2018 · Journal of Innovation & Knowledge

  This study examines how different external partners contribute to innovation performance in industrial firms. The researchers found that collaborating with universities, customers, NGOs, and intermediaries all improve both economic and sustainability innovation outcomes. Importantly, pursuing economic and sustainability goals simultaneously is not a conflict—firms can achieve both. The findings clarify which open innovation partnerships most effectively drive performance.

• Corporate social responsibility and innovation: a resource‐based theory

  Isabel Gallego Álvarez, José Manuel Prado‐Lorenzo, Isabel Sánchez · 2011 · Management Decision

  This paper examines how corporate social responsibility (CSR) and innovation relate to each other using resource-based theory. Analyzing companies with R&D investments from 2003-2007, the authors find a negative bidirectional relationship: CSR practices reduce innovation efforts, and innovation reduces CSR practices. The effect varies by industry sector. Results show CSR investments take three years to demonstrate value and that companies rarely implement innovations linked to sustainability, revealing incompatibility between R&D spending and sustainable corporate behavior.

• The open innovation paradox: knowledge sharing and protection in R&amp;D collaborations

  Marcel Bogers · 2011 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  Firms collaborating on R&D face a paradox: they must share knowledge to innovate together while protecting proprietary information. This study identifies how knowledge characteristics, collaboration structure, and relational factors create tension between openness and protection. The research finds that firms manage this paradox through strategies like layered collaboration schemes with inner and outer members, open knowledge exchange protocols, and licensing arrangements.

• Opening up for competitive advantage – How Deutsche Telekom creates an open innovation ecosystem

  René Rohrbeck, Katharina Hölzle, Hans Georg Gemünden · 2009 · R and D Management

  Deutsche Telekom, Germany's national telecom operator, adopted open innovation practices to compete against declining revenues and market pressure. Through 15 interviews, researchers identified 11 open innovation instruments the company deployed. The study shows Deutsche Telekom successfully increased its innovation capacity by opening its development process to external creativity and knowledge sources, demonstrating how incumbent telecom firms can adapt to competitive threats.

• Technology Alliance Portfolios and Financial Performance: Value‐Enhancing and Cost‐Increasing Effects of Open Innovation^*

  Dries Faems, Matthias de Visser, Petra Andries, Bart Van Looy · 2010 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Belgian manufacturing firms using diverse technology alliances boost product innovation and financial performance indirectly, but face direct costs that initially outweigh gains. The study confirms that open innovation through external partnerships strengthens internal innovation efforts, yet managers must account for the substantial coordination and management expenses of maintaining multiple technology alliances alongside their long-term financial benefits.

• How constraints and knowledge impact open innovation

  Helena Garriga, Georg von Krogh, Sebastian Spaeth · 2013 · Strategic Management Journal

  This study examines how resource constraints and external knowledge availability shape firms' innovation strategies and performance. Using survey data from Swiss companies, the researchers find that resource constraints reduce innovative performance but push firms toward broader, shallower searches for external knowledge. Abundant external knowledge boosts performance and creates a U-shaped relationship with search breadth and depth, meaning firms either search narrowly and deeply or broadly and shallowly.

• Absorptive capacity, knowledge management and innovation in entrepreneurial small firms

  Colin S. Gray · 2006 · International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research

  Small firms with 15 or more employees, younger founders, and higher education levels absorb and implement new knowledge most effectively. Absorptive capacity—the ability to acquire, assimilate, and use knowledge—depends significantly on firm size, founder age, and educational background. Policy should target graduate-founded SMEs and develop innovation management programs for these firms to build knowledge-based economies.

• The role of digital technologies in open innovation processes: an exploratory multiple case study analysis

  Andrea Urbinati, Davide Chiaroni, Vittorio Chiesa, Federico Frattini · 2018 · R and D Management

  Digital technologies enable firms to manage open innovation by facilitating knowledge sharing across organizational boundaries. This study examines nine companies across different industries to identify the managerial actions required to implement digital technologies in open innovation processes. The research reveals how digital tools help firms capture, transfer, and manage knowledge flows more effectively, addressing coordination challenges that arise when innovation becomes more collaborative and resource-intensive.

• Managing User Involvement in Service Innovation

  Peter Magnusson, Jonas Matthing, Per Kristensson · 2003 · Journal of Service Research

  Users generate more original service ideas with higher perceived value than professional developers, but their ideas are less producible. User involvement implementation matters significantly—users working with design expert feedback produced better results than those working alone. The study reveals trade-offs between innovation originality and technical feasibility when involving users in service development.

• Open innovation: current status and research opportunities

  Joel West, Marcel Bogers · 2016 · Innovation

  Open innovation has grown rapidly as a research field since 2003. This paper identifies key gaps in existing research, including the need for more work on outbound innovation, services, network collaboration forms like ecosystems and platforms, and adoption by small and nonprofit organizations. It calls for better measurement of open innovation's performance effects and understanding of why initiatives fail, plus stronger connections to established theories like absorptive capacity and dynamic capabilities.

• An evolutionary integrated view of Regional Systems of Innovation: Concepts, measures and historical perspectives

  Simona Iammarino · 2005 · European Planning Studies

  Regional innovation systems have been studied with a national bias that overlooks sub-national dynamics and historical evolution. This paper integrates top-down and bottom-up perspectives to develop a more complete framework for understanding regional innovation systems, emphasizing how history and regional culture shape development opportunities. Italy's case demonstrates that historical regional contexts are essential for assessing future regional innovation potential.

• Absorptive capacity and relationship learning mechanisms as complementary drivers of green innovation performance

  Gema Albort-Morant, Antonio L. Leal‐Rodríguez, Valentina De Marchi · 2018 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  A study of 112 Spanish automotive component manufacturers finds that absorptive capacity and relationship learning both significantly boost green innovation performance. Relationship learning moderates the effect of absorptive capacity on green innovation outcomes. Managers should invest in building absorptive capacity and cultivating learning relationships with stakeholders to drive green innovation in manufacturing.

• INNOVATION TYPE AND DIFFUSION: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

  Richard M. Walker · 2006 · Public Administration

  This study tests how five different types of innovations spread through English local government. Using data from 120 authorities, the research finds that different factors drive adoption of different innovation types. The results show that innovation adoption is complex and context-dependent, meaning policymakers cannot use one-size-fits-all approaches to encourage local government innovation.

• Open service innovation and the firm's search for external knowledge

  Andrea Mina, Elif Bascavusoglu-Moreau, Alan Hughes · 2013 · Research Policy

  This paper examines how service firms and manufacturing companies adopting service-inclusive models engage in open innovation—collaborating across organizational boundaries to access external knowledge. Using UK firm data, the authors find that business services firms are more active open innovators than manufacturers, rely more on informal knowledge-exchange practices, and prioritize scientific and technical knowledge. Open innovation engagement increases with firm size and R&D spending.

• Unravelling the process from Closed to Open Innovation: evidence from mature, asset‐intensive industries

  Davide Chiaroni, Vittorio Chiesa, Federico Frattini · 2010 · R and D Management

  This paper examines how mature, asset-intensive firms transition from closed to open innovation models. Through longitudinal case studies of four Italian companies, the authors identify four organizational dimensions that change during this shift: inter-organizational networks, organizational structures, evaluation processes, and knowledge management systems. The findings provide a framework for understanding and managing the organizational transformation required to adopt open innovation practices.

• Innovation and robustness in complex regulatory gene networks

  Stefano Ciliberti, Olivier Martin, Andreas Wagner · 2007 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

  This paper examines how evolutionary innovation occurs in gene regulatory networks controlling embryonic development. The researchers show that networks producing the same gene expression patterns form connected networks in genotype space, allowing evolution to explore diverse genetic changes while maintaining viable phenotypes. Robustness to mutations, rather than hindering innovation, actually enables long-term evolutionary innovation by keeping organisms close to functional states.

• Motivating and supporting collaboration in open innovation

  Maria Antikainen, Marko Mäkipää, Mikko Ahonen · 2010 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  Open innovation communities succeed when contributors are motivated by intangible rewards like learning, community cooperation, and entertainment rather than money. The study of three innovation intermediaries across France, the Netherlands, and Finland found that users value easy-to-use collaboration tools and visible engagement from community maintainers. Companies should invest in accessible platforms and active leadership to support effective collaboration.

• Open innovation in SMEs: Exploring inter-organizational relationships in an ecosystem

  Agnieszka Radziwon, Marcel Bogers · 2018 · Technological Forecasting and Social Change

  Small and medium-sized enterprises struggle to manage open innovation because they lack resources to coordinate with external partners, despite needing them. This case study of a regional business ecosystem reveals that SMEs face challenges when their business models misalign with ecosystem partners' models. The research shows that innovation type and how organizations understand innovation shape whether open innovation succeeds, and that managing it requires attention across three levels: individual SMEs, inter-organizational relationships, and the broader ecosystem.

• Innovating Pedagogy 2015: Open University Innovation Report 4

  Mike Sharples, Anne Adams, Nonye Alozie, Rebecca Ferguson, Elizabeth FitzGerald, Mark Gaved, Patrick McAndrew, Barbara Means, Julie Remold, Bart Rienties, Jeremy Roschelle, Kimberly Vogt, Denise Whitelock, Louise Yarnall · 2015 · Open Research Online (The Open University)

  This report identifies ten emerging pedagogical innovations with potential to transform post-secondary education. Researchers at the Open University and SRI International reviewed educational theories and practices, then selected innovations already in use but not yet widely adopted. The report sketches these ten pedagogies in order of likely implementation timescale, aiming to guide teachers and policymakers toward productive educational change.

• Determinants and archetype users of open innovation

  Marcus Matthias Keupp, Oliver Gassmann · 2009 · R and D Management

  This paper explains why firms adopt open innovation at different levels by examining internal barriers to innovation rather than external factors. Using exploration-exploitation theory, the authors test how innovation impediments affect the breadth and depth of open innovation activities. Their analysis identifies four distinct firm archetypes with different open innovation patterns and identifies which internal weaknesses drive firms toward external R&D collaboration.

• Innovation, entrepreneurial, knowledge, and business ecosystems: Old wine in new bottles?

  Laurent Scaringella, Agnieszka Radziwon · 2017 · Technological Forecasting and Social Change

  This theoretical paper reviews 104 sources to examine four types of ecosystems—business, innovation, entrepreneurial, and knowledge—and connects them to established territorial approaches. The authors identify common invariants across these diverging streams and propose a unified research framework that integrates ecosystem and territorial perspectives under complex evolutionary systems theory, providing foundations for future empirical research.

• Interlocking Interactions, the Diffusion of Innovations in Health Care

  Louise Fitzgerald, Ewan Ferlı́e, Martin Wood, Chris Hawkins · 2002 · Human Relations

  This study examines how healthcare innovations spread through organizations in the UK, focusing on later adoption stages. The research reveals that diffusion is not a simple decision but a complex, interactive process where context and actors interlock to shape outcomes. Scientific knowledge itself is socially mediated and contested, with active adopters playing crucial roles in determining whether innovations take hold.

• On the path towards open innovation: assessing the role of knowledge management capability and environmental dynamism in SMEs

  Isabel Martinez-Conesa, Pedro Soto‐Acosta, Elias G. Carayannis · 2017 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  This study examines how small and medium-sized enterprises develop open innovation capabilities. The research finds that IT-supported operations and human resource practices strengthen knowledge management capability, which in turn drives open innovation. Environmental dynamism also directly influences open innovation adoption. Interdepartmental connectedness alone does not significantly affect knowledge management capability.

• R&amp;D and Absorptive Capacity: Theory and Empirical Evidence*

  Rachel Griffith, Stephen J. Redding, John Van Reenen · 2003 · Scandinavian Journal of Economics

  This paper develops a unified framework connecting endogenous growth theory with empirical R&D research. It shows that R&D drives both innovation and absorptive capacity—the ability to adopt others' discoveries. The model explains long-run productivity differences between countries and reveals that previous studies underestimated R&D's social returns by ignoring absorptive capacity effects.

• Where Do Good Innovation Ideas Come From? Exploring the Influence of Network Connectivity on Innovation Idea Quality

  Jennie Björk, Mats Magnusson · 2009 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Network connectivity influences innovation idea quality differently depending on whether ideas come from individuals or groups. Individual innovators generate higher-quality ideas with more network connections, but highly connected groups actually produce lower-quality ideas. The study finds that some minimum level of connectivity is necessary for quality ideas, but excessive connectivity in group settings reduces performance. These findings suggest companies should facilitate individual interaction while carefully managing group dynamics during ideation.

• Open innovation: Are inbound and outbound knowledge flows really complementary?

  Bruno Cassiman, Giovanni Valentini · 2015 · Strategic Management Journal

  This paper tests whether firms benefit from simultaneously engaging in inbound and outbound knowledge flows, as open innovation theory suggests. Using data from Belgian manufacturing firms, the authors find that while companies buying and selling knowledge do increase new product sales, their R&D costs rise disproportionately. The results show no complementarity between knowledge inflows and outflows, suggesting that the organizational costs of managing open innovation are higher than theory predicts.

• Responses to disruptive strategic innovation

  Constantinos D. Charitou, Costas Markides · 2003 · MIT Sloan management review

  Established companies face disruptive strategic innovations that challenge their existing business models. The paper identifies five response strategies: focus on the core business, ignore non-threatening innovations, counter the disruption, operate both models simultaneously, or scale the new approach. A company's choice depends on its motivation (growth rate, threat level, strategic relevance) and ability (skills, resources, time, conflict magnitude). Success requires recognizing that new competitive approaches aren't automatically superior.

• Too much of a good thing? Absorptive capacity, firm performance, and the moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation

  William J. Wales, Vinit Parida, Pankaj C. Patel · 2012 · Strategic Management Journal

  Absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to acquire and exploit new knowledge—shows an inverted-U relationship with financial performance in small and medium technology enterprises. Beyond moderate levels, absorptive capacity actually harms performance. Entrepreneurial orientation moderates this relationship, enabling firms to gain more from knowledge absorption at lower levels and sustain returns at higher levels before diminishing returns occur.

• Dynamic capabilities for ecosystem orchestration A capability-based framework for smart city innovation initiatives

  Lina Linde, David Sjödin, Vinit Parida, Joakim Wincent · 2021 · Technological Forecasting and Social Change

  Firms leading smart city innovation ecosystems need three core dynamic capabilities to succeed: configuring partnerships, deploying value propositions, and governing ecosystem alignment. The study identifies specific micro-routines underlying sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring activities that enable ecosystem leaders to orchestrate innovation in digitalized, sustainability-focused environments. These capabilities help firms gain competitive advantage by effectively managing emerging ecosystem partnerships.

• Ethics and Privacy in AI and Big Data: Implementing Responsible Research and Innovation

  Bernd Carsten Stahl, David Wright · 2018 · IEEE Security & Privacy

  This paper argues that responsible research and innovation (RRI) provides a framework for addressing ethical and privacy concerns in AI and big data technologies. The authors contend that stakeholder engagement, including civil society participation, is essential to ensure these technologies deliver social benefits while remaining acceptable and sustainable. They illustrate RRI implementation through the Human Brain Project.

• ‘Spatializing’ knowledge communities: towards a conceptualization of transnational innovation networks

  Neil M. Coe, Timothy G. Bunnell · 2003 · Global Networks

  This paper argues that innovation systems research should shift focus from discrete geographic scales to network relationships operating across scales. The authors propose that innovation networks extend beyond firms to include knowledge communities and the movement of knowledgeable individuals. They develop a conceptual framework identifying three domains of transnational innovation networks: corporate-institutional, social network, and hegemonic-discursive, showing how these domains interact across different localities.

• INTERMEDIARIES, USERS AND SOCIAL LEARNING IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION

  James Stewart, Sampsa Hyysalo · 2008 · International Journal of Innovation Management

  Intermediaries play a critical role in technological innovation by connecting users with developers and facilitating the adoption of new technologies. The paper examines how intermediaries configure, facilitate, and broker technologies across supply and demand sides in emerging markets. The authors demonstrate that intermediaries bridge the gap between user-driven and developer-driven innovation, and that identifying and supporting user-side intermediaries is essential for innovation success.

• Social innovation, an answer to contemporary societal challenges? Locating the concept in theory and practice

  Robert Grimm, Chris Fox, Susan Baines, Kevin Albertson · 2013 · Innovation The European Journal of Social Science Research

  Social innovation is promoted as a solution to societal challenges through inclusive practices and grassroots initiatives, but the concept has been stretched across so many different academic and policy contexts that it risks losing coherence. The authors argue that for social innovation to become a useful policy tool, researchers and policymakers need clearer theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence about what political and economic changes are necessary to support it effectively.

• Lessons for Responsible Innovation in the Business Context: A Systematic Literature Review of Responsible, Social and Sustainable Innovation Practices

  Rob Lubberink, Vincent Blok, Johan van Ophem, Onno Omta · 2017 · Sustainability

  This systematic review of 72 empirical studies identifies innovation practices and processes that businesses can use to implement responsible innovation. The authors synthesize findings on social, sustainable, and responsible innovation to create a framework addressing six key dimensions: anticipation, reflexivity, inclusion, deliberation, responsiveness, and knowledge management. The review advances both theory and practical application of responsible innovation in business contexts.

• Social Innovation: Integrating Micro, Meso, and Macro Level Insights From Institutional Theory

  Jakomijn van Wijk, Charlene Zietsma, Silvia Dorado, Frank G. A. de Bakker, Ignasi Martí · 2018 · Business & Society

  Social innovations require renegotiating or building institutions to address complex social problems involving multiple systems and actors. This paper presents a three-cycle model showing how social innovation operates across micro, meso, and macro levels through agentic, relational, and situated dynamics. The framework integrates institutional theory perspectives to guide understanding of how innovative solutions develop and get implemented across interconnected social systems.

• Social Networks: Effects of Social Capital on Firm Innovation

  F. Xavier Molina‐Morales, M. Teresa Martínez‐Fernández · 2010 · Journal of Small Business Management

  Social capital within industrial districts drives firm innovation. The study compared 220 manufacturing firms in Valencia, Spain, finding that firms embedded in districts with strong social interactions, trust, shared vision, and active local institutions innovate more in both processes and products than non-district firms. District membership and social capital directly correlate with innovation outcomes.

• Learning from openness: The dynamics of breadth in external innovation linkages

  James H. Love, Stephen Roper, Priit Vahter · 2013 · Strategic Management Journal

  Manufacturing plants that maintain external innovation partnerships over time become more effective at converting those partnerships into innovation outputs. Irish firms with prior experience collaborating with external knowledge sources generate greater innovation returns from their current openness activities. This learning effect means experienced firms extract more value from the same breadth of external linkages compared to less experienced firms.

• Environmental Innovations, Local Networks and Internationalization

  Giulio Cainelli, Massimiliano Mazzanti, Sandro Montresor · 2012 · Industry and Innovation

  This study examines what drives environmental innovations in firms across the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Cooperation with local suppliers and universities, combined with workforce training and digital technology adoption, most strongly encourages firms to adopt environmental innovations. Agglomeration economies show mixed effects—they boost environmental innovation in established industrial clusters but can hinder it elsewhere. Local networks and agglomeration together strongly promote environmental innovation adoption by multinational firms, demonstrating the importance of linking local and global business relationships.

• Corporate Governance for Responsible Innovation: Approaches to Corporate Governance and Their Implications for Sustainable Development

  Andreas Georg Scherer, Christian Voegtlin · 2018 · Academy of Management Perspectives

  This paper argues that addressing global challenges like poverty, climate change, and pandemics requires responsible innovation supported by new corporate governance models. The authors examine how participative and reflexive governance approaches can enable businesses to generate innovations that create social and environmental benefits while avoiding harm. They demonstrate governance challenges through examples including the COVID-19 pandemic response.

• The Core and Cosmopolitans: A Relational View of Innovation in User Communities

  Linus Dahlander, Lars Frederiksen · 2011 · Organization Science

  User communities drive innovation through two key positions: core members who deeply engage within the community, and cosmopolitans who bridge multiple external communities. This study analyzed online community interactions, surveys, and interviews to show that innovation emerges not just from individual traits but from relational structures. Communities enable distinctive behaviors that traditional organizations cannot, amplifying innovation through strategic positioning within and across networks.

• Micro- and Macro-Dynamics of Open Innovation with a Quadruple-Helix Model

  JinHyo Joseph Yun, Zheng Liu · 2019 · Sustainability

  Open innovation drives sustainability in the fourth industrial revolution through a quadruple-helix model involving industry, government, universities, and society. Industry builds innovation ecosystems on open platforms, government shifts from regulation to facilitation, universities engage in technology transfer and knowledge co-creation, and society participates in shared economy models. The paper proposes a framework addressing social, environmental, economic, cultural, policy, and knowledge sustainability across manufacturing and service sectors.

• Value creation and capture mechanisms in innovation ecosystems: a comparative case study

  Paavo Ritala, Vassilis Agouridas, Dimitris Assimakopoulos, Otto Gies · 2013 · International Journal of Technology Management

  This comparative case study examines how innovation ecosystems create and capture value. The authors analyze mechanisms across different contexts to understand the processes by which organizations within ecosystems generate economic returns and distribute benefits among participants. The research identifies key patterns in value creation and appropriation strategies that vary across ecosystem types.

• The Effect of Absorptive Capacity on Innovativeness: Context and Information Systems Capability as Catalysts

  Gabriel Cepeda‐Carrión, Juan‐Gabriel Cegarra‐Navarro, Daniel Jiménez Jiménez · 2010 · British Journal of Management

  Absorptive capacity—a company's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new knowledge—significantly drives innovativeness in firms. A study of 286 large Spanish companies found that a company's willingness to unlearn outdated practices strengthens both potential and realized absorptive capacity. Information systems capabilities provide a practical tool for managers to enhance absorptive capacity and boost innovation performance.

• Cluster Absorptive Capacity

  Elisa Giuliani · 2005 · European Urban and Regional Studies

  Industrial clusters grow when firms can absorb external knowledge and share it within the cluster. This paper argues that cluster success depends on absorptive capacity—the ability of member firms to learn from outside sources and distribute that knowledge internally. The diversity of firms' knowledge bases shapes how well clusters connect to external information and strengthen their internal learning systems.

• Bilateral Collaboration and the Emergence of Innovation Networks

  Robin Cowan, Nicolas Jonard, Jean‐Benoît Zimmermann · 2007 · Management Science

  This paper models how innovation networks form through bilateral partnerships between firms. Firms choose collaborators based on knowledge production rather than network strategy. The success of collaborations depends on cognitive fit, prior relationships, and information from shared contacts. The study shows that network structure varies with how knowledge decomposes into tasks and how firms learn about partners—dense networks emerge when innovation breaks into separate subtasks, while cliquish networks form when indirect information matters most.

• Knowledge-driven preferences in informal inbound open innovation modes. An explorative view on small to medium enterprises

  Veronica Scuotto, Manlio Del Giudice, Stefano Bresciani, Dirk Meissner · 2017 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  Small and medium enterprises in the United Kingdom prefer informal open innovation partnerships when they adopt a knowledge-driven approach. The study examined 175 SMEs and found that knowledge-driven strategy is the strongest factor determining whether firms choose informal over formal collaboration modes for acquiring external knowledge. Absorptive capacity and cognitive dimensions also influence these preferences.

• Managing Distributed Innovation: Strategic Utilization of Open and User Innovation

  Marcel Bogers, Joel West · 2012 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  Innovation increasingly happens across multiple organizations and stakeholders rather than within single firms. This paper compares vertically integrated innovation against open innovation, user innovation, crowdsourcing, and co-creation models. It examines how these distributed approaches differ in their sources, motivations, and value capture mechanisms, then provides a framework for strategically managing innovation across organizational boundaries.

• Exploring the field of open innovation

  Maria Elmquist, Tobias Fredberg, Susanne Ollila · 2009 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  This paper reviews the emerging open innovation research field through systematic analysis of academic publications and expert interviews. The authors identify key research themes and reveal that the field is expanding toward broader definitions, developing critical perspectives, and focusing on theory and management implications. They propose using innovation process location and collaboration extent as dimensions for deeper understanding of how open innovation develops.

• THE CREATION AND DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

  Giacomo Zanello, Xiaolan Fu, Pierre Mohnen, Marc J. Ventresca · 2015 · Journal of Economic Surveys

  This systematic literature review examines how innovation is created and adopted in developing countries' private sectors. The authors identify barriers to innovation and trace how new ideas and technologies spread within and across developing economies. They find that innovation capacity depends on interactions between geographical, socio-economic, political, and legal systems. Institutional contexts in developing countries significantly shape how innovations diffuse.

• Responsible Innovation Toward Sustainable Development in Small and Medium‐Sized Enterprises: a Resource Perspective

  Minna Halme, Maria Korpela · 2013 · Business Strategy and the Environment

  Small and medium-sized enterprises can develop responsible innovations for sustainable development even with limited resources. Research on 13 Nordic SMEs shows that equity capital is necessary, but the specific resource combinations needed vary by innovation type. Business model innovations require minimal resources—mainly equity and social capital—while environmental technology innovations demand more abundant resources, particularly industry knowledge and R&D cooperation.

• DIFFERENT MODES OF OPEN INNOVATION: A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

  Valentina Lazzarotti, Raffaella Manzini · 2009 · International Journal of Innovation Management

  This paper develops a framework categorizing four modes of open innovation based on two dimensions: partner variety and innovation funnel openness. Testing the framework on Italian companies, the authors show that firms successfully adopt different collaboration strategies ranging from completely closed to fully open innovation. The research demonstrates that total openness is not always optimal; companies achieve success through varied degrees and types of external collaboration matched to their specific strategies and capabilities.

• Determinants of the Efficiency of Regional Innovation Systems

  Michael Fritsch, Viktor Slavtchev · 2008 · Regional Studies

  Regional innovation systems perform better when private and public research institutions interact intensively and share knowledge spillovers. Regions with smaller average establishment sizes generate more efficient innovation than those dominated by large firms. The study measures efficiency using knowledge production functions and patent data to compare how well regions convert research inputs into innovative outputs.

• The social underpinnings of absorptive capacity: The moderating effects of structural holes on innovation generation based on external knowledge

  Marco Tortoriello · 2013 · Strategic Management Journal

  Individual scientists and engineers who bridge structural holes in their organization's internal knowledge network generate more innovations from external knowledge sources. Using data from 276 R&D professionals at a multinational tech company, the study shows that an employee's position in the internal social network determines how effectively they convert external knowledge into innovations. Those connecting otherwise disconnected groups innovate more from outside information.

• Innovation with open data: Essential elements of open data ecosystems

  Anneke Zuiderwijk, Marijn Janssen, Chris Davis · 2014 · Information Polity

  Open data ecosystems are expected to drive innovation and citizen participation, yet little research defines what actually constitutes them. This paper identifies and analyzes the essential elements required for functional open data ecosystems, providing a framework for understanding how open data infrastructure supports innovation across sectors.

• The effect of social networking sites and absorptive capacity on SMES’ innovation performance

  Veronica Scuotto, Manlio Del Giudice, Elias G. Carayannis · 2016 · The Journal of Technology Transfer

  Social networking sites significantly enhance SME innovation performance by facilitating knowledge acquisition and absorption from external actors. The study analyzed 215 small and medium enterprises across knowledge-intensive and labor-intensive sectors globally, using statistical modeling to measure relationships between social media use, absorptive capacity, and innovation outcomes. Results show that enterprises leveraging social platforms to interact with customers, institutions, and competitors effectively absorb external knowledge and generate stronger innovation performance.

• The roles of absorptive capacity and cultural balance for exploratory and exploitative innovation in SMEs

  Everist Limaj, Edward Bernroider · 2017 · Journal of Business Research

  This study examines how absorptive capacity and organizational culture influence innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises. Using survey data from 138 SMEs, the researchers found that realized absorptive capacity fully mediates the effect of potential absorptive capacity on both exploratory and exploitative innovation. Balanced organizational culture strengthens how realized absorptive capacity drives innovation, though it doesn't affect the potential-to-realized capacity conversion. The findings highlight that cultural equilibrium matters for SMEs pursuing simultaneous exploratory and exploitative innovation.

• Absorptive Capacity and Firm Performance in SMEs: The Mediating Influence of Strategic Alliances

  Tessa Christina Flatten, Greta Greve, Malte Brettel · 2011 · European Management Review

  Strategic alliances mediate the relationship between absorptive capacity and firm performance in SMEs. Absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to identify, assimilate, and exploit external knowledge—drives innovation and performance gains primarily through partnerships with other firms. However, this mediation effect weakens for younger SMEs, suggesting that company age and size shape how knowledge absorption translates into business results.

• Limits to the diffusion of innovation

  Jason MacVaugh, Francesco Schiavone · 2010 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  Innovation diffusion depends on technological, social, and learning conditions operating within individual, community, or market contexts. The paper integrates theories from marketing, innovation, and sociology to explain why users resist or slowly adopt new technologies. Understanding these conditions helps companies reduce adoption risks and develop better strategies for radical innovations.

• Managerial challenges in open innovation: a study of innovation intermediation in the chemical industry

  Jan Henrik Sieg, Martin W. Wallin, Georg von Krogh · 2010 · R and D Management

  This study examines managerial challenges faced by chemical companies using innovation intermediaries to solve R&D problems. Researchers identified three recurring obstacles across seven companies: getting internal scientists to engage with intermediaries, choosing appropriate problems to outsource, and framing problems clearly enough to generate novel solutions. The authors explain these challenges stem from differences in how scientists work internally versus externally, and propose practical remedies.

• Transformative innovation and translocal diffusion

  Derk Loorbach, Julia M. Wittmayer, Flor Avelino, Timo von Wirth, Niki Frantzeskaki · 2020 · Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

  Transformative innovations emerge from locally rooted sustainability initiatives that challenge unsustainable systems by developing alternatives. These innovations grow through replication, partnership, and embedding, spreading across regions via translocal networks that share ideas and practices. The paper synthesizes European research to show how connecting local initiatives across contexts creates potential for sustainability transitions, though governance support remains necessary.

• Open Innovation and the Stage-Gate Process: A Revised Model for New Product Development

  Johan Grönlund, David Sjödin, Johan Frishammar · 2010 · California Management Review

  This paper presents an open Stage-Gate model that integrates open innovation principles into new product development processes. The model enables firms to systematically import and export knowledge and technology while evaluating core capabilities at each development stage. Applied to an upstream oil and gas company, the approach helps organizations capture value from both internal innovation and external technology partnerships.

• From Cost to Frugal and Reverse Innovation: Mapping the Field and Implications for Global Competitiveness

  Marco Zeschky, Stephan Winterhalter, Oliver Gassmann · 2015 · Alexandria (UniSG) (University of St.Gallen)

  This paper distinguishes between four types of innovation targeting resource-constrained customers in emerging markets: cost, good-enough, frugal, and reverse innovation. The authors clarify conceptual differences between these approaches and explain how each requires different strategic and operational implications. The framework helps managers systematically analyze their resource-constrained innovation strategies and develop appropriate processes.

• Innovation communities: the role of networks of promotors in Open Innovation

  Klaus Fichter · 2009 · R and D Management

  This paper defines innovation communities as networks of promotors—transformational leaders who collaborate across organizational boundaries. Through three case studies, the research shows that these informal networks of promotors are essential to open innovation success. The paper connects promotor theory to open innovation research and demonstrates that close cooperation among these champions, regardless of functional or organizational divisions, drives innovation creation and dissemination.

• The commercialization of user innovations: the development of the rodeo kayak industry

  Christoph Hienerth · 2006 · R and D Management

  User innovators in the rodeo kayak community commercialized their own designs by adopting low-cost manufacturing and launching products before established manufacturers entered the market. This transformation from hobbyist innovation to commercial production changed innovators' motivations, community structure, product types, information sharing practices, communication methods, and competitive dynamics among users.

• Business, Innovation, and Knowledge Ecosystems: How They Differ and How to Survive and Thrive within Them

  Katri Valkokari · 2015 · Technology Innovation Management Review

  This paper examines how business, innovation, and knowledge ecosystems function and differ from one another. It applies ecological ecosystem concepts to understand how organizations and knowledge systems interact, survive, and develop within complex environments. The work helps explain the structural and operational differences between these three types of ecosystems and provides insights for thriving within them.

• The Innovation Effect of User Design: Exploring Consumers’ Innovation Perceptions of Firms Selling Products Designed by Users

  Martin Schreier, Christoph Fuchs, Darren W. Dahl · 2012 · Journal of Marketing

  Firms that involve users in designing products enhance consumer perceptions of innovation compared to traditional professional design. Four studies show this user-design approach increases purchase intentions, willingness to pay, and recommendation likelihood. The effect strengthens when more diverse consumers participate, face fewer constraints, and actually use their designs. Consumer familiarity with user innovation and task complexity moderate these outcomes.

• Theories of power and social change. Power contestations and their implications for research on social change and innovation

  Flor Avelino · 2021 · Journal of Political Power

  This paper develops a meta-theoretical framework for understanding power in social change and innovation processes. It identifies seven key contested dimensions of power—including power over versus power to, centralized versus diffused, and empowerment versus disempowerment—and shows how different theoretical approaches to power translate into specific empirical research questions for studying innovation.

• Enabling open innovation in small- and medium-sized enterprises: how to find alternative applications for your technologies

  Mattia Bianchi, Sergio Campodall’Orto, Federico Frattini, Paolo Vercesi · 2010 · R and D Management

  Small and medium-sized enterprises struggle to identify opportunities to license their technologies outside their core business due to limited resources and specialized focus. This paper presents a practical methodology combining TRIZ tools with weighting and portfolio management techniques to help SMEs find alternative applications for their existing technologies. The authors developed and tested the approach with an Italian packaging company.

• Open and closed innovation &amp;ndash; different innovation cultures for different strategies

  Philipp Herzog, Jens Leker · 2010 · International Journal of Technology Management

  This study examines how innovation culture differs between open and closed innovation approaches within a multinational specialty chemicals company. Surveying 109 employees across three business units, the researchers found measurable cultural differences in not-invented-here syndrome, risk-taking attitudes, and management support for innovation. The findings show that successful open innovation requires distinct cultural characteristics from closed innovation models.

• Data-Driven Innovation through Open Government Data

  Thorhildur Jetzek, Michel Avital, Niels Bjørn‐Andersen · 2014 · Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research

  Open government data creates economic and social value through innovation, but the mechanisms driving this transformation remain poorly understood. This paper uses critical realist analysis to examine how data becomes value, focusing on Opower's case. The company transformed government energy data into behavioral interventions that significantly reduced energy consumption, demonstrating how open data can drive practical innovation with measurable real-world impact.

• Metagoverning Collaborative Innovation in Governance Networks

  Eva Sørensen, Jacob Torfing · 2016 · The American Review of Public Administration

  Western governments increasingly use governance networks to drive public sector innovation through collaboration between public and private actors. This shift from competitive entrepreneurship to collaborative approaches requires new metagovernance strategies. The authors argue that managing networks for innovation demands different leadership approaches than traditional public management, and illustrate this through a Danish elderly care case study showing how collaborative innovation networks can improve efficiency, effectiveness, and democratic legitimacy.

• Responsible Innovation: Managing the Responsible Emergence of Science and Innovation in Society

  Robert William Caverly · 2013 · Journal of Research Administration

  This book review examines a collection of essays on responsible innovation that develops frameworks for managing science and technology emergence in society. The authors define responsible innovation as a pluralistic process balancing diverse viewpoints while anticipating future impacts, operating within market-driven systems, and representing collective commitment to stewardship. The collection combines philosophical perspectives with practical approaches, addressing ethical issues in emerging fields like nanotechnology and geo-engineering through global perspectives including European normative standards for sustainability and social desirability.

• Collingridge and the dilemma of control: Towards responsible and accountable innovation

  Audley Genus, Andy Stirling · 2017 · Research Policy

  This paper examines David Collingridge's theories on controlling technology and his 'dilemma of control' concept, arguing that responsible innovation literature frequently cites but rarely deeply engages with his work. The authors reveal how Collingridge's substantive, methodological, and philosophical insights illuminate governance challenges in innovation, particularly regarding anticipatory decision-making, public participation, and institutional structures that shape technology's relationship with society.

• THE IMPACT OF ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY ON SMEs' COLLABORATION

  Alessandro Muscio · 2007 · Economics of Innovation and New Technology

  Absorptive capacity—built through R&D investment and skilled workforce—significantly influences small and medium-sized enterprises' ability to collaborate with other firms, universities, and technology centers. A survey of 276 manufacturing SMEs in Lombardy, Italy, shows that absorptive capacity directly determines whether SMEs can successfully establish external partnerships and access knowledge from outside organizations.

• Collaboration capability a focal concept in knowledge creation and collaborative innovation in networks

  Kirsimarja Blomqvist, Juha Levy · 2006 · International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy

  Sustainable innovation in knowledge-based competition requires collaboration capability—the ability to build and manage network relationships through trust, communication, and commitment. The authors review research on network collaboration and argue that collaboration capability is a prerequisite for diverse actors to share complementary knowledge and create innovations together. This concept integrates key elements from related research and explains how knowledge creation and innovation emerge through social interaction in networks.

• Understanding the Advantages of Open Innovation Practices in Corporate Venturing in Terms of Real Options

  Wim Vanhaverbeke, Vareska van de Vrande, Henry Chesbrough · 2008 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  Open innovation in corporate venturing offers financial and strategic advantages over closed innovation approaches. Companies gain early exposure to emerging technologies, can delay major financial commitments, exit unprofitable ventures quickly to limit losses, and extend promising ventures longer. However, firms must actively develop new skills and organizational routines to fully realize these real options benefits.

• Triple Helix twins: innovation and sustainability

  Henry Etzkowitz, Chunyan Zhou · 2006 · Science and Public Policy

  The paper proposes adding a Sustainability Triple Helix model alongside the existing Innovation Triple Helix to address environmental and social dimensions. Rather than introducing a fourth helix that could weaken the model's creative dynamics, the authors suggest a complementary framework where universities, public institutions, and government collaborate on sustainability issues, while universities, industry, and government continue driving innovation.

• Innovations in climate policy: the politics of invention, diffusion, and evaluation

  Andrew Jordan, Dave Huitema · 2014 · Environmental Politics

  This paper argues that climate policy innovation at national and sub-national levels deserves greater scholarly attention. The authors propose a comprehensive framework for understanding policy innovation across three stages: invention of new policy elements, diffusion into wider use, and evaluation of effects. They identify analytical and methodological challenges in integrating these perspectives and present a framework applied throughout the volume to examine climate mitigation and adaptation policies.

• Why organizations adopt information system process innovations: a longitudinal study using Diffusion of Innovation theory

  Erja Mustonen‐Ollila, Kalle Lyytinen · 2003 · Information Systems Journal

  This longitudinal study examines why organizations adopt information system process innovations across four decades and three organizational environments. Using Diffusion of Innovation theory, the researchers identify key adoption factors: user need recognition, technological infrastructure availability, past experience, trials, autonomous work, ease of use, learning by doing, and standards. However, many adoptions followed no clear pattern, suggesting additional unexplained influences on organizational innovation decisions.

• Open Innovation In Practice

  Robert Kirschbaum · 2005 · Research-Technology Management

  DSM, a multinational life sciences company, combines internal and external knowledge to accelerate innovation across R&D and marketing. The company established a dedicated business development group to speed commercialization and adopted different management approaches for each innovation stage—from scientific rigor in early development to entrepreneurial risk-taking during commercialization to conservative management once products mature. DSM treats innovation as a cultural value rather than a formal process.

• USER-CENTRIC INNOVATIONS IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT — SYSTEMATIC IDENTIFICATION OF LEAD USERS HARNESSING INTERACTIVE AND COLLABORATIVE ONLINE-TOOLS

  Volker Bilgram, Alexander Brem, Kai‐Ingo Voigt · 2008 · International Journal of Innovation Management

  Companies reduce innovation failure by involving external customers, especially lead users, in product development. This paper identifies key characteristics for systematically finding lead users online through Web 2.0 tools and communities. The research reveals that effective lead users demonstrate market trend awareness, high expected benefits, expertise, extreme needs, opinion leadership, and active online engagement.

• Measuring the Quality of Regional Innovation Systems: A Knowledge Production Function Approach

  Michael Fritsch · 2002 · International Regional Science Review

  This paper measures the quality of regional innovation systems across eleven European regions using a knowledge production function approach. The author finds significant differences in R&D productivity between regions, with firms in well-functioning innovation systems showing higher innovation propensity. Results support a center-periphery pattern, demonstrating that agglomeration economies substantially benefit R&D activities.

• Introduction of shared electronic records: multi-site case study using diffusion of innovation theory

  Trisha Greenhalgh, K. Stramer, Tanja Bratan, E Byrne, Yara Mohammad, J. Russell · 2008 · BMJ

  This study examined how four English healthcare sites implemented a shared electronic patient record system. The implementation succeeded or failed based on eight interconnected factors: the technology's technical maturity and perceived benefits, staff concerns about workload and privacy, influence from opinion leaders, organizational experience with IT projects, readiness for change, implementation quality, system integration, and political context. The research shows that electronic health records require acceptance from both patients and staff and must fit into existing organizational workflows.

• The impact of outside‐in open innovation on innovation performance

  Matthias Inauen, Andrea Schenker‐Wicki · 2011 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  Companies that adopt open innovation strategies—collaborating with customers, suppliers, and universities—significantly improve their innovation performance. However, collaboration with cross-sector companies negatively affects results. This empirical study of 141 R&D managers in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria demonstrates that openness in outside-in innovation processes directly drives both direct and indirect innovation outputs.

• Where and how to search? Search paths in open innovation

  Henry Lopez‐Vega, Fredrik Tell, Wim Vanhaverbeke · 2015 · Research Policy

  This paper identifies four distinct search paths firms use to find external knowledge for innovation: situated, analogical, sophisticated, and scientific paths. These paths combine two dimensions—whether firms search locally or distantly, and whether they rely on experience or cognitive reasoning. The study of 18 open innovation projects reveals how problem framing and boundary spanning mechanisms operate within each path to solve technology problems, providing a structured framework for understanding how firms conduct external knowledge searches.

• Orchestrating innovation networks: The case of innovation brokers in the agri-food sector

  Maarten Batterink, E.F.M. Wubben, Laurens Klerkx, S.W.F. Omta · 2010 · Entrepreneurship and Regional Development

  Innovation brokers play a critical role in connecting small and medium-sized enterprises with research institutes in agri-food innovation networks. This study of four cases across the Netherlands, Germany, and France identifies three key orchestration functions that successful brokers perform: initiating innovations, composing networks, and managing innovation processes. These brokers add particular value when working with diverse organizations.

• Artificial intelligence in health care: laying the Foundation for Responsible, sustainable, and inclusive innovation in low- and middle-income countries

  Hassane Alami, Lysanne Rivard, Pascale Lehoux, Steven J. Hoffman, Stéphanie B.M. Cadeddu, Mathilde Savoldelli, M. Samri, Mohamed Ali Ag Ahmed, Richard Fleet, Jean‐Paul Fortin · 2020 · Globalization and Health

  AI technology offers potential to reduce health inequalities in low- and middle-income countries, but most applications are developed in wealthy nations without local evaluation. The authors propose five building blocks to guide responsible, sustainable, and inclusive AI healthcare development and implementation in resource-limited settings, addressing both benefits and risks.

• Absorptive Capacity: A Process Perspective

  Mark Easterby‐Smith, Manuel Graça, Elena P. Antonacopoulou, Jason Ferdinand · 2008 · Management Learning

  Absorptive capacity—an organization's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply external knowledge—remains poorly understood despite decades of research. This paper argues that quantitative studies have failed to reveal how absorptive capacity actually works. Using case studies across three sectors, the authors demonstrate that a process-based approach must account for power dynamics and organizational boundaries to explain how knowledge truly gets absorbed and used.

• Open Innovation – The Dutch Treat: Challenges in Thinking in Business Models

  Han van der Meer · 2007 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  Dutch innovative companies have successfully adopted open innovation principles for culture and importing external knowledge, but struggle with exporting mechanisms and flexible business models. The study reveals that while Dutch firms embrace collaborative innovation practices, they face significant challenges in adapting their business models to support truly open innovation approaches.

• Network Capital, Social Capital and Knowledge Flow: How the Nature of Inter-organizational Networks Impacts on Innovation

  Robert Huggins, Andrew Johnston, Piers Thompson · 2012 · Industry and Innovation

  Inter-organizational networks drive innovation through network capital and strategic knowledge alliances. The study examined firms across three regions and found that innovation performance correlates strongly with how firms invest in dynamically configured networks. Firms with higher network capital—built through deliberate, strategic partnerships—innovate more effectively. The findings suggest policymakers should actively support and orchestrate networks with clear strategic purpose when developing clusters and innovation systems.

• Innovation Networks and Regional Development—Evidence from the European Regional Innovation Survey (ERIS): Theoretical Concepts, Methodological Approach, Empirical Basis and Introduction to the Theme Issue

  Rolf Sternberg · 2000 · European Planning Studies

  This paper introduces the European Regional Innovation Survey, a large-scale empirical study examining how cooperation networks between firms and research institutions affect regional economic performance. Researchers surveyed over 8,600 firms across 11 European regions between 1995 and 1999 to measure and quantify innovation linkages. The study tests theoretical concepts like regional innovation systems and network theory against real data, filling a gap in comparative empirical research on innovation networks across different region types.

• Exploring the boundaries of open innovation: Evidence from social media mining

  José Ramón Saura, Daniel Palacios‐Marqués, Domingo Ribeiro Soriano · 2022 · Technovation

  This study analyzes Twitter conversations about open innovation using machine learning and topic modeling to identify public sentiment and key themes. The analysis of nearly 600,000 tweets reveals eight major topics, with negative sentiment concentrated in culture and business model discussions, positive sentiment in community and creative projects, and neutral sentiment in entrepreneurship and technology. The researchers identify 20 limitations of open innovation based on this social media evidence.

• Where are the politics in responsible innovation? European governance, technology assessments, and beyond

  Michiel Van Oudheusden · 2014 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  Responsible innovation frameworks aim to make science and technology development more socially responsive by incorporating public input. However, this paper finds that both European Union policy and Flemish technology assessment approaches to responsible innovation largely ignore political dimensions—specifically how power is constituted, contested, and allocated through deliberation. The author argues these frameworks must explicitly address political questions to be genuinely responsive to societal needs.

• Will It Spread or Not? The Effects of Social Influences and Network Topology on Innovation Diffusion

  Sebastiano A. Delre, Wander Jager, Tammo H.A. Bijmolt, Marco A. Janssen · 2010 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  This paper uses agent-based modeling to test how social influence and network structure affect whether new products succeed or fail. The research finds that markets with strong social influence create uncertainty and make it harder for innovations to reach critical mass. Highly connected people (VIPs) matter mainly for spreading information widely, not for persuasive power. Network constraints on hub connections significantly hamper diffusion.

• Co-creation and user innovation: The role of online 3D printing platforms

  Thierry Rayna, Ludmila Striukova, John Darlington · 2015 · Journal of Engineering and Technology Management

  Online 3D printing platforms enable new forms of user involvement in production and co-creation. The authors develop a framework for understanding prosumption and categorize co-creation activities, then analyze 22 platforms to show how different service models support different types of co-creation. The findings reveal how these platforms reshape user innovation by changing who participates in design and manufacturing.

• The Open Innovation in Science research field: a collaborative conceptualisation approach

  Susanne Beck, Carsten Bergenholtz, Marcel Bogers, Tiare-Maria Brasseur, Marie Louise Conradsen, Diletta Di Marco, Andreas Distel, Leonhard Dobusch, Daniel Dörler, Agnes Effert, Benedikt Fecher, Despoina Filiou, Lars Frederiksen, Thomas Gillier, Christoph Grimpe, Marc Gruber, Carolin Haeussler, Florian Heigl, Karin Hoisl, Katie Hyslop, Olga Kokshagina, Marcel LaFlamme, Cornelia Lawson, Hila Lifshitz‐Assaf, W. Lukas, Markus Nordberg, Maria-Theresa Norn, Marion Poetz, Marisa Ponti, Gernot Pruschak, Laia Pujol Priego, Agnieszka Radziwon, Janet Rafner, Gergana Petrova Romanova, Alexander Ruser, Henry Sauermann, Sonali Shah, Jacob Sherson, Julia Suess–Reyes, Christopher L. Tucci, Philipp Tuertscher, Jane Bjørn Vedel, Theresa Velden, Roberto Verganti, Jonathan Wareham, Andrea Wiggins, Sunny Mosangzi Xu · 2020 · Industry and Innovation

  This paper develops a unified framework for understanding open and collaborative practices in scientific research. Forty-seven scholars from multiple disciplines collaborated to integrate fragmented knowledge about open innovation and open science, identifying factors at individual, team, organizational, field, and societal levels that shape these practices. The framework connects research antecedents, contingencies, and consequences across the entire process of generating, disseminating, and translating scientific insights into innovation.

• Identification of competencies for professionals in open innovation teams

  E. du Chatenier, J.A.A.M. Verstegen, H.J.A. Biemans, Martin Mulder, Onno Omta · 2010 · R and D Management

  This study identifies key competencies that professionals need to succeed in open innovation teams through interviews and focus groups. The research reveals that brokering solutions, social competence, knowledge generation, trust-building, and managing low reciprocal commitment are critical skills. Companies should actively develop these competencies in employees participating in collaborative innovation efforts.

• Big data for open innovation in SMEs and large corporations: Trends, opportunities, and challenges

  Pasquale Del Vecchio, Alberto Di Minin, Antonio Messeni Petruzzelli, Umberto Panniello, Salvatore Pirri · 2017 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  Big Data enables open innovation by providing organizations access to external information sources for creating new solutions and business opportunities. This paper reviews how small-to-medium enterprises and large corporations use Big Data in open innovation strategies, identifying key trends, opportunities, and challenges each type of organization faces when implementing these approaches.

• Open Innovation 4.0 as an Enhancer of Sustainable Innovation Ecosystems

  Joana Costa, Jo�ão Matias · 2020 · Sustainability

  Open innovation frameworks strengthen sustainable innovation ecosystems by connecting universities, industry, government, and communities through knowledge flows and collaborative networks. The study demonstrates that public policy supporting open innovation environments—including legal frameworks, innovation procurement, and shared R&D risk—drives regional digitalization, startup emergence, and digital transition. Universities play a central role in promoting smart, responsible innovation cycles that benefit entire ecosystems.

• Open innovation in the automotive industry

  Serhan Ili, Albert Albers, Sebastian Miller · 2010 · R and D Management

  Automotive manufacturers traditionally relied on internal R&D to drive innovation, but rising costs and competitive pressure force them to seek external sources. This study demonstrates that open innovation—collaborating with external partners—delivers better R&D productivity than closed, internally-focused approaches for automotive companies.

• Innovating Pedagogy 2020: Open University Innovation Report 8

  Agnes Kukulska‐Hulme, Elaine Beirne, Gráìnne Conole, Eamon Costello, Tim Coughlan, Rebecca Ferguson, Elizabeth FitzGerald, Mark Gaved, Christothea Herodotou, W. Holmes, Conchúr Mac Lochlainn, Mairéad Nic Giolla Mhichíl, Bart Rienties, Julia Sargent, Eileen Scanlon, Mike Sharples, Denise Whitelock · 2020 · Arrow@dit (Dublin Institute of Technology)

  This report identifies ten pedagogical innovations with potential to transform educational practice. Researchers from the Open University in the UK and University of Cape Town in South Africa reviewed published studies and expert input to select innovations in teaching, learning, and assessment designed for interactive learning environments. The report aims to guide teachers and policymakers in adopting productive educational innovations.

• Implementing innovation in construction: contexts, relative boundedness and actor‐network theory

  Chris Harty · 2008 · Construction Management and Economics

  This paper examines why construction projects struggle to implement new technologies and innovations. The author argues that construction work lacks a central coordinating force to drive change and resolve conflicts, making innovation adoption difficult. Using actor-network theory, the study analyzes how both people and technologies interact during implementation, showing that existing practices, technological design choices, and actor mobilization all shape whether innovations succeed or fail.

• User Roles and Contributions in Innovation-Contest Communities

  Johann Füller, Katja Hutter, Julia Hautz, Kurt Matzler · 2014 · Journal of Management Information Systems

  This study identifies six distinct user types in online innovation-contest communities by analyzing behavioral patterns, communication styles, and contribution quality. The researchers found that participants vary significantly in how they engage with contests and interact with others. Understanding these user roles helps organizations design better contest platforms and reward structures to encourage participation and improve innovation outcomes.

• How open is innovation? A retrospective and ideas forward

  Linus Dahlander, David Gann, Martin W. Wallin · 2021 · Research Policy

  This paper updates a foundational 2010 framework on open innovation by examining how technological, organizational, and societal changes over the past decade reshape innovation practices. The authors confirm their original four types of openness—sourcing, acquiring, selling, and revealing—remain relevant but identify emerging questions about tradeoffs between openness modes, data governance, new organizational designs, legal instruments, and multilevel factors affecting how open innovation operates.

• Managing the Challenges of Becoming an Open Innovation Company: Experiences from Living Labs

  Mika Westerlund, Seppo Leminen · 2011 · Technology Innovation Management Review

  Companies increasingly integrate users directly into innovation processes through living labs, recognizing that user feedback and experiences drive valuable ideas and competitive advantage. This paper examines how organizations manage the transition to open innovation models where users actively participate in developing and testing new technologies across industries.

• The Evolution of Technologies in Time and Space: From National and Regional to Spatial Innovation Systems

  Päivi Oinas, Edward J. Malecki · 2002 · International Regional Science Review

  This paper proposes spatial innovation systems (SISs) as a framework that extends beyond national and regional innovation systems. SISs track how specific technologies evolve across locations over time, showing how technological development depends on path-dependent histories and how specialized regions collaborate across national borders. The approach emphasizes external relationships between actors as crucial connectors that link different innovation systems together.

• Towards a collaboration framework for circular economy: The role of dynamic capabilities and open innovation

  Julia Köhler, Sönnich Dahl Sönnichsen, Philip Beske‐Jansen · 2022 · Business Strategy and the Environment

  This paper develops a framework for cross-sectoral collaboration in circular economy transitions by combining relational view, open innovation, and dynamic capabilities theories. Studying the Circle-House-Project in Danish construction, the authors find that successful circular economy scaling depends on knowledge-sharing routines and ecocentric dynamic capabilities built through collaborative networks. The framework shows how diverse sectors working together can advance circular production practices.

• The smart city: A nexus for open innovation?

  Krassimira Paskaleva · 2011 · Intelligent Buildings International

  European smart city initiatives increasingly adopt open innovation approaches that connect technology, people, urban spaces, and other cities to design services and policies. The analysis of EU programmes and international projects shows this integrated method is effective and sustainable, but success requires consistent frameworks, principles, and strategic alignment across initiatives.

• Network-Independent Partner Selection and the Evolution of Innovation Networks

  Joel A. C. Baum, Robin Cowan, Nicolas Jonard · 2010 · Management Science

  This paper argues that firms select innovation partners based on complementary knowledge stocks rather than social capital or network position. The authors build a model where companies form alliances to learn and innovate, requiring compatible knowledge bases. Despite ignoring social network effects entirely, the model reproduces the firm behavior, network structures, and performance patterns documented in empirical alliance research.

• The politics of networked innovation

  Jacky Swan, Harry Scarbrough · 2005 · Human Relations

  This paper examines how power dynamics shape networked innovation processes. Through three case studies of technology development, the authors show that innovation success depends not just on network structure but on understanding how power over resources, meaning, and processes affects knowledge integration. Network coordination, not just formation, proves critical for productive innovation outcomes.

• Community energy storage: A responsible innovation towards a sustainable energy system?

  Binod Prasad Koirala, Ellen van Oost, Henny van der Windt · 2018 · Applied Energy

  Community energy storage systems can help transition to sustainable energy by storing power locally and meeting citizen needs. However, integrating these systems into centralized energy infrastructure requires coordinating multiple actors and technologies. The authors argue that responsible research and innovation frameworks should guide the design and implementation of community energy storage to ensure the transition is sustainable, reliable, inclusive, and affordable.

• Sustainable Tourism in the Open Innovation Realm: A Bibliometric Analysis

  Valentina Della Corte, Giovanna Del Gaudio, Fabiana Sepe, Fabiana Sciarelli · 2019 · Sustainability

  This bibliometric analysis examines how sustainable tourism and open innovation intersect in academic research. The authors map the field's conceptual structure, identify leading trends, key journals, influential papers and authors, and track geographic contributions. The findings reveal the current state of sustainable tourism research in the digital era and highlight emerging themes to guide future scholarship and practice.

• Ethics of healthcare robotics: Towards responsible research and innovation

  Bernd Carsten Stahl, Mark Coeckelbergh · 2016 · Robotics and Autonomous Systems

  This paper argues that addressing ethical issues in healthcare robotics requires more than traditional ethics analysis. The authors propose embedded ethical reflection directly within innovation practices and development contexts. They identify internal and external forms of dialogue between ethicists and technologists, discuss limitations of these approaches, and recommend policy support at national and supranational levels to integrate responsible innovation into healthcare robotics research.

• The evolution of intellectual property strategy in innovation ecosystems: Uncovering complementary and substitute appropriability regimes

  Marcus Holgersson, Ove Granstrand, Marcel Bogers · 2017 · Long Range Planning

  This paper examines how intellectual property strategy evolves within innovation ecosystems by analyzing four generations of mobile telecommunications systems from 1980 to 2015. The authors show that firms strategically manage IP through complementary and substitute appropriability regimes, balancing openness and protection across different technologies and actors. The findings demonstrate that competitive advantage depends on understanding the broader ecosystem context, not just individual IP strategies or assets.

• The User Innovation Paradigm: Impacts on Markets and Welfare

  Alfonso Gambardella, Christina Raasch, Eric von Hippel · 2016 · Management Science

  Individual users and consumers drive significant innovation alongside traditional producer-led research. This paper models markets where both users and firms innovate, showing that firms often delay adopting user-innovation strategies too long despite social welfare gains. When firms support and harvest user innovations, markets achieve better outcomes through complementary investments. Policy intervention may be needed to align private incentives with social welfare in mixed user-producer innovation economies.

• RETHINKING THE ROLE OF INTERMEDIARIES AS AN ARCHITECT OF COLLECTIVE EXPLORATION AND CREATION OF KNOWLEDGE IN OPEN INNOVATION

  Marine Agogué, Anna Yström, Pascal Le Masson · 2013 · International Journal of Innovation Management

  Intermediaries in open innovation do more than broker connections or facilitate networks. This paper studies two traffic safety innovation cases where intermediaries actively shaped collaborative knowledge creation by designing exploration processes and providing leadership. Rather than passive facilitators, these intermediaries acted as architects, structuring joint problem-solving when no single organization could tackle challenges alone.

• Opinion Leaders' Role in Innovation Diffusion: A Simulation Study

  Peter Sander van Eck, Wander Jager, Peter S. H. Leeflang · 2011 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Opinion leaders accelerate product adoption by combining central network positions with superior product knowledge and greater innovativeness. Using agent-based modeling, the study shows opinion leaders increase adoption speed, information flow velocity, and maximum adoption rates. Targeting opinion leaders remains an effective marketing strategy for driving innovation diffusion.

• Market Formation in Technological Innovation Systems—Diffusion of Photovoltaic Applications in Germany

  Ulrich Dewald, Bernhard Truffer · 2011 · Industry and Innovation

  This paper develops a framework for analyzing how technological innovation systems create and mature end-user markets, using photovoltaic applications in Germany as a case study. The authors argue that existing innovation systems research neglects market formation structures, which become critical as technologies mature. They propose a conceptual approach to examine market-related substructures and demonstrate how different photovoltaic market segments developed in Germany.

• Responsible Urban Innovation with Local Government Artificial Intelligence (AI): A Conceptual Framework and Research Agenda

  Tan Yiğitcanlar, Juan M. Corchado, Rashid Mehmood, Rita Yi Man Li, Karen Mossberger, Kevin C. Desouza · 2021 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  This paper examines how local governments can responsibly adopt artificial intelligence systems to address urban challenges. The authors develop a conceptual framework for responsible urban innovation with AI, arguing that technology deployment must balance costs, benefits, risks, and impacts to avoid creating new problems. They review existing literature and applications, then propose a research agenda to help policymakers understand how to implement local government AI systems responsibly.

• Investigating the role of social capital in innovation: sparse versus dense network

  Salma Alguezaui, Raffaele Filieri · 2010 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  Social capital facilitates knowledge search and sharing, driving innovation performance. The paper reviews how two network structures—sparse and dense—affect innovation differently. Sparse networks enable access to diverse external knowledge, while dense networks strengthen internal knowledge sharing. Both configurations offer benefits and drawbacks depending on whether firms pursue radical or incremental innovation. The authors recommend tailoring social capital strategies to match organizational innovation goals.

• What influences the diffusion of grassroots innovations for sustainability? Investigating community currency niches

  Gill Seyfang, Noel Longhurst · 2015 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  Community currencies like Local Exchange Trading Schemes and time banks represent grassroots innovations for sustainability. This study of 12 community currency niches across multiple countries tests whether strategic niche management theory predicts their diffusion success. The researchers find that niche-level activity does correlate with diffusion, but identify additional factors that existing theory misses. They develop an adapted model specifically for grassroots innovations and offer recommendations for practitioners and policymakers supporting these civil society initiatives.

• Mapping, analyzing and designing innovation ecosystems: The Ecosystem Pie Model

  Madis Talmar, Bob Walrave, Ksenia Podoynitsyna, Jan Holmström, A.G.L. Romme · 2018 · Long Range Planning

  This paper develops the Ecosystem Pie Model, a visual strategy tool that helps managers map, analyze, and design innovation ecosystems. The tool captures how different actors interact to create and capture value together. The authors ground the model in scholarly literature and provide application guidelines, demonstrating how firms can use it to make strategic decisions about ecosystem participation and structure.

• The past, present and future of open innovation

  Barbara Bigliardi, Giovanna Ferraro, Serena Filippelli, Francesco Galati · 2020 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  This literature review analyzes 1,772 open innovation papers published between 2003 and 2018 to identify major research themes and their evolution. The authors identify nine key thematic areas: context-dependency, collaborative frameworks, organizational dimensions, performance outcomes, external search strategies, SME applications, pharmaceutical industry focus, intellectual property considerations, and technology. The review provides recommendations for future research directions across these established areas.

• Innovation as an interactive process: From user-producer interaction to national systems of innovation

  Bengt‐Åke Lundvall · 2010 · VBN Forskningsportal (Aalborg Universitet)

  Innovation emerges from interaction between producers and users responding to technological opportunities and market needs. The paper develops a framework of national innovation systems that emphasizes interactive learning processes across firms, institutions, and policies. This approach moves beyond neoclassical economics to explain how economic structure and institutional arrangements shape innovation outcomes.

• Role Models for Radical Innovations in Times of Open Innovation

  Hans Georg Gemünden, Søren Salomo, Katharina Hölzle · 2007 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  This study examines how different innovator roles affect success in highly innovative ventures, analyzing 146 new product development projects. The research finds that innovator roles significantly influence innovation outcomes, but their impact varies depending on the type and degree of innovativeness. External linking roles become more critical as technological innovativeness increases, while surprisingly, support from senior organizational members negatively affects success in highly innovative projects.

• Marketing-Mix Variables and the Diffusion of Successive Generations of a Technological Innovation

  Peter J. Danaher, Bruce G. S. Hardie, William P. Putsis · 2001 · Journal of Marketing Research

  This paper develops a model showing how marketing-mix variables, particularly pricing, affect the adoption of successive generations of technological innovations. Using cellular telephone data from a European country, the authors find that price elasticity patterns differ significantly when considering multiple generations together versus single generations alone. Pricing decisions for one generation substantially influence adoption rates of the next generation, revealing interaction effects that single-generation models miss.

• Analyzing the determinants of firm's absorptive capacity: beyond R&amp;D

  Jaider Vega‐Jurado, Antonio Gutiérrez‐Gracia, I. Fernández-de-Lucio · 2008 · R and D Management

  This paper develops a new model explaining how firms absorb external knowledge. The authors argue that absorptive capacity depends on more than just R&D spending. Instead, organizational knowledge, formalization, and social integration mechanisms all shape a firm's ability to absorb knowledge. The type of knowledge being absorbed matters—these factors can help or hinder depending on whether the knowledge fits the firm's existing capabilities. The paper provides empirical evidence supporting this expanded framework.

• Effects of Technology Absorptive Capacity and Technology Proactivity on Organizational Learning, Innovation and Performance: An Empirical Examination

  Victor Jesús García Morales, Antonia Ruíz Moreno, Francisco Javier Lloréns Montes · 2007 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  This study examines how Spanish technology firms absorb and proactively adopt technology to drive organizational learning and innovation. Using data from 246 firms, the researchers found that absorptive capacity and technology proactivity both strengthen organizational learning, which then boosts innovation and overall performance. The results show technology adoption directly influences how firms learn and innovate, with important implications for technology-driven businesses.

• From user-generated data to data-driven innovation: A research agenda to understand user privacy in digital markets

  José Ramón Saura, Domingo Ribeiro Soriano, Daniel Palacios‐Marqués · 2021 · International Journal of Information Management

  This paper examines how user privacy concerns affect data-driven innovation in digital markets. Through systematic literature review, interviews, and topic modeling, the authors identify 14 key topics related to user-generated data and data-driven innovation strategies. They propose 14 research questions and 7 propositions to guide future study of privacy issues in digital markets, emphasizing privacy's critical role in sustainable data-driven business models.

• Innovating innovation policy: the emergence of ‘Responsible Research and Innovation’

  Stevienna de Saille · 2015 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  The paper traces how the European Union developed 'Responsible Research and Innovation' (RRI) as a policy framework, starting from a 2011 European Commission workshop. Through analysis of EU documents, the author shows how RRI became embedded in Horizon 2020 to direct technological innovation toward social benefits. The paper identifies tensions between RRI and other EU policies that may undermine its effectiveness.

• The temporal effects of relative and firm‐level absorptive capacity on interorganizational learning

  Henri Schildt, Thomas Keil, Markku Maula · 2012 · Strategic Management Journal

  This study examines how absorptive capacity affects knowledge sharing between allied firms over time. Using patent data, the researchers found that technological similarity has modest early benefits but stronger effects later, while high diversity accelerates initial learning but diminishes over time. R&D intensity surprisingly hinders early learning but helps later stages. The findings suggest early alliances are limited by absorption capacity, while later success depends on the ability to exploit knowledge.

• A Tool to Analyze, Ideate and Develop Circular Innovation Ecosystems

  Jan Konietzko, Nancy Bocken, Erik Jan Hultink · 2020 · Sustainability

  This paper presents the Circularity Deck, a card-based tool designed to help organizations analyze and develop circular economy innovations across their ecosystems. The tool organizes circular economy principles by strategy type (narrowing, slowing, closing, regenerating material flows) and innovation scope (product, business model, ecosystem level). Tested with 136 participants across 62 organizations in 12 workshops, the Circularity Deck enables groups of loosely coupled organizations to collectively redesign their interactions and resource flows.

• The paradox of openness revisited: Collaborative innovation and patenting by UK innovators

  Ashish Arora, Suma Athreye, Can Huang · 2016 · Research Policy

  UK firms face a paradox: they simultaneously patent and engage in open innovation collaboration. This study shows both decisions are interconnected and depend on market position. Leading firms increase patenting more when collaborating openly because they risk greater knowledge spillovers to competitors. Followers show weaker patenting responses to collaboration. The relationship between openness and patenting is therefore contingent on whether firms lead or follow their rivals.

• An unfinished journey? Reflections on a decade of responsible research and innovation

  Richard Owen, René von Schomberg, Phil Macnaghten · 2021 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  This paper reviews ten years of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) as a policy framework developed by the European Commission. The authors trace RRI's evolution from its initial conception through the Seventh Framework Programme to Horizon 2020, examining how it became organized around five key pillars: gender equality, open access, science communication, ethics, and public engagement. They assess RRI's impact on discussions about science, innovation, and society, and consider its future role within the EC's Open Science agenda and Horizon Europe programme.

• Ethics of smart farming: Current questions and directions for responsible innovation towards the future

  Simone van der Burg, M.J. Bogaardt, J. Wolfert · 2019 · NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences

  Smart farming technologies like sensors, drones, and robots raise three major ethical challenges: data ownership and access, power distribution, and impacts on human life and society. The paper finds that current discussions lack resolution because stakeholders hold conflicting views about digital farming's purpose. The authors recommend future research prioritize clarifying societal and commercial goals, then use those goals to determine data sharing practices, build stakeholder trust, and establish guidelines for responsible farm digitalization.

• Managing business and innovation networks—From strategic nets to business fields and ecosystems

  Kristian Möller, Aino Halinen · 2017 · Industrial Marketing Management

  This paper reviews network management research from 2000 to 2016 and proposes a unified theory explaining how environmental, network, and actor-level factors shape management activities. The authors consolidate fragmented knowledge across business fields, ecosystems, and platform networks, identifying activity configuration patterns that guide effective network management. The framework advances understanding of how organizations coordinate complex business networks.

• Managing Drivers of Innovation in Construction Networks

  Bart Bossink · 2004 · Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

  The paper identifies four categories of innovation drivers in construction networks: environmental pressure, technological capability, knowledge exchange, and boundary spanning. Operating across organizational levels in the Dutch construction industry, these drivers enable managers in authorities, clients, architecture, consulting, and contracting firms to stimulate innovation. Managing these drivers helps organizations improve market position, project quality, and industry-wide cooperation.

• Knowledge transfer in university quadruple helix ecosystems: an absorptive capacity perspective

  Kristel Miller, Rodney McAdam, Sandra Moffett, Allen Alexander, Pushyarag Puthusserry · 2016 · R and D Management

  Universities transfer knowledge to regional innovation ecosystems through interactions with multiple stakeholders. This study identifies five key factors—human elements, organizational structures, knowledge types, power dynamics, and network characteristics—that determine how effectively stakeholders engage in knowledge transfer and apply it. The findings show that policymakers and practitioners need targeted interventions to strengthen knowledge exchange within regional innovation networks.

• How Frugal Innovation Promotes Social Sustainability

  Rakhshanda Khan · 2016 · Sustainability

  Frugal innovation—developing solutions with minimal resources—directly supports social sustainability by addressing key social themes. The paper builds a framework connecting both concepts and demonstrates how frugal innovation approaches help achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. This positions frugal innovation as a practical pathway to realizing social sustainability in practice.

• Light‐Touch Integration of Chinese Cross‐Border M&amp;A: The Influences of Culture and Absorptive Capacity

  Yipeng Liu, Michael Woywode · 2013 · Thunderbird International Business Review

  Chinese multinational corporations pursuing cross-border mergers and acquisitions in Germany adopt a 'light-touch integration' approach that balances preservation of acquired firms' autonomy with selective integration. This strategy accounts for cultural differences and leverages learning opportunities, enabling mutual benefits for acquiring firms, targets, and partner organizations while managing the complexities of post-acquisition integration.

• An absorptive capacity model for green innovation and performance in the construction industry

  Pernilla Gluch, Mathias Gustafsson, Liane Thuvander · 2009 · Construction Management and Economics

  Swedish construction companies can improve their capacity to adopt green innovations and boost business performance by focusing on three key processes: acquiring new environmental knowledge, assimilating it into operations, and transforming it into practice. The study applies absorptive capacity theory to construction and develops a revised framework called green ACAP that identifies specific mechanisms driving environmental innovation and performance improvements.

• Digital transformation of healthcare sector. What is impeding adoption and continued usage of technology-driven innovations by end-users?

  Shilpa Iyanna, Puneet Kaur, Peter Ractham, Shalini Talwar, A.K.M. Najmul Islam · 2022 · Journal of Business Research

  Healthcare providers in the United Kingdom resist adopting and using digital health innovations due to multiple barriers. The study identifies task-related, patient-care, and system barriers from providers; threat perception and infrastructure issues from organizations; usability and resource problems from patients; and self-efficacy, tradition, and image concerns from end-users generally. The authors propose a framework grounded in innovation resistance theory to explain this resistance and offer practical recommendations to accelerate digital health adoption.

• Mission impossible? Entrepreneurial universities and peripheral regional innovation systems

  Ross Brown · 2016 · Industry and Innovation

  Universities are expected to drive regional innovation and entrepreneurship as part of their third mission, but this paper finds their actual economic spillovers are overstated, particularly in peripheral regions. The disconnect between universities and local entrepreneurial ecosystems explains their weak performance. Policy entrepreneurs reinforce universities' dominant role through institutional capture and policy lock-in, despite marginal economic contribution. The paper challenges this policy emphasis and outlines implications for public policy reform.

• Entrepreneurial orientation‐as‐experimentation and firm performance: The enabling role of absorptive capacity

  Pankaj C. Patel, Marko Kohtamäki, Vinit Parida, Joakim Wincent · 2014 · Strategic Management Journal

  Entrepreneurial orientation increases variability in innovation outcomes, which can either boost or harm firm performance. The paper shows that absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to acquire and use new knowledge—plays a critical role. Potential absorptive capacity amplifies the innovation variability from entrepreneurial orientation, while realized absorptive capacity helps firms convert that variability into actual performance gains.

• Responsible research and innovation: The role of privacy in an emerging framework

  Bernd Carsten Stahl · 2013 · Science and Public Policy

  This paper defines responsible research and innovation (RRI) as a meta-responsibility framework that coordinates researchers, industry, policymakers, and civil society to ensure desirable research outcomes. It examines privacy's critical role within RRI, discusses current framework dimensions and weaknesses, and proposes directions for integrating privacy and data protection into RRI governance.

• Comparing knowledge bases: on the geography and organization of knowledge sourcing in the regional innovation system of Scania, Sweden

  Roman Martin, Jerker Moodysson · 2011 · European Urban and Regional Studies

  This study examines how firms in three different industry clusters in southern Sweden source and exchange knowledge. The researchers found that industries relying on symbolic or synthetic knowledge bases benefit significantly from geographical proximity because their knowledge is context-dependent and locally interpreted. In contrast, analytical industries drawing on codified scientific knowledge are less dependent on proximity, suggesting that clustering in these sectors serves purposes beyond knowledge sourcing.

• Innovation networks in economics: from the incentive‐based to the knowledge‐based approaches

  Andreas Pyka · 2002 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  Innovation networks are persistent organizational structures in industrial innovation, but traditional economics viewed them only as temporary hybrids between markets and firms, focusing narrowly on R&D cost reduction. Evolutionary economics shifts focus to knowledge, learning, and synergistic partnerships. The paper develops an evolutionary theory of innovation networks that accounts for uncertainty, heterogeneity, and historical time as essential to understanding why networks self-organize and persist.

• Grand Societal Challenges and Responsible Innovation

  Christian Voegtlin, Andreas Georg Scherer, Günter K. Stahl, Olga Hawn · 2021 · Journal of Management Studies

  Grand societal challenges require innovation from businesses, governments, and nonprofits working together. The paper argues that responsible innovation—a framework evaluating innovations for harmful consequences and societal benefits—offers a better approach than traditional corporate social responsibility. The authors call for research linking responsible innovation governance to addressing complex, multi-level societal problems.

• How start-ups successfully organize and manage open innovation with large companies

  Muhammad Usman, Wim Vanhaverbeke · 2016 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  Start-ups successfully manage open innovation partnerships with large companies through practices that differ significantly from those of established firms. Managers with prior large-company experience prove crucial for navigating these collaborations. Both inbound and outbound open innovation help start-ups overcome their newness and small size, though each approach presents distinct advantages and challenges that require careful orchestration.

• Social Media: A Tool for Open Innovation

  Matthew Mount, Marian García Martínez · 2014 · California Management Review

  Companies increasingly use social media for open innovation but lack clear strategies for implementation. This study examines how firms organize and deploy social media across the full innovation cycle—from generating ideas through research and development to bringing products to market. The authors identify specific organizational and technological changes managers need to adopt to capture innovation benefits from social media engagement.

• Digital Government, Open Architecture, and Innovation: Why Public Sector IT Will Never Be the Same Again

  Jerry Fishenden, Mark Thompson · 2012 · Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory

  Open digital platforms and standards will transform public sector technology by reducing vendor lock-in and enabling cheaper, more innovative government services. The shift from proprietary systems to open architectures allows governments to separate core business logic from applications, creating a competitive marketplace where niche innovations and standard services coexist. This reorganization around citizen needs rather than departmental structures will fundamentally change how governments procure and deploy technology.

• Innovation in the Mining Industry: Technological Trends and a Case Study of the Challenges of Disruptive Innovation

  Felipe Sánchez, Philipp Hartlieb · 2020 · Mining Metallurgy & Exploration

  Innovation drives efficiency and cost reduction in mining while addressing environmental and social concerns. The paper reviews how mining companies pursue innovation through various mechanisms and actors, examines digital transformation trends, and analyzes a case study showing the technical and economic challenges of implementing disruptive innovations in mining operations.

• Perspectives on Disruptive Innovations

  Arun Kumaraswamy, Raghu Garud, Shahzad Ansari · 2018 · Journal of Management Studies

  This paper examines disruptive innovation from multiple theoretical perspectives—evolutionary, relational, temporal, and framing—to understand how innovations render existing business models obsolete and reshape value networks. Rather than predicting disruption, the authors propose a performative approach that helps researchers and practitioners manage in environments of continual change.

• Citizensourcing : Applying the Concept of Open Innovation to the Public Sector

  Dennis Hilgers, Ihl, Jan Christoph · 2010 · RWTH Publications (RWTH Aachen)

  Open innovation principles from the private sector can transform public administration by engaging citizens as external collaborators. Using internet technology, governments can integrate citizen knowledge into service development and policy decisions, creating public value and strengthening democratic participation beyond traditional e-government approaches.

• Exporting, R&amp;D, and absorptive capacity in UK establishments

  Richard Harris, Qian Cher Li · 2008 · Oxford Economic Papers

  This study examines what drives UK establishments to export and how much they export. Using innovation survey data, the researchers find that firm size matters significantly. R&D activities and absorptive capacity—the ability to understand and use scientific knowledge, collaborate internationally, and organize effectively—help firms enter export markets. However, once firms export, only absorptive capacity linked to scientific knowledge boosts their export performance; R&D spending alone does not.

• Stakeholder Governance for Responsible Innovation: A Theory of Value Creation, Appropriation, and Distribution

  Sophie Bacq, Ruth V. Aguilera · 2021 · Journal of Management Studies

  Organizations pursuing responsible innovation to address societal challenges lack clear governance mechanisms for distributing created value among stakeholders. This paper proposes a three-stage model of value allocation based on stakeholder governance: deciding what value to create and for whom, protecting against unintended value appropriation, and distributing value among intended stakeholders. Four novel governance mechanisms enable participative processes that align value distribution with responsible innovation intent.

• LIVING LAB: user‐driven innovation for sustainability

  Christa Liedtke, Maria J. Welfens, Holger Rohn, Julia Nordmann · 2012 · International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education

  This paper presents the conceptual design of LIVING LAB, a research infrastructure that tests sustainable home technologies with real users in actual households. The approach combines laboratory analysis with real-world household systems to develop and evaluate sustainable domestic innovations while prioritizing user needs and environmental performance. The infrastructure enables long-term, user-centered research on sustainable technologies in their actual contexts of use.

• Multi-niche analysis of dynamics and policies in Dutch renewable energy innovation journeys (1970–2006): hype-cycles, closed networks and technology-focused learning

  G.P.J. Verbong, Frank W. Geels, Rob Raven · 2008 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  This study examines forty years of renewable energy innovation policy in the Netherlands across wind, biomass, fuel cells, and photovoltaics. The research identifies recurring problems: innovation efforts rely too heavily on technology-focused R&D rather than broader learning, social networks remain narrow and supply-side oriented, and expectations follow hype-disappointment cycles that undermine sustained development. These structural weaknesses explain why all four technologies experienced costly failures and setbacks despite policy support.

• Inter-firm networks and innovation: a survey of literature

  Müge Özman · 2008 · Economics of Innovation and New Technology

  This survey reviews literature on how inter-firm networks affect innovation and technological change. The author organizes studies by causality direction—examining both how networks influence firm outcomes and how networks form. The analysis identifies three interconnected themes: network origins, firm performance effects, and network structure. The survey synthesizes theoretical and empirical findings to guide future research on inter-firm networks.

• Understanding innovators' experiences of barriers and facilitators in implementation and diffusion of healthcare service innovations: a qualitative study

  Julie Barnett, Konstantina Vasileiou, Fayika Djemil, Laurence Brooks, Terry Young · 2011 · BMC Health Services Research

  Healthcare innovators in the UK identified four key factors affecting whether service innovations succeed and spread: evidence of effectiveness, partnerships between organizations, people-based resources like champions, and contextual conditions. Innovators emphasized that successful implementation requires combining strong evidence, interpersonal networks, organizational support, and favorable external conditions. Champions and innovators themselves drive diffusion across different healthcare settings.

• Managing knowledge assets for open innovation: a systematic literature review

  Angelo Natalicchio, Lorenzo Ardito, Tommaso Savino, Vito Albino · 2017 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  This systematic literature review examines how knowledge management practices support open innovation activities. The authors analyzed 34 articles and organized findings around three open innovation processes: inbound, outbound, and coupled. The review identifies which knowledge management practices best support each type of open innovation activity and highlights understudied areas for future research.

• Open innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises: An overview

  Pooran Wynarczyk, Panagiotis Piperopoulos, Maura McAdam · 2013 · International Small Business Journal Researching Entrepreneurship

  Open innovation—combining external and internal ideas to advance technology—has become central to firm strategy since 2000. However, research focuses heavily on large multinational corporations. This special issue addresses the gap by examining how small and medium-sized enterprises adopt open innovation practices, exploring collaboration with external knowledge sources and pathways to commercialization in smaller firms.

• Responsible innovation across borders: tensions, paradoxes and possibilities

  Phil Macnaghten, Richard Owen, Jack Stilgoe, Brian Wynne, AFONSO RANGEL GARCEZ DE AZEVEDO, A. de Campos, Jason Chilvers, Ricardo Dagnino, Gabriela Marques Di Giulio, Emma Frow, Brian Garvey, Christopher Groves, Samantha Hartley, M. Knobel, Elizabete Mayumy Kobayashi, Markku Lehtonen, Javier Lezaun, Leonardo Freire de Mello, Marko Monteiro, Janaína Oliveira Pamplona da Costa, Camila Carnerio Dias Rigolin, Bruno Rondani, Margarita Staykova, Renzo Taddei, Chris Till, David Tyfield, Sara Wilford, Léa Velho · 2014 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  Researchers from Brazil and the UK convened to examine responsible innovation and governance of controversial technologies across cultural contexts. The workshop revealed significant tensions and paradoxes in how responsible innovation is understood and applied differently across regions, highlighting both challenges and opportunities for cross-cultural innovation governance frameworks.

• Broadening the scope of open innovation: past research, current state and future directions

  Vareska van de Vrande, Wim Vanhaverbeke, Oliver Gassmann · 2010 · International Journal of Technology Management

  This paper reviews how open innovation research has evolved since 2003, showing that the field has expanded across multiple levels of analysis from individual organizations to national systems. The authors identify gaps in the literature and call for open innovation research to integrate with other management disciplines like marketing and human resources, and to connect with established management theories.

• New ventures based on open innovation an empirical analysis of start-up firms in embedded Linux

  Marc Gruber, Joachim Henkel · 2006 · International Journal of Technology Management

  This paper examines how start-up firms in embedded Linux create new ventures using open innovation approaches. The authors propose two conceptual models—the Product Lifecycle Management Model and the Mirrored Spaces Model—to understand how companies manage products across their lifecycle and navigate the technical and organizational challenges that arise when leveraging open-source development practices.

• Measuring Institutions’ Adoption of Artificial Intelligence Applications in Online Learning Environments: Integrating the Innovation Diffusion Theory with Technology Adoption Rate

  Mohammed Amin Almaiah, Raghad Alfaisal, Said A. Salloum, Fahima Hajjej, Rima Shishakly, Abdalwali Lutfi, Mahmaod Alrawad, Ahmed Al Mulhem, Tayseer Alkhdour, Rana Saeed Al-Maroof · 2022 · Electronics

  This study examines how governmental institutions in the Gulf region adopt artificial intelligence applications in online learning environments. Using innovation diffusion theory, researchers found that adoption properties like trialability, observability, and compatibility positively influence ease of doing business and technology export. The findings suggest government authorities should prioritize implementation factors based on their significance to improve service delivery and user accessibility.

• Towards a deliberative framework for responsible innovation in artificial intelligence

  Alexander Buhmann, Christian Fieseler · 2021 · Technology in Society

  The paper proposes a deliberative framework for responsible AI innovation that addresses opacity challenges through discourse principles. It examines how organizations developing AI, civil society actors, and investigative media can collaborate to enable informed public engagement and better governance of AI innovation, ensuring human autonomy, fairness, and justice are protected.

• The Role of Open Innovation and Value Co-creation in the Challenging Transition from Industry 4.0 to Society 5.0: Toward a Theoretical Framework

  Barbara Aquilani, Michela Piccarozzi, Tindara Abbate, Anna Paola Codini · 2020 · Sustainability

  This paper develops a theoretical framework connecting Industry 4.0 technologies—advanced manufacturing, augmented reality, cloud computing, and big data—to Society 5.0, a vision prioritizing social and global well-being. The authors argue that open innovation and value co-creation are critical mechanisms enabling this transition. The framework helps managers design strategies to capitalize on opportunities and address challenges as firms navigate from technology-focused industrial advancement toward society-wide benefits.

• How does FDI inflow affect productivity of domestic firms? The role of horizontal and vertical spillovers, absorptive capacity and competition

  Marcin Kolasa · 2007 · Journal of International Trade & Economic Development

  Foreign direct investment in Poland generates productivity gains for domestic firms through horizontal spillovers (same industry) and vertical spillovers (upstream and downstream industries). Domestic firms' ability to absorb knowledge matters significantly: R&D-intensive firms benefit most from vertical spillovers, while firms investing in intangibles gain more from horizontal spillovers. Competition strengthens backward spillovers, while market power increases forward spillovers. Effects vary by sector, with services showing strong horizontal spillovers and manufacturing driving other results.

• Coping with Open Innovation: Responding to the Challenges of External Engagement in R&amp;D

  Ammon Salter, Paola Criscuolo, Anne L. J. Ter Wal · 2014 · California Management Review

  R&D professionals face significant challenges when engaging in open innovation, including managing external relationships and coordinating across organizational boundaries. This paper identifies four specific challenges that individuals encounter in daily open innovation work and describes coping strategies they use. The authors recommend organizational practices that help staff effectively manage external engagement and collaboration.

• Innovation processes in online newsrooms as actor-networks and communities of practice

  Amy Schmitz Weiss, David Domingo · 2010 · New Media & Society

  This paper examines how innovation happens in online newsrooms using two theoretical frameworks: actor-network theory and community of practice. Through four newsroom case studies, the authors show how these theories explain which actors influence innovation decisions, how journalists negotiate and learn together, and what factors help or hinder the adoption of new practices in newsrooms.

• Innovation performance: The effect of knowledge-based dynamic capabilities in cross-country innovation ecosystems

  Jeandri Robertson, Albert Caruana, Caitlin Ferreira · 2021 · International Business Review

  Knowledge-based dynamic capabilities drive innovation performance across different economies. The study identifies four key capabilities: knowledge creation, knowledge diffusion, knowledge absorption, and knowledge impact. Knowledge creation is the strongest driver of innovation performance in developed and developing economies, while knowledge absorption matters most in transition economies. The research proposes a framework showing how these capabilities create competitive advantage within innovation ecosystems.

• Environmental Innovation, Open Innovation Dynamics and Competitive Advantage of Medium and Large-Sized Firms

  Michalis Skordoulis, Stamatiοs Ntanos, Grigorios L. Kyriakopoulos, Garyfallos Arabatzis, Spyros Galatsidas, Miltiadis Chalikias · 2020 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  Greek medium and large firms implement environmental innovation at moderate levels, with ISO 14001 certification and toxic substance reduction as most common practices. Environmental process and product innovation both positively impact competitive advantage. The study surveyed 225 firms and found increasing adoption of environmental management systems, while open innovation dynamics contribute to environmental innovation outcomes.

• Absorptive capacity for need knowledge: Antecedents and effects for employee innovativeness

  Tim Schweisfurth, Christina Raasch · 2018 · Research Policy

  This study examines how employees absorb two distinct types of knowledge—understanding customer needs and understanding technological solutions—and how this absorption affects their innovativeness. Using 864 employees from a home appliance company, the researchers found that absorptive capacity for needs and solutions are separate capabilities, both boosting innovation. Interestingly, prior solution knowledge helps employees understand customer needs, but prior need knowledge actually hinders their ability to absorb solution knowledge.

• The Geographies of Social Networks and Innovation in Tourism

  Flemming Sørensen · 2007 · Tourism Geographies

  Tourism firms depend on innovation to survive, yet little research examines how they innovate. This study combines network theory with geography to understand how tourism firms access information through local and non-local social networks. Research in Malaga, Spain reveals that local networks are loose and dense while non-local networks are strong and sparse. This mixed geography of connections provides firms with diverse information that sustains innovation.

• Benefits of involving users in service innovation

  Peter Magnusson · 2003 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  Users generate more creative and useful service innovations than professional developers, according to an empirical study comparing service ideas for mobile telephony. While professional suggestions were easier to implement, ordinary users contributed novel ideas with greater creative value. The research demonstrates that consumers can serve as effective co-inventors in service innovation, though organizational factors affect their contribution potential.

• The limits to open innovation and its impact on innovation performance

  B. David Audretsch, Maksim Belitski · 2022 · Technovation

  This study examines how open innovation affects UK firm performance across sectors and regions. Using data from nearly 20,000 firm observations, the researchers find that limits to open knowledge collaboration vary significantly by industry and geography. Creative sectors face the greatest barriers to collaborating on knowledge both domestically and internationally. The findings reveal that transaction costs and knowledge protection concerns constrain open innovation differently depending on sector type and location.

• Valuing Value in Innovation Ecosystems: How Cross-Sector Actors Overcome Tensions in Collaborative Sustainable Business Model Development

  Inge Oskam, Bart Bossink, Ard‐Pieter de Man · 2020 · Business & Society

  Cross-sector innovation ecosystems pursuing sustainability goals face three key tensions: balancing value creation against value capture, collective versus individual benefits, and gains versus losses for different actors. This study of four collaborative projects identifies two patterns—collective orchestration and continuous search—that ecosystems use to navigate these tensions and develop sustainable business models that satisfy all partners.

• Strategic agency and institutional change: investigating the role of universities in regional innovation systems (RISs)

  Paul Benneworth, Rómulo Pinheiro, James Karlsen · 2016 · Regional Studies

  Universities shape regional innovation systems through strategic leadership and institutional entrepreneurship. The paper argues that understanding how regional innovation develops requires examining not just organizational actors but their internal dynamics and competing interests. Place-based leadership—how actors intentionally drive regional change—remains undertheorized without accounting for these organizational complexities.

• Networks as a means of supporting the adoption of organizational innovations in SMEs: the case of Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) based on ISO 14001

  Fawzi Halila · 2006 · Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management

  Small and medium enterprises struggle to adopt environmental practices, but networks can facilitate this shift. This study examines how SMEs use collaborative networks to implement Environmental Management Systems based on ISO 14001 standards. The research develops a practical model showing how networked SMEs can collectively adopt organizational environmental innovations, moving from reactive to proactive environmental behavior.

• The Impacts of Emerging Technologies on Accountants’ Role and Skills: Connecting to Open Innovation—A Systematic Literature Review

  Nanja Kroon, Maria do Céu Gaspar Alves, Isabel Martins · 2021 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  This systematic literature review examines how emerging technologies reshape accountants' roles and required skills. The authors analyzed 157 articles to identify which technologies receive research attention and their specific impacts on accounting professionals. The findings clarify what skills modern accountants need and what roles they should perform. The results inform professional bodies, regulators, and educational institutions in updating standards and curriculum to match employer expectations.

• Smart specialisation, innovation policy and regional innovation systems: what about new path development in less innovative regions?

  Björn Asheim · 2018 · Innovation The European Journal of Social Science Research

  Smart specialisation strategies work best when grounded in regional innovation systems that support learning and competitiveness. The paper argues that less innovative regions should pursue transformative new path development through unrelated knowledge combinations and radical path creation, not just incremental diversification. These high-risk strategies can generate structural transformation opportunities and should be included in policy design, even though they carry greater uncertainty than safer alternatives.

• Responsible innovation as an endorsement of public values: the need for interdisciplinary research

  Behnam Taebi, Aad Correljé, Eefje Cuppen, Virginia Dignum, Udo Pesch · 2014 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  Responsible innovation requires systematically including public values in technological development. The authors argue that understanding this process demands interdisciplinary research combining ethics, institutional theory, and science-technology-society studies to examine how institutions and stakeholders shape innovation. They propose using public debate as a method to identify emerging public values and address questions about whose opinions matter and how competing values should be balanced.

• Energy transitions from the cradle to the grave: A meta-theoretical framework integrating responsible innovation, social practices, and energy justice

  Benjamin K. Sovacool, David J. Hess, Roberto Cantoni · 2021 · Energy Research & Social Science

  This paper integrates three theoretical approaches—responsible innovation, social practice theory, and energy justice—to analyze energy transitions comprehensively from design through use to end-of-life impacts. The authors apply this framework to four case studies: French nuclear power, Greek wind energy, Papua New Guinean solar energy, and Estonian oil shale. The integrated approach reveals how energy transitions create injustices and inequalities across their full lifecycle.

• Exploring open innovation practice in firm‐nonprofit engagements: a corporate social responsibility perspective

  Sara Holmes, Palie Smart · 2009 · R and D Management

  This study examines how corporations and nonprofits collaborate to drive innovation through open innovation practices. Eight UK partnerships show two distinct approaches: exploratory engagement that generates emergent innovation, and focused resource exploitation that follows planned processes. Boundary-spanning roles differ based on organizational linkage strength—formal management roles in loosely connected dyads versus informal facilitation roles in highly connected ones. Open innovation driven by social issues, rather than purely economic motives, broadens corporate search activities and generates innovations while building social legitimacy.

• Propagation of innovations in networked groups.

  Winter Mason, Andy Jones, Robert L. Goldstone · 2008 · Journal of Experimental Psychology General

  This paper examines how network structure affects groups' ability to discover and share solutions. Researchers created laboratory groups where participants made guesses and shared scores with network neighbors. Results show groups converge on similar solutions even when alternatives exist. The optimal network structure depends on the problem: clustered networks excel at broad exploration, while highly connected networks work better for focused problems.

• Frontier Technology and Absorptive Capacity: Evidence from OECD Manufacturing Industries*

  Richard Kneller, Philip Stevens · 2006 · Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics

  This paper examines why productivity differs across OECD countries by analyzing how well manufacturing industries absorb frontier technology. Using data from 12 OECD countries between 1973 and 1991, the authors find that countries with higher human capital absorb new technology more effectively and achieve better productivity. R&D investment shows weaker evidence of improving technology absorption.

• Technology gaps, absorptive capacity and the impact of inward investments on productivity of European firms *

  Davide Castellani, Antonello Zanfei · 2003 · Economics of Innovation and New Technology

  Using firm-level data from France, Italy, and Spain (1993-1997), this paper examines how foreign direct investment affects domestic firm productivity. The researchers find that positive effects depend on technology gaps and absorptive capacity. In most sectors, larger technology gaps between foreign and domestic firms enable stronger productivity gains. However, in science-based industries, domestic firms benefit more when they have higher absorptive capacity and smaller technology gaps from foreign competitors.

• Technology Transfer across Organizational Boundaries: Absorptive Capacity and Desorptive Capacity

  Ulrich Lichtenthaler, Eckhard Lichtenthaler · 2010 · California Management Review

  This paper introduces the concept of desorptive capacity—a firm's ability to identify and transfer technology outward to other organizations. While research typically focuses on absorptive capacity (the recipient's ability to receive technology), the authors argue that understanding the technology source's capabilities is equally critical for successful technology transfer through alliances and licensing. Market knowledge and desorptive capacity explain why firms struggle with outbound technology transfer strategies.

• Hybrid Orchestration in Multi-stakeholder Innovation Networks: Practices of mobilizing multiple, diverse stakeholders across organizational boundaries

  Charlotte Reypens, Annouk Lievens, Vera Blažević · 2019 · Organization Studies

  This study examines how orchestrators manage multi-stakeholder innovation networks by identifying three core practices: connecting, facilitating, and governing. The research finds that successful orchestrators switch between dominating and consensus-based approaches depending on emerging network challenges. These hybrid orchestration strategies help orchestrators navigate the complexity of coordinating diverse stakeholders across organizational boundaries and achieve distinct innovation outcomes over time.

• Information technology for supporting the development and maintenance of open innovation capabilities

  Emmanuel D. Adamides, Nikos Karacapilidis · 2018 · Journal of Innovation & Knowledge

  This paper examines how information technology supports open innovation by developing two types of organizational capabilities: strategic capabilities that enable companies to adopt open innovation strategies effectively, and operational capabilities that improve daily implementation. The authors connect specific ICT tools to required functions across the entire open innovation process, emphasizing collaboration, data analysis, and technology integration within organizational workflows.

• The innovative performance of firms in heterogeneous environments: The interplay between external knowledge and internal absorptive capacities

  Riccardo Crescenzi, Luisa Gagliardi · 2018 · Research Policy

  Firms in knowledge-rich environments innovate more effectively when they develop both potential and realized absorptive capacities—the ability to recognize and integrate external knowledge. Using English firm data combined with patent records, the study shows that organizational ambidexterity enables companies to leverage clustering of knowledgeable workers and external knowledge sources to boost innovation performance.

• Responsible innovation, the art and craft of anticipation

  Alfred Nordmann · 2014 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  This paper examines anticipation as a core principle of responsible innovation and anticipatory governance. The author argues that anticipation need not predict an entirely transformed future world. Instead, anticipation can meaningfully operate within our current understanding of how the world works, even when emerging technologies may eventually change that world fundamentally. This distinction matters for how we actually practice responsible innovation.

• When Does Search Openness Really Matter? A Contingency Study of Health‐Care Innovation Projects

  Torsten Oliver Salge, Tomás Farchi, Michael Barrett, Sue Dopson · 2013 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Open innovation strategies for healthcare product development show an inverted U-shaped relationship with success—too little or too much external knowledge sourcing hurts outcomes. The effectiveness of open search depends on project type, leader experience, and organizational support. Exploratory projects benefit most from openness, while experienced leaders and creative work environments maximize returns from external knowledge.

• Advanced Introduction to Regional Innovation Systems

  Teemu Makkonen · 2019 · Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography

  This advanced introduction examines regional innovation systems as a framework for understanding how innovation develops and spreads across geographic areas. The work synthesizes key concepts and theories that explain how regions build competitive advantage through interconnected networks of firms, institutions, and knowledge flows.

• How innovation drivers, networking and leadership shape public sector innovation capacity

  Jenny M. Lewis, Lykke Margot Ricard, Erik‐Hans Klijn · 2017 · International Review of Administrative Sciences

  Leadership quality has a stronger impact on public sector innovation capacity than innovation drivers or external networking, according to a survey of senior administrators in Barcelona, Copenhagen, and Rotterdam. The study found that transformational and network governance leadership styles most effectively boost innovation in Barcelona and Copenhagen, while entrepreneurial leadership proved most effective in Rotterdam. Organizational structures, processes, and external contacts matter less than strong leadership for building innovation capacity.

• Market failure in the diffusion of consumer-developed innovations: Patterns in Finland

  Jeroen P.J. de Jong, Eric von Hippel, Fred Gault, Jari Kuusisto, Christina Raasch · 2015 · EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam)

  Consumer-developed innovations in Finland often fail to spread beyond their creators because developers lack incentives to support diffusion when others benefit. The study confirms that market failure prevents socially optimal spread of user innovations. Developers don't invest in sharing products that could help others, even when those innovations have clear value to broader populations.

• Innovation Types and Network Relationships

  Jukka Partanen, Sylvie Chetty, Arto Rajala · 2011 · Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice

  Small innovative firms commercialize different types of innovations through distinct network relationships. The study identifies four innovation types and shows that radical systemic and autonomous innovations require strong collaborative ties with customers, while incremental innovations succeed through different downstream networks. A portfolio of relationships with suppliers, distributors, customers, and research institutes helps small firms access critical resources.

• Externalities of openness in innovation

  Stephen Roper, Priit Vahter, James H. Love · 2013 · Research Policy

  Open innovation practices generate positive externalities that benefit firms beyond their direct participants, improving knowledge diffusion and innovation performance across industries. Using Irish manufacturing data from 1994–2008, the authors find that these externalities significantly boost firms' innovation outputs through increased knowledge spread and competition, not through adoption of open practices alone. The gap between private and social returns to openness suggests firms adopt it suboptimally, justifying public policies that encourage open innovation.

• The antecedents and innovation effects of domestic and offshore R&amp;D outsourcing: The contingent impact of cognitive distance and absorptive capacity

  Olivier F. Bertrand, Michael J. Mol · 2012 · Strategic Management Journal

  Firms with stronger internal R&D capabilities can effectively manage offshore outsourcing despite greater cognitive distance between partners. Offshore R&D outsourcing produces better innovation results than domestic outsourcing, particularly for product innovation. Absorptive capacity—built through internal R&D investment—enables companies to successfully integrate knowledge from distant offshore partners.

• On the Identity of Technological Objects and User Innovations in Function

  Philip Faulkner, Jochen Runde · 2009 · Academy of Management Review

  This paper develops a theory explaining how technological objects gain identity through both their physical form and intended function. The authors use this framework to categorize different types of technological change and highlight user-driven innovations that modify how objects are used, an area previous research largely overlooked.

• Knowledge Networks in an Uncompetitive Region: SME Innovation and Growth

  Robert Huggins, Andrew Johnston · 2009 · Growth and Change

  SMEs in Yorkshire and Humberside rely heavily on knowledge networks outside their region, but the most innovative firms balance both local and external connections. While networking activity sometimes correlates negatively with growth—suggesting struggling firms seek public support—the research shows regional innovation systems approaches work better than cluster policies. Policymakers should help SMEs build and maintain diverse knowledge networks spanning both regional and global scales.

• Triple helix circulation: the heart of innovation and development

  James Dzisah, Henry Etzkowitz · 2008 · International Journal of Technology Management and Sustainable Development

  The triple helix model—involving universities, industry, and government—drives innovation and development through the movement of people and knowledge across these sectors. Universities now function as key socio-economic actors beyond their traditional role as knowledge providers. The paper argues that removing barriers to circulation and strengthening cooperation among these development actors is essential for achieving sustainable, knowledge-based development in resource-constrained societies.

• Online Communities and Open Innovation

  Linus Dahlander, Lars Frederiksen, Francesco Rullani · 2008 · Industry and Innovation

  Online communities enable users and customers to participate in innovation at low cost through internet-based collaboration. These communities operate independently of corporate control, yet companies increasingly seek to harness their creative output through open innovation strategies. The paper examines how technological and symbolic value is created when online communities interact with firms across software, services, and manufacturing sectors, challenging traditional business models.

• Responsible research and innovation in the digital age

  Marina Jirotka, Barbara Grimpe, Bernd Carsten Stahl, Grace Eden, Mark Hartswood · 2017 · Communications of the ACM

  Responsible research and innovation demands that scientists prioritize creating solutions that benefit society, not merely advancing knowledge for its own sake. The paper argues that RRI frameworks must shift focus from pursuing excellence in isolation to ensuring research outcomes serve real-world needs and address global challenges.

• Being a Catalyst of Innovation: The Role of Knowledge Diversity and Network Closure

  Marco Tortoriello, Bill McEvily, David Krackhardt · 2014 · Organization Science

  This study identifies innovation catalysts—people who support and promote colleagues' innovativeness—within organizational research teams. The researchers found that individuals with access to diverse knowledge through closed networks become effective catalysts. Analyzing 276 R&D researchers at a multinational tech company, they show catalysts significantly boost their colleagues' patent applications, revealing an important but overlooked role in the innovation process beyond inventors themselves.

• A comprehensive concept of social innovation and its implications for the local context – on the growing importance of social innovation ecosystems and infrastructures

  Dmitri Domanski, Jürgen Howaldt, Christoph Kaletka · 2019 · European Planning Studies

  This paper develops a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding social innovation and its role in addressing twenty-first-century challenges. The authors ground social innovation in social theory, examine its relationship to social change, and introduce social innovation ecosystems as a model for understanding local-level initiatives. Drawing on global mapping data from the SI-DRIVE research project, they demonstrate the diversity of social innovation efforts across multiple sectors and contexts.

• Triple Helix or Quadruple Helix: Which Model of Innovation to Choose for Empirical Studies?

  Yuzhuo Cai, Annina Lattu · 2021 · Minerva

  This paper compares the Triple Helix and Quadruple Helix models of innovation to clarify which researchers should use in empirical studies. The authors review how these models appear in existing literature and find three different views on how they relate to each other, ranging from treating them as separate to fully integrated. They identify strengths and weaknesses of each model and conclude the models are largely complementary, offering potential for combined use in analyzing modern innovation processes.

• Sustainable open innovation to address a grand challenge

  Marcel Bogers, Henry Chesbrough, Robert Strand · 2020 · British Food Journal

  Carlsberg developed the Green Fiber Bottle through open innovation partnerships to address sustainability challenges in food and beverage manufacturing. The case demonstrates that grand challenges require leveraging external collaboration, pursuing sustainability beyond profit motives, adopting new business models, achieving early wins for scaling, and maintaining long-term vision. The Nordic context proved important to success.

• Which factors hinder the adoption of open innovation in SMEs?

  Barbara Bigliardi, Francesco Galati · 2016 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  This study identifies four main barriers preventing small and medium-sized enterprises from adopting open innovation: knowledge gaps, collaboration challenges, organizational constraints, and financial/strategic limitations. Using survey data from 157 Italian SMEs, the researchers found that different firm types perceive these barriers differently depending on their industry's innovativeness level. Some barriers directly impede open innovation adoption while others do not.

• Promoting innovation and excellence to face the rapid diffusion of Novel Psychoactive Substances in the EU: the outcomes of the ReDNet project

  Ornella Corazza, Sulaf Assi, Pierluigi Simonato, John Corkery, Francesco Saverio Bersani, Zsolt Demetrovics, Jacqueline L. Stair, Suzanne Fergus, Cinzia Pezzolesi, Manuela Pasinetti, Paolo Deluca, Colin Drummond, Zoe Davey, Ursula Blaszko, Jacek Moskalewicz, Barbara Mervó, Lucia Di Furia, Maggi Farre, Liv Flesland, Agnieszka Pisarska, Harry L. Shapiro, Holger Siemann, Arvid Skutle, Elias Sferrazza, Marta Torrens, F. Sambola, Peer van der Kreeft, Norbert Scherbaum, Fabrizio Schifano · 2013 · Human Psychopharmacology Clinical and Experimental

  The ReDNet project monitored online drug markets across eight European countries to identify novel psychoactive substances and combat their rapid spread. Researchers tracked over 650 NPS products through websites and forums, then developed prevention messages delivered via websites, SMS, social media, and smartphone apps. The project demonstrated that web-monitoring combined with technology-based interventions effectively reaches young people and informs policymakers about emerging drug threats.

• Regional Innovation Systems: How to Assess Performance

  Jon Mikel Zabala‐Iturriagagoitia, Peter Voigt, Antonio Gutiérrez‐Gracia, Fernando Jiménez‐Sáez · 2007 · Regional Studies

  This paper uses Data Envelopment Analysis to evaluate regional innovation system performance across European regions using 2002-2003 data. High-technology regions rank differently under DEA than traditional scorecards, revealing that advanced regions need stronger system coordination to maintain efficiency. The authors propose combining quantitative and qualitative analysis to improve policy decisions for regional innovation systems.

• Network Dynamics of Innovation Processes

  Iacopo Iacopini, Staša Milojević, Vito Latora · 2018 · Physical Review Letters

  This paper presents a mathematical model explaining how innovations emerge through random walks on networks of interconnected ideas. The model shows that innovations occur when cognitive processes first reach new concepts, with network connections strengthening through repeated use. The framework successfully predicts both the rate at which new discoveries appear and how they correlate with each other across scientific disciplines.

• Universities’ contributions to social innovation: reflections in theory &amp; practice

  Paul Benneworth, Jorge Cunha · 2015 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  Universities contribute to knowledge-based urban development through social innovation by gaining tacit knowledge, material resources, and symbolic legitimacy. The paper argues that universities must modify internal processes to enable diverse actors to benefit from participation. Policy-makers should avoid creating disincentives through teaching and research activities that prevent universities from making substantive contributions to urban development.

• The evolution of the digital service ecosystem and digital business model innovation in retail: The emergence of meta-ecosystems and the value of physical interactions

  Maximilian Palmié, Lucas Miehé, Pejvak Oghazi, Vinit Parida, Joakim Wincent · 2022 · Technological Forecasting and Social Change

  Traditional retailers transitioning to digital business models collaborate with specialized digital service providers, creating hybrid "meta-ecosystems" that combine retail and digital services. Rather than eliminating physical interactions, successful digital retailers use face-to-face relationships with service providers, suppliers, and customers as a key competitive differentiator. The study identifies two stages: initial digital implementation through partnerships, then differentiation through maintaining personal connections.

• Knowledge transfer in open innovation

  Giustina Secundo, Antonio Toma, Giovanni Schiuma, Giuseppina Passıante · 2018 · Business Process Management Journal

  This paper develops a framework for understanding how knowledge flows among diverse actors in healthcare ecosystems to support open innovation. The framework identifies four key components: player categories, knowledge flows across exploration and exploitation stages, player motivations, and positions in the innovation process. The research highlights that patients, doctors, and nurses—not just R&D professionals—play critical roles in knowledge transfer and innovation development within healthcare networks.

• Interactive Effects of Network Capability, ICT Capability, and Financial Slack on Technology-Based Small Firm Innovation Performance

  Vinit Parida, Daniel Örtqvist · 2015 · Journal of Small Business Management

  Network capability, ICT capability, and financial slack together influence innovation performance in technology-based small firms. The study shows that these three factors interact to affect how well small firms innovate. Firms that combine strong external relationships, strategic use of technology, and available financial resources achieve better innovation outcomes than those lacking these elements.

• Managing Potential and Realized Absorptive Capacity: How do Organizational Antecedents Matter?

  Justin J.P. Jansen, Frans A. J. Van Den Bosch, Henk Volberda · 2005 · Academy of Management Journal

  This study examines how organizational structures affect a company's ability to absorb and use new knowledge. The researchers found that coordination mechanisms like cross-functional teams and job rotation build potential absorptive capacity, while socialization mechanisms like employee connectedness and mentoring increase realized absorptive capacity. The findings explain why organizations struggle to balance these two components and differ in extracting value from acquired knowledge.

• Smart Production Workers in Terms of Creativity and Innovation: The Implication for Open Innovation

  Bożena Gajdzik, Radosław Wolniak · 2022 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  This paper develops a framework of skills and competencies needed by employees in companies transitioning to Industry 4.0, focusing on creativity and innovation. The authors analyzed job recruitment offers from Polish steel companies implementing smart manufacturing and educational programs from Polish technical universities in metallurgy. They found that the paper establishes an occupational profile for Industry 4.0 workers and examines how much Polish metallurgical companies and universities emphasize creativity and innovation in hiring and training.

• User Involvement throughout the Innovation Process in High‐Tech Industries

  Petra Bosch‐Sijtsema, Jan Bosch · 2014 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  High-tech firms increasingly collect user feedback throughout entire innovation cycles rather than in isolated phases. This study of eight high-tech companies reveals how firms use technology and social media to gather and apply user input across all stages of product development. The authors develop a framework identifying different types of user involvement and methods for integrating customer feedback systematically into innovation processes.

• OPEN INNOVATION PRACTICES AND THEIR EFFECT ON INNOVATION PERFORMANCE

  Bernd Ebersberger, Carter Walter Bloch, Sverre J. Herstad, Els Van de Velde · 2012 · International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management

  Open innovation practices significantly boost innovation performance across European firms. Broad-based approaches combining multiple open innovation strategies deliver stronger results than individual practices alone. Internal research investments remain essential alongside external collaboration, showing that open innovation complements rather than replaces in-house knowledge development.

• A Quadruple and Quintuple Helix Approach to Regional Innovation Systems in the Transformation to a Forestry-Based Bioeconomy

  Ida Grundel, Margareta Dahlström · 2016 · Journal of the Knowledge Economy

  This study examines how a Swedish forestry region can transform its innovation system by including more actors—particularly civil society—to develop a sustainable bioeconomy. Researchers interviewed stakeholders and found that a quintuple helix model, which adds environmental and civil society perspectives to traditional innovation systems, could drive broader societal change in consumer behavior, production, technology, and values. However, civil society involvement remains largely aspirational in current regional policy.

• From innovation to commercialization through networks and agglomerations: analysis of sources of innovation, innovation capabilities and performance of Dutch SMEs

  Patricia van Hemert, Peter Nijkamp, Enno Masurel · 2012 · The Annals of Regional Science

  Dutch SMEs succeed in innovation when they balance exploration and exploitation networks. This study of 243 Dutch firms shows that exploring technology opportunities through partnerships with universities and research institutions significantly improves innovation success. The findings suggest policymakers should support external collaboration networks, not just internal R&D, to help SMEs commercialize innovations effectively.

• Digital entrepreneurship: The role of entrepreneurial orientation and digitalization for disruptive innovation

  Sascha Kraus, Katharina Vonmetz, Ludovico Bullini Orlandi, Alessandro Zardini, Cecilia Rossignoli · 2023 · Technological Forecasting and Social Change

  Entrepreneurial orientation significantly boosts firms' ability to develop disruptive innovation. However, digitalization strategy works differently depending on a firm's entrepreneurial orientation: it hinders disruptive innovation in highly entrepreneurial firms but supports it in less entrepreneurial ones. Firms should calibrate their digitalization investments based on their entrepreneurial orientation level to maximize disruptive innovation.

• Rational Learning and Bounded Learning in the Diffusion of Policy Innovations

  Covadonga Meseguer · 2006 · Rationality and Society

  Countries adopt policy innovations by learning from neighbors and successful examples, not through purely rational analysis. The paper shows that bounded learning and rational learning produce identical results when information gathering carries real costs. This reconciles two competing theories and explains how policy innovations spread across developing nations, particularly regarding trade liberalization decisions.

• Looking for Regional Systems of Innovation: Evidence from the Italian Innovation Survey

  Rinaldo Evangelista, Simona Iammarino, Valeria Mastrostefano, Alberto Silvani · 2002 · Regional Studies

  This study examines regional innovation patterns across Italy using the Community Innovation Survey. The authors find that Italy's regions display diverse innovation characteristics beyond the typical north-south divide, shaped by firm strategies, technological performance, and systemic interactions. However, only a few regions possess genuine innovation systems; most lack sufficient connections and knowledge flows between actors to constitute functioning systems of innovation.

• Artificial intelligence for supply chain management: Disruptive innovation or innovative disruption?

  Christian Hendriksen · 2023 · Journal of Supply Chain Management

  This paper examines how artificial intelligence integration transforms supply chain management. The author proposes the AI Integration framework, which considers the depth of AI adoption across supply chains and AI's role in decision-making, alongside human interpretation of AI systems. Different integration approaches produce different types of disruption. The paper argues that supply chain management needs cross-disciplinary collaboration and sociotechnical perspectives to prepare for AI-driven transformation.

• Tackling Societal Challenges with Open Innovation

  Anita M. McGahan, Marcel Bogers, Henry Chesbrough, Marcus Holgersson · 2020 · California Management Review

  Open innovation—combining external knowledge and market pathways with internal processes—has traditionally served business goals. This paper argues that open innovation can address societal challenges, though doing so creates trade-offs and tensions. The authors introduce articles from the World Open Innovation Conference examining how organizations deploy open innovation to tackle broader social problems beyond profit.

• The Googlization of Health Research: From Disruptive Innovation to Disruptive Ethics

  Tamar Sharon · 2016 · Personalized Medicine

  Large technology companies like Google and Apple are entering health research through consumer mobile devices that collect health data. While portrayed as beneficial disruption, this shift creates serious ethical problems: research quality concerns, privacy violations, and power imbalances where tech companies control data and infrastructure. The author argues that these power asymmetries deserve urgent critical attention because they shape which health research gets conducted.

• VALUES-BASED NETWORK AND BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION

  Henning Breuer, Florian Lüdeke‐Freund · 2016 · International Journal of Innovation Management

  Innovation management must harness networks and shared values to solve societal problems. This paper argues that values-based network and business model innovation can address complex challenges like unsustainable energy systems. The authors present a theoretical framework and facilitation methods, tested through a workshop on regional energy networks in Germany, demonstrating that values-based networks and business models create starting points for systemic sustainability innovations.

• Quality criteria and indicators for responsible research and innovation: learning from transdisciplinarity

  Fern Wickson, Anna L. Carew · 2014 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  This paper develops quality criteria and performance indicators for responsible research and innovation (RRI) to make the concept more concrete and actionable. Drawing on transdisciplinary research experience and stakeholder deliberation around nanoremediation, the authors create an evaluative rubric with specific criteria and indicators. While developed for nanoparticle environmental remediation, they argue this framework can guide how other fields develop their own RRI evaluation approaches.

• Open Government Data as an Innovation Process: Lessons from a Living Lab Experiment

  Erna Ruijer, Albert Meijer · 2019 · Public Performance & Management Review

  A living lab experiment in the Netherlands tested open government data as an innovation process over two years. While interventions successfully increased data use and government awareness, scaling remained blocked by organizational barriers. The research finds that realizing open data's potential requires strong management commitment and systemic changes to rules, technology, and practices—not just making data available.

• The Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) Maturity Model: Linking Theory and Practice

  Bernd Carsten Stahl, Michael Obach, Emad Yaghmaei, Veikko Ikonen, Kate Chatfield, Alexander Brem · 2017 · Sustainability

  This paper develops a maturity model for Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) that helps companies integrate ethical and sustainable practices into their R&D processes. The authors tested the model across three industrial settings and found it practical and effective for corporate innovation management. The model bridges RRI theory with real-world business implementation, offering companies a structured framework to ensure their research is acceptable, sustainable, and socially desirable.

• A call for action: The impact of business model innovation on business ecosystems, society and planet

  Yuliya Snihur, Nancy Bocken · 2022 · Long Range Planning

  Business model innovation significantly affects companies, their ecosystems, and the environment. This paper distinguishes between standard business model innovation, sustainable variants, and ecosystem-level approaches. The authors argue that research must examine how these innovations create or destroy value and evolve over time, particularly as sustainability pressures intensify.

• IP Models to Orchestrate Innovation Ecosystems: IMEC, a Public Research Institute in Nano-Electronics

  Bart Leten, Wim Vanhaverbeke, Nadine Roijakkers, André Clerix, Johan Van Helleputte · 2013 · California Management Review

  Public research institutes can orchestrate innovation ecosystems through intellectual property governance models. IMEC, a nano-electronics research institute, demonstrates how IP policies determine how ecosystem partners capture value from collaborative research. The institute's multi-party model involving public and private firms shows that IP governance directly influences ecosystem success and partner participation.

• Linking Digital Capacity to Innovation Performance: the Mediating Role of Absorptive Capacity

  Ioanna Kastelli, Petros Dimas, Dimitrios Stamopoulos, Άγγελος Τσακανίκας · 2022 · Journal of the Knowledge Economy

  Digital technologies boost firm innovation, but their effectiveness depends on absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to acquire and use external knowledge. A survey of 1,014 Greek manufacturing firms shows digital capacity directly improves innovation performance, but this effect strengthens significantly when firms possess strong absorptive capacity. The findings suggest digital investment alone is insufficient; firms must also invest in R&D, training, and knowledge networks to maximize innovation gains.

• How Does Innovation Emerge in a Service Ecosystem?

  Jennifer D. Chandler, Ilias Danatzis, Carolin Wernicke, Melissa Archpru Akaka, David Reynolds · 2018 · Journal of Service Research

  This study examines how innovation emerges within service ecosystems using four years of case study data on an Internet-of-Things technology solution. The research identifies institutional reconciliation as a previously overlooked phase in innovation development, showing that ideas are refined through four types of institutional pressures and shaped by plasticity in four distinct ways. The findings establish innovation as a systemic process and recommend that managers cultivate organizational norms, rules, and beliefs to support innovation emergence.

• To Construct Regional Advantage from Innovation Systems First Build Policy Platforms

  Philip Cooke · 2007 · European Planning Studies

  Regional economic development requires building endogenous advantage by integrating economic strengths, knowledge assets, governance, and creativity. The paper argues that policy platforms mixing diverse instruments can promote related variety among industries, enabling innovations to diffuse across technology platforms where absorptive capacity is high. This approach addresses regional imbalances more effectively than relying on regional learning alone.

• Transformative innovation policy to meet the challenge of climate change: sociotechnical networks aligned with consumption and end-use as new transition arenas for a low-carbon society or green economy

  Fred Steward · 2012 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  The paper argues that climate policy must shift from incremental innovation to transformative change through sociotechnical transitions. Rather than focusing on technology supply or macroeconomic approaches, innovation policy should target consumption and end-use patterns organized around fundamental societal functions. The author shows that current policy mixes new demand-driven systemic initiatives with outdated supply-side approaches, and proposes that energy system visualization reveals consumption categories offering better frameworks for designing sociotechnical experiments toward a low-carbon society.

• Responsible Innovation: A Pilot Study with the U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

  Richard Owen, Nicola Goldberg · 2010 · Risk Analysis

  The UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council piloted a risk register requirement for research funding applicants, asking them to identify potential impacts and risks of proposed innovations in nanoscience. Most applicants identified only immediate occupational health risks, while few anticipated broader environmental or societal impacts. Proposals that succeeded in addressing wider impacts included multidisciplinary teams, life cycle assessments, and public engagement, enabling continuous reflexivity and real-time adjustment of research direction.

• The intertwining of knowledge sharing and creation in the digital platform based ecosystem. A conceptual study on the lens of the open innovation approach

  Alexey Bereznoy, Dirk Meissner, Veronica Scuotto · 2021 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  This paper develops a theoretical framework showing how knowledge sharing and creation intertwine within digital platform ecosystems under open innovation principles. The authors propose that digital platforms function as dynamic spaces where knowledge sharing and creation continuously interact, introducing the concept of "ba-sho" as a foundational element. The framework applies across micro, meso, and macro organizational levels.

• Online social networks as an enabler of innovation in organizations

  Daniel Palacios‐Marqués, José M. Merigó, Pedro Soto‐Acosta · 2015 · Management Decision

  Spanish hospitality firms using online social networks show significantly higher innovation capacity, which directly improves business performance. The study surveyed 193 four- and five-star hotels and found that social media platforms enhance knowledge management and business intelligence, enabling firms to develop innovation competences that drive competitive advantage in the tourism industry.

• Open innovation in the face of the COVID‐19 grand challenge: insights from the Pan‐European hackathon ‘EUvsVirus’

  Alberto Bertello, Marcel Bogers, Paola De Bernardi · 2021 · R and D Management

  The EUvsVirus hackathon mobilized thousands of participants across Europe to develop COVID-19 solutions through open innovation. The 3-day online event combined broad problem scope, participatory design, digital access, and community building to tap distributed knowledge beyond traditional organizations. The hackathon successfully engaged atypical innovators—retired experts, students, and the public—demonstrating that grand challenges require openness at societal level, not just across organizational boundaries.

• Organisational institutionalisation of responsible innovation

  Richard Owen, Mario Pansera, Phil Macnaghten, Sally Randles · 2020 · Research Policy

  This paper examines how responsible innovation became institutionalized at the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and its funded universities between 2010 and 2020. The authors find that while the EPSRC successfully embedded responsible innovation practices before publishing its 2013 policy, universities struggled to adopt it due to competing institutional priorities and different research cultures. The process remains incomplete and contested.

• Traditional ecological knowledge in innovation governance: a framework for responsible and just innovation

  David Ludwig, Phil Macnaghten · 2019 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is often eroded by Western innovation focused on economic growth and technological modernization. This paper argues that innovation governance must shift away from growth-oriented definitions toward frameworks emphasizing societal goals. The authors contend that responsible innovation approaches alone cannot address TEK integration without confronting underlying decolonization and social justice issues that shape how traditional communities experience and control change.

• Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles in digital supply chains: A framework for integrating innovations towards sustainable value networks

  Dimitrios Bechtsis, Naoum Tsolakis, Dimitrios Vlachos, Jagjit Singh Srai · 2018 · Journal of Cleaner Production

  This paper develops a software framework for integrating intelligent autonomous vehicles into sustainable supply chains. The researchers review existing simulation tools, create an integrated framework to monitor supply chain sustainability performance with autonomous vehicles, translate it into a working software application through a five-stage process, and demonstrate the tool using a warehouse model. The framework enables flexible, decentralized supply chain reconfiguration and helps operations managers assess autonomous vehicle performance while tracking sustainability metrics.

• Regional Innovation Systems in Hungary: The Failing Synergy at the National Level

  Balázs Lengyel, Loet Leydesdorff · 2010 · Regional Studies

  This paper measures synergies in Hungary's regional innovation systems using entropy statistics across firm categories, sub-regions, industrial sectors, and firm sizes. The analysis reveals three distinct regimes: Budapest functions as a knowledge-based innovation hub, northwestern regions show foreign company influence on knowledge organization, and southeastern regions depend on government spending patterns. The results demonstrate failing national-level synergy despite these regional dynamics.

• Stakeholder engagement for responsible innovation in the private sector: critical issues and management practices

  Vincent Blok, L. Hoffmans, E.F.M. Wubben · 2015 · Journal on Chain and Network Science

  Dutch food companies pursuing responsible innovation fall short of genuine stakeholder engagement despite policy emphasis on it. Interviews with innovative food firms and non-economic stakeholders reveal a significant gap between the ideal of mutual responsiveness promoted in responsible innovation literature and actual practices. The study identifies critical barriers to stakeholder engagement specific to private-sector innovation and proposes management practices to address these obstacles.

• Biotechnology Clusters as Regional, Sectoral Innovation Systems

  Philip Cooke · 2002 · International Regional Science Review

  Biotechnology firms cluster near universities and knowledge sources, forming regional innovation systems that depend on complex interactions between scientists, entrepreneurs, investors, and lawyers. The paper analyzes how these regional sectoral innovation systems function by examining cases in Germany, Cambridge Massachusetts, and Cambridge UK, showing that proximity to research institutions, clinical trial facilities, and specialized services enables the transfer of scientific knowledge into commercial biotechnology products.

• Organizing for Inbound Open Innovation: How External Consultants and a Dedicated <scp>R</scp>&amp;<scp>D</scp> Unit Influence Product Innovation Performance

  Mattia Bianchi, Annalisa Croce, Claudio Dell’Era, C. Anthony Di Benedetto, Federico Frattini · 2015 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Spanish manufacturing firms using external consultants in R&D activities gain stronger innovation performance from outsourced R&D, while dedicated internal R&D units reduce sensitivity to outsourcing levels. External consultants lower the optimal amount of outside knowledge needed, whereas formal R&D units require higher levels of external acquisition to achieve peak performance. Organizational structure shapes how effectively firms convert external technological knowledge into innovation.

• Innovation intermediaries: a process view on open innovation coordination

  Bernhard Katzy, Ebru Turgut, Thomas Holzmann, Klaus Sailer · 2013 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  Innovation intermediaries play a crucial role in coordinating collaborative innovation projects across organizational networks. The study identifies three strategic capabilities that distinguish intermediaries from traditional project managers and online marketplaces: matchmaking and innovation process design, collaborative project management, and project valuation with portfolio management. These intermediaries facilitate co-creation and economic exchange in nested innovation processes.

• Cloud computing networking: challenges and opportunities for innovations

  Siamak Azodolmolky, Philipp Wieder, Ramin Yahyapour · 2013 · IEEE Communications Magazine

  Cloud computing providers face networking challenges in managing infrastructure-as-a-service facilities, particularly around resource provisioning, tenant visibility, and multi-facility federation. The paper examines existing technological approaches to these problems and proposes software-defined networking as an innovative solution for more efficient cloud infrastructure management.

• Diffusion of innovations in social networks

  Daron Acemoğlu, Asuman Ozdaglar, Ercan Yildiz · 2011

  This paper examines how innovations spread through social networks using the linear threshold model, where individuals adopt innovations only after exposure from multiple neighbors. The authors find that innovations spread further in networks with lower clustering, contradicting existing literature. They provide analytical evidence and simulations supporting this claim, and extend the model to account for path dependence, showing how small shocks can significantly alter diffusion outcomes.

• Ethnicity, friendship network and social practices as the motor of dialect change: Linguistic innovation in London

  Jenny Cheshire, Sue Fox, Paul Kerswill, Eivind Torgersen · 2008 · Sociolinguistica - International Yearbook of European Sociolinguistics / Internationales Jahrbuch für europäische Soziolinguistik

  This paper examines how linguistic innovation spreads through London's communities, showing that ethnicity, friendship networks, and social practices drive dialect change. The authors analyze how these social factors shape language variation and innovation among different groups, revealing the mechanisms through which new linguistic features emerge and propagate through social networks.

• The linkage between open innovation, absorptive capacity and managerial ties: A cross-country perspective

  M. Muzamil Naqshbandi, Sajjad M. Jasimuddin · 2022 · Journal of Innovation & Knowledge

  Managerial ties and absorptive capacity drive open innovation across France, Malaysia, and the UAE. The study of 530 companies shows that managers' external relationships directly enable inbound open innovation in all three countries, while outbound innovation depends on managerial ties in France and the UAE. Absorptive capacity mediates these relationships in France and the UAE, meaning companies must develop internal knowledge-absorption capabilities to convert external connections into innovation.

• Collaboration beyond the supply network for green innovation: insight from 11 cases

  Lisa Melander, Ala Pazirandeh · 2019 · Supply Chain Management An International Journal

  Firms collaborate on green innovation across industry boundaries through horizontal partnerships and extended networks including suppliers and customers. Digital technologies, connectivity, and big data enable knowledge sharing and drive environmental improvements in energy efficiency, materials, emissions reduction, and recycling. Successful green innovation requires developing business models and finding collaboration partners that facilitate transformation toward connected products and services.

• The Diffusion and Adoption of Public Sector Innovations: A Meta-Synthesis of the Literature

  Hanna de Vries, Lars Tummers, Victor Bekkers · 2018 · Perspectives on Public Management and Governance

  This meta-synthesis examines how public sector innovations spread and get adopted across three research areas: public management, public policy, and e-government. The authors find these fields operate independently with different models and rarely define key terms clearly. They identify that macro-institutional factors dominate public management and policy research, while e-government scholars focus more on individual-level factors. The paper proposes an integrated framework of adoption drivers and recommends future research combine multiple organizational levels, distinguish between innovation generation and adoption, and incorporate collaborative innovation approaches.

• “Open innovation” and “triple helix” models of innovation: can synergy in innovation systems be measured?

  Loet Leydesdorff, Inga Ivanova · 2016 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  This paper compares open innovation and triple helix models as frameworks for generating innovation value. While open innovation centers on firms, the triple helix distributes leadership across firms, universities, and regional governments. The authors argue that measuring redundancy—the variety of perspectives from different coordination mechanisms—indicates an innovation system's capacity to generate new options and self-organize. Higher redundancy reduces uncertainty and increases system synergy and innovativeness.

• Open innovation modes and the role of internal R&amp;D

  Alexander Schroll, Andreas Mild · 2011 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  European companies adopt open innovation strategies at varying levels, with 30% highly open and 39% semi-open to external collaboration. Inbound open innovation—acquiring external knowledge—is more prevalent than outbound approaches. The study reveals that companies can reduce internal R&D spending through inbound open innovation, while the choice between vertically integrated, inbound, outbound, or mixed innovation strategies directly correlates with R&D investment intensity.

• Learning and innovation in inter‐organizational network collaboration

  Mika Westerlund, Risto Rajala · 2010 · Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing

  This study examines how small and medium-sized firms' learning approaches affect their collaboration in business networks. The research finds that exploratory learning—seeking new knowledge—drives firms to collaborate with partners on product innovation. Exploitative learning—refining existing processes—encourages internal improvement but discourages external networking. The findings show that product innovation requires learning with network partners, while process improvements happen within individual firms.

• Managing Open Innovation in Biotechnology

  Terry Fetterhoff, Dirk Voelkel · 2006 · Research-Technology Management

  Innovation requires matching customer needs with enabling technologies. The paper defines innovation as commercializing technology that gives customers new capability, identifying two key requirements: understanding unmet customer needs and knowing available technologies. Roche Diagnostics demonstrates how companies can source external technologies by systematically evaluating them through these innovation drivers.

• Living Labs and user engagement for innovation and sustainability

  Lorenzo Compagnucci, Francesca Spigarelli, José Coelho, Carlos Duarte · 2020 · Journal of Cleaner Production

  Living Labs engage stakeholders and users in co-creating sustainable innovations through a Quadruple Helix Model approach. Research across multiple case studies shows that Living Labs successfully involve firms, businesses, and communities in developing solutions that benefit the economy, society, and environment. The study identifies best practices and policy recommendations for establishing Living Labs that advance local sustainable development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

• Open innovation actions and innovation performance

  Marco Greco, Michele Grimaldi, Livio Cricelli · 2015 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  This systematic review of European empirical studies reveals that open innovation practices significantly boost innovation performance. Coupled open innovation activities—combining internal and external knowledge—consistently improve both product and process innovation. However, outbound open innovation receives little research attention. The paper identifies measurement inconsistencies in how scholars assess innovation performance and provides managers with strategic guidance for leveraging open innovation to enhance organizational outcomes.

• How Early Implementations Influence Later Adoptions of Innovation: Social Positioning and Skill Reproduction in the Diffusion of Robotic Surgery

  Amelia Compagni, Valentina Mele, Davide Ravasi · 2014 · Academy of Management Journal

  This study tracks robotic surgery adoption across Italian hospitals from 1999 to 2010. Early adopters at peripheral hospitals used persuasion and skill-sharing to position themselves as exemplary users, which then drove other hospitals to adopt the technology through social pressure rather than proven technical or economic benefits. Early implementation experiences shaped the entire diffusion pattern.

• Do Frugal and Reverse Innovation Foster Sustainability? Introduction of a Conceptual Framework

  Alexander Brem, Björn Sven Ivens · 2013 · Journal of Technology Management for Growing Economies

  This paper examines how frugal and reverse innovation relate to sustainability performance. The authors establish connections between these innovation approaches and sustainability across three dimensions: resource sustainability in value creation, process sustainability, and outcome sustainability. They argue that improvements in these sustainability dimensions drive better market performance for companies.

• DEVELOPING CROSS‐BORDER REGIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEMS: KEY FACTORS AND CHALLENGES

  Michaela Trippl · 2009 · Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie

  Cross-border regions face distinct challenges in developing integrated innovation systems compared to regions within single nations. Geographical proximity and local institutions matter for knowledge creation, but cross-border areas show vastly different capacities to build unified innovation spaces. The paper identifies critical conditions necessary for transfrontier innovation systems to emerge, revealing that the regional innovation systems framework applies differently across borders.

• Challenges to open innovation in traditional SMEs: an analysis of pre-competitive projects in university-industry-government collaboration

  Alberto Bertello, Alberto Ferraris, Paola De Bernardi, Bernardo Bertoldi · 2021 · International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal

  Small and medium-sized enterprises in traditional, low-tech sectors struggle to participate effectively in university-industry-government collaborations focused on pre-competitive research and development. This study tracked three such projects across four phases—initiation, execution, closing, and monitoring—and identified specific firm-level and project-level obstacles that prevent these collaborations from meeting their innovation goals.

• Exploring How Peer Communities Enable Lead User Innovations to Become Standard Equipment in the Industry: Community Pull Effects

  Christoph Hienerth, Christopher Lettl · 2011 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Lead users in medical and sporting equipment industries develop innovations that become industry standards through active peer community engagement. Community members provide critical feedback, contribute to product development, test prototypes, and drive diffusion. Two key mechanisms emerge: communities demand and facilitate prototype development, and they bridge the gap between early adopters and mainstream markets. Peer communities function as essential social networks that actively shape entrepreneurial innovation processes.

• Who Are the Knowledge Brokers in Regional Systems of Innovation? A Multi-Actor Network Analysis

  Martina Kauffeld-Monz, Michael Fritsch · 2010 · Regional Studies

  Universities and public research organizations serve as central knowledge brokers in German regional innovation networks, occupying more influential positions than private firms. This gatekeeper function proves especially critical in lagging regions lacking large companies. Private firms without inter-regional research partnerships absorb most of the transferred knowledge, demonstrating how public institutions bridge local and global innovation linkages.

• Introducing the dilemma of societal alignment for inclusive and responsible research and innovation

  Bárbara Ribeiro, Lars Bengtsson, Paul Benneworth, Susanne Bührer, Elena Castro‐Martínez, Meiken Hansen, Katharina Jarmai, Ralf Lindner, Julia Olmos‐Peñuela, Cordula Ott, Philip Shapira · 2018 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  This paper identifies a critical governance challenge in research and innovation: the 'dilemma of societal alignment.' The authors argue that while inclusive and responsible innovation requires alignment between research goals and societal values, this alignment remains scattered and overlooked in science and technology policy. They build on Collingridge's technology control dilemma to propose a framework for addressing how governance can better integrate social considerations into innovation development and uptake.

• Open innovation and public administration: transformational typologies and business model impacts

  Joseph Feller, Patrick Finnegan, Olof Nilsson · 2010 · European Journal of Information Systems

  Swedish municipalities collaborating through open innovation networks transform public service delivery and organizational structures by co-creating services with external partners and each other. The study identifies four typologies of governmental transformation enabled by open innovation, demonstrating how these practices fundamentally reshape how public authorities create and deliver value to citizens, moving beyond incremental e-Government improvements to radical organizational change.

• Open Innovation in Practice: Goal Complementarity and Closed <scp>NPD</scp> Networks to Explain Differences in Innovation Performance for <scp>SMEs</scp> in the Medical Devices Sector

  A.J.J. Pullen, Petronella C. de Weerd-Nederhof, Arend J. Groen, O.A.M. Fisscher · 2012 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Small and medium-sized enterprises in the medical devices sector improve innovation performance through strategic collaboration networks. The study identifies an ideal network profile characterized by goal complementarity, resource complementarity, trust, and strong network positioning. High-performing SMEs adopt closed, focused, business-like networking approaches rather than broad open innovation. Goal complementarity emerges as the most distinctive factor differentiating successful from less successful companies.

• Putting academic ideas into practice: technological progress and the absorptive capacity of construction organizations

  David Gann · 2001 · Construction Management and Economics

  Construction firms in the UK vary widely in their ability to absorb academic research. Large firms with qualified staff, specialist focus, and university partnerships directly implement research findings. Most firms learn through publications and professional networks instead. Professional institutions help share knowledge but sometimes block innovation by enforcing outdated practices. Government-sponsored collaboration between researchers and practitioners accelerates adoption. Construction organizations need stronger feedback loops, continuous learning, and training to improve their capacity to use new ideas.

• Quadruple helix as a network of relationships: creating value within a Swedish regional innovation system

  Nina Hasche, Linda Höglund, Gabriel Linton · 2019 · Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship

  This study examines a Swedish regional innovation initiative through the quadruple helix framework, which includes industry, government, academia, and users/civil society. The research reveals that the fourth helix is not a separate actor but a complex arena where the other three helices take on different roles to create value for society, such as new jobs or improved elderly care services. Users within this framework vary by context and can include businesses, organizations, and citizens.

• Business model innovation from an open systems perspective: structural challenges and managerial solutions

  Henrik Berglund, Christian Sandström · 2013 · International Journal of Product Development

  Business model innovation requires firms to navigate interdependencies across organizational boundaries rather than focus solely on internal capabilities. The authors argue that because business models are systemic and span firm boundaries, companies lack complete control over their networks. They propose that managers should develop shared knowledge, build trust-based appropriability regimes, maintain network stability, and align diverse stakeholder interests to overcome these structural constraints.

• Innovation in Europe: A Tale of Networks, Knowledge and Trade in Five Cities

  James Simmie, James Sennett, Peter Wood, Doug Hart · 2002 · Regional Studies

  This paper analyzes innovation patterns across five European cities—Amsterdam, London, Milan, Paris, and Stuttgart—using firm surveys. Regional cities like Stuttgart and Milan show innovation more tightly linked to regional and national economies, while world cities like Paris and London engage more internationally. The research demonstrates that international trading systems between firms, crucial for knowledge acquisition and innovation inputs, are key features of innovation geography, challenging overgeneralized network theories.

• How family firms execute open innovation strategies: the Loccioni case

  Elena Casprini, Alfredo De Massis, Alberto Di Minin, Federico Frattini, Andrea Piccaluga · 2017 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  This case study of Loccioni, an Italian family firm, reveals how family businesses execute open innovation strategies by managing knowledge flows. The firm developed two distinctive capabilities—imprinting and fraternization—that overcome barriers to acquiring and transferring external knowledge. These capabilities leverage the family firm's unique social capital and goals, demonstrating that family business characteristics can actually enable rather than hinder open innovation success.

• Open innovation in SMEs

  Pooran Wynarczyk · 2013 · Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development

  Open innovation practices significantly boost UK SMEs' international competitiveness and export performance. The study of 64 UK firms shows that success depends on combining internal factors—R&D capacity and management competencies—with external factors including open innovation collaboration and government R&D grants. SMEs that collaborate with universities and other firms through open innovation achieve stronger competitive advantage than closed-innovation firms.

• A structural equation modeling approach for the acceptance of driverless automated shuttles based on constructs from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology and the Diffusion of Innovation Theory

  Sina Nordhoff, Victor Malmsten, Bart van Arem, Peng Liu, Riender Happee · 2021 · Transportation Research Part F Traffic Psychology and Behaviour

  This study examined public acceptance of automated shuttles through surveys of 340 people who experienced a driverless shuttle in Berlin. Compatibility with existing travel habits emerged as the strongest predictor of willingness to use automated shuttles, surpassing expected performance benefits. Trust and willingness to share rides also increased acceptance. Participants found the shuttles easy to use but expressed safety concerns without onboard supervision, preferring remote control room monitoring instead.

• Facilitating SME Innovation Capability through Business Networking

  Suvi Konsti‐Laakso, Timo Pihkala, Sascha Kraus · 2012 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  Small and medium-sized businesses drive innovation through collaborative networks that enable learning and value creation. This case study of a developing innovation network shows how SMEs generate ideas and create new ventures when working together with other local actors. Facilitated network development significantly enhances SMEs' capacity to innovate and create value.

• Responsible innovation: bringing together technology assessment, applied ethics, and STS research

  Armin Grünwald · 2011 · Repository KITopen (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

  Responsible innovation integrates technology assessment, applied ethics, and science-technology-society studies to embed ethical reflection into research and development processes. The framework brings together established practices in assessing technology impacts, involving stakeholders, and evaluating outcomes with explicit ethical responsibility. Research institutions and funding agencies increasingly adopt this integrative approach to shape how innovation develops, creating opportunities for broader actor participation and reflection in R&D governance.

• Managing innovation networks in the knowledge-driven economy

  Hans‐Jörg Bullinger, Karin Auernhammer, A. Gomeringer · 2004 · International Journal of Production Research

  Innovation in the knowledge-driven economy requires networks rather than individual organizations because modern innovations demand diverse, complex competencies no one company can develop alone. The paper identifies success factors for managing innovation networks and proposes innovation roadmapping as a methodology to help networks identify ideas, align efforts, and deliver complete solutions across complementary competencies.

• Universities and open innovation: the determinants of network centrality

  Robert Huggins, Daniel Prokop, Piers Thompson · 2019 · The Journal of Technology Transfer

  Universities with central positions in university-industry networks show higher involvement in spin-off generation and externally funded research. Patenting activity correlates negatively with network centrality. Geographic location has minimal impact on a university's network position. The study reveals that specific institutional characteristics either enable or constrain universities' open innovation engagement.

• Measurement framework for assessing disruptive innovations

  Jianfeng Guo, Jiaofeng Pan, Jianxin Guo, Фу Гу, Jari Kuusisto · 2018 · Technological Forecasting and Social Change

  This paper develops a multidimensional framework for measuring whether product innovations will be disruptive. The framework evaluates technological features, marketplace dynamics, and external environment across ten indicators. Testing on WeChat, modularized mobile phones, and virtual/augmented reality, the authors surveyed engineering experts and found the framework reliably predicted which innovations succeeded or failed, helping companies make better decisions about product launches and resource allocation.

• Social Capital and Learning Advantages: A Problem of Absorptive Capacity

  Mathew Hughes, Robert E. Morgan, R. Duane Ireland, Paul Hughes · 2014 · Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal

  Social capital and network relationships don't directly improve firm performance. Instead, absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new knowledge—mediates and moderates how learning through networks translates into business results. The study challenges the assumption that new firms automatically gain performance advantages from their social connections.

• OPEN INNOVATION MATURITY FRAMEWORK

  Ellen Enkel, John Bell, HANNAH HOGENKAMP · 2011 · International Journal of Innovation Management

  Researchers developed a maturity framework for open innovation by working with 15 companies. The framework measures and benchmarks how well organizations conduct open innovation across multiple dimensions. It identifies areas where companies excel and where they need improvement to advance their open innovation capabilities.

• Rewarding in open innovation communities &amp;ndash; how to motivate members

  Maria Antikainen, Heli Väätäjä · 2010 · International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management

  Online open innovation communities need both monetary and non-monetary rewards to attract and retain members. This study surveyed participants and interviewed maintainers of three open innovation intermediaries, finding that members value monetary rewards and recognition for idea quality. Analysis of twelve communities showed that successful intermediaries combine multiple reward types to motivate sustained participation.

• Transformation Networks in Innovation Alliances – The Development of Volvo C70

  Sigvald Harryson, Rafal Dudkowski, Alexander W. Stern · 2008 · Journal of Management Studies

  This paper examines how Volvo developed the C70 car through learning alliances spanning multiple organizational levels. The researchers identify 'transformation networks' that enable knowledge transfer and integration across exploration and exploitation phases of innovation. These networks operate differently at various organizational levels and prove essential for converting research into commercial products.

• Innovation in the public sector: Towards an open and collaborative approach

  Victor Bekkers, Lars Tummers · 2018 · International Review of Administrative Sciences

  Public sector innovation has shifted from an internal organizational process to an open, collaborative effort involving multiple stakeholders across organizations. The paper argues that scholars must now study how to engage stakeholders in innovation and integrate insights from network governance, leadership, and design thinking to produce socially relevant research.

• Exploring the Relationships between Strategy, Innovation, and Management Control Systems: The Roles of Social Networking, Organic Innovative Culture, and Formal Controls

  Robert H. Chenhall, J. Kallunki, Hanna Silvola · 2011 · Journal of Management Accounting Research

  Product differentiation strategy drives innovation in enterprises through three management control mechanisms: social networking, organic innovative culture, and formal controls. A survey of Russian enterprises confirms that differentiation strategies increase innovation activity. Organic culture and formal controls directly boost innovation, while social networking indirectly supports innovation by strengthening innovative culture. These control systems act as the pathway linking strategic choices to innovation outcomes.

• The evolution of Norway's national innovation system

  Jan Fagerberg, David C. Mowery, Bart Verspagen · 2009 · Science and Public Policy

  This paper examines how Norway's science, technology, and innovation policies evolved alongside its industrial structure over time. It develops a historical approach to studying innovation policy development and focuses on resource-based industries rather than high-tech sectors. The analysis reveals how institutions and politics shaped Norway's national innovation system, offering insights often missing from snapshot studies of innovation systems.

• Translocal empowerment in transformative social innovation networks

  Flor Avelino, Adina Dumitru, Carla Cipolla, Iris Kunze, Julia M. Wittmayer · 2019 · European Planning Studies

  This paper examines how people gain power and capacity to achieve goals through both local and transnational social innovation networks. The authors analyze five global networks—FEBEA, DESIS, Global Ecovillage Network, Impact Hub, and Slow Food—to understand empowerment mechanisms. They find that translocal connections, linking local initiatives with global networks, enable actors to mobilize resources and drive social change through intrinsic motivation and self-determination.

• Constructing Regional Advantage: Towards State-of-the-Art Regional Innovation System Policies in Europe?

  Björn Asheim, Jerker Moodysson, Franz Tödtling · 2011 · European Planning Studies

  This paper examines how regional innovation system policies work across Europe, analyzing the challenges of applying national-level cluster concepts to regional contexts. The authors use ideal types as a conceptual framework to understand how regional advantage develops, showing that while individual elements of these ideal types exist in reality, the complete configurations themselves do not naturally occur.

• Potential and Realized Absorptive Capacity as Complementary Drivers of Green Product and Process Innovation Performance

  Gema Albort-Morant, Jörg Henseler, Gabriel Cepeda‐Carrión, Antonio L. Leal‐Rodríguez · 2018 · Sustainability

  Companies absorb external environmental knowledge through two mechanisms—potential capacity (acquiring and assimilating knowledge) and realized capacity (transforming and exploiting it)—to develop green innovations. A study of 112 Spanish automotive component manufacturers found that both dimensions of absorptive capacity directly drive performance in green product and process innovation, showing how firms convert external knowledge into environmental improvements.

• “Open” disclosure of innovations, incentives and follow-on reuse: Theory on processes of cumulative innovation and a field experiment in computational biology

  Kevin Boudreau, Karim R. Lakhani · 2014 · Research Policy

  The paper examines how timing of knowledge disclosure—whether innovators share intermediate progress or only final results—affects subsequent innovation. Using theory and experiments in computational biology, the authors show that intermediate disclosure efficiently guides development toward existing solutions but reduces experimentation and technological diversity. Final disclosure encourages broader exploration. The findings reveal a fundamental tradeoff between steering innovation efficiently and enabling diverse technological search paths.

• The Role of Public and Private Protection in Disruptive Innovation: The Automotive Industry and the Emergence of Low‐Emission Vehicles

  Jonatan Pinkse, René Bohnsack, Ans Kolk · 2013 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Car manufacturers pursuing low-emission vehicles face challenges making disruptive technology attractive to mainstream customers. This study examines how public protection levers—regulation, tax incentives, and public-private partnerships—and private levers—resource allocation, niche occupation, and collaboration—shape manufacturer strategies. Analysis of Daimler, General Motors, and Toyota across European, Japanese, and U.S. markets reveals two distinct trajectories: public protection initially drove commercialization but stalled due to systemic barriers, while private protection strategies subsequently gained momentum.

• How Innovation Management Techniques Support An Open Innovation Strategy

  Juán Ignacio Igartua, José Albors Garrigós, José-Luis Hervás-Oliver · 2010 · Research-Technology Management

  This paper examines how innovation management techniques help small and medium-sized firms implement open innovation strategies. Using a Spanish elevator manufacturer as a case study, the authors show that structured innovation management tools enable collaborative networks and technology transfer. The findings help managers understand how to build sustained competitive advantage through organized approaches to collaborative innovation.

• Evolutionary Plasticity and Innovations in Complex Metabolic Reaction Networks

  João F. Matias Rodrigues, Andreas Wagner · 2009 · PLoS Computational Biology

  This paper studies how metabolic networks in bacteria evolve and adapt. The researchers found that these networks are robust to gene mutations and can rapidly acquire new metabolic abilities through gene loss and horizontal gene transfer. Networks with identical metabolic functions differ substantially in their reactions, yet can be connected through single mutations. This robustness enables evolutionary innovation by allowing organisms to explore new metabolic capabilities while maintaining survival.

• New developments in innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems

  Maryann P. Feldman, Donald S. Siegel, Mike Wright · 2019 · Industrial and Corporate Change

  This special section examines innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems through multi-level analysis of agents, institutions, and regions. The authors synthesize research across the section, identifying key questions, theories, and methods used to study how ecosystems shape innovation and entrepreneurship. They propose a research agenda addressing context, process, and impact of these ecosystems.

• Open innovation web-based platforms: The impact of different forms of motivation on collaboration

  Cinzia Battistella, Fabio Nonino · 2012 · Innovation

  Open innovation web-based platforms enable collaboration between individuals and companies. This study analyzes 116 platforms to understand what motivates people to participate. The research finds that motivations vary depending on the innovation stage and type of participant. Platforms should design their reward systems differently for different phases of innovation and shift from workplace-focused to social-focused approaches to encourage participation.

• Creating shared value through open innovation approaches: Opportunities and challenges for corporate sustainability

  Mark Anthony Camilleri, Ciro Troise, Serena Strazzullo, Stefano Bresciani · 2023 · Business Strategy and the Environment

  Open innovation—where businesses collaborate with external partners—can advance corporate sustainability across economic, social, and environmental goals. External stakeholders help companies develop sustainable innovations, enter new markets, and create revenue streams while addressing social deficits. However, open innovation exposes organizations to risks including information leakage and difficulty controlling partner conduct, making trust and governance challenging.

• Harvesting reflective knowledge exchange for inbound open innovation in complex collaborative networks: an empirical verification in Europe

  Armando Papa, Roberto Chierici, Luca Vincenzo Ballestra, Dirk Meissner, Mehmet Orhan · 2020 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  Open innovation collaboration modes significantly boost innovation performance by stimulating reflective knowledge exchange among firms in complex networks. Analysis of European Union firms from 2014–2019 shows that external knowledge sourcing, knowledge transfer, and big data analytics strengthen patent applications. Reflective knowledge exchange emerges as a critical mechanism enabling firms to maximize returns from innovation within inter-organizational networks.

• Social Business Model Innovation: A Quadruple/Quintuple Helix-Based Social Innovation Ecosystem

  Elias G. Carayannis, Evangelos Grigoroudis, Dimitra Stamati, Theodora Valvi · 2019 · IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

  This paper proposes an ecosystem framework for social business model innovation using quadruple and quintuple helix models. The framework integrates civil society, political structures, environment, and sustainability to enable social innovation that improves human well-being. Case studies demonstrate that open innovation and clearly defined social missions drive successful social business models through collaborative knowledge creation and exploitation.

• Open collaborative innovation and digital platforms

  Salvatore Esposito De Falco, Antonio Renzi, Beatrice Orlando, Nicola Cucari · 2017 · Production Planning & Control

  Digital platforms enable open collaborative innovation by reducing transaction costs and improving coordination between partners. The study uses contract theory to show how platform governance affects firm operations and ambidexterity. A case analysis of TIM OPEN demonstrates that combining digital platforms with collaborative innovation strategies drives operational synergies and enhances creative processes through selective and free information sharing.

• Frugal and reverse innovation - Literature overview and case study insights from a German MNC in India and China

  Nivedita Agarwal, Alexander Brem · 2012

  Western multinational corporations operating in India and China develop affordable products with essential features through frugal and reverse innovation, then introduce these solutions to developed markets. A German MNC case study shows that success in emerging markets requires complete localization, identifying core customer values, and balancing both innovation types in the product portfolio.

• Managing research and innovation networks: Evidence from a government sponsored cross-industry program

  Per Levén, Jonny Holmström, Lars Mathiassen · 2013 · Research Policy

  This paper examines how a Swedish government program called ProcessIT Innovations managed cross-industry collaboration between traditional process industries and emerging IT firms. The researchers identified specific challenges in configuring the network, orchestrating partnerships, and facilitating innovation projects. They developed a model for managing research and innovation networks that bring together different industries and connect firms with research institutions.

• The new age of innovation. Driving co-created value through global networks

  Frits Meijering · 2009 · Journal of Social Intervention Theory and Practice

  This paper discusses how innovation is created through collaborative networks that span globally. The author argues that modern innovation increasingly depends on co-creating value across organizational and geographic boundaries rather than developing solutions in isolation. The work emphasizes the role of interconnected networks in driving innovation forward.

• External knowledge sharing and radical innovation: the downsides of uncontrolled openness

  Paavo Ritala, Kenneth Husted, Heidi Olander, Snejina Michailova · 2018 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  Uncontrolled sharing of business-critical knowledge with external partners damages firms' radical innovation performance through accidental knowledge leakage. A study of 150 Finnish technology firms found that excessive openness in knowledge sharing significantly reduces radical innovation outcomes, though incremental innovation remains unaffected. Firms pursuing radical innovation must carefully manage what knowledge employees share externally and with whom.

• Implications of Frugal Innovations on Sustainable Development: Evaluating Water and Energy Innovations

  Jarkko Levänen, Mokter Hossain, Tatu Lyytinen, Anne Hyvärinen, Sini Numminen, Minna Halme · 2015 · Sustainability

  This paper evaluates four frugal innovations in water and energy sectors against sustainability criteria covering ecological, social, and economic dimensions. The innovations outperformed existing low-income solutions in energy production and water purification capacity. However, social sustainability varied significantly: energy solutions emphasized capacity building and inclusion, while water solutions relied on traditional corporate responsibility. The authors identify three major challenges: integrating material efficiency into systems, promoting inclusive employment, and supporting local industrialization. They conclude that frugality and sustainability, though related, should not be treated as equivalent concepts.

• Open Innovation and Firm Performance: The Mediating Role of Social Capital

  Matthias Rass, Martin Dumbach, Frank Danzinger, Angelika C. Bullinger, Kathrin M. Moeslein · 2013 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  Open innovation practices improve firm performance through two pathways: direct effects and indirect effects mediated by social capital. The study shows that when firms implement open innovation instruments, they build stronger social networks and relationships. These enhanced social connections then drive better firm performance. Social capital acts as a crucial mechanism linking innovation practices to business outcomes.

• Managing Open Innovation: Exploring Challenges at the Interfaces of an Open Innovation Arena

  Susanne Ollila, Maria Elmquist · 2011 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  Open innovation arenas—organizations that facilitate collaboration while competing as key players themselves—face distinct management challenges. A Swedish traffic safety research unit with 22 partners experienced three types of challenges: managing relationships with partner organizations, coordinating collaboration between partners, and maintaining the arena's own operations. These challenges differ from those faced by firms simply collaborating with external actors.

• Knowledge arbitrage in global pharma: a synthetic view of absorptive capacity and open innovation

  Benjamin Hughes, Jonathan Wareham · 2010 · R and D Management

  This case study of a global pharmaceutical company reveals how open innovation operates in practice. The company focuses on building OI capabilities, sharing external information, and leveraging knowledge arbitrage across networks. Notably absent are value capture models and technology evaluation criteria common in OI literature. The researchers propose that absorptive capacity works bidirectionally with open innovation, enabling firms to both acquire and contribute knowledge effectively.

• Digital transformation of industrial firms: an innovation diffusion perspective

  Annika Steiber, Sverker Alänge, Swapan Ghosh, Dulce Gonçalves · 2020 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  This paper applies innovation diffusion theory to explain digital transformation in large industrial firms. By studying General Electric and Siemens, the authors identify common drivers and inhibitors of successful digital transformation. The innovation diffusion framework effectively identifies factors that help or hinder firms' transformation processes, offering researchers and managers better tools to analyze and plan digital transformation strategies.

• Frugal innovation in a crisis: the digital fabrication maker response to COVID‐19

  Lucia Corsini, Valeria Dammicco, James Moultrie · 2020 · R and D Management

  During COVID-19, maker communities used digital fabrication tools to produce critical items like masks and ventilators, demonstrating frugal innovation—doing more with less for more people. Case studies from Italy and India show makers employed similar resource-constrained approaches despite different economic contexts. The research expands frugal innovation theory beyond emerging markets, establishing digital fabrication as a key enabler for distributed innovation networks responding to crises.

• Involving Consumers: The Role of Digital Technologies in Promoting ‘Prosumption’ and User Innovation

  Thierry Rayna, Ludmila Striukova · 2016 · Journal of the Knowledge Economy

  Digital technologies enable consumers to shift from passive buyers to active producers—a phenomenon called prosumption. The paper develops a framework showing how different digital tools (mobile networks, 3D printing) enable different types of consumer involvement in design, manufacturing, and distribution. Examples include user innovation, DIY production, the makers movement, and sharing economy platforms. The authors argue understanding prosumption's nature is critical for anticipating market disruptions.

• Innovation, Networking and Proximity: Lessons from Small High Technology Firms in the UK

  Henny Romijn, Mike Albu · 2002 · Regional Studies

  Small high-tech electronics and software firms in South East England innovate more effectively when they network with suppliers and service providers who offer complementary capabilities. Geographical proximity matters for these relationships. The regional science base successfully nurtured new ventures, but science parks did not. Policy efforts to build regional networks among similar firms and close customers showed no innovation benefit.

• Influence of Technological Assets on Organizational Performance through Absorptive Capacity, Organizational Innovation and Internal Labour Flexibility

  Encarnación García Sánchez, Victor Jesús García Morales, Rodrigo Martín‐Rojas · 2018 · Sustainability

  Technological assets drive organizational performance in European technology companies through two mechanisms: absorptive capacity and internal labor flexibility. The study finds that technological skills and competencies strengthen both potential and realized absorptive capacity, which then enhance labor flexibility and organizational innovation. Internal labor flexibility further boosts performance by enabling innovation. These relationships prove especially valuable in dynamic, turbulent technological environments.

• Diffusion of digital innovation in construction: a case study of a UK engineering firm

  Amna Shibeika, Chris Harty · 2015 · Construction Management and Economics

  A UK engineering firm adopted building information modelling (BIM) technology over four years in response to government mandates for large public projects. The study reveals that digital innovation diffused through three phases: centralizing technology management, standardizing digital practices, and globalizing digital resources. Diffusion occurred along multiple, overlapping paths within the firm's complex organization, following a non-linear process shaped by changing organizational context and uncertainty.

• User involvement in radical innovation: are consumers conservative?

  Eva Heiskanen, Kaarina Hyvönen, Mari Niva, Mika Pantzar, Päivi Timonen, Johanna Varjonen · 2007 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  Consumers reject radical innovations for reasons beyond mere ignorance. This study of food product concepts shows that resistance stems from concerns about instrumentalism, loss of autonomy, organizational complexity, and systemic effects. Companies should take consumer objections seriously during early-stage development rather than treating concept testing as a simple pass/fail screen, using it instead to understand how innovations affect daily life and society.

• Innovation in food firms: contribution of regional networks within the international business context

  Xavier Gellynck, Bert Vermeire, Jacques Viaene · 2007 · Entrepreneurship and Regional Development

  Food firms in Belgium that participate in regional networks develop stronger innovation capabilities, especially when operating internationally. The study shows that regional networking and global market orientation reinforce each other rather than conflict. Firms gain competitive advantage by accessing external knowledge across multiple geographic scales. Regional network support emerges as an effective policy tool for enhancing firm innovation.

• The diffusion of human‐resource information‐technology innovations in US and non‐US firms

  Gary W. Florkowski, Miguel R. Olivas‐Luján · 2006 · Personnel Review

  This study examines how eight human-resource information technologies spread across US, Canadian, UK, and Irish firms. The researchers found that internal influences—particularly contacts among potential adopters within their social networks—drove adoption decisions more than external factors. Results held consistent across different countries, user types, and technology types. The findings suggest firms need better-coordinated technology strategies to align purchasing with actual HR automation goals.

• The nexus between dynamic capabilities and competitive firm performance: the mediating role of open innovation

  Asta Pundzienė, Shahrokh Nikou, Harry Bouwman · 2021 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  This study examines how firms' dynamic capabilities drive competitive performance through open innovation. Using structural equation modeling on 465 firms across innovative and non-innovative industries, the researchers found that dynamic capabilities significantly boost open innovation performance, which in turn improves competitive performance. Open innovation partially mediates the relationship between dynamic capabilities and firm competitiveness, suggesting that investing in innovation capacity, customer engagement, and innovation management strengthens competitive outcomes.

• Antecedents and effects of individual absorptive capacity: a micro-foundational perspective on open innovation

  Sandor Jan Albert Löwik, Jeroen Kraaijenbrink, Arend J. Groen · 2017 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  Individual employees vary in their ability to recognize and use external knowledge—called absorptive capacity—based on three factors: their prior knowledge diversity, external network diversity, and cognitive style. A bisociative thinking style (connecting unrelated ideas) matters most. This individual absorptive capacity directly affects how well employees innovate and mediates between their personal characteristics and innovation performance, making it crucial for organizations pursuing open innovation.

• (Re-)designing higher education curricula in times of systemic dysfunction: a responsible research and innovation perspective

  V.C. Tassone, Catherine O’Mahony, Emma McKenna, H.J. Eppink, A.E.J. Wals · 2017 · Higher Education

  Higher education must embed Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) into curricula to prepare students for sustainability challenges. This paper proposes design principles and a competence framework for redesigning curricula and teaching practices. It argues that universities should reject neoliberal, market-driven approaches in favor of more ethical, responsible education that equips students to become responsible innovators addressing complex global problems.

• Social Networks for Innovation and New Product Development

  Roger Leenders, Wilfred Dolfsma · 2015 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  This article introduces social network analysis and examines how social networks drive innovation and new product development across four levels: within firms, across firm boundaries, between firms, and external to firms. The authors review existing research and position eight special issue papers within this multilevel framework, demonstrating how network structures and connections influence innovation outcomes.

• Inter‐firm market orientation as antecedent of knowledge transfer, innovation and value creation in networks

  Jesús Cambra‐Fierro, Juan Florín, Lourdes Pérez, Jeryl Whitelock · 2011 · Management Decision

  Inter-firm market orientation—how companies in partnerships focus on understanding each other's markets—drives knowledge transfer, innovation, and value creation in strategic networks. The research shows that when firms adopt this collaborative market perspective, they improve performance through better knowledge sharing, increased innovation, and expanded market access.

• Modeling innovation, manufacturing, diffusion and adoption/rejection processes

  Arch G. Woodside, Wim G. Biemans · 2005 · Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing

  The paper argues that new product development success depends on understanding complex feedback loops and interconnected processes rather than identifying individual success factors. Using system dynamics modeling and comparative case studies, the authors show that multiple different pathways lead to success or failure in innovation, manufacturing, diffusion, and adoption. Executives must think systemically about hidden weak linkages with large downstream impacts rather than relying on checklists of isolated factors.

• Innovation Ecosystems vs. Innovation Systems in Terms of Collaboration and Co-creation of Value

  Nataliya Smorodinskaya, Martha G. Russell, Daniel D. Katukov, Kaisa Still · 2017 · Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

  This paper distinguishes innovation ecosystems from traditional innovation systems, emphasizing how collaborative networks create value together. The authors survey ecosystem research to identify key features and show how regional clusters, global value chains, and platforms operate as innovation ecosystems. They provide policy recommendations for governments seeking to foster innovation-conducive environments through ecosystem approaches.

• Low Buffer Capacity and Alternating Motility along the Human Gastrointestinal Tract: Implications for <i>in Vivo</i> Dissolution and Absorption of Ionizable Drugs

  Bart Hens, Yasuhiro Tsume, Marival Bermejo, Paulo Paixão, Mark J. Koenigsknecht, Jason Baker, William L. Hasler, Robert Lionberger, Jianghong Fan, Joseph Dickens, Kerby Shedden, Bo Wen, Jeffrey Wysocki, Raimar Löebenberg, Allen Lee, Ann Frances, G.E. Amidon, Alex Yu, Gail Benninghoff, Niloufar Salehi, Arjang Talattof, Duxin Sun, Gordon L. Amidon · 2017 · Molecular Pharmaceutics

  This paper is not about rural innovation. It is a pharmaceutical sciences study examining pH, buffer capacity, and motility in the human gastrointestinal tract to improve drug dissolution and absorption predictions. The authors measured these properties in healthy subjects after ibuprofen administration under fasted and fed conditions, finding extremely low buffer capacity throughout the upper GI tract with important implications for oral drug delivery formulation.

• Driving innovation through big open linked data (BOLD): Exploring antecedents using interpretive structural modelling

  Yogesh K. Dwivedi, Marijn Janssen, Emma Slade, Nripendra P. Rana, Vishanth Weerakkody, Jeremy Millard, Jan Hidders, Dhoya Snijders · 2016 · Information Systems Frontiers

  This paper identifies and maps nineteen factors that drive innovation through big open linked data (BOLD). Using expert input and structural modeling, the research reveals that technical infrastructure, data quality, and external pressure form the foundation for BOLD-enabled innovation. Most factors show high interdependence, indicating the process is volatile and complex. The work provides a framework for organizations seeking to encourage and manage innovation through open data.

• From Regional Systems of Innovation to Regions as Innovation Policy Spaces

  Elvira Uyarra, Kieron Flanagan · 2010 · Environment and Planning C Government and Policy

  Regional innovation systems have become widely used in policy-making, but this approach overstates some regional roles while underemphasizing others. The authors argue that treating regions primarily as innovation systems obscures their actual function as spaces where innovation policy gets made and implemented. They illustrate these problems using England's North West region.

• Visualization of Communication Patterns in Collaborative Innovation Networks - Analysis of Some W3C Working Groups

  Peter A. Gloor, Rob Laubacher, Scott Dynes, Yan Zhao · 2003

  This paper analyzes communication patterns in collaborative innovation networks by examining email archives from W3C working groups. The researchers developed visualization tools to map how information flows through these global internet-based teams over time. They found that different groups displayed distinct communication structures and identified both formal and informal leadership patterns that shaped how innovation networks organized themselves.

• Coopetition in business Ecosystems: The key role of absorptive capacity and supply chain agility

  Marta Riquelme-Medina, Mark Stevenson, Vanesa Barrales‐Molina, Francisco Javier Lloréns Montes · 2022 · Journal of Business Research

  Firms in tech-city business ecosystems benefit from coopetition—simultaneous cooperation and competition—but not directly. Instead, coopetition enhances absorptive capacity, which improves supply chain agility and ultimately firm performance. The study surveyed 214 firms and found these indirect effects matter more than direct relationships, establishing a validated measurement scale for coopetition.

• Differential moderating effects of strategic and operational reconfiguration on the relationship between open innovation practices and innovation performance

  Oghogho Destina Ovuakporie, Kishore Gopalakrishna Pillai, Chengang Wang, Yingqi Wei · 2020 · Research Policy

  This study examines how open innovation practices affect innovation performance in service firms. Using UK survey data, the researchers find that strategic reconfiguration capability enhances the impact of coupled open innovation on radical innovation, while operational reconfiguration capability strengthens its effect on incremental innovation. The results show that firms need different internal capabilities depending on the type of innovation they pursue.

• The adoption of 4D BIM in the UK construction industry: an innovation diffusion approach

  Barry Gledson, David Greenwood · 2017 · Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

  The UK construction industry faces project delays, prompting government targets to reduce timeframes by 50 percent through 4D Building Information Modelling (BIM). This study surveyed 97 construction planning practitioners to measure 4D BIM adoption using Rogers' Innovation Diffusion theory. Results show increasing adoption rates with a characteristic time lag between awareness and first use. The research identifies system compatibility and safe trialling as critical factors for facilitating adoption across the UK construction industry.

• Enabling Open Innovation in Small and Medium Enterprises: A Dynamic Capabilities Approach

  Michele Grimaldi, Ivana Quinto, Pierluigi Rippa · 2013 · Knowledge and Process Management

  Small and medium manufacturing enterprises with strong dynamic capabilities—particularly in sensing market opportunities, seizing them, and reconfiguring resources—are more likely to adopt open innovation practices. The study identifies which internal capabilities enable SMEs to successfully implement collaborative innovation approaches, linking organizational competencies directly to open innovation adoption.

• Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation

  Eoin Whelan, Salvatore Parise, Jasper de Valk, Rick Aalbers · 2011 · University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology)

  A small group of employees—designated as 'idea scouts' and 'idea connectors'—drive disproportionate success in open innovation initiatives. These individuals are critical to generating valuable outcomes, and companies that deliberately connect and leverage these key people achieve better innovation results.

• With a Little Help from Our Colleagues: A Longitudinal Study of Social Networks for Innovation

  Bob Kijkuit, Jan van den Ende · 2010 · Organization Studies

  This longitudinal study tracks social networks within new product development teams across two research laboratories. The research challenges the conventional wisdom that sparse networks with weak ties drive innovation. Instead, the authors find that strong ties, network density, and cross-unit relationships significantly improve idea adoption chances during early development phases. They recommend organizations actively promote communication between colleagues across different units to enhance innovation outcomes.

• Advancing regional innovation systems: What does evolutionary economic geography bring to the policy table?

  Lars Coenen, Björn Asheim, Markus M. Bugge, Sverre J. Herstad · 2016 · Environment and Planning C Politics and Space

  Evolutionary economic geography offers valuable insights for regional innovation policy by explaining how firms' knowledge bases and co-location drive long-term regional development. The authors argue this approach strengthens regional innovation system frameworks, particularly for designing policies that support new economic paths and regional resilience. However, they caution that evolutionary frameworks risk downplaying institutions and agency without explicit attention to social factors.

• Frontier Technology, Absorptive Capacity and Distance*

  Richard Kneller · 2005 · Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics

  This study examines how foreign technology affects productivity in OECD manufacturing industries, finding that a country's ability to absorb and use new technology matters more than physical distance. Distance had stronger effects early in the study period and in high-tech industries with localized trade. Absorptive capacity emerged as the dominant factor explaining productivity differences across countries.

• Responsible innovation ecosystems: Ethical implications of the application of the ecosystem concept to artificial intelligence

  Bernd Carsten Stahl · 2021 · International Journal of Information Management

  This paper argues that innovation ecosystem frameworks lack ethical guidance and proposes integrating responsible research and innovation principles to create responsible innovation systems. Using artificial intelligence as a case study, the author demonstrates how ethical and social concerns can be embedded into innovation ecosystems to ensure technology development aligns with human values and rights.

• Inbound open innovation and firm performance

  Federico Moretti, Daniele Biancardi · 2018 · Journal of Innovation & Knowledge

  This study examines how inbound open innovation affects firm performance across European companies from 2008–2013. The researchers find that both internal development and external acquisition of intangible assets positively impact firm turnover. However, only internal development significantly improves financial performance and employment. The effects vary by firm size: internal development boosts economic performance for larger firms and employment for smaller firms, but shows no financial impact across all sizes.

• Open innovation and intellectual property rights

  Alexander Brem, Petra A. Nylund, Emma L. Hitchen · 2017 · Management Decision

  Small and medium-sized enterprises benefit differently from open innovation and intellectual property protection than larger firms. Using Spanish innovation survey data from 2008-2013, the study finds that SMEs gain more from industrial designs than patents when collaborating openly. The effectiveness of different IP tools—patents, trademarks, copyrights, and designs—varies by company size, suggesting SMEs need tailored IP strategies to maximize innovation efficiency.

• A Tale of Open Data Innovations in Five Smart Cities

  Adegboyega Ojo, Edward Curry, Fatemeh Ahmadi Zeleti · 2015

  This study examines 18 open data initiatives across five smart cities—Barcelona, Chicago, Manchester, Amsterdam, and Helsinki—to understand how open data shapes urban innovation. The research reveals how open data initiatives adapt to different city contexts and what innovations they enable across various urban domains, governance structures, and datasets within each city's open data ecosystem.

• The Identification and Characterization of Open Innovation Profiles in Italian Small and Medium‐sized Enterprises

  Chiara Verbano, Maria Crema, Karen Venturini · 2013 · Journal of Small Business Management

  Italian small and medium-sized manufacturers adopt three distinct open innovation approaches: selective low open, unselective open upstream, and mid-partners integrated open. The study surveyed 105 firms and found that these profiles differ significantly in their collaboration breadth, motivations, barriers, and performance outcomes. Companies vary in how openly they source external innovation across different phases of their innovation processes.

• ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY AND INNOVATION IN THE KNOWLEDGE INTENSIVE BUSINESS SERVICE SECTOR

  Andreas Koch, Harald Strotmann · 2008 · Economics of Innovation and New Technology

  Knowledge-intensive business service firms innovate through absorptive capacity—their ability to access and use external knowledge. The study finds that networking and cooperation drive both incremental and radical innovation. Universities and research institutions matter most for radical innovation regardless of formality, while client and supplier knowledge only drives innovation through formal partnerships. Manufacturing clients particularly stimulate innovation in KIBS firms.

• Social Innovation in Smart Tourism Ecosystems: How Technology and Institutions Shape Sustainable Value Co-Creation

  Francesco Polese, Antonio Botti, Mara Grimaldi, Antonella Monda, Massimiliano Vesci · 2018 · Sustainability

  This paper develops an integrated model of smart service ecosystems that combines service-dominant logic and service science to explain how actors, resources, technology, and institutions work together to create value in tourism. Through interviews with tourism stakeholders, the authors identify key dimensions for managing value co-creation and sustainability, showing how smart service ecosystems enable the transition from innovation to social innovation in experience-based sectors.

• Unravelling appropriability mechanisms and openness depth effects on firm performance across stages in the innovation process

  Ioana Stefan, Lars Bengtsson · 2017 · Technological Forecasting and Social Change

  This study examines how intellectual property protection mechanisms and collaborative openness affect innovation performance across different stages of the innovation process. Using data from 340 European manufacturing firms, the research finds that semi-formal protections like contracts boost efficiency in early stages, while formal patents actually hinder it due to imitation risks. Informal mechanisms support novelty throughout. University partnerships consistently drive novelty, while supplier and competitor collaborations show stage-dependent effects on performance.

• The Impact of Living Lab Methodology on Open Innovation Contributions and Outcomes

  Dimitri Schuurman, Lieven De Marez, Pieter Ballon · 2016 · Technology Innovation Management Review

  Living lab methodology enhances open innovation by creating structured environments where external stakeholders contribute to innovation processes. The paper argues that organizations must balance open and closed innovation approaches rather than pursuing purely open models. Living labs provide practical frameworks for managing this balance and improving innovation outcomes through collaborative participation.

• Innovating not-for-profit social ventures: Exploring the microfoundations of internal and external absorptive capacity routines

  Dominic Chalmers, Eva Balan-Vnuk · 2012 · International Small Business Journal Researching Entrepreneurship

  Not-for-profit organizations pursuing social innovation develop distinctive capabilities by combining internal and external absorptive capacity routines. Analysis of 14 case studies from Australia and the UK shows these organizations mediate social innovation by configuring routines that blend user knowledge with technological knowledge flows. The study reveals how social ventures build and sustain the organizational capabilities needed to innovate effectively.

• The Scientific Trajectory of the French School of Proximity: Interaction- and Institution-based Approaches to Regional Innovation Systems

  Christophe Carrincazeaux, Yannick Lung, Jérôme Vicente · 2008 · European Planning Studies

  French regional scientists developed the concept of proximity in the early 1990s to study industrial and spatial dynamics. They organized collectively through the research group 'Proximity Dynamics,' which expanded the concept's theoretical scope and institutional reach. This paper traces how the group's structured approach enabled investigation of regional innovation systems through interaction- and institution-based frameworks.

• Does international entrepreneurial orientation foster innovation performance? The mediating role of social media and open innovation

  Joan Freixanet, Jéssica Braojos, Alex Rialp, Josep Rialp Criado · 2020 · The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

  International entrepreneurial orientation drives innovation performance in small and medium-sized enterprises through two mechanisms: open innovation and social media usage. The study of 128 SMEs shows that social media usage enables open innovation, which in turn translates entrepreneurial orientation into better innovation outcomes. Companies pursuing international expansion with entrepreneurial mindsets achieve stronger innovation results when they embrace open innovation practices and leverage social media.

• Responsible innovation in business: a critical reflection on deliberative engagement as a central governance mechanism

  Teunis Brand, Vincent Blok · 2019 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  This paper examines whether deliberative engagement with stakeholders can effectively govern responsible innovation in business settings. The authors identify tensions between the responsible innovation framework's ideals and competitive market realities. They conclude that responsible innovation in business requires either fundamental market changes, modified engagement approaches, or a pragmatic balance between these options.

• Towards Responsible and Sustainable Supply Chains – Innovation, Multi-stakeholder Approach and Governance

  Agata Gurzawska · 2019 · Philosophy of Management

  Supply chains create significant societal and environmental burdens. This paper argues that companies must implement responsibility and sustainability across supply chains through three mechanisms: research and innovation support, multi-stakeholder collaboration involving industry and government, and shared responsibility across organizations rather than individual companies. The author uses Sedex, a collaborative platform, as a case study demonstrating how technological, political, and ethical solutions with sound governance models can balance economic, environmental, and social sustainability.

• Process Innovation: Open Innovation and the Moderating Role of the Motivation to Achieve Legitimacy

  Christos Tsinopoulos, Carlos M.P. Sousa, Ji Yan · 2017 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Organizations that engage in open innovation are more likely to introduce new processes. The motivation to achieve legitimacy moderates this relationship differently depending on how firms engage externally. Cooperation with external parties combined with legitimacy motivation increases process innovation likelihood, while using external information combined with legitimacy motivation decreases it. The study uses European innovation survey data to test these relationships.

• Open innovation in multinational companies' subsidiaries: the role of internal and external knowledge

  Alberto Ferraris, Gabriele Santoro, Stefano Bresciani · 2017 · European J of International Management

  Multinational company subsidiaries innovate more effectively when they combine external knowledge from outside sources with internal knowledge from other parts of the parent company. This study surveyed 163 subsidiaries and found that openness to both external and internal knowledge sources independently boosts innovation performance. When subsidiaries simultaneously embrace both types of knowledge, the effect multiplies, creating stronger innovation outcomes than either approach alone.

• Frugal innovation-past, present, and future

  Nivedita Agarwal, Alexander Brem · 2017 · IEEE Engineering Management Review

  Frugal innovation has evolved from targeting low-income customers in emerging markets to a global approach addressing environmental and demographic challenges. The concept now emphasizes resourceful, sustainable solutions with strong value propositions rather than simply cheap products. Advanced economies increasingly adopt frugal principles driven by resource constraints and changing consumption patterns, positioning frugal innovation as a worldwide phenomenon with significant socio-economic impact.

• Exploring the impact of open innovation on firm performances

  Mauro Caputo, Emilia Lamberti, Antonello Cammarano, Francesca Michelino · 2016 · Management Decision

  This study examines how open innovation practices affect firm performance in bio-pharmaceutical companies. Analyzing 110 major R&D spenders from 2008-2012, the researchers found that increased openness reduces R&D productivity and patent revenue ratios, but boosts sales growth. Operating profit shows an inverted U-relationship with inbound innovation and a U-shape with outbound innovation. The findings reveal that openness produces mixed financial and innovation outcomes, requiring managers to carefully balance collaborative innovation strategies.

• Regional innovation systems: development opportunities from the ‘green turn’

  Philip Cooke · 2010 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  Regional innovation systems effectively drive cross-industry knowledge flows and innovation by leveraging Triple Helix interactions. The paper demonstrates this through renewable energy adoption, showing that regions with innovative development agencies benefit from horizontal knowledge spillovers across clusters. These regions create low-cost opportunities for cross-fertilization that can become international knowledge hubs.

• A CONTINGENT PERSPECTIVE OF OPEN INNOVATION IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

  Hanna Bahemia, Brian Squire · 2010 · International Journal of Innovation Management

  This paper develops a framework for managing open innovation in new product development projects. Rather than treating openness as a single strategic choice, the authors identify three dimensions managers must calibrate: breadth (range of external partners), depth (relationship intensity), and ambidexterity (balance between new and established relationships). The appropriate calibration depends on whether the innovation is radical or incremental, the product's complexity, and the strength of intellectual property protection.

• Fiat: Open Innovation in a Downturn (1993–2003)

  Alberto Di Minin, Federico Frattini, Andrea Piccaluga · 2010 · California Management Review

  Fiat's research center adopted open innovation practices during the 1990s automotive industry downturn, enabling the company to maintain technological development despite severe budget constraints. By restructuring its organization, roles, planning systems, and culture to embrace external partnerships and knowledge sources, Fiat preserved innovation capability and positioned itself for recovery. Senior leadership commitment proved essential to implementing open innovation successfully during economic crisis.

• Finding collaborative innovation networks through correlating performance with social network structure

  Peter A. Gloor, Maria Paasivaara, Detlef Schoder, Paul Willems · 2007 · International Journal of Production Research

  This paper examines how social network structure relates to team performance in virtual collaborative settings. Researchers studied student teams from two universities working remotely on communication analysis tasks and compared their findings with data from online gamers. They found that for knowledge worker teams, balanced contribution among members predicts performance better than the number of communication links alone. The study provides recommendations for effective virtual team communication.

• Developing Absorptive Capacity in Mature Organizations

  Oswald Jones · 2006 · Management Learning

  This paper examines how mature organizations absorb new knowledge and skills by studying a Welsh manufacturing firm that lost its major defense contract. The owner hired a middle manager with mass production experience who acted as a change agent, improving communications and workplace efficiency. The research extends existing absorptive capacity theory by identifying key roles—gatekeepers, boundary spanners, and change agents—that facilitate knowledge transfer during organizational change.

• Co-operation in Regional Innovation Systems

  Michael Fritsch · 2001 · Regional Studies

  This paper examines cooperative relationships among manufacturing firms across three German regions using statistical modeling. The analysis reveals how spatial proximity influences cooperation patterns and identifies differences in cooperative behavior between regions and between smaller and larger firms.

• Higher Education in Innovation Ecosystems

  Yuzhuo Cai, Jinyuan Ma, Qiongqiong Chen · 2020 · Sustainability

  Universities drive innovation and sustainability through their participation in innovation ecosystems. This editorial synthesizes 16 articles to establish a framework showing how higher education institutions function within these ecosystems. The authors define innovation ecosystems and identify three distinct roles universities play in fostering innovation and sustainable development across various contexts.

• Why Do Incumbents Respond Heterogeneously to Disruptive Innovations? The Interplay of Domain Identity and Role Identity

  Nadine Kammerlander, Andreas König, Melanie Richards · 2018 · Journal of Management Studies

  German publishing houses responded differently to digital disruption based on two identity factors: domain identity (what business they're in) and role identity (their market position). When digitalization threatened one identity while strengthening the other, companies experienced internal conflict and slower, less innovative responses. Companies with aligned identities adapted faster and more creatively.

• The openness of open innovation in ecosystems – Integrating innovation and management literature on knowledge linkages

  Christina Öberg, Allen Alexander · 2018 · Journal of Innovation & Knowledge

  This paper examines how knowledge transfers work in open innovation ecosystems by reviewing existing literature. The authors connect open innovation research with management theory to categorize linkages between organizations based on their openness levels and knowledge management approaches. They find that openness operates across multiple dimensions, each producing different knowledge management outcomes. The work helps firms understand which collaboration mechanisms suit their needs.

• Fostering radical innovations with open innovation

  Matthias Inauen, Andrea Schenker‐Wicki · 2012 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  Companies using inside-out open innovation—sharing and commercializing internal technologies externally—create more radical innovations and launch more new products than those using closed innovation approaches. Closed innovation strategies instead produce more incremental product improvements. This empirical study of 141 R&D managers in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria from 2004–2008 demonstrates that open innovation strategies drive fundamentally different innovation outcomes.

• Enriching Absorptive Capacity through Social Interaction

  Jasper J. Hotho, Florian Becker‐Ritterspach, Ayse Saka‐Helmhout · 2011 · British Journal of Management

  Social interaction is essential for subsidiaries to absorb and apply new knowledge transferred from headquarters in multinational enterprises. The study shows that employees need to participate together in adapting knowledge to local contexts and developing practical applications. Organizational conditions at the subsidiary level either enable or restrict these interaction patterns, directly affecting the subsidiary's capacity to use new knowledge effectively.

• ANTECEDENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATION: THE DIFFUSION OF NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT INTO DANISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT

  Morten Balle Hansen · 2010 · Public Administration

  This study examines why Danish local governments adopted New Public Management innovations. Leadership attitudes toward change, management's rejection of traditional bureaucracy, and the electorate's ability to set clear goals all influenced adoption. Organizational size emerged as the strongest predictor. The research distinguishes between marketization-focused and generic managerial innovations, finding different factors drove adoption of each type.

• Reversing “drift”: Innovation and diffusion in the London diphthong system

  Paul Kerswill, Eivind Torgersen, Susan Patricia Fox · 2008 · Language Variation and Change

  This paper examines phonetic changes in London English diphthongs to test Sapir's theory of linguistic 'drift'—the idea that language changes naturally and unconsciously. The researchers found that London reversed a diphthong shift that continued uninterrupted in New Zealand English, disproving drift theory. They argue that social factors and dialect contact, not natural processes, drive language change, particularly in diverse urban centers.

• Managing diversity in a system of multi-level governance: the open method of co-ordination in innovation policy

  Robert Kaiser, Heiko Prange · 2004 · Journal of European Public Policy

  Open method of coordination has made limited progress in innovation policy because multi-level governance structures and diverse national innovation systems create barriers to vertical coordination and horizontal learning across countries. The authors argue that effective application requires acknowledging national and regional differences, involving actors at all territorial levels, and developing qualitative benchmarks that account for system diversity rather than imposing uniform standards.

• Financial Inclusion, Technological Innovations, and Environmental Quality: Analyzing the Role of Green Openness

  Mahmood Ahmad, Zahoor Ahmed, Yang Bai, Guitao Qiao, József Popp, Judit Oláh · 2022 · Frontiers in Environmental Science

  Financial inclusion in BRICS countries increases CO2 emissions and environmental degradation, but technological innovation and green openness reduce emissions. Economic growth and energy consumption also drive environmental harm. The study finds that financial inclusion, technological innovation, and green openness influence each other and collectively affect emissions. BRICS nations should combine financial inclusion with environmental policies while promoting green technology and openness to meet climate goals.

• Re‐storying the Business, Innovation and Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Concepts: The Model‐Narrative Review Method

  Henri Hakala, Gregory O’Shea, Steffen Farny, Seppo Luoto · 2019 · International Journal of Management Reviews

  This paper introduces a model-narrative review method to systematically analyze how business, innovation, and entrepreneurial ecosystem concepts are constructed and communicated in academic literature. The authors examine seminal works through thematic, enstoried, and rhetorical reading to reveal dominant narratives, hidden assumptions, and underlying meanings. The method exposes how researchers construct plots, characters, and moral lessons around ecosystems, enhancing conceptual clarity and enabling critical comparison across related concepts.

• External knowledge sourcing from innovation cooperation and the role of absorptive capacity: empirical evidence from Norway and Sweden

  Tommy Høyvarde Clausen · 2013 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  Firms cannot freely access external knowledge for innovation. Using data from Norway and Sweden, this study shows that companies with strong absorptive capacity—measured by internal R&D spending, employee training, and educated workforces—successfully engage in innovation cooperation with external partners. Firms lacking these internal investments struggle to adopt open innovation approaches, revealing that sourcing external knowledge requires substantial upfront costs.

• User–producer interaction as a driver of innovation: costs and advantages in an open innovation model

  Keld Laursen · 2011 · Science and Public Policy

  Customer knowledge drives innovation, but excessive reliance on it can limit firms to incremental improvements because customers tend toward conservative solutions. The paper demonstrates an inverse U-shaped relationship between customer knowledge intensity and innovation performance. Firms that balance customer input with broad external search across multiple innovation sources achieve better results, gaining customer insights while pursuing genuinely novel opportunities.

• The impact of regional absorptive capacity on spatial knowledge spillovers: the Cohen and Levinthal model revisited

  Andrea Caragliu, Peter Nijkamp · 2011 · Applied Economics

  Regional absorptive capacity—the cognitive skills and knowledge infrastructure available in a region—determines how effectively regions adopt and benefit from new knowledge. Using European regional data from 1999-2006, the authors find that regions with lower absorptive capacity experience greater knowledge spillovers to neighboring areas, losing the ability to decode and exploit both locally produced and external knowledge efficiently.

• Networks of innovation and modularity: a dynamic perspective

  Henry Chesbrough, Andrea Prencipe · 2008 · International Journal of Technology Management

  This paper argues that innovation networks must evolve alongside technology development. Early-stage technologies require connections to research institutions to explore uncertain solutions. As technologies mature and become modularized, firms shift toward supplier and customer networks. During the transition, firms must engage startups experimenting with new configurations and third-party firms whose investments determine industry standards. Network relationships are ultimately governed by modular product interfaces.

• Regional Innovation Systems in the Lisbon strategy

  Pieter Bruijn, Arnoud Lagendijk · 2005 · European Planning Studies

  Regional innovation systems matter for economic development, but they are not one-dimensional. The authors analyze how European policy frames regional innovation within the Lisbon strategy and find that national contexts ultimately drive economic development more than regional innovative capabilities alone.

• Central Banks Digital Currency: Detection of Optimal Countries for the Implementation of a CBDC and the Implication for Payment Industry Open Innovation

  Sergio Luis Náñez Alonso, Javier Jorge-Vázquez, Ricardo Francisco Reier Forradellas · 2021 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  This paper identifies which countries are best positioned to implement Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) by analyzing correlations with pioneer nations like the Bahamas, China, and Uruguay. Using statistical methods, the authors find that Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland in Europe; Brazil and Uruguay in South America; Malaysia in Asia; and South Africa in Africa show the strongest alignment with successful CBDC implementation conditions.

• Measuring open innovation practices through topic modelling: Revisiting their impact on firm financial performance

  Qinli Lu, Henry Chesbrough · 2021 · Technovation

  This study uses topic modelling and natural language processing to analyze companies' open innovation practices and their effect on financial performance. The researchers find that overall openness improves firm performance, but specific practices show mixed results with some displaying inverted U-shaped relationships. The impact of open innovation varies by sector and by how well internal R&D complements individual practices. The findings show open innovation's effects are nuanced with no universal best practices.

• Tourism Specialization, Absorptive Capacity, and Economic Growth

  Glauco De Vita, Khine Kyaw · 2016 · Journal of Travel Research

  Tourism specialization boosts economic growth, but only when countries have sufficient financial system development to absorb tourism revenues effectively. The study of 129 countries from 1995–2011 shows that excessive tourism dependence eventually harms growth, even in developed economies. Financial capacity and economic development level determine whether tourism specialization benefits or damages long-term growth.

• Open for Entrepreneurship: How Open Innovation Can Foster New Venture Creation

  Nazanin Eftekhari, Marcel Bogers · 2015 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  Open innovation practices significantly improve startup survival rates. The study examined successful and failed ventures to identify key factors: ecosystem collaboration, user involvement, and open organizational environments all directly enhance new venture survival. An entrepreneur's open mindset moderates these effects. The findings offer practical guidance for entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers seeking to support successful new ventures.

• The construct of absorptive capacity in knowledge management and intellectual capital research: content and text analyses

  Stefania Mariano, Christian Walter · 2015 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  This paper reviews 186 articles from knowledge management and intellectual capital journals between 1990 and 2013 to examine how absorptive capacity—the ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new knowledge—was studied in these fields. The analysis finds that absorptive capacity remained underdeveloped in knowledge management and intellectual capital research, with knowledge transfer and innovation emerging as the primary research areas investigating this concept.

• Exploring The Diffusion Of Innovation Among High And Low Innovative Localities

  Richard M. Walker, Claudia N. Avellaneda, Frances Berry · 2011 · Public Management Review

  This study tests Berry and Berry's framework for policy innovation diffusion across English local governments over four years. The researchers find that learning, competition, public pressure, and mandates do drive total innovation adoption. However, high-innovating and low-innovating localities operate differently, and the framework poorly explains management innovation specifically. The findings suggest existing diffusion theory works for overall innovation but needs refinement for specific innovation types.

• How do Latecomer Firms Capture Value From Disruptive Technologies? A Secondary Business-Model Innovation Perspective

  Xiaobo Wu, Rufei Ma, Yongjiang Shi · 2010 · IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

  Latecomer firms in emerging economies successfully adopt disruptive technologies from advanced countries through secondary business-model innovation. They create cheaper, simpler products suited to local customers' needs and budgets, leveraging partnerships and local knowledge to build unique value networks. This approach lets them compete against multinational incumbents by targeting mass markets and nonconsumers previously underserved.

• The Difficulties involved in Developing Business Models open to Innovation Communities: the Case of a Crowdsourcing Platform

  Valérie Chanal, Marie-Laurence Caron-Fasan · 2010 · M n gement

  Firms using crowdsourcing platforms to capture external innovation face significant strategic challenges. This study of CrowdSpirit, a collaborative product design platform, reveals that companies must develop multi-level incentive systems for diverse contributors, manage knowledge and intellectual property transfers across multiple stakeholders, and treat business model design as continuous learning rather than fixed strategy.

• Configuring ecosystem strategies for digitally enabled process innovation: A framework for equipment suppliers in the process industries

  Anmar Kamalaldin, David Sjödin, Dušana Hullová, Vinit Parida · 2021 · Technovation

  Equipment suppliers in process industries can adopt digitalization to drive innovation, but must navigate complex ecosystems involving multiple actors. This study identifies four ecosystem strategies—orchestrator, dominator, complementor, and protector—that suppliers should match to specific customer contexts. The research provides a decision framework helping suppliers choose appropriate roles (leader or follower) and competitive approaches based on their industrial customers' needs.

• The role of employee autonomy for open innovation performance

  Ana Burcharth, Mette Præst Knudsen, Helle Alsted Søndergaard · 2017 · Business Process Management Journal

  Employee autonomy is essential for firms to realize financial benefits from open innovation. The study of 307 companies shows that giving employees time, freedom, and independence fully mediates the relationship between openness and innovation sales. Both inbound and outbound open innovation practices require high flexibility and experimentation, which managers must enable through discretionary job design to achieve new product introduction and revenue growth.

• IT and relationship learning in networks as drivers of green innovation and customer capital: evidence from the automobile sector

  Antonio Genaro Leal Millán, José L. Roldán, Antonio L. Leal‐Rodríguez, Jaime Ortega Gutiérrez · 2016 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  In Spanish automotive component manufacturers, relationship learning between firms and customers drives both green innovation and customer capital growth. Information technology alone doesn't create competitive advantage; it requires complementary strategies like relationship learning and green innovation performance. The study of 140 companies shows relationship learning is essential for leveraging customer knowledge and achieving sustainable competitive advantage.

• Understanding the influence of absorptive capacity and ambidexterity on the process of business model change – the case of on‐premise and cloud‐computing software

  Johann Kranz, André Hanelt, Lutz M. Kolbe · 2016 · Information Systems Journal

  This study examines how six incumbent enterprise software firms adapted their business models when cloud-based Software as a Service disrupted the traditional on-premise software market. The research identifies absorptive capacity and organizational ambidexterity as key factors enabling firms to change business models in response to disruptive innovation. The findings reveal technological and organizational factors that determine the pace and path of business model adaptation in the software industry.

• Near-Ultraviolet Absorption Cross Sections of Nitrophenols and Their Potential Influence on Tropospheric Oxidation Capacity

  Jun Chen, John Wenger, Dean S. Venables · 2011 · The Journal of Physical Chemistry A

  This paper is not about rural innovation. It reports laboratory measurements of how nitrophenol compounds absorb ultraviolet light and their effects on atmospheric chemistry. The authors measured absorption spectra using spectroscopy techniques and found that nitrophenols reduce photolysis rates of ozone and nitrogen dioxide in the troposphere. The work is fundamental atmospheric chemistry research with no rural innovation component.

• Regional innovation systems and the foundation of knowledge intensive business services. A comparative study in Bremen, Munich, and Stuttgart, Germany

  Andreas Koch, Thomas Stahlecker · 2006 · European Planning Studies

  Knowledge-intensive business services drive innovation and economic growth. This study examines how new KIBS firms in three German cities—Bremen, Munich, and Stuttgart—rely on regional resources and networks during their early development. The research shows that proximity between local actors in regional innovation systems significantly influences KIBS firm formation and success.

• Emerging needs of social innovators and social innovation ecosystems

  David B. Audretsch, Georg Maximilian Eichler, Erich J. Schwarz · 2021 · International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal

  Social innovators tackle major societal challenges but receive little research attention compared to profit-oriented entrepreneurs. This study interviewed 28 social innovators to identify their distinct needs and developed a social innovation ecosystem model based on Isenberg's entrepreneurial ecosystem framework. The findings reveal both similarities and differences between social and entrepreneurial ecosystems, showing that social innovators require tailored support structures beyond traditional business models.

• Networking to accelerate the pace of SME innovations

  Firouze Pourmand Hilmersson, Mikael Hilmersson · 2020 · Journal of Innovation & Knowledge

  Early innovation by small and medium enterprises builds capabilities that accelerate their future innovation pace. Firms that innovate quickly initially maintain faster innovation rates. Companies that start innovating late can catch up by actively networking to access external resources and capabilities. The study of 203 SMEs shows that networking behavior moderates the relationship between time to first innovation and subsequent innovation speed.

• Open innovation practices and related internal dynamics: case studies of Italian ICT SMEs

  Gabriele Santoro, Alberto Ferraris, Daniel John Winteler · 2019 · EuroMed Journal of Business

  Italian ICT small and medium-sized enterprises face distinct challenges and enabling factors when adopting open innovation practices. The study identifies specific internal dynamics for each practice type through interviews with eight companies. Results show that understanding these practice-specific obstacles and facilitators helps SMEs sustain open innovation and improve competitiveness.

• The adoption of open innovation within the telecommunication industry

  Barbara Bigliardi, Alberto Ivo Dormio, Francesco Galati · 2012 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  Italian telecommunications companies adopt open innovation through teamwork and task forces, taking varying proactive roles in collaborative processes. These firms acquire external knowledge primarily from universities, research centers, and supply chain partners. The study reveals distinct management approaches to open innovation within the ICT industry, providing insights into how telecom companies structure external collaboration and knowledge sourcing.

• Network board continuity and effectiveness of open innovation in Swedish strategic small‐firm networks

  Joakim Wincent, Sergey Anokhin, Håkan Boter · 2008 · R and D Management

  Swedish small-firm networks use boards to manage joint research and development activities. This study of 53 networks over five years finds that board continuity affects members' innovative performance in a U-shaped relationship: both very high and very low rates of board member renewal harm innovation, while moderate renewal works best. This effect strengthens in larger networks.

• Fintech Frontiers in Quantum Computing, Fractals, and Blockchain Distributed Ledger: Paradigm Shifts and Open Innovation

  Narcisa Roxana Moşteanu, Alessio Faccia · 2021 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  This paper examines how emerging technologies—quantum computing, fractals, and blockchain—could reshape the financial industry. The authors conduct a SWOT analysis to assess the potential impact of these technologies on fintech. They conclude that rapid technological advancement drives economic shifts, but warn that high development costs may concentrate market power among a few large corporations, limiting broader competition.

• Implementation of green innovations – The impact of stakeholders and their network relations

  Alexander Fliaster, Michael Kolloch · 2017 · R and D Management

  Stakeholder relationships significantly influence whether green innovations succeed or fail. This case study of an offshore wind farm in Germany shows that networks among stakeholders—including companies, government bodies, and communities—can either support or hinder green innovation implementation. The researchers argue that understanding these stakeholder interactions is essential for successfully deploying environmentally sustainable technologies.

• Open Innovation in SMEs: From Closed Boundaries to Networked Paradigm

  Hakikur Rahman, Isabel Ramos · 2010 · Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology

  This paper examines how small and medium-sized enterprises transition from closed innovation models to open, networked approaches. The authors argue that SMEs benefit from breaking traditional boundaries and engaging in collaborative innovation networks. The shift enables smaller firms to access external knowledge, resources, and partnerships that enhance their competitive capacity and innovation outcomes.

• Crowdsourcing, open innovation and collective intelligence in the scientific method : a research agenda and operational framework

  Thierry Bücheler, Jan Henrik Sieg, Rudolf Marcel Füchslin, R. Scott Pfeifer · 2010 · Open MIND

  This paper develops a research framework for understanding how crowdsourcing, open innovation, and collective intelligence reshape scientific research methods. The authors propose an operational framework that integrates these approaches into scientific practice, establishing a research agenda for studying how distributed participation and collaborative knowledge-building improve scientific discovery and problem-solving.

• The Challenges of Collaborative Knowledge Creation in Open Innovation Teams

  E. du Chatenier, J.A.A.M. Verstegen, H.J.A. Biemans, Martin Mulder, Onno Omta · 2009 · Human Resource Development Review

  Open innovation teams bring together people from different organizations to develop new products and services. While organizational diversity can boost collaborative knowledge creation, it also creates obstacles. This paper reviews literature on how individuals interact and create knowledge together in these teams, identifying key challenges that arise from their different backgrounds and organizational contexts.

• TOWARD A DYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE ON OPEN INNOVATION: A LONGITUDINAL ASSESSMENT OF THE ADOPTION OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL INNOVATION STRATEGIES IN THE NETHERLANDS

  Tom Poot, Dries Faems, Wim Vanhaverbeke · 2009 · International Journal of Innovation Management

  This longitudinal study tracks Dutch companies across 1996, 2004, and 2004 to document how firms shifted from closed to open innovation strategies. The research reveals this transition occurred in sudden shifts rather than gradually, with timing varying by industry. Internal and external innovation approaches complement each other rather than compete, providing the first large-scale evidence of a fundamental change in how companies innovate.

• Knowledge Portfolios and The Organization of Innovation Networks

  Robin Cowan, Nicolas Jonard · 2009 · Academy of Management Review

  Firms form strategic alliances based on knowledge compatibility rather than social capital alone. A model demonstrates that requiring sufficient shared knowledge between partners naturally produces network features like small-world structures and unequal connection patterns, explaining alliance network organization without invoking social capital theory.

• THE DYNAMICS OF USER INNOVATION: DRIVERS AND IMPEDIMENTS OF INNOVATION ACTIVITIES

  Christina Raasch, Cornelius Herstatt, Phillip Lock · 2008 · International Journal of Innovation Management

  User innovation in sports equipment evolves dynamically over time rather than following a single trajectory. Studying sailboat design innovations over decades, the authors find that user innovation activity levels fluctuate based on contextual factors. When conditions are favorable, user-driven innovation can persist sustainably for extended periods, challenging linear models of how users contribute to product development.

• Open innovation in SMEs: A process view towards business model innovation

  Ekaterina Albats, Daria Podmetina, Wim Vanhaverbeke · 2021 · Journal of Small Business Management

  Small and medium-sized enterprises transform their business models through open innovation by collaborating with external partners. This study examines European SMEs undergoing business model transformation, identifying key triggers including market turbulence, competition, and production scaling. The research reveals how SMEs navigate challenges in adopting open business models to overcome their size disadvantages and remain competitive.

• The influence of open innovation on firm performance

  Barbara Bigliardi, Giovanna Ferraro, Serena Filippelli, Francesco Galati · 2020 · International Journal of Engineering Business Management

  Open innovation—acquiring external technology, exploiting technology externally, and coupled innovation—drives firm growth and competitiveness. This literature review examines how open innovation practices influence business performance and identifies key research themes, offering directions for future investigation into the relationship between open innovation strategies and firm outcomes.

• Citizen participation in public administration: investigating open government for social innovation

  Lisa Schmidthuber, Frank T. Piller, Marcel Bogers, Dennis Hilgers · 2019 · R and D Management

  Local governments increasingly adopt open innovation platforms to engage citizens in generating social innovations. This study examines what motivates citizens to participate in a government ideation platform. The researchers find that intrinsic motivation drives content creation and consumption, while external pressures discourage active contributions. However, external regulation does encourage citizens to evaluate others' ideas, showing that different motivations drive different participation behaviors.

• The role of contracts and intellectual property rights in open innovation

  John Hagedoorn, Ann‐Kristin Zobel · 2015 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  Firms engaged in open innovation strongly prefer formal contracts to govern their collaborative relationships with other firms. Despite open innovation's collaborative nature, companies still view intellectual property rights as critical for protecting their innovations. The study finds that firms' openness, legal orientation, competitive market conditions, and internal R&D strength all influence how much firms prioritize intellectual property protection in open innovation partnerships.

• The Role of Ego Network Structure in Facilitating Ego Network Innovations

  Steven Carnovale, Sengun Yeniyurt · 2015 · Journal of Supply Chain Management

  This paper examines how the structure of a firm's supply chain network affects innovation output. Using patent data from manufacturing joint ventures, the researchers find that network characteristics like betweenness, density, brokerage, and tie weakness significantly influence innovation. The study shows that firms innovate more effectively when they strategically leverage their network connections, not just through individual capability or knowledge.

• Knowledge management practices and absorptive capacity in small and medium‐sized enterprises: is there really a linkage?

  Luís Manuel Godoy Valentim, João V. Lisboa, Mário Franco · 2015 · R and D Management

  Portuguese SMEs engage in knowledge management practices that build absorptive capacity, enabling them to adapt strategically and innovate. The study surveyed 260 SMEs and found they prioritize tacit knowledge through employee learning, collaboration with business partners, and knowledge transfer. These practices help SMEs overcome resource constraints, improve efficiency, and launch new products and services despite vulnerability to globalization and technological change.

• Embedding environmental innovation in local production systems: SME strategies, networking and industrial relations: evidence on innovation drivers in industrial districts

  Massimiliano Mazzanti, Roberto Zoboli · 2009 · International Review of Applied Economics

  Environmental innovation in Italian manufacturing firms depends more on strategic choices than firm size. The study finds that R&D investment, industrial relations focused on innovation, and networking activities drive environmental performance improvements. Policy pressure and environmental auditing also encourage adoption. Networking effectively replaces the innovation advantages that larger firms typically enjoy, making local collaboration critical for small and medium enterprises.

• Integrated Roadmaps for Open Innovation

  Ulrich Lichtenthaler · 2008 · Research-Technology Management

  Firms increasingly acquire and commercialize technologies from external sources through open innovation practices. Many struggle to manage external technology exploitation effectively. The paper argues that firms need strategic technology-planning processes, specifically integrated roadmaps that extend beyond traditional product-technology roadmapping to encompass open innovation activities including outlicensing. Technology managers must evaluate returns from technologies holistically, not just product sales.

• The Spatial Organization of Innovation: Open Innovation, External Knowledge Relations and Urban Structure

  Peter Teirlinck, André Spithoven · 2008 · Regional Studies

  Firms increasingly use external knowledge to complement internal research and development, shaping how they organize innovation. This paper demonstrates that innovation organization and external knowledge use depend on physical, socio-economic, and cultural environments. The analysis confirms that innovation is spatially organized. Surprisingly, innovative firms in less urbanized areas show greater openness to external knowledge relations than those in urban centers.

• Making a Reality of Evidence-Based Practice: Some Lessons from the Diffusion of Innovations

  Sandra Nutley, Huw Davies · 2000 · Public Money & Management

  Evidence-based practice in the public sector requires more than simply sharing research findings. The authors examine diffusion of innovations literature to identify strategies that encourage organizations to actually adopt and use evidence. They outline lessons for how public sector organizations can learn and implement research-informed practices effectively.

• R&amp;D Cooperation in Innovation Systems—Some Lessons from the European Regional Innovation Survey (ERIS)

  Knut Koschatzky, Rolf Sternberg · 2000 · European Planning Studies

  This paper analyzes data from nearly 86,000 surveys across 11 European regions to understand what drives regional innovation. The research finds that national innovation systems influence regional firms as strongly as regional systems do. Innovative partnerships vary in geographic scope depending on firm size, industry technology intensity, R&D spending, and partner type. High-tech industries rely more on local knowledge networks. Regional policy should build firm networks and connect them to national and international knowledge sources.

• Identifying and describing constituents of innovation ecosystems

  Pegah Yaghmaie, Wim Vanhaverbeke · 2019 · EuroMed Journal of Business

  This paper systematically reviews 30 publications on innovation ecosystems to clarify how scholars define and study them. The authors identify different approaches across industries and organizational levels, examining how value is created and captured, the role of orchestrators, and success factors. They find European and American scholars emphasize different aspects, and note that most research focuses on European contexts. The review provides practitioners with management guidance for establishing and managing innovation ecosystems.

• Company Strategies for Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI): A Conceptual Model

  Ibo van de Poel, Lotte Asveld, Steven M. Flipse, Pim Klaassen, Victor Scholten, Emad Yaghmaei · 2017 · Sustainability

  Companies rarely integrate responsible research and innovation (RRI) into their business strategies despite growing academic and policy interest. This paper presents a conceptual model showing how companies can embed RRI into corporate social responsibility and business strategy. It provides a framework linking RRI strategy to organizational context and practical activities, plus a process for developing company-specific performance indicators to measure RRI outcomes.

• Institutional Complexity as a Driver for Innovation in Service Ecosystems

  Jaakko Siltaloppi, Kaisa Koskela-Huotari, Stephen L. Vargo · 2016 · Service Science

  Institutional complexity—when actors face conflicting institutional arrangements—drives innovation in service ecosystems. The paper argues that this complexity activates problem-solving and provides multiple cultural and material toolkits that actors use to jointly reconstruct value creation practices and change institutional arrangements. This reconciles institutional stability with actor-driven creation of novel solutions.

• Making Smart Regions Smarter: Smart Specialization and the Role of Universities in Regional Innovation Ecosystems

  Markku Markkula, Hank Kune · 2015 · Technology Innovation Management Review

  Universities play a critical role in developing smart regions through smart specialization strategies. The paper examines how digital technologies enhance regional innovation ecosystems and addresses the gap between the popular rhetoric of 'smart regions' and the actual challenges of building genuine smartness in communities and governance.

• Interorganizational network and innovation: a bibliometric study and proposed research agenda

  Giovanni Battista Dagnino, Gabriella Levanti, Anna Minà, Pasquale Massimo Picone · 2015 · Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing

  This bibliometric study analyzes 67 management research papers on interorganizational networks and innovation published between 1996 and 2012. The authors identify six main research themes: networks supporting firm innovation in specific contexts, network dimensions and knowledge processes, resource and knowledge sharing, firm-network characteristics and innovation effects, empirical research in dynamic industries, and industry-specific network characteristics. The analysis maps the intellectual structure of the field and identifies gaps in current knowledge.

• A study of contingency relationships between supplier involvement, absorptive capacity and agile product innovation

  Saeed Najafi-Tavani, Hossein Sharifi, Hossam Ismail · 2013 · International Journal of Operations & Production Management

  This paper examines how supplier involvement affects product innovation performance, with absorptive capacity acting as a moderating factor. The research uses agility as a key performance dimension, showing that a firm's ability to absorb external knowledge influences the strength of the relationship between supplier partnerships and successful product innovation outcomes.

• IS Integration and Business Performance: The Mediation Effect of Organizational Absorptive Capacity in SMEs

  Chiara Francalanci, Vincenzo Morabito · 2008 · Journal of Information Technology

  This study examines how organizational absorptive capacity—the ability to learn and integrate new knowledge—mediates the relationship between IT system integration and business performance in small and medium enterprises. Using data from 466 Italian export-focused SMEs, the researchers found that absorptive capacity significantly mediates this relationship, meaning IT investments improve performance primarily when companies develop stronger learning and integration capabilities.

• Network structure and innovation: The leveraging of a dual network as a distinctive relational capability

  Antonio Capaldo · 2007 · Strategic Management Journal

  This study examines how network structure affects innovation in alliance networks. Using 30+ years of data from three furniture manufacturers and their design firm partnerships, the research shows that firms combining a core of strong ties with a large periphery of weak ties—a 'dual network'—develop superior innovative capabilities. This dual network architecture creates a distinctive competitive advantage by enabling knowledge integration and dynamic innovation.

• Frugal innovation as a source of sustainable entrepreneurship to tackle social and environmental challenges

  Muhammad Shehryar Shahid, Mokter Hossain, Subhan Shahid, Tehreem Anwar · 2023 · Journal of Cleaner Production

  Frugal innovation drives sustainable entrepreneurship in developing countries by enabling businesses to achieve social and environmental goals simultaneously. The study found that frugal innovation-based ventures deliver female empowerment, improved healthcare access, better living standards, and sustainable production methods while creating new markets and inclusive growth. This approach shifts focus from barriers to enablers of sustainable entrepreneurship.

• The effectiveness of involving users in digital innovation: Measuring the impact of living labs

  Pieter Ballon, Miriam Van Hoed, Dimitri Schuurman · 2018 · Telematics and Informatics

  Living labs engage users directly in digital innovation development. This study measures their economic impact on participants and finds significant positive effects. The authors develop practical evaluation methods suitable for living labs' flexible, evolving nature and provide methodological recommendations for future impact assessments of similar innovation tools.

• Are regional systems greening the economy? Local spillovers, green innovations and firms’ economic performances

  Davide Antonioli, Simone Borghesi, Massimiliano Mazzanti · 2016 · Economics of Innovation and New Technology

  Environmental innovations spread through local geographic spillovers within manufacturing districts in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region. When many firms in the same municipality adopt green innovations, nearby firms follow suit. Companies that adopt environmental innovations experience improved productivity and economic performance, suggesting that greening the economy and achieving business gains are compatible goals.

• Examining Absorptive Capacity in Supply Chains: Linking Responsive Strategy and Firm Performance

  David D. Dobrzykowski, Rudolf Leuschner, Paul Hong, James Jungbae Roh · 2015 · Journal of Supply Chain Management

  This study examines how manufacturing firms use absorptive capacity—their ability to process information from customers and suppliers—to improve performance. Analysis of 711 firms shows that absorptive capacity fully mediates the link between responsive strategy and firm performance, making it essential for delivering innovative products. Firms blending efficient and responsive strategies struggle to develop absorptive capacity, following a U-shaped relationship pattern.

• The role of cultural barriers in the relationship between open‐mindedness and organizational innovation

  R. Hernández Mogollón, Gabriel Cepeda‐Carrión, Juan‐Gabriel Cegarra‐Navarro, Antonio Genaro Leal Millán · 2010 · Journal of Organizational Change Management

  This study examines 133 small and medium-sized enterprises to understand how cultural barriers affect the relationship between open-mindedness and organizational innovation. The research finds that firms must overcome cultural barriers—particularly outdated knowledge—before open-mindedness can translate into actual innovation. Organizations that fail to address these barriers cannot effectively adopt new configurations or incorporate new knowledge into products and services.

• Open supply chain innovation: an extended view on supply chain collaboration

  Sam Solaimani, Jack A.A. van der Veen · 2021 · Supply Chain Management An International Journal

  This paper develops a framework for fostering innovation in supply chains through collaboration between firms and their partners. The authors identify three key capabilities—purpose (balancing exploration and exploitation of knowledge), span (horizontal and vertical partnerships), and orientation (incremental and radical innovation)—that enable supply chains to innovate more effectively. The framework integrates open innovation and supply chain collaboration concepts to show how firms can leverage external relationships to drive continuous innovation.

• Values in responsible research and innovation: from entities to practices

  Marianne Boenink, Olya Kudina · 2020 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  This paper critiques how Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) frameworks understand values. The authors argue that mainstream RRI approaches treat values as fixed entities available for direct reflection, missing the interpretive work required to identify them. They propose instead viewing values as dynamic outcomes of ongoing valuing processes, lived and interactive. This practice-based approach better captures the complexity of how values actually function in research and innovation contexts.

• Innovation Ecosystems as Structures for Value Co-Creation

  Sanna Ketonen‐Oksi, Katri Valkokari · 2019 · Technology Innovation Management Review

  Innovation ecosystems enable value creation through collaborative networks rather than isolated firm activities. The paper argues that both service providers and customers participate in large external networks to generate value together. This shift moves away from viewing innovation as something companies do alone toward recognizing it as a dynamic, interconnected process involving multiple stakeholders working in concert.

• Unpacking the social innovation ecosystem: an empirically grounded typology of empowering network constellations

  Bonno Pel, Julia M. Wittmayer, Jens Dorland, Michael Søgaard Jørgensen · 2019 · Innovation The European Journal of Social Science Research

  Social innovation networks require three key elements to empower initiatives addressing societal challenges: local embedding, transnational connectivity, and discursive resonance. This study analyzed 20 transnational social innovation networks across countries and developed a typology identifying five ecosystem types, ranging from locally focused co-creation hubs to globally connected political movements. The findings show that effective social innovation ecosystems vary significantly in structure and scope.

• The hermeneutic side of responsible research and innovation

  Armin Grünwald · 2014 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  This paper argues that hermeneutic analysis—uncovering contested meanings—must be central to responsible research and innovation (RRI) debates, particularly for emerging technologies. The author contends that understanding how different groups interpret technological futures and visions should be a primary focus rather than a secondary concern. The paper proposes a framework for hermeneutic orientation to analyze these meanings systematically.

• Reinventing R&amp;D in an Open Innovation Ecosystem

  Helmut Traitler, Heribert J. Watzke, I. Sam Saguy · 2011 · Journal of Food Science

  The paper argues that modern innovation requires partnerships across universities, startups, and suppliers rather than isolated R&D efforts. It presents a 'Sharing-is-Winning' model for open innovation that aligns entire value chains around consumer needs. The authors provide ten recommendations for implementing this collaborative approach, including leadership changes, strategy shifts, and cultural transformation to accelerate sustainable co-development and improve innovation success rates.

• Absorptive capacity and localized spillovers: focal firms as technological gatekeepers in industrial districts

  Federico Munari, Maurizio Sobrero, Alessandro Malipiero · 2011 · Industrial and Corporate Change

  In Italy's automatic packaging machinery cluster, large focal firms act as technological gatekeepers, absorbing external knowledge and redistributing it locally. The study of 720 patents shows district firms prefer local knowledge, focal firms access external sources more than others, and non-focal firms disproportionately build on focal firms' innovations. Geography and firm size shape how knowledge flows through industrial districts.

• AI for managing open innovation: Opportunities, challenges, and a research agenda

  Thijs Broekhuizen, Henri C. Dekker, Pedro de Faria, Sebastian Firk, Dinh Khoi Nguyen, Wolfgang Sofka · 2023 · Journal of Business Research

  This paper presents a framework for using artificial intelligence to improve open innovation collaboration between organizations. The authors create a 3x3 matrix connecting three open innovation stages (initiation, development, realization) with three AI management functions (mapping, coordinating, controlling). The framework shows how AI applications can augment or automate human tasks to address open innovation challenges and help organizations manage knowledge exchanges more effectively.

• Constructs of Project Programme Management Supporting Open Innovation at the Strategic Level of the Organisation

  Mateusz Trzeciak, Tomasz P. Kopec, Aleksy Кwilinski · 2022 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  This study identifies four key constructs of programme management that support open innovation at the organizational strategic level: cooperation with the environment, knowledge and technology transfer, organizational maturity, and implementation capacity. Through quantitative analysis of 578 programme management experts internationally, the authors demonstrate that structured programme management approaches enable organizations to achieve strategic innovation outcomes and reshape organizational structures accordingly.

• Knowledge co-creation in Open Innovation Digital Platforms: processes, tools and services

  Tindara Abbate, Anna Paola Codini, Barbara Aquilani · 2019 · Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing

  Open Innovation Digital Platforms facilitate knowledge co-creation by acting as intermediaries that connect firms and support collaborative innovation processes. The study of Regione Lombardia's platform shows how these platforms evolved from simple partner-matching tools into engagement platforms offering dedicated processes, tools, and services that help firms explore, acquire, integrate, and develop valuable knowledge through open innovation approaches.

• Managing knowledge in open innovation processes: an intellectual property perspective

  Peter M. Bican, Carsten C. Guderian, Anne K. Ringbeck · 2017 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  Firms collaborating with external partners in open innovation face challenges managing knowledge through intellectual property rights. This study identifies success drivers for knowledge management across five groups and develops an Open Innovation Life Cycle covering three stages and levels. Analysis of pharmaceutical industry cases shows that intellectual property rights have an ambivalent relationship with open innovation, and firms must carefully manage knowledge during preparation and termination phases to prevent unintended knowledge loss.

• Appropriation strategies and open innovation in SMEs

  Mark Freel, Paul Robson · 2016 · International Small Business Journal Researching Entrepreneurship

  UK small and medium-sized enterprises use appropriation mechanisms—both formal and informal—as a threshold to shift from closed to open innovation strategies. The study finds that emphasizing appropriation helps firms decide whether to engage in open innovation, but neither formal nor informal approaches significantly increase the depth of open innovation activities. Only informal IP protection correlates with greater inbound open innovation.

• Open to a Select Few? Matching Partners and Knowledge Content for Open Innovation Performance

  Lars Bengtsson, Nicolette Lakemond, Valentina Lazzarotti, Raffaella Manzini, Luisa Pellegrini, Fredrik Tell · 2014 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  Firms collaborating with external partners on innovation achieve better performance when they work deeply with carefully selected partners rather than spreading efforts across many partners. The type of knowledge exchanged—whether exploratory or exploitative—matters significantly. Successful firms match specific knowledge types to particular partner categories, balancing the benefits of external ideas against the costs of managing diverse collaborations.

• Beating competitors to international markets: The value of geographically balanced networks for innovation

  Pankaj C. Patel, Stephanie A. Fernhaber, Patricia McDougall‐Covin, Robert van der Have · 2013 · Strategic Management Journal

  Technology-based ventures that balance local and foreign network connections develop innovations faster for international markets than those relying on either type alone. The advantage of geographic network balance grows stronger when innovations are more complex or when industries move faster. This finding challenges the debate over whether local or foreign partners matter more for innovation.

• Networks for Innovation – But What Networks and What Innovation?

  Jens Hemphälä, Mats Magnusson · 2012 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  This paper tests two competing theories about how network structures affect innovation. Using data from a service industry, the authors find that network characteristics significantly predict innovation outcomes, but their effects differ dramatically depending on whether innovation is incremental (implementing employee ideas) or radical (developing new services). The paper argues researchers must use precise, fine-grained measures of both networks and innovation types rather than treating them as generic concepts.

• TURNING OPEN INNOVATION INTO PRACTICE: OPEN INNOVATION RESEARCH THROUGH THE LENS OF MANAGERS

  Eleni Giannopoulou, Anna Yström, Susanne Ollila · 2011 · International Journal of Innovation Management

  This literature review identifies four key managerial challenges in implementing open innovation: organizing for openness, co-creating value, leading diverse teams, and managing intellectual property. The authors synthesize research from 2003 to 2009 to provide practical guidance for innovation managers navigating open innovation adoption, while highlighting gaps in existing research that need further investigation.

• Web 2.0 revisited: user-generated content as a social innovation

  Bastian Pelka, Christoph Kaletka · 2011 · International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development

  This paper argues that Web 2.0's core innovation is user-generated content functioning as a new social routine, not a technological breakthrough. Easy-to-use software and widespread internet access enable this social practice, with technology acting as a catalyst rather than the innovation itself. The authors reject narrow definitions of Web 2.0 and emphasize the social dimension of how people communicate and share content online.

• How Artificial Intelligence Drives Sustainable Frugal Innovation: A Multitheoretical Perspective

  Kannan Govindan · 2022 · IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

  This paper examines how artificial intelligence can drive sustainable frugal innovation—doing more with fewer resources while considering environmental and social impacts. Using grey DEMATEL analysis and a Danish case study, the authors identify critical success factors for integrating AI with frugal innovation. Understanding AI concepts and investment levels emerge as most influential. The findings help industries adopt AI-enabled frugal practices to maintain competitiveness during disruptions while advancing sustainability.

• Higher Education Response in the Time of Coronavirus: Perceptions of Teachers and Students, and Open Innovation

  Santiago Tejedor, Laura Cervi, Ana Pérez-Escoda, Fernanda Tusa, Alberto Parola · 2021 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  During COVID-19 lockdowns, universities in Spain, Italy, and Ecuador shifted to virtual learning. Surveys of 573 teachers and students in journalism and communication programs revealed that while both groups acknowledged the necessity of remote education, they preferred in-person instruction. Virtual teaching did not increase teacher-student interaction; tutorials became shorter and less frequent. Students wanted diverse learning resources including podcasts and alternative assessments, but universities relied heavily on text-based materials and traditional exams.

• Digital innovation management for entrepreneurial ecosystems: services and functionalities as drivers of innovation management software adoption

  Herbert Endres, Stefan Huesig, Robin Pesch · 2021 · Review of Managerial Science

  Innovation Management Software adoption among German firms is driven primarily by idea management functionalities and vendor services for updates and upgrades. Surprisingly, bundling consulting services with software reduces adoption likelihood. The study surveyed 199 innovation managers and found that IMS adoption improves new product development efficiency, helping strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems through digitalized innovation processes.

• How Does Outside-In Open Innovation Influence Innovation Performance? Analyzing the Mediating Roles of Knowledge Sharing and Innovation Strategy

  Mehdi Bagherzadeh, Stefan Marković, Jim Cheng, Wim Vanhaverbeke · 2019 · IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

  Outside-in open innovation improves organizational innovation performance, but the effect depends on two critical mediating factors: knowledge sharing and innovation strategy. Analysis of 112 firms across industries shows that external knowledge only translates into better innovation performance when organizations actively share that knowledge internally and align it with a deliberate innovation strategy.

• Towards innovation in Living Labs networks

  Seppo Leminen, Mika Westerlund · 2012 · International Journal of Product Development

  Living Labs are open, user-centered environments that enable networked innovation through collaboration between organizations, users, and other participants. This study examines a regional Living Labs initiative to identify key participants, their roles, motivations, and outcomes. The research finds that Living Labs successfully facilitate open innovation by integrating users as co-producers in product development, which uncovers hidden user needs and generates unexpected results.

• Bridging Scales in Innovation Policies: How to Link Regional, National and International Innovation Systems

  Martina Fromhold‐Eisebith · 2007 · European Planning Studies

  This paper examines how innovation systems operating at different geographic scales—international, national, and regional—can be effectively linked and coordinated through policy. The author identifies which innovation system functions work best at each scale and proposes a policy framework that integrates support across all three levels to strengthen technology-based economic development.

• Sharing User Experiences in the Product Innovation Process: Participatory Design Needs Participatory Communication

  Froukje Sleeswijk Visser, Remko van der Lugt, Pieter Jan Stappers · 2007 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  This paper develops a participatory communication model for sharing user experiences with design teams during product innovation. The model emphasizes three qualities: enhancing empathy, providing inspiration, and supporting engagement. Two empirical studies show that when designers actively participate in communicating user insights rather than passively receiving them, they develop deeper understanding, greater acceptance, and more intensive use of those insights in the creative process.

• Digitalization needs a cultural change – examples of applying Agility and Open Innovation to drive the digital transformation

  Carsten Burchardt, Bettina Maisch · 2019 · Procedia CIRP

  Companies pursuing digital transformation need cultural change, not just new tools and processes. This paper examines two approaches—Agility and Open Innovation—that foster the customer-centric, fast-moving culture required for successful digitalization. The authors draw on real-world applications to show how opening development processes to external stakeholders and adopting agile methods accelerate digital transformation and market responsiveness.

• Managerial Social Networks and Ambidexterity of SMEs: The Moderating Role of a Proactive Commitment to Innovation

  Ciarán Heavey, Zeki Şimşek, Brian C. Fox · 2015 · Human Resource Management

  Top managers' extensive social networks inside and outside their firms help small and medium-sized technology companies achieve ambidexterity—the ability to pursue both existing and new business directions simultaneously. However, networks only drive innovation when managers actively commit to pursuing innovative opportunities. The study of SME leaders confirms that network breadth matters, but only when paired with genuine proactive commitment to innovation.

• The interaction between external and internal knowledge sources: an open innovation view

  Nieves Lidia Díaz Díaz, Petra De Saá Pérez · 2014 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  Firms combining external and internal knowledge sources innovate more effectively than those relying solely on either approach. The study finds an inverted U-shaped relationship: firms with excessive internal knowledge experience organizational inertia and reduced innovation. External knowledge sources initially substitute for internal capacity but eventually complement it, improving product innovation. Firms must strategically match their external knowledge acquisition to their existing internal knowledge base to maximize innovation outcomes.

• Exploring How Lead Users Develop Radical Innovation: Opportunity Recognition and Exploitation in the Field of Medical Equipment Technology

  Christopher Lettl, Christoph Hienerth, Hans Georg Gemuenden · 2008 · IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

  Lead users in medical equipment—primarily surgeons—develop radical innovations independently when manufacturers won't invest in them. These users create functional prototypes, build networks of collaborators, and test feasibility before convincing established manufacturers to commercialize their ideas. Lead users effectively perform the coordination and knowledge-gathering work that manufacturers typically handle, bridging gaps in the innovation pipeline and enabling radical breakthroughs.

• User-led Innovation Processes: The Development of Professional Car Sharing by Environmentally Concerned Citizens

  Bernhard Truffer · 2003 · Innovation The European Journal of Social Science Research

  User-led innovation drives early technology development and diffusion. Citizen groups shape technological characteristics, costs, and use forms, creating 'technological niches' where essential learning occurs. This case study traces organized car sharing in Switzerland from neighborhood experiments in the late 1980s to a professional service serving 50,000 customers. The research shows how users' initial contributions became difficult for professional actors to replicate, and examines how user roles shifted during market expansion toward sustainable transport.

• Process innovation in small- and medium-sized enterprises: The critical roles of external knowledge sourcing and absorptive capacity

  Omid Aliasghar, Arash Sadeghi, Elizabeth L. Rose · 2020 · Journal of Small Business Management

  External knowledge sourcing and absorptive capacity drive process innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises. A study of 124 automotive SMEs in challenging institutional environments found that broad external knowledge search—but not deep search—correlates with process innovation development. Process innovation subsequently improves firm performance.

• Open Innovation and Social Big Data for Sustainability: Evidence from the Tourism Industry

  Pasquale Del Vecchio, Gioconda Mele, Valentina Ndou, Giustina Secundo · 2018 · Sustainability

  Social media data from tourists generates valuable insights for sustainable tourism innovation. A case study of an Apulia destination shows how social Big Data enables open innovation processes, allowing tourism stakeholders to involve visitors and create knowledge assets that support sustainable travel experiences.

• Perspective: Leveraging Open Innovation through Paradox

  Ghita Dragsdahl Lauritzen, Maria Karafyllia · 2018 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Open innovation collaborations between firms and external contributors often fail due to conflicting demands: firms seek controlled participation and selective idea adoption, while contributors want open participation and unrestricted knowledge sharing. This paper reframes these tensions as productive paradoxes rather than problems, proposing that firms can leverage open innovation by combining differentiation and integration practices to balance control and openness simultaneously.

• Responsible Research and Innovation in Industry—Challenges, Insights and Perspectives

  André Martinuzzi, Vincent Blok, Alexander Brem, Bernd Carsten Stahl, Norma Schönherr · 2018 · Sustainability

  This editorial examines Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) as a framework for balancing industry's competitive pressures with social and environmental accountability. The collection of papers explores why companies adopt RRI practices, how they implement them, stakeholder involvement in innovation processes, and obstacles to wider adoption. The findings show RRI applies across different firm sizes and sectors, offering practical guidance for managers, policymakers, and researchers integrating responsibility into innovation strategies.

• Equilibrium Innovation Ecosystems: The Dark Side of Collaborating with Complementors

  Andrea Mantovani, Francisco Ruiz‐Aliseda · 2015 · Management Science

  Firms selling complementary products increasingly collaborate to improve system quality, but this cooperation creates a prisoner's dilemma in saturated markets. While collaboration reduces investment costs and generates more total value, firms capture no greater share of that value relative to competitors, reducing overall profitability. The paper examines how open versus closed interfaces affect firm strategy and platform emergence in competitive environments.

• Linking strategy with open innovation and performance in SMEs

  Maria Crema, Chiara Verbano, Karen Venturini · 2014 · Measuring Business Excellence

  This study examines how business strategy influences open innovation practices and performance in small and medium enterprises. Using survey data from 107 Italian manufacturing firms, the researchers found that companies pursuing innovation strategies invest heavily in technical skills, diversification-focused firms rely on managerial open innovation practices, and efficiency-focused firms adopt open innovation with less emphasis on core competencies. The results demonstrate clear linkages between strategic choices, openness levels, and firm performance.

• Open Data as a Foundation for Innovation: The Enabling Effect of Free Public Sector Information for Entrepreneurs

  Erik Lakomaa, Jan Kallberg · 2013 · IEEE Access

  Swedish IT entrepreneurs report that open public sector data is critical for their business success. Forty-three percent consider it essential for their plans, and 82% say access would strengthen their operations. Companies value open data not just for direct commercialization but as a foundation for testing and supporting diverse business models. The findings suggest open data's innovation-enabling role extends far beyond government transparency and e-government applications, indicating its societal value has been significantly underestimated.

• Spatial mobility of knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity: analysis and measurement of the impact within the geoeconomic space

  Mario Coccia · 2007 · The Journal of Technology Transfer

  Knowledge and technology transfer effectiveness declines as distance from research sources increases, following a damped pattern. Small businesses in industrial districts successfully acquire external scientific knowledge through interactions with public research institutions and collective learning mechanisms, rather than conducting their own research. Industrial proximity and collaborative networks enable knowledge absorption without requiring in-house research capacity.

• Alliances, Networks and Competitive Strategy: Rethinking Clusters of Innovation

  Paul Tracey, Gordon L. Clark · 2003 · Growth and Change

  This paper examines how networks of firms drive innovation and competitiveness through alliances and knowledge sharing. The authors argue that successful innovation requires flexible network structures that adapt over time, and that geography plays a crucial role in how these networks form and operate. They contend that effective innovation networks are increasingly international rather than locally confined.

• Focusing the ecosystem lens on innovation studies

  Carliss Y. Baldwin, Marcel Bogers, Rahul Kapoor, Joel West · 2024 · Research Policy

  This paper reviews how innovation research has shifted toward understanding innovation as embedded in ecosystems of interconnected actors—firms, organizations, and individuals—that create value together through modular interfaces. The authors synthesize nine articles examining how ecosystem actors coordinate, create joint value, and capture returns, while proposing future research directions that combine ecosystem perspectives with other innovation frameworks and develop new methodologies for studying ecosystem dynamics.

• Regional innovation systems in an era of grand societal challenges: reorientation versus transformation

  Arne Isaksen, Michaela Trippl, Heike Mayer · 2022 · European Planning Studies

  Regional innovation systems must adapt to address major societal challenges through either reorientation or transformation strategies. Reorientation leverages existing regional assets and institutions to tackle challenge-related problems. Transformation goes further, requiring new actors, institutional changes, and disrupted network linkages to create entirely new regional innovation elements. The choice between strategies depends on regional conditions and specific challenges.

• Favourable social innovation ecosystem(s)? – An explorative approach

  Judith Terstriep, Dieter Rehfeld, Maria Kleverbeck · 2020 · European Planning Studies

  Social innovation ecosystems differ fundamentally from business-focused innovation systems. This research identifies three key requirements for effective social innovation ecosystems: integrated governance involving civil society and multiple sectors, intermediary institutions like hubs and labs that accelerate activities, and strategies combining different innovation modes. The study finds no single best model exists due to the diversity and local nature of social innovation work across Europe.

• Unveiling the Microfoundations of Absorptive Capacity: A Study of Coleman’s Bathtub Model

  Andreas Distel · 2017 · Journal of Management

  This study examines how firms develop absorptive capacity—the ability to recognize and use new knowledge. Using data from 342 employees across 106 medical technology companies, the research shows that formal and informal integration mechanisms strengthen absorptive capacity. The effect works through individual-level processes: employees' perspective-taking and creative behavior drive organizational capability. Key employees play a critical role in explaining why some firms absorb knowledge better than others.

• Moral “Lock-In” in Responsible Innovation: The Ethical and Social Aspects of Killing Day-Old Chicks and Its Alternatives

  M.R.N. Bruijnis, Vincent Blok, E.N. Stassen, Bart Gremmen · 2015 · Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics

  This paper examines the ethical problems with killing day-old male chicks in poultry production and evaluates two alternative approaches. The authors develop a framework showing how the industry faces a moral lock-in that perpetuates the practice despite ethical concerns. Both alternatives address some objections but introduce new dilemmas. The framework enables structured stakeholder engagement and reflection on responsible innovation dimensions.

• Accessing resources for service innovation – the critical role of network relationships

  Helena Rusanen, Aino Halinen, Elina Jaakkola · 2014 · Journal of service management

  Companies access resources for service innovation through different types of network relationships. The study identifies four resource access strategies: absorption, acquisition, sharing, and co-creation. Easily transferable resources come through weak relationships and low-intensity collaboration, while difficult-to-transfer resources like tacit knowledge require strong relationships and intensive collaboration. Managers should recognize that key innovation resources are accessible through diverse actors and relationships.

• Joining forces to create value: The emergence of an innovation ecosystem

  Gouthanan Pushpananthan, Maria Elmquist · 2022 · Technovation

  During rapid technological change, firms form alliances to access new resources and capabilities. This study traces how Volvo Car Group's autonomous driving development evolved from internal constraints into a collaborative innovation ecosystem. Resource limitations drove the company to seek partnerships, which transformed their technology platform from closed to modular. This modularity enabled multiple actors to co-create value around shared standards and interfaces, establishing an innovation ecosystem.

• Innovation Ecosystem framework directed to Sustainable Development Goal #17 partnerships implementation

  Larissa Oliveira Duarte, Diane Aparecida Reis, André Leme Fleury, Rosana Aparecida Vasques, Homero Fonseca Filho, Mikko Koria, Júlia Baruque-Ramos · 2021 · Sustainable Development

  This paper examines how innovation ecosystems can support the implementation of UN Sustainable Development Goal #17, which calls for strengthened global partnerships. The authors analyze UN documents and literature to identify four core drivers—geographical governance, collaboration, knowledge transmission, and value co-creation—that enable multi-stakeholder networks to address sustainability challenges. The framework positions SDGs as the unifying purpose that engages diverse stakeholder groups in co-creating solutions.

• The UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's commitment to a framework for responsible innovation

  Richard Owen · 2014 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  The UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council adopted a formal responsible innovation framework in 2013 after four years of development. The paper traces how this framework evolved, identifies the key influences that shaped it, and discusses implementation challenges as the council moves from defining responsible innovation to putting it into practice.

• Look who's talking: responsible innovation, the paradox of dialogue and the voice of the other in communication and negotiation processes

  Vincent Blok · 2014 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  This paper develops a theoretical framework for stakeholder dialogue in responsible innovation processes. Rather than assuming communication succeeds through openness and harmony, the authors argue dialogue must accommodate fundamentally different interests and values. They identify four key characteristics: dialogical responsiveness enhances self-criticism, involves transformation of participant identities, exists only through actual enactment, and responds to major societal challenges. The work redefines responsiveness as central to responsible innovation.

• Triple Helix Clusters: Boundary Permeability at University—Industry—Government Interfaces as a Regional Innovation Strategy

  Henry Etzkowitz · 2012 · Environment and Planning C Government and Policy

  Successful regional innovation requires permeable boundaries between universities, industry, and government. The paper examines MIT-Boston, Stanford-Silicon Valley, Research Triangle-North Carolina, and Newcastle-Northeast UK to show that entrepreneurial universities drive innovation regions. While no single best-practice model exists, boundary permeability and other common innovation characteristics can be strengthened through targeted policy initiatives.

• User innovation and everyday practices: micro‐innovation in sports industry development

  Sampsa Hyysalo · 2009 · R and D Management

  User innovations in sports like rodeo and freestyle kayaking drive industry development more significantly than previously recognized. The paper examines how users adapt equipment and practices, change activity settings, and engage in various forms of involvement. These micro-innovations reshape user demographics and preferred gear, ultimately influencing industry evolution more than lead-users and user-manufacturers alone.

• Growth performance, metabolic and endocrine traits, and absorptive capacity in neonatal calves fed either colostrum or milk replacer at two levels.

  S Kühne, H.M. Hammon, R.M. Bruckmaier, Chloé Morel, Y. Zbinden, J.W. Blum · 2000 · Journal of Animal Science

  Newborn calves fed colostrum gained weight and showed better intestinal absorption and metabolic markers than calves fed milk replacer, regardless of feeding amount. Higher colostrum feeding density improved protein and fat metabolism. Milk replacer feeding density had minimal effects on metabolism or intestinal function. The bioactive compounds in colostrum, not just nutrient density, drive neonatal calf development.

• The dawn of an open exploration era: Emergent principles and practices of open science and innovation of university research teams in a digital world

  Rubén Vicente-Saez, Robin Gustafsson, Lieve van den Brande · 2020 · Technological Forecasting and Social Change

  Universities are adopting open science practices—including open data sharing, open access publishing, and participatory design—that reshape how research teams conduct innovation. These practices accelerate knowledge creation, speed solutions to major societal challenges, and develop entrepreneurial researchers. The study identifies emergent principles and mechanisms of open science and innovation at universities, proposing governance models to increase societal value in the digital era.

• Does patenting help or hinder open innovation? Evidence from new entrants in the solar industry

  Ann‐Kristin Zobel, Benjamin Balsmeier, Henry Chesbrough · 2016 · Industrial and Corporate Change

  New companies entering the solar industry that build patent portfolios increase their open innovation partnerships overall. However, the effect varies by relationship type. Patents strongly boost partnerships in high-tech collaborations but weaken the effect in lower-tech relationships, actually reducing partnerships in the least technology-intensive ones.

• Network structure and regional innovation: A study of university–industry ties

  Robert Huggins, Daniel Prokop · 2016 · Urban Studies

  University-industry knowledge networks shape regional innovation outcomes. Analysis of UK regions reveals that the most innovative and economically developed areas contain actors occupying central, influential positions within these networks. Network structure and the resulting stocks of structural network capital directly influence patterns of regional innovation and economic development.

• Rapid innovation diffusion in social networks

  Gabriel Kreindler, H. Peyton Young · 2014 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

  This paper establishes that innovations spread rapidly through social networks when the payoff advantage is sufficiently large and agents make noisy decisions. The researchers derive bounds showing diffusion speed depends primarily on payoff gains and decision noise rather than network structure. They demonstrate that with realistic parameters—such as 5% error rates and 150% payoff gains—innovations establish themselves across any network within 80 revision periods on average.

• Eco-innovation, Responsible Leadership and Organizational Change for Corporate Sustainability

  Dorel Paraschiv, Estera Laura Nemoianu, Claudia Adriana Langă, Tünde Szabó · 2012 · Econstor (Econstor)

  Organizations pursuing sustainability must integrate environmental and social goals into their operations through eco-innovation and responsible leadership. The paper links corporate sustainability, eco-innovation, responsible leadership, and organizational change as interconnected drivers of corporate sustainability. Research on Romanian organizations shows that visionary management plays a critical role in adopting and implementing sustainability practices, particularly ecological components of sustainable development.

• National innovation systems: the emergence of a new approach

  Jan Fagerberg, Koson Sapprasert · 2011 · Science and Public Policy

  This paper traces the emergence of national innovation systems as a research concept in the late 1980s. The authors identify the three most influential contributions to this literature and analyze citation patterns in scholarly journals to understand how the concept developed within innovation studies. They characterize national innovation systems research relative to other research areas.

• Exploring the Multiple Roles of Lund University in Strengthening Scania's Regional Innovation System: Towards Institutional Learning?

  Paul Benneworth, Lars Coenen, Jerker Moodysson, Björn Asheim · 2009 · European Planning Studies

  Lund University strengthens Scania's regional innovation system through multiple engagement mechanisms that facilitate technological learning across sectors. The university acts as a knowledge conduit, importing global science and technology into the region while building structural innovation capacity. The study examines three sectoral engagement efforts and demonstrates how universities can actively contribute to regional innovative capacity beyond passive knowledge transfer.

• Absorptive Capacity in a Non-Market Environment

  Gill Harvey, Chris Skelcher, Eileen Spencer, Pauline Jas, Kieran Walshe · 2009 · Public Management Review

  This paper applies absorptive capacity theory to explain performance in public sector organizations. The authors argue that absorptive capacity—an organization's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply external knowledge—offers a valuable framework for understanding why some public organizations succeed while others fail. They review conceptual and methodological implications of this approach and propose testable propositions for future empirical research on public sector performance.

• Building regional innovation networks: The definition of an age business core process in a regional innovation system

  Satu Pekkarinen, Vesa Harmaakorpi · 2006 · Regional Studies

  Regional innovation networks drive competitive advantage. This study presents the Regional Development Platform Method and core process thinking as tools for developing regional innovation systems. Using Finland's Lahti region and its age business sector as a case study, the authors demonstrate that successful core processes depend fundamentally on collective learning and knowledge creation among multiple actors in the innovation network.

• Shock Absorption Capacities of Mouthguards in Different Types and Thicknesses

  P. Bemelmanns · 2001 · International Journal of Sports Medicine

  This paper is not about rural innovation. It examines shock absorption performance of different sports mouthguard designs using laboratory testing. The study found that custom-fitted mouthguards with specific layering configurations absorbed about 33% of impact force, while boil-and-bite designs and silicone-layered mouthguards performed significantly worse. Mouthguard thickness and material composition affected protective capacity.

• Deep Learning Meets Deep Democracy: Deliberative Governance and Responsible Innovation in Artificial Intelligence

  Alexander Buhmann, Christian Fieseler · 2022 · Business Ethics Quarterly

  The paper argues that responsible AI innovation requires public deliberation involving industry, government, and civil society actors. It identifies opacity and knowledge gaps between experts and citizens as barriers to informed democratic debate about AI. The authors propose a deliberative governance framework that enables AI industry actors to engage effectively with experts and the public across different venues, building trust and enabling democratic oversight of AI systems.

• Knowledge management and open innovation in agri-food crowdfunding

  Valentina Cillo, Riccardo Rialti, Bernardo Bertoldi, Francesco Ciampi · 2019 · British Food Journal

  Knowledge management capabilities drive successful open innovation in agri-food businesses using crowdfunding. IT-based knowledge exploitation enables open innovation strategies, while knowledge exploration capabilities mediate the relationship between IT capabilities and innovation outcomes. The study surveyed 80 agri-food crowdfunding businesses and found these knowledge management practices critical for innovation success.

• The function of ability, benevolence, and integrity-based trust in innovation networks

  Helge Svare, Anne Haugen Gausdal, Guido Möllering · 2019 · Industry and Innovation

  This study examines how trust operates in Norwegian innovation networks, analyzing three trust dimensions: perceived ability, benevolence, and integrity. Using mixed methods across five networks, the researchers found that benevolence-based trust proves most critical for fostering open communication and knowledge sharing at both organizational and network levels. Trust functions differently depending on whether it operates between individual organizations or across the entire network, with benevolence-based trust driving successful collaboration and innovation outcomes.

• Orchestrating Innovation Ecosystems: A Qualitative Analysis of Ecosystem Positioning Strategies

  Katri Valkokari, Marko Seppänen, Maria Mäntylä, Simo Jylhä-Ollila · 2017 · Technology Innovation Management Review

  This paper analyzes how organizations position themselves within innovation ecosystems through inter-organizational relationships and networks. The authors examine ecosystem positioning strategies and value co-creation through boundary-spanning activities, revealing how collaborative innovation practices vary across different organizational contexts and ecosystem structures.

• Match and manage: the use of knowledge matching and project management to integrate knowledge in collaborative inbound open innovation

  Nicolette Lakemond, Lars Bengtsson, Keld Laursen, Fredrik Tell · 2016 · Industrial and Corporate Change

  Firms using inbound open innovation need more than just absorptive capacity to succeed. This study shows that how companies actively manage incoming knowledge—through project management and knowledge matching procedures—directly affects their innovation performance. The choice of governance approach matters as much as the firm's existing knowledge foundation.

• How open innovation processes vary between urban and remote environments: slow innovators, market-sourced information and frequency of interaction

  Richard Shearmur, David Doloreux · 2016 · Entrepreneurship and Regional Development

  The paper challenges the assumption that innovation happens mainly in cities. It shows that remote areas do produce first-to-market innovations, but through different mechanisms. Slow innovators in isolated locations rely on non-market information and infrequent contact with others, while fast innovators cluster near cities using market-sourced information and frequent interactions. This difference explains why innovation occurs in both settings.

• Market-Based Instruments for Ecosystem Services: Institutional Innovation or Renovation?

  Valérie Boisvert, Philippe Méral, Géraldine Froger · 2013 · Society & Natural Resources

  Market-based instruments for ecosystem services have proliferated globally, but their actual institutional design varies widely from their theoretical promise. This paper examines payments for environmental services and biodiversity offsets—both labeled as market-based instruments—and finds significant gaps between the pro-market rhetoric surrounding these policies and their actual implementation. The instruments are less genuinely innovative than claimed and take diverse institutional forms depending on local context.

• EXPLORING THE SHADOWS: IT GOVERNANCE APPROACHES TO USER- DRIVEN INNOVATION

  Andreas Györy, Anne Cleven, Falk Uebernickel, Walter Brenner · 2012 · European Conference on Information Systems

  This paper appears to be a mismatch—the title addresses IT governance and user-driven innovation, but the abstract describes mass spectrometry methods for analyzing oligonucleotides. No rural innovation content is discernible from either the title or abstract provided.

• Open innovation and new issues in R&amp;D organization and personnel management

  Giorgio Petroni, Karen Venturini, Chiara Verbano · 2011 · The International Journal of Human Resource Management

  Open innovation practices reshape how companies organize R&D and manage researchers. Italian multinational firms in pharmaceuticals, food, chemicals, and aerospace increasingly collaborate with universities and external research centers, adopt matrix and network structures, and hire knowledge integrators rather than traditional scientists. Personnel management and training models shift away from Anglo-American approaches toward Japanese and German practices emphasizing collaborative expertise.

• Curiosity on Cutting-Edge Technology via Theory of Planned Behavior and Diffusion of Innovation Theory

  Fulya Açikgöz, Abdulaziz Elwalda, Mauro José de Oliveira · 2023 · International Journal of Information Management Data Insights

  This study examines what drives consumer adoption of smartwatches by combining two behavioral theories. Researchers surveyed 291 smartwatch users and found that both psychological factors (like perceived control and curiosity) and technical factors (compatibility and complexity) shape whether people intend to use the technology. Compatibility emerged as the strongest predictor of adoption intent, while curiosity and complexity showed the highest performance impact.

• Circular economy practices and environmental performance: Analysing the role of big data analytics capability and responsible research and innovation

  Saumyaranjan Sahoo, Arvind Upadhyay, Anil Kumar · 2023 · Business Strategy and the Environment

  This study examines how big data analytics capability and responsible research and innovation drive circular economy practices in manufacturing, ultimately improving environmental performance. Using survey data from 326 manufacturers, the research finds that responsible research and innovation has the strongest influence on environmental outcomes. Circular economy practices partially mediate the effects of both big data analytics and responsible innovation on environmental performance, though resource commitment does not significantly moderate these relationships.

• Environmental collaboration, responsible innovation, and firm performance: The moderating role of stakeholder pressure

  Samuel Adomako, Mai Dong Tran · 2022 · Business Strategy and the Environment

  Environmental collaboration drives responsible innovation in firms, which improves performance. This effect strengthens when stakeholder pressure increases. The study of 225 firms demonstrates that responsible innovation mediates the relationship between environmental collaboration and firm performance, advancing understanding of how companies can leverage environmental strategies to achieve business success.

• The process of user-innovation: a case study in a consumer goods setting

  Robert Tietz, Pamela Morrison, Christian Lüthje, Cornelius Herstatt · 2005 · International Journal of Product Development

  Users developing new products in kitesurfing follow a structured two-stage process: idea generation and idea realisation. Unlike manufacturers' formal development phases, users employ intuition-driven approaches but still follow identifiable sequences. Manufacturers can improve innovation by closely observing how users actually invent and develop products.

• Digital Influencers, Food and Tourism—A New Model of Open Innovation for Businesses in the Ho.Re.Ca. Sector

  Marzia Ingrassia, Claudio Bellia, Chiara Giurdanella, Pietro Columba, Stefania Chironi · 2022 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  This paper examines how digital influencer marketing functions as open innovation for food and tourism businesses. Researchers analyzed Instagram posts by major influencer Chiara Ferragni promoting Italian food and tourist destinations during the COVID-19 economic crisis. Using netnographic analysis and the AGIL model, they measured how local food enhanced destination appeal across different contexts. The study proposes a new open innovation model for advertising and promoting food and catering businesses through influencer-driven social media campaigns.

• Creating and capturing value in a regional innovation ecosystem: a study of how manufacturing SMEs develop collaborative solutions

  Agnieszka Radziwon, Marcel Bogers, Arne Bilberg · 2017 · International Journal of Technology Management

  Danish manufacturing SMEs collaborating on an automation project reveal how small firms create and capture value within regional innovation ecosystems. Common goals and financial support enable value creation, but companies must balance their own operations with ecosystem commitments. Success depends on managing knowledge flows across organizations and aligning business models with ecosystem structures. The study shows that value capture occurs at the inter-organizational level, not just individually.

• From computer ethics to responsible research and innovation in ICT

  Bernd Carsten Stahl, Grace Eden, Marina Jirotka, Mark Coeckelbergh · 2014 · Information & Management

  Computer ethics has shaped information systems research, but responsible research and innovation (RRI) offers a broader framework for governing ICT development. RRI addresses limitations in traditional computer ethics by expanding governance approaches beyond individual ethical concerns to encompass systemic oversight of technology and innovation. Adopting RRI strengthens IS research relevance and builds on existing ethical foundations.

• Success factors for innovation management in networks of small and medium enterprises

  Alexandra Rese, Daniel Baier · 2011 · R and D Management

  Small and medium enterprises increasingly innovate through networks to manage expensive, risky product development. This study identifies success factors for managing distributed innovation across multiple partners. Using survey data from 271 networks, the research confirms that traditional factors like product advantage and marketing proficiency matter, but also finds that network-specific factors—particularly network cohesion and organization—are equally critical for new product success.

• Entrepreneurial co‐creation: societal impact through open innovation

  Muthu De Silva, Mike Wright · 2019 · R and D Management

  This paper examines how for-profit and not-for-profit entrepreneurs collaborate through open innovation initiatives like accelerators and living labs to create both business and social value. The authors find that different entrepreneur types pursuing shared opportunities generate competing social and business values. They identify four propositions showing how entrepreneurs' profit orientation and resource contributions determine what kinds of social value emerge from co-creation efforts.

• How Firms Develop Capabilities for Crowdsourcing to Increase Open Innovation Performance: The Interplay between Organizational Roles and Knowledge Processes

  Patrick Pollok, Dirk Lüttgens, Frank T. Piller · 2018 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Firms using crowdsourcing for innovation perform differently based on their internal capabilities. This study identifies how informal roles, formal roles, and knowledge processes work together to build crowdsourcing capability. The research finds that both types of organizational roles operate through knowledge articulation and codification to strengthen a firm's ability to benefit from crowdsourced solutions to technical problems.

• How Individuals Engage in the Absorption of New External Knowledge: A Process Model of Absorptive Capacity

  David Sjödin, Johan Frishammar, Sara Thorgren · 2018 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  This paper presents a process model showing how individuals absorb external knowledge through three stages: recognizing value by assessing motivation and feasibility, corroborating value through legitimacy and shared understanding, and championing integration by securing resources. The model reveals that individual engagement determines whether knowledge gets exploited, terminated, or stalls. The findings highlight individuals' critical role in converting potential absorptive capacity into realized organizational learning.

• Does Information Technology Improve Open Innovation Performance? An Examination of Manufacturers in Spain

  Jaime Gómez, Idana Salazar Terreros, Pilar Vargas Montoya · 2017 · Information Systems Research

  Spanish manufacturing firms using open innovation models achieve better patent and product innovation outcomes when they invest in information technology. The study finds an inverted U-shaped relationship between external R&D spending and innovation performance. IT investments reduce the costs of identifying, assimilating, and utilizing external knowledge, making open innovation a viable strategic alternative to traditional in-house R&D.

• Born‐Global SMEs, Performance, and Dynamic Absorptive Capacity: Evidence from Spanish Firms

  M. Ángeles Rodríguez‐Serrano, Enrique Martín‐Armario · 2017 · Journal of Small Business Management

  Spanish small businesses that internationalize from startup outperform competitors through dynamic absorptive capacity—their ability to acquire, assimilate, and apply market knowledge effectively. An entrepreneurial, market-oriented culture strengthens this capability. The study of 102 Spanish born-global SMEs confirms that success depends on firms' capacity to rapidly learn and adapt knowledge to market demands.

• Innovation embedded in entrepreneurs’ networks and national educational systems

  Thomas Schøtt, M. Sedaghat · 2014 · Small Business Economics

  Entrepreneurs' innovation depends on where they network. Public sphere networking—especially professional and international connections—boosts innovation, while private sphere networking reduces it. However, a country's quality educational system for entrepreneurship moderates these effects, adding innovation benefits to both types of networking. Analysis of 56,611 entrepreneurs across 61 countries confirms these patterns.

• Gatekeepers of Knowledge versus Platforms of Knowledge: From Potential to Realized Absorptive Capacity

  Nathalie Lazaric, Christian Longhi, Catherine Thomas · 2008 · Regional Studies

  Knowledge gatekeepers in the Sophia Antipolis technology cluster can create potential absorptive capacity, but realizing that capacity requires deliberate knowledge transfer efforts. The authors propose a 'knowledge platform' concept—a codified knowledge project that generates positive externalities by creating new opportunities for combining and absorbing knowledge within the cluster.

• ENTREPRENEURSHIP, PROXIMITY AND REGIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEMS

  Rolf Sternberg · 2007 · Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie

  Regional innovation systems rely heavily on intraregional networks, but this focus creates lock-in risks. The paper argues that extraregional relationships matter equally, with entrepreneurial migrants serving as crucial connectors. Geographical proximity alone is less important than cognitive and institutional proximity for fostering innovation across international boundaries.

• Smart specialization in regional innovation systems: a quadruple helix perspective

  Linda Höglund, Gabriel Linton · 2017 · R and D Management

  Robotdalen, a Swedish robotics initiative, demonstrates how smart specialization strategies work within regional innovation systems. The study tracked the program over ten years, examining interactions between industry, universities, government, and civil society. Three strategic practices emerged that evolved over time. The research shows how the fourth helix—civil society and users—integrates into traditional triple helix models, revealing the complexity of multi-stakeholder innovation governance.

• Too much and too fast? Public investment scaling-up and absorptive capacity

  Andrea Presbitero · 2016 · Journal of Development Economics

  Rapid scaling-up of public investment in low-income countries reduces project success rates when absorptive capacity—skills, institutions, and management capability—is limited. Analysis of World Bank projects across 80 countries from 1970 to 2007 shows projects implemented during investment scaling periods perform worse, though the effect is modest, particularly in poor and capital-scarce nations.

• The Role of Early Adopters in the Diffusion of New Products: Differences between Platform and Nonplatform Innovations

  Federico Frattini, Mattia Bianchi, Alfredo De Massis, Uroš Sikimić · 2013 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Early adopters play different roles in spreading platform versus nonplatform innovations. For platform innovations, early adopters drive diffusion by sharing their opinions and experiences with others. For nonplatform innovations, early adopters drive diffusion through imitation—later buyers adopt simply because competitors have adopted. Firms should target different early adopter segments based on innovation type to maximize diffusion success.

• Eco-Innovation, Sustainability and Business Model Innovation by Open Innovation Dynamics

  Magdalena Pichlak, Adam R. Szromek · 2021 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  Polish eco-innovative companies tend to develop radical rather than incremental environmental innovations, particularly in biodiversity protection. Larger firms with over 50 employees show greater capacity for both types of eco-innovation than smaller competitors. Open innovation strategies significantly boost eco-innovation generation, especially radical changes. Forward supply chain collaboration and direct market knowledge absorption drive these developments, offering a framework for post-pandemic business model innovation.

• Unpacking Open Innovation: Absorptive Capacity, Exploratory and Exploitative Openness, and the Growth of Entrepreneurial Biopharmaceutical Firms

  Tianjiao Xia, Stephen Roper · 2016 · Journal of Small Business Management

  Absorptive capacity and external relationships drive growth in small biopharmaceutical firms. A study of 349 firms across the US, UK, France, and Germany shows that a firm's ability to recognize and use external knowledge matters significantly for expansion. Exploratory partnerships depend on sustained R&D investment, while exploitative partnerships require stronger internal knowledge absorption capabilities.

• User-driven Innovation in Tourism—A Review of Methodologies

  Anne‐Mette Hjalager, Sara Nordin · 2011 · Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism

  This literature review identifies sixteen distinct methodologies for user-driven innovation in tourism, ranging from active user involvement to passive information collection. The authors examine how companies engage customers in innovation processes and the quality of dialogue between them. They find that tourism research lacks comprehensive follow-up on whether user-driven innovation actually improves quality outcomes, and they outline priority areas for future investigation.

• A service ecosystem perspective on the diffusion of sustainability-oriented user innovations

  Jakob Trischler, Mikael Johnson, Per Kristensson · 2020 · Journal of Business Research

  This paper argues that service ecosystem theory better explains how sustainability-focused user innovations spread through markets and communities. The authors identify three key insights: diffusion involves multiple levels and actors working together, user innovators must be integrated as active ecosystem participants, and innovation spreads through ongoing co-creation rather than one-way adoption. The findings suggest policymakers should build innovation infrastructure that recognizes and supports users as drivers of sustainable change.

• Open innovation in universities

  Antonio Padilla Meléndez, Aurora Garrido‐Moreno · 2012 · International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research

  Spanish universities show that social networks are the strongest driver of researcher engagement in knowledge transfer activities. Personal background, institutional support, and professional factors also matter significantly, though recognition does not. The study surveyed 382 senior researchers leading research groups and found that strengthening connections between researchers, businesses, administrators, and technology transfer offices increases participation in open innovation knowledge exchanges.

• Exploring users motivation in innovation communities

  Anna Ståhlbröst, Birgitta Bergvall Kareborn · 2011 · International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management

  Users participate in online innovation communities for different reasons depending on the community type and technology they adopt. The study finds that learning is a key motivational factor driving participation in innovation intermediary communities. Understanding user characteristics and motivations helps organizations effectively engage virtual communities in their innovation processes.

• DEA PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT OF THE NATIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEM IN ASIA AND EUROPE

  TA-WEI PAN, Shiu‐Wan Hung, Wen‐Min Lu · 2010 · Asia Pacific Journal of Operational Research

  This study measures the efficiency of national innovation systems across 33 Asian and European countries using data envelopment analysis. Korea and Taiwan rank highest in Asia, while Romania leads Europe. Asian countries generally outperform European countries in innovation production. Technical inefficiencies stem primarily from pure technical factors rather than scale issues. The analysis identifies key inputs and outputs driving each country's innovation system performance.

• Attributes required for profiting from open innovation in networks

  Ellen Enkel · 2010 · International Journal of Technology Management

  Individual and organizational attributes determine success in open innovation networks. A study of EURADOS, a European research network on radiation dosimetry with 200 members across 31 countries, found that members profit unequally from participation. Openness and the ability to contribute are equally important attributes for gaining value from the network in terms of increased innovativeness, reduced costs, and improved task fulfillment.

• Information–Communication Technologies Open up Innovation

  Yukika Awazu, Peter Baloh, Kevin C. Desouza, Christoph Wecht, Jeffrey Kim, Sanjeev Jha · 2009 · Research-Technology Management

  Information and communication technologies enable open innovation by connecting organizations with external sources like customers, suppliers, and vendors to generate, develop, test, and commercialize ideas. ICTs support the entire innovation process from initial ideation through commercialization, moving beyond internal use to facilitate distributed innovation across organizational boundaries.

• Towards technological rules for designing innovation networks: a dynamic capabilities view

  Palie Smart, John Bessant, Abhishek Gupta · 2007 · International Journal of Operations & Production Management

  Inter-organizational innovation networks allow firms to access complementary resources beyond their boundaries. This paper develops design-oriented knowledge for configuring these networks effectively. The research addresses how firms can build dynamic capabilities to leverage external resources for competitive advantage as innovation increasingly shifts away from individual companies.

• The Role and Meaning of the Digital Transformation As a Disruptive Innovation on Small and Medium Manufacturing Enterprises

  Vasja Roblek, Maja Meško, Franci Pušavec, Borut Likar · 2021 · Frontiers in Psychology

  Digital transformation acts as disruptive innovation in manufacturing SMEs, reshaping product development, production methods, and organizational structures. A Delphi study of 49 experts across eleven EU countries identified three key drivers: technological changes, innovative business models, and organizational culture. Success requires clear understanding of disruptive innovation, internal and external enablers, and mitigation strategies for obstacles. SMEs that fail to adopt disruptive innovations will not survive within 5-10 years.

• Activity-Based Costing (ABC) and Its Implication for Open Innovation

  Patrícia Rodrigues Quesado, Rui Silva · 2021 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  This bibliometric analysis examines 1,419 international publications on activity-based costing (ABC) systems from Web of Science and Scopus databases. The study identifies growing publication trends, collaborative networks between authors and institutions, and research themes across countries. ABC systems help organizations allocate indirect costs more accurately than traditional methods, enabling better resource management and cost control in modern economic contexts.

• Disruptive Innovation in Dentistry: What It Is and What Could Be Next

  Tim Joda, Andy Wai Kan Yeung, Kuo Feng Hung, Nicola U. Zitzmann, Michael M. Bornstein · 2020 · Journal of Dental Research

  Artificial intelligence drives disruptive innovation in dentistry by enabling personalized treatment through analysis of patient eHealth data, genomic information, and clinical records. AI integration with teledentistry, virtual reality, and intraoral scanning transforms clinical workflows and service delivery. The paper emphasizes that while these technologies promise improved outcomes and cost-effectiveness, their adoption requires rigorous scientific validation, careful ethical consideration of diagnostic accuracy, and responsible handling of sensitive patient data.

• Disruptive innovation from a process view: A systematic literature review

  Neele Petzold, Lina Landinez, Thomas Baaken · 2019 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  This systematic literature review examines how disruptive innovation unfolds over time rather than treating it as a fixed outcome. The authors identify three key dynamics: timing of market entry, synchronization of events and actions, and adaptability of strategic responses. They argue disruptive innovation emerges through complex, non-linear processes shaped by these interconnected factors, offering managers better tools to recognize and guide disruption as it develops.

• The Role of Stakeholders in the Context of Responsible Innovation: A Meta-Synthesis

  Luciana Maines da Silva, Cláudia Cristina Bitencourt, Kadígia Faccin, Tatiana Iakovleva · 2019 · Sustainability

  This meta-synthesis of seven empirical studies examines how stakeholders participate in responsible research and innovation (RRI) projects. The authors find that stakeholders typically join late in the innovation process, during market launch, limiting their influence on design. Academic researchers and multi-institutional project leaders orchestrate participation. The paper argues that innovation management practices—particularly early user involvement—should be integrated into RRI governance to enable more responsible outcomes and meaningful stakeholder influence.

• Social media: open innovation in SMEs finds new support

  Emma L. Hitchen, Petra A. Nylund, Xavier Ferràs, Sergi Mussons · 2017 · Journal of Business Strategy

  Small and medium-sized enterprises use social media to conduct open innovation with limited resources. The study of a startup called Aurea Productiva reveals how Web 2.0 tools create opportunities and challenges for collaborative innovation. SMEs can leverage social media by developing strategies that emphasize resource sharing, clearly communicating their vision, and building frameworks that enable external collaboration.

• A triple helix model of medical innovation: <em>Supply</em>, <em>demand</em>, and <em>technological capabilities</em> in terms of Medical Subject Headings

  Alexander M. Petersen, Daniele Rotolo, Loet Leydesdorff · 2016 · UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam)

  This paper develops a triple helix model to understand medical innovation by analyzing interactions between disease demand, drug supply, and technological capabilities. Using medical research publications from MEDLINE/PubMed, the authors identify periods when these three dimensions align synergistically. They find that the strongest innovation driver is the connection between disease needs and available technologies, followed by supply-demand and supply-technology links. The model helps reduce uncertainty in medical innovation governance.

• Evidence and Experience of Open Sustainability Innovation Practices in the Food Sector

  Gabriella Arcese, Serena Flammini, Maria Claudia Lucchetti, Olimpia Martucci · 2015 · Sustainability

  Open sustainability innovation practices in the food sector reduce costs, accelerate time to market, and improve environmental performance while addressing food security. Analysis of ten case studies demonstrates how food companies strategically adopt these collaborative approaches to compete effectively while meeting sustainability goals.

• OPEN FOR BUSINESS: UNIVERSITIES, ENTREPRENEURIAL ACADEMICS AND OPEN INNOVATION

  Allen Alexander, Kristel Miller, Sean Fielding · 2015 · International Journal of Innovation Management

  Universities are adopting open innovation models to engage academics with industry and society, but research shows these new collaboration activities fail to motivate entrepreneurial academics to participate. The study reveals a gap between policy intentions for open innovation and what actually drives academics to engage in knowledge transfer, suggesting universities may struggle to become truly open institutions without better understanding what motivates their researchers.

• Openness and Innovation Performance: Are Small Firms Different?

  Priit Vahter, James H. Love, Stephen Roper · 2014 · Industry and Innovation

  Small manufacturing plants benefit more from diverse innovation partnerships than larger plants do. Using Irish manufacturing data, the study finds that small plants gain significantly from broadening their innovation linkages, though they face diminishing returns at lower diversity levels than larger firms. Small plants also benefit more from supply chain partnerships. The research suggests small firms must choose partners carefully when expanding their innovation networks.

• Species in the wild: a typology of innovation ecosystems

  Patrycja Klimas, Wojciech Czakon · 2021 · Review of Managerial Science

  This paper develops a comprehensive typology of innovation ecosystems by analyzing systematic literature reviews and identifying 50 distinct varieties. The authors extract 14 typology criteria from existing research and consolidate them into five organizing dimensions: life cycle stage, structural characteristics, innovation focus, scope of activities, and performance outcomes. This framework enables systematic classification and comparison of different innovation ecosystem types.

• Knowledge infrastructure capability, absorptive capacity and inbound open innovation: evidence from SMEs in France

  Sajjad M. Jasimuddin, M. Muzamil Naqshbandi · 2019 · Production Planning & Control

  French SMEs with stronger knowledge infrastructure capabilities—spanning technology, structure, and culture—absorb external knowledge more effectively and implement open innovation more successfully. Absorptive capacity partially mediates this relationship. The study validates a measurement instrument for knowledge infrastructure capability and demonstrates its direct positive impact on both absorptive capacity and inbound open innovation performance in small and medium enterprises.

• Motivation Gaps and Implementation Traps: The Paradoxical and Time‐Varying Effects of Family Ownership on Firm Absorptive Capacity

  Josip Kotlar, Alfredo De Massis, Federico Frattini, Nadine Kammerlander · 2019 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Family ownership affects how firms absorb and use external knowledge in contradictory ways. The authors identify two gaps—motivation and implementation—that explain why family ownership can either strengthen or weaken a firm's capacity to acquire and exploit new knowledge. The effects depend on specific conditions and change over time, particularly during ownership succession periods.

• International migration and innovation diffusion: an eclectic survey

  Francesco Lissoni · 2017 · Regional Studies

  Highly skilled migrants drive innovation diffusion across countries through multiple pathways. This survey examines how migration enables knowledge transfer from origin to host countries and vice versa, as well as among destination countries. The paper emphasizes that social ties among migrants and the distinction between accessing general information versus exchanging specialized knowledge are critical factors in understanding how migration spreads innovation globally.

• Patenting motives, technology strategies, and open innovation

  Marcus Holgersson, Ove Granstrand · 2017 · Management Decision

  Swedish firms with higher levels of open innovation place greater importance on patenting, particularly for protecting product technologies and freedom to operate, and for bargaining purposes. The study surveyed large firms and SMEs, finding that open innovation strengthens most patenting motives compared to closed innovation strategies, except for attracting customers.

• Implementation of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) Practices in Industry: Providing the Right Incentives

  Agata Gurzawska, Markus Mäkinen, Philip Brey · 2017 · Sustainability

  This paper examines how to encourage industrial companies to adopt Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI)—research that is ethically sound and socially beneficial. The authors propose a framework of incentives organized by type: external versus internal, instrumental versus non-instrumental, and direct versus indirect. They identify specific incentives including corporate reputation, consumer demand, certification, employee engagement, and governance structures. The paper argues that RRI adoption benefits both business competitiveness and society, and outlines conditions necessary for successful implementation in industrial settings.

• The role of public open innovation intermediaries in local government and the public sector

  Tuba Bakıcı, Esteve Almirall, Jonathan Wareham · 2013 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  Public open innovation intermediaries act as bridges between city governments and networks of organizations, helping cities collaborate across large cognitive distances and execute innovation projects. A study of eight cases across Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain shows these intermediaries orchestrate collaboration and boost urban innovativeness. The findings provide policy guidance for cities seeking to improve their innovation processes and competitiveness.

• Shock Absorption Capacity of Restorative Materials for Dental Implant Prostheses: An In Vitro Study

  María Menini, Enrico Conserva, Tiziano Tealdo, Marco Giorgio Bevilacqua, Francesco Pera, Alessio Signori, Paolo Pera · 2013 · The International Journal of Prosthodontics

  This laboratory study measured how different dental crown materials absorb shock from chewing forces. Researchers tested nine materials—zirconia, glass-ceramics, gold alloy, composite resins, and acrylic resins—using a robotic chewing machine. Acrylic and composite resin crowns absorbed the most force, transmitting the least stress to implant bone, while zirconia transmitted the highest forces. Material choice significantly affects how much force reaches the bone around dental implants.

• Sharing leadership for diffusion of innovation in professionalized settings

  Graeme Currie, Dimitrios Spyridonidis · 2018 · Human Relations

  Healthcare organizations struggle to spread innovations beyond isolated pockets. This study reveals how shared leadership drives innovation diffusion in hospitals. Managers initially champion and fund innovations, but doctors later take the lead in persuading peers, while nurses adapt innovations to local settings. Financial performance, whether nurses adopt hybrid roles, and organizational hierarchy all shape whether shared leadership succeeds in spreading innovations across the organization.

• Motivation and sorting of human capital in open innovation

  Sharon Belenzon, Mark Schankerman · 2014 · Strategic Management Journal

  This paper examines how open innovation projects attract and retain contributors with different motivations. Using open source software data, the authors show that developers sort themselves based on project characteristics, particularly licensing choices. Intrinsic motivation, reputation building, and career signaling drive contributions more than reciprocity. Project managers can strategically design business models to attract the right talent and improve performance.

• Absorptive capacity: a proposed operationalization

  Jean-Pierre Noblet, Eric Pierre Simon, Robert Parent · 2011 · Knowledge Management Research & Practice

  This paper develops a practical framework for measuring absorptive capacity—a company's ability to acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit new knowledge. The authors examine ten innovative companies to test their operationalization approach, connecting absorptive capacity to dynamic capabilities and business strategy. The research provides concrete methods for assessing how firms actually absorb and use external knowledge.

• ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALS AND THE DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS: THE CASE OF CITIZEN SERVICE CENTRES

  Yosef Bhatti, Asmus Leth Olsen, Lene Holm Pedersen · 2010 · Public Administration

  Administrative professionals significantly drive the adoption of citizen service centres—integrated one-stop shops—across Danish municipalities. The study finds that municipalities with higher concentrations of administrative professionals are more likely to adopt this organizational innovation. Adoption also increases with municipal wealth, regional availability of similar centres, and local service demands.

• Entrepreneurial opportunities with toolkits for user innovation and design

  Nikolaus Franke, Martin Schreier · 2002 · The International Journal on Media Management

  User innovation toolkits shift product design from manufacturers to customers, enabling companies to develop products that precisely match customer needs while avoiding costly market research. The paper identifies two entrepreneurial strategies: high-end toolkits for radical innovation and low-end toolkits for mature markets. Startups are best positioned to exploit these opportunities, either as manufacturers or as intermediaries between users and established producers.

• Open Innovation in Times of Crisis: An Overview of the Healthcare Sector in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

  Zheng Liu, Yongjiang Shi, Bo Ram Yang · 2022 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare organizations rapidly developed innovations in personal protective equipment, medical devices, testing, treatment, and vaccines through open innovation and cross-organizational collaboration. This paper reviews open innovation strategies during the crisis using a business ecosystem framework, identifies key emerging themes in UK and global healthcare sectors, and offers policy recommendations for crisis recovery.

• The role of open innovation in fostering SMEs’ business model innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic

  Fauzia Jabeen, Jaroslav Belás, Gabriele Santoro, Gazi Mahabubul Alam · 2022 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  Open innovation practices enabled small and medium enterprises to transform their business models during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study examined six SMEs across traditional sectors and found that external pressure from the crisis drove business model innovation, with open innovation management playing a central role in this transformation. Digital transformation often accompanied these changes.

• The Influence of Local Economic Conditions on Start-Ups and Local Open Innovation System

  Izabela Jonek-Kowalska, Radosław Wolniak · 2021 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  Local economic conditions significantly influence startup creation in urban areas. Research across 287 Polish cities reveals that human capital and financial resources are the dominant factors enabling new ventures. Business incubators and technology parks have smaller but meaningful effects on startup formation. Direct municipal support and involvement in entrepreneurship development produces positive outcomes, suggesting cities should prioritize resource allocation to foster startup ecosystems.

• The importance of vocational education institutions in manufacturing regions: adding content to a broad definition of regional innovation systems

  Henrik Brynthe Lund, Asbjørn Karlsen · 2019 · Industry and Innovation

  Vocational education institutions play a critical role in regional innovation systems by developing skilled workers who implement new manufacturing technologies. This study of two Norwegian manufacturing regions shows how vocational schools and industry collaborate to create tailored education programs that enhance manufacturer competitiveness. The research demonstrates that skilled workers and engineering technicians are essential for adopting emerging technologies, and that vocational institutions co-evolve with industries as technology demands shift.

• Containing the Not-Invented-Here Syndrome in external knowledge absorption and open innovation: The role of indirect countermeasures

  Julian Hannen, David Antons, Frank T. Piller, Torsten Oliver Salge, Tim Coltman, Timothy M. Devinney · 2019 · Research Policy

  The Not-Invented-Here Syndrome causes organizations to reject external knowledge, harming innovation. This paper identifies two types of countermeasures: direct approaches that change negative attitudes toward external knowledge, and indirect approaches that reduce the behavioral impact of those attitudes without changing them. Research across 32 interviews and 565 R&D projects shows perspective-taking effectively reduces NIHS effects and improves external knowledge absorption and project success.

• Explaining high and low performers in complex intervention trials: a new model based on diffusion of innovations theory

  Heather McMullen, Chris Griffiths, Werner Leber, Trisha Greenhalgh · 2015 · Trials

  This study examined why some general practices in London successfully implemented a rapid HIV testing intervention while others struggled. Using ethnographic observation and interviews, researchers found that high-performing practices had strong leadership, good management relations, staff training culture, and available resources. Staff in these practices believed the test benefited patients and felt comfortable using it. Low-performing practices lacked these characteristics and experienced resource constraints. The diffusion of innovations theory effectively explained performance variation across organizations.

• Applying Theory of Diffusion of Innovations to Evaluate Technology Acceptance and Sustainability

  Dace Aizstrauta, Egīls Ginters, Miquel-Angel Piera Eroles · 2015 · Procedia Computer Science

  The paper presents IASAM2, an improved model for evaluating technology acceptance and sustainability by applying Rogers' Theory of Diffusion of Innovations. The model combines socio-economic and socio-technical factors to assess how technologies are adopted and sustained. This approach simplifies earlier evaluation methods while addressing the critical challenge of predicting technology acceptance across different contexts.

• Network Structures in Regional Innovation Systems

  Jérôme Jürgen Stuck, Tom Broekel, Javier Revilla Diez · 2015 · European Planning Studies

  This paper bridges regional innovation systems theory with social network analysis to clarify how knowledge networks actually function in regions. The authors connect network-theoretical concepts to established RIS typologies, demonstrating that applying precise network analysis methods reveals interaction patterns obscured by the RIS literature's metaphorical use of 'network'. The work shows how both fields strengthen each other through cross-disciplinary insights.

• Managing learning in informal innovation networks: overcoming the Daphne‐dilemma

  JE Joan van Aken, Mathieu P. Weggeman · 2000 · R and D Management

  Informal innovation networks—collaborative arrangements between organizations developing new products or processes—offer unique advantages for early-stage innovation work. However, they face a fundamental tension: insufficient management wastes their potential and reduces productivity, while excessive management destroys the informality that enables their creative and exploratory strength. The authors examine this 'Daphne-dilemma' through network theory and knowledge management perspectives.

• Supply chain innovation research: A bibliometric network analysis and literature review

  Iryna Malacina, Roman Teplov · 2022 · International Journal of Production Economics

  This bibliometric analysis of 230 supply chain innovation articles identifies 12 research clusters spanning 1997–2021, including green supply chain innovation, knowledge management, and supply chain integration. The authors develop a matrix linking operational and management practices to innovation outcomes, revealing that modern supply chain innovation emphasizes eco-innovation, digitalization, and collaboration. The framework helps practitioners design supply chain innovation strategies and measure performance impacts.

• Antecedents of absorptive capacity in the development of circular economy business models of small and medium enterprises

  Luca Marrucci, Fabio Iannone, Tiberio Daddi, Fabio Iraldo · 2021 · Business Strategy and the Environment

  Small and medium enterprises struggle to adopt circular economy business models. This study examined six Italian horticultural SMEs to identify what enables them to absorb and implement circular economy practices. The research found that acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and exploitation capabilities drive successful circular economy adoption. Three specific antecedents support each capability dimension.

• Implications of Open Innovation for Organizational Boundaries and the Governance of Contractual Relations

  Ann‐Kristin Zobel, John Hagedoorn · 2018 · Academy of Management Perspectives

  This paper examines how firms balance openness with control in collaborative innovation. It argues that value creation requires managing multiple organizational boundaries—competence, power, identity, and efficiency—while value capture depends on relational contract design rather than formal appropriation alone. The authors propose that firms use dynamic capabilities to strategically configure boundaries and contractual mechanisms to enable knowledge exchange while preventing unintended leakage.

• Promoting cooperation in innovation ecosystems: evidence from European traditional manufacturing SMEs

  Dragana Radičić, Geoff Pugh, David Douglas · 2018 · Small Business Economics

  Public innovation support programmes in European traditional manufacturing SMEs do not encourage cooperation with competitors, but marginally increase cooperation with customers and suppliers, and strongly boost cooperation with knowledge providers. The research shows that policy works within existing innovation ecosystems rather than creating new ones. Support programmes help SMEs extend their networks by connecting them with both private and public sector knowledge providers.

• Sources of Variation in the Efficiency of Adopting Management Innovation: The Role of Absorptive Capacity Routines, Managerial Attention and Organizational Legitimacy

  Carine Peeters, Silvia Massini, Arie Y. Lewin · 2014 · Organization Studies

  This paper examines how firms efficiently adopt management innovations through two case studies of offshore business service sourcing. The research shows that absorptive capacity routines—the processes firms use to learn and implement new practices—vary in their effectiveness depending on their sequence, adequacy, and interdependencies. Managerial attention and organizational legitimacy emerge as critical factors determining adoption speed and success. Top-level change agents prove more effective than local problem-solving at directing attention and building support for both the innovation and the routines needed to implement it.

• Exploring University Students’ Adoption of ChatGPT Using the Diffusion of Innovation Theory and Sentiment Analysis With Gender Dimension

  Raghu Raman, Santanu Mandal, Payel Das, Tavleen Kaur, J. P. Sanjanasri, Prema Nedungadi · 2024 · Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies

  This study examines how university students adopt ChatGPT using diffusion of innovation theory and sentiment analysis. Five innovation attributes—relative advantage, compatibility, ease of use, observability, and trialability—significantly influence student adoption. Gen Z students view ChatGPT as innovative and user-friendly for independent learning. Gender differences emerge: male students prioritize compatibility and observability, while female students emphasize ease of use and trialability. The findings highlight the need for demographic-sensitive design in AI technologies for educational contexts.

• Investigating the Research Trends on Strategic Ambidexterity, Agility, and Open Innovation in SMEs: Perceptions from Bibliometric Analysis

  Konstantina Ragazou, Ioannis Passas, Alexandros Garefalakis, Irini Dimou · 2022 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  This bibliometric analysis of 606 articles from 2008–2021 examines how small and medium enterprises can combine strategic ambidexterity, agility, and open innovation to survive crises like COVID-19. The authors propose a business model integrating these three elements, showing that open innovation helps SMEs develop ambidexterity and agility for competitive advantage. British scholars dominate citations on this topic.

• Extended Reality in Higher Education, a Responsible Innovation Approach for Generation Y and Generation Z

  Valentin Kuleto, Milena Ilić, Monica Stănescu, Marko Ranković, Nevenka Popović Šević, Dan Păun, Silvia Teodorescu · 2021 · Sustainability

  This study examines how extended reality (XR) technologies can enhance higher education for younger generations. Researchers surveyed 103 students in Serbia and Romania about their knowledge of and attitudes toward XR in universities. Results show XR improves teaching by letting students control their learning strategies and increases interactivity. Generation Z students view XR more positively, focusing on opportunities rather than challenges.

• Multiplex Network Ties and the Spatial Diffusion of Radical Innovations: Martin Luther’s Leadership in the Early Reformation

  Sascha O. Becker, Yuan Hsiao, Steven Pfaff, Jared Rubin · 2020 · American Sociological Review

  Martin Luther's personal networks drove the Reformation's spread across Europe. The study reconstructs Luther's influence network using his correspondence, visits, and student enrollments to show that cities with direct personal ties to Luther—through multiple relationship types—adopted Protestantism at higher rates. Combined with existing trade routes, these multiplex personal connections enabled the Reformation to expand from a regional movement into a continent-wide institutional transformation.

• Innovation as the key to gain performance from absorptive capacity and human capital

  Mahir Pradana, Ana Pérez‐Luño, María Fuentes Blasco · 2020 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  This study examines how Spanish wine companies achieve strong organizational performance through innovation, absorptive capacity, and human capital. The research of 138 firms shows that absorptive capacity and human capital enable businesses to fully realize the benefits of innovation. The findings demonstrate that these three resources—absorptive capacity, human capital, and innovation—drive performance and competitive advantage.

• Knowledge sharing and absorptive capacity: interdependency and complementarity

  Andrea Raymundo Balle, Mírian Oliveira, Carla Curado · 2020 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  This study resolves contradictions about how knowledge sharing and absorptive capacity relate to each other. The authors show that absorptive capacity has two dimensions—potential and realized—and that knowledge sharing bridges between them. Knowledge donation emerges as an output of absorptive capacity rather than just an input. The findings apply to team and firm-level management, emphasizing knowledge collection's central role in leveraging organizational learning.

• Goal Multiplicity and Innovation: How Social and Economic Goals Affect Open Innovation and Innovation Performance

  Ute Stephan, Petra Andries, Alain Daou · 2019 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Commercial firms pursuing both social and economic goals source external knowledge more effectively and achieve better innovation performance than those focused on economics alone. Analysis of 1,257 Belgian firms shows social and economic goals are independent, not conflicting. Firms benefit most when both goal types are strongly emphasized together. Social goals uniquely drive external collaboration, while economic goals alone limit open innovation adoption.

• The role of knowledge absorptive capacity on the relationship between cognitive social capital and entrepreneurial orientation

  Pedro Manuel García Villaverde, Job Rodrigo‐Alarcón, María José Ruiz‐Ortega, Gloria Parra‐Requena · 2018 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  This study examines how cognitive social capital influences entrepreneurial orientation in Spanish agri-food firms, finding a U-shaped relationship where very low and very high cognitive closeness both boost entrepreneurial behavior. Knowledge absorptive capacity strengthens this effect. Managers should cultivate cognitively close networks with shared goals and build their firm's capacity to absorb and apply new knowledge to enhance innovation and risk-taking.

• New shapes and new stakes: a portrait of open innovation as a promising phenomenon

  Julien Pénin, Caroline Hussler, Thierry Burger‐Helmchen · 2011 · Journal of Innovation Economics & Management

  This paper examines open innovation as a concept in innovation management and economics. The authors clarify what makes open innovation distinct from related earlier concepts, identify different forms open innovation takes in practice, and analyze the benefits and costs of various open innovation approaches. The work synthesizes existing research and identifies future research directions for understanding this innovation model.

• Good Practices in Open Innovation

  Gene Slowinski, Matthew W. Sagal · 2010 · Research-Technology Management

  Open innovation has become standard practice in firms establishing dedicated groups and budgets. This paper identifies twelve good practices that drive high-quality open innovation efforts. The authors argue these practices are essential inputs to an effective organizational open innovation system and provide guidance for managers to implement and continuously improve their open innovation processes.

• Absorptive Capacity and Source‐Recipient Complementarity in Designing New Products: An Empirically Derived Framework^*

  Céline Abecassis, Sihem Ben Mahmoud‐Jouini · 2008 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  This paper examines how firms absorb external design knowledge from sources outside their organization and use it in new product development. Analyzing cases in clothing and construction industries, the authors identify three distinct absorption processes and show that complementarity between the recipient firm's existing knowledge and the source's design knowledge critically determines NPD success. Design knowledge combined with prior marketing or technological knowledge drives better product innovation outcomes.

• Expanding Capabilities in a Mature Manufacturing Firm: Absorptive Capacity and the TCS

  Oswald Jones, Martin Craven · 2001 · International Small Business Journal Researching Entrepreneurship

  A small UK manufacturing firm with 70 employees participated in a Teaching Company Scheme over two years, which improved its absorptive capacity—the ability to assimilate new knowledge and skills. The company introduced new organizational routines to codify tacit knowledge, resulting in a 25% increase in turnover. The study shows that structured knowledge-transfer programs help mature small firms expand their managerial capabilities.

• Variety of national innovation systems (NIS) and alternative pathways to growth beyond the middle-income stage: Balanced, imbalanced, catching-up, and trapped NIS

  Keun Lee, Jong-Ho Lee, Juneyoung Lee · 2021 · World Development

  This study analyzes national innovation systems across 32–35 economies using patent data to identify pathways for growth beyond middle-income status. The research identifies five distinct innovation system clusters and confirms two successful catching-up pathways: balanced systems (Ireland, Spain, Hong Kong, Singapore) and imbalanced systems (Korea, Taiwan, China). Other economies remain trapped in middle-income status due to opposite characteristics in technology cycle time, originality, localization, and diversification.

• Technology, Value Co-Creation and Innovation in Service Ecosystems: Toward Sustainable Co-Innovation

  Sergio Barile, Mara Grimaldi, Francesca Loia, Carlo Alessandro Sirianni · 2020 · Sustainability

  This paper develops a framework for managing value co-creation and sustainable innovation in service ecosystems through technology-mediated resource and knowledge integration. The framework identifies four key drivers—co-design, co-development, co-delivery, and co-learning—operating across micro, meso, and macro levels. A case study of an Italian wood packaging company demonstrates how managers can leverage these mechanisms to enable continuous sustainable innovation and knowledge renewal.

• Complementors as connectors: managing open innovation around digital product platforms

  Susan Hilbolling, Hans Berends, Fleur Deken, Philipp Tuertscher · 2019 · R and D Management

  This paper examines how firms coordinate open innovation through digital platform ecosystems. Using Philips Hue smart lighting as a case study, the authors identify three increasingly complex ways independent companies connect complementary products to a focal platform. Managing these connections requires a hybrid approach combining open interfaces for many partners with intensive collaboration for select partners. The research reveals that managing interconnections across multiple digital platforms creates significant coordination challenges.

• Responsible innovation by social entrepreneurs: an exploratory study of values integration in innovations

  Rob Lubberink, Vincent Blok, Johan van Ophem, Onno Omta · 2019 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  Social entrepreneurs integrate ethical values into their innovations by creating direct socio-ethical value for beneficiaries, coordinating stakeholder action, and evaluating impact. This study of 42 social enterprises reveals they develop bottom-up solutions that scale through institutional support, enabling systems-level change. The research provides a practical model for implementing and scaling responsible innovation in business contexts.

• Expanding the field of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) – from responsible research to responsible innovation

  Stig‐Erik Jakobsen, Arnt Fløysand, John Overton · 2019 · European Planning Studies

  Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) has become prominent in policy but remains narrow and top-down. This special issue broadens RRI by examining how researchers, firms, and other actors actually practice responsible innovation across sectors and regions. The authors expand RRI beyond research processes to include how knowledge becomes innovation in society, and encompass non-research-driven innovation. Ten case studies reveal heterogeneous responsibility practices, leading to recommendations for a multidimensional, multi-scale RRI framework.

• How do Scientists Contribute to the Performance of Innovative Start‐ups? An Imprinting Perspective on Open Innovation

  Davide Hahn, Tommaso Minola, Kimberly Eddleston · 2018 · Journal of Management Studies

  Scientists boost innovative startup performance by promoting open innovation through broad and deep external search, but only when multiple scientist founders work together to transfer their lab-based career experiences. This advantage strengthens further when startups adopt strategic planning and commercial goals. However, scientist founders can become a liability if startups neglect strategic planning or prioritize non-commercial objectives.

• Technological development for sustainability: The role of network management in the innovation policy mix

  Patrik Söderholm, Hans Hellsmark, Johan Frishammar, Julia Hansson, Johanna Mossberg, Annica Sandström · 2018 · Technological Forecasting and Social Change

  This paper analyzes how policy can strengthen collaborative networks driving sustainable technology development. Using advanced biorefinery technology in Sweden as a case study, the authors develop a framework showing how network management strategies should evolve across different phases of technological development. They demonstrate that ignoring network management in innovation policy leads to inefficient collaboration, fragmented competing networks, and knowledge gaps.

• The innovation ecosystem as booster for the innovative entrepreneurship in the smart specialisation strategy

  Aldo Romano, Giuseppina Passıante, Pasquale Del Vecchio, Giustina Secundo · 2014 · International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development

  Innovation ecosystems drive regional growth by creating environments where knowledge flows among multiple stakeholders, fostering innovative entrepreneurship. The paper argues that these dynamic, multi-actor systems support knowledge creation, diffusion, and absorption, enabling regions to achieve intelligent growth and competitive positioning. The authors recommend that policymakers and researchers prioritize innovation ecosystems as central to knowledge-based regional development strategies.

• Realising potential: The impact of business incubation on the absorptive capacity of new technology-based firms

  Dean Patton · 2013 · International Small Business Journal Researching Entrepreneurship

  University technology business incubators strengthen new technology firms' ability to absorb and apply new knowledge. The study finds that collaborative dialogue between founders, mentors, advisers, and incubator directors creates an iterative process that converts potential absorptive capacity into realized capacity. This interaction directly improves how firms develop viable business models and integrate external knowledge.

• The empathic care robot: A prototype of responsible research and innovation

  Bernd Carsten Stahl, Neil McBride, Kutoma Wakunuma, Catherine Flick · 2013 · Technological Forecasting and Social Change

  This paper presents a prototype care robot with emotional capabilities to explore ethical issues in emerging technologies. The authors use this fictional scenario to demonstrate how responsible research and innovation practices can anticipate and address ethical problems before technologies are deployed. They argue that integrating ethical considerations into technology development from the start helps ensure innovations are socially acceptable and desirable.

• How frugal innovation shape global sustainable supply chains during the pandemic crisis: lessons from the COVID-19

  Rameshwar Dubey, David Bryde, Cyril Foropon, Manisha Tiwari, Angappa Gunasekaran · 2021 · Supply Chain Management An International Journal

  During the COVID-19 pandemic, frugal innovation emerged informally across global supply chains to address critical shortages of medical equipment and supplies. This study identifies key drivers of frugal-oriented sustainable supply chains in emerging countries, finding that government support, policies, and regulations—mediated by leadership and moderated by national culture—drive adoption of new technologies, volunteering, and ethical practices, which in turn strengthen supply chain talent and frugal engineering capabilities.

• High CO2 absorption capacity of metal-based ionic liquids: A molecular dynamics study

  Biwen Li, Chenlu Wang, Yaqin Zhang, Yanlei Wang · 2020 · Green Energy & Environment

  Metal-based ionic liquids enhance CO2 absorption through molecular dynamics simulations. The study shows these liquids create hydrogen bond networks that increase CO2 absorption capacity while promoting diffusion. Metal-chloride bond length and anion volume determine absorption performance. Findings enable rational design of ionic liquids for carbon capture and chemical engineering applications.

• Effect of probiotics on the occurrence of nutrition absorption capacities in healthy children: a randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled pilot study.

  A Ballini, A Gnoni, D De Vito, G Dipalma, S Cantore, C Gargiulo Isacco, R Saini, L Santacroce, S Topi, A Scarano, S Scacco, F Inchingolo · 2019 · PubMed

  This study tested whether probiotics improve nutrient absorption in healthy children aged 14-18. Researchers randomly assigned 40 participants to receive probiotics or placebo for 10 weeks, measuring blood levels of vitamins D and A, calcium, zinc, and iron at baseline, 5 weeks, and 10 weeks. Probiotics significantly increased absorption biomarkers compared to placebo after 10 weeks of use.

• Industrial Symbiosis, Networking and Innovation: The Potential Role of Innovation Poles

  Raffaella Taddeo, Alberto Simboli, Giuseppe Ioppolo, Anna Morgante · 2017 · Sustainability

  Industrial symbiosis—where companies exchange waste and byproducts—succeeds better when supported by innovation poles, which are government-backed regional networks that promote innovation across industries. The authors argue that innovation poles can accelerate industrial symbiosis by facilitating knowledge sharing and networking among organizations, addressing a gap in existing research that has focused mainly on technical and economic factors rather than innovation and collaboration.

• The team absorptive capacity triad: a configurational study of individual, enabling, and motivating factors

  Sandor Jan Albert Löwik, Jeroen Kraaijenbrink, Arend J. Groen · 2016 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  Knowledge-intensive teams develop absorptive capacity through three complementary factors: individual team members' knowledge absorption abilities, organizational systems enabling knowledge integration, and motivational structures encouraging knowledge sharing. The study of 48 teams across four Dutch firms shows that weakness in any single factor reduces overall team performance, and these factors function as complements rather than substitutes.

• Consumers' Creative Talent: Which Characteristics Qualify Consumers for Open Innovation Projects? An Exploration of Asymmetrical Effects

  Johann Füller, Kurt Matzler, Katja Hutter, Julia Hautz · 2012 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  This study examines which consumer characteristics enable effective participation in open innovation projects. The researchers tested how different creativity components affect consumers' ability to generate ideas, develop concepts, and build prototypes, plus their interest in co-creation. They found that creativity components have asymmetrical effects: some characteristics only matter above certain thresholds, while others show diminishing returns beyond specific levels.

• Identification of Lead User Characteristics Driving the Quality of Service Innovation Ideas

  Monika C. Schuhmacher, Sabine Kuester · 2012 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  This study identifies which lead user characteristics produce higher-quality service innovation ideas. Analyzing 120 ideas from an online services innovation contest for soccer clubs, the researchers found that dissatisfied customers and highly experienced users generate the best ideas. Companies should recruit dissatisfied users from complaint databases and experienced users into closed-membership idea contests to improve innovation outcomes.

• Knowledge management in regional innovation networks: The case of Lahti, Finland

  Vesa Harmaakorpi, Helinä Melkas · 2005 · European Planning Studies

  This paper designs a knowledge management system for regional innovation networks, incorporating explicit, tacit, and self-transcending knowledge alongside knowledge vision and futures studies methods. Using Finland's Lahti regional innovation system as a case study, the authors demonstrate that effective regional innovation networks require both loose network development and systematic, deliberate approaches to managing knowledge-related activities.

• Digital Servitization and Business Model Innovation in SMEs: A Model to Escape From Market Disruption

  Sofia Lamperti, Angelo Cavallo, Claudio Sassanelli · 2023 · IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

  Small and medium manufacturing enterprises face market disruption from rapid digital technology adoption. This study develops a digital servitization model that enables SMEs to redesign their business models by delivering smart, connected products and services. The model helps SMEs overcome disruption and compete effectively despite their limited resources, offering practical guidance for manufacturing firms transitioning to service-based operations.

• Innovation of Startups, the Key to Unlocking Post-Crisis Sustainable Growth in Romanian Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

  Oana Uță Bărbulescu, Alina Simona Tecău, Daniel Munteanu, Cristinel Constantin · 2021 · Sustainability

  Romanian startups face significant vulnerability during crises like COVID-19. The paper surveyed 168 students about entrepreneurial opportunities and found that startups must innovate through ICT-based businesses and social entrepreneurship to achieve sustainable growth. Building strong relationships with employees, industry peers, public sector, academia, and citizens, combined with green business practices, enables startups to recover and develop a resilient entrepreneurial ecosystem.

• Open innovation strategies in the food and drink industry: determinants and impact on innovation performance

  Marian García Martínez, Valentina Lazzarotti, Raffaella Manzini, Mercedes Sánchez García · 2014 · International Journal of Technology Management

  Food and drink companies adopt three distinct open innovation strategies, from limited collaboration with traditional partners to broad engagement with diverse external sources. Technology pressures drive companies toward greater openness. The research shows that more open collaboration approaches significantly improve innovation performance, but only when companies establish dedicated structures to manage and leverage external knowledge effectively.

• Open innovation in digital journalism: Examining the impact of Open APIs at four news organizations

  Tanja Aitamurto, Seth C. Lewis · 2012 · New Media & Society

  Four major news organizations—The New York Times, The Guardian, USA Today, and NPR—adopted Open APIs to embrace open innovation principles. This shift accelerated research and development through collaboration with web developers, created new revenue streams by expanding their product offerings, and built innovation networks that acted as external R&D teams. The organizations continuously balanced openness with control to manage their intellectual property while benefiting from external innovation.

• Idea Convergence Quality in Open Innovation Crowdsourcing: A Cognitive Load Perspective

  Xusen Cheng, Shixuan Fu, Triparna de Vreede, Gert‐Jan de Vreede, Isabella Seeber, Ronald Maier, Barbara Weber · 2020 · Journal of Management Information Systems

  Open innovation crowdsourcing generates many ideas but struggles to identify quality ones for development. This study tested how different types of cognitive load affect idea convergence quality using laboratory experiments. Germane cognitive load—mental effort directly supporting the task—improved convergence quality and satisfaction, while intrinsic and extraneous cognitive loads reduced satisfaction. Knowledge self-efficacy, goal clarity, and need for cognition strengthened these positive effects, offering practical guidance for designing crowdsourcing tasks.

• When do states disrupt industries? Electric cars and the politics of innovation

  Jonas Meckling, Jonas Nahm · 2018 · Review of International Political Economy

  States successfully drive technological change in mature industries when political competition among interest groups and agencies allows policymakers to build coalitions supporting new technologies, rather than relying on bureaucratic autonomy alone. Comparing Germany and the United States, the authors show that Germany's consensus-based coordination between government and incumbent automakers resulted in weak electric vehicle policy, while the United States' competitive political environment enabled strong intervention that disrupted the auto sector despite industry opposition.

• Outsourcing creativity: An abductive study of open innovation using corporate accelerators

  Nancy Richter, Paul Jackson, Thomas A. Schildhauer · 2017 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  Corporate accelerators bring startups together with established companies to share innovation and funding. This study examines how these programs actually work by analyzing their strategy, resources, roles, and structure. The research reveals the characteristics and mechanisms of corporate accelerators as an open innovation model, filling a gap in empirical understanding of why companies use them and what they expect to gain.

• Not too close, not too far: testing the Goldilocks principle of ‘optimal’ distance in innovation networks

  Rune Dahl Fitjar, Franz Huber, Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose · 2016 · Industry and Innovation

  This paper tests whether firms innovate best when collaborating with partners at moderate distances across non-geographical dimensions like cognitive and organizational proximity. Analyzing 542 Norwegian firms, the researchers find that the most innovative companies partner with others at medium proximity levels, not too close and not too far. Geographical distance can be offset by proximity in other dimensions, enabling innovation despite physical separation.

• Absorptive capacity and knowledge management in small and medium enterprises

  Roberto Grandinetti · 2016 · Knowledge Management Research & Practice

  Small and medium enterprises need to access external knowledge through relationships, but research has not adequately examined how these relationships support knowledge management. This paper develops a framework using absorptive capacity to explain how SMEs manage external knowledge. It applies this framework to understand how new ventures build capabilities during startup and how knowledge flows within geographical clusters.

• Openness in innovation and business models: lessons from the newspaper industry

  Anna B. Holm, Franziska Günzel, John P. Ulhøi · 2013 · International Journal of Technology Management

  This paper examines how open business models affect the newspaper industry in Denmark. Using interviews with major media companies and data from 2002-2011, the authors show that internet technology disrupted traditional newspaper business models. They argue that openness in business models is more complex than existing literature suggests, with different implications for business viability than previously reported.

• Developing innovation capability through learning networks

  John Bessant, Allen Alexander, George Tsekouras, Howard Rush, Richard Lamming · 2012 · Journal of Economic Geography

  Learning networks significantly enhance innovation capability in organizations. The paper examines how firms develop and strengthen their capacity to innovate by participating in collaborative learning networks. These networks facilitate knowledge exchange, skill development, and capability building across participating organizations, enabling them to generate and implement innovations more effectively than isolated competitors.

• Green innovation networks: A research agenda

  Lisa Melander, Ala Arvidsson · 2022 · Journal of Cleaner Production

  Green innovations emerge from organizational collaborations, yet little research examines the networks driving them. This literature review of 63 papers identifies green innovations across products, services, processes, business models, and marketing. The authors map different actor types, network structures, and engagement motivations. They propose three research priorities: horizontal collaborations among peers, cross-sectoral partnerships including public-private arrangements, and the role of users as active network participants in developing green innovations.

• Big data analytics capabilities and MSME innovation and performance: A double mediation model of digital platform and network capabilities

  Sabeen Hussain Bhatti, Adeel Ahmed, Alberto Ferraris, Wan Mohd Hirwani Wan Hussain, Samuel Fosso Wamba · 2022 · Annals of Operations Research

  Big data analytics capabilities directly improve financial performance in small and medium manufacturing enterprises by strengthening their digital platform and network capabilities. Network capabilities mediate the relationship between analytics and both supply chain innovation and financial performance, while digital platforms specifically enhance supply chain innovation. These findings demonstrate how data analytics drives MSME performance through interconnected digital and networking infrastructure.

• 3D Printing of Thermoplastic Elastomers: Role of the Chemical Composition and Printing Parameters in the Production of Parts with Controlled Energy Absorption and Damping Capacity

  Marina León-Calero, Sara Catherine Reyburn Valés, Ángel Marcos‐Fernández, Juan Rodríguez‐Hernández · 2021 · Polymers

  This paper investigates how chemical composition and 3D printing parameters affect thermoplastic elastomer parts. Researchers tested different infill densities and patterns to measure energy absorption and damping capacity. They found that a honeycomb infill pattern at 50% density produced optimal performance for both energy absorption and damping properties.

• Aligning firm's value system and open innovation: a new framework of business process management beyond the business model innovation

  Bisan Abdulkader, Domitilla Magni, Valentina Cillo, Armando Papa, Roberto Micera · 2020 · Business Process Management Journal

  This paper develops a framework integrating open innovation principles with business process management to improve how firms create and capture value. The authors connect strategic value systems with operational processes, showing how firms can align their internal value creation with external innovation ecosystems. The framework bridges the gap between strategy and operations literature, offering a comprehensive approach to managing value co-creation beyond traditional business model innovation.

• MOOCs, disruptive innovation and the future of higher education: A conceptual analysis

  Ahmed A. Al-Imarah, Robin Shields · 2018 · Innovations in Education and Teaching International

  This paper examines whether MOOCs truly constitute disruptive innovation in higher education. By comparing MOOC characteristics against established criteria for disruptive innovation across performance, benefits, and market dimensions, the authors find that MOOCs do not fully meet the definition of disruptive innovation. Instead, MOOCs function as sustaining innovation, creating new educational markets for learners traditionally underserved by universities.

• The impact of coopetition-based open innovation on performance in nonprofit sports clubs

  Felix Wemmer, Eike Emrich, Joerg Koenigstorfer · 2016 · European Sport Management Quarterly

  Nonprofit sports clubs in Germany that collaborate with competitors (coopetition) and adopt external knowledge improve their organizational performance. The study shows this happens through a two-step process: clubs first use outside knowledge, then implement organizational innovations like new services and business models. Both steps boost financial stability and membership growth.

• Business Model for the University-industry Collaboration in Open Innovation

  Larisa Ivaşcu, Bianca Cirjaliu, Anca Drăghici · 2016 · Procedia Economics and Finance

  Universities and industrial companies can collaborate effectively through a business model framework that leverages each partner's strengths. Companies lack certain competencies for developing competitive products, while universities provide research capabilities to solve complex problems. The study identifies how Romanian universities and industries currently collaborate and demonstrates significant potential for implementing open innovation practices to create added value.

• Towards building internal social network architecture that drives innovation: a social exchange theory perspective

  Gospel Onyema Oparaocha · 2016 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  Organizations spread across multiple locations can drive innovation by deliberately building internal social networks that encourage employee interactions and knowledge sharing. The paper argues that social capital and relationship-building should be prioritized alongside formal organizational structures. By fostering both strong bonds within teams and bridges across departments, companies can improve collaboration, knowledge flow, and innovation capacity in dispersed workforces.

• OPEN INNOVATION, GENERATIVITY AND THE SUPPLIER AS PEER: THE CASE OF IPHONE AND ANDROID

  Björn Remneland Wikhamn, Jan Ljungberg, Magnus Bergquist, Jonas Kuschel · 2011 · International Journal of Innovation Management

  This paper examines how suppliers in open innovation networks shift from passive contractors to active creative peers. Using iPhone and Android as case studies, the authors argue that generative capacity—not mere openness—drives platform wealth creation. Both platforms achieve generativity through different balances of openness and control, demonstrating that suppliers contribute most effectively when platforms enable creative participation alongside strategic governance.

• Research Networks and Inventors' Mobility as Drivers of Innovation: Evidence from Europe

  Ernest Miguélez, Rosina Moreno · 2011 · Regional Studies

  This paper examines how inventor mobility and research collaboration networks drive regional innovation across Europe. Using spatial econometric methods, the authors find that when inventors move within regions, innovation increases significantly. However, the relationship between research network characteristics and innovation is less straightforward. The study accounts for geographic spillovers and spatial dependencies in innovation patterns.

• Six sigma, absorptive capacity and organisational learning orientation

  Leopoldo Gutiérrez, Óscar F. Bustinza, Vanesa Barrales‐Molina · 2011 · International Journal of Production Research

  Six sigma quality management practices strengthen firms' absorptive capacity—their ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new knowledge. The study of 237 European firms, including 58 using six sigma, shows that six sigma teamwork and process management directly boost absorptive capacity, which in turn enhances organizational learning. These findings explain why six sigma implementation drives competitive advantage and organizational performance.

• The differential effects of potential and realized absorptive capacity on imitation and innovation strategies, and its impact on sustained competitive advantage

  Mohammad Algarni, Murad Ali, Antonio L. Leal‐Rodríguez, Gema Albort-Morant · 2023 · Journal of Business Research

  This study examines how firms' ability to absorb external knowledge—both potential and realized absorptive capacity—influences their choice between imitation and innovation strategies. Using survey data from 211 managers and structural equation modeling, the authors find that imitation and innovation are complementary strategies rather than opposing ones. Organizations that effectively absorb external knowledge can leverage both strategies together to achieve sustained competitive advantage.

• Knowledge Management, Knowledge Creation, and Open Innovation in Icelandic SMEs

  Elsa Grimsdottir, Ingi Rúnar Eðvarðsson · 2018 · SAGE Open

  Two Icelandic SMEs—a software company and a food producer—manage knowledge and innovation differently. The software company uses inside-out open innovation, engaging customers late in development. The food company uses outside-in innovation, involving customers and suppliers early. Both treat knowledge creation as a learning process, confirming that high-tech firms favor internal-to-external strategies while low-tech firms rely on external input from the start.

• The ‘KIBS Engine’ of Regional Innovation Systems: Empirical Evidence from European Regions

  Nicoletta Corrocher, Lucia Cusmano · 2012 · Regional Studies

  Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) drive regional innovation across Europe. The study maps how KIBS and manufacturing co-evolve in European regions, revealing that KIBS presence defines high-performing innovation systems, while their absence marks weak performers. Some core manufacturing regions follow a distinct path, transforming into knowledge-oriented service-manufacturing complexes rather than adopting traditional KIBS-dependent models.

• The impact of clean energy consumption, green innovation, and technological diffusion on environmental sustainability: New evidence from load capacity curve hypothesis for 10 European Union countries

  Mücahit Aydın, Tunahan Değirmenci · 2023 · Sustainable Development

  This study analyzes how clean energy consumption, green innovation, and technological diffusion affect environmental sustainability across ten European Union countries from 1990 to 2018. Using the load capacity curve hypothesis framework, researchers found that green innovation and technological diffusion significantly support environmental sustainability, with the hypothesis validated for Denmark, France, Portugal, and Spain. The findings demonstrate that these factors are critical for promoting environmentally friendly practices.

• Industry 4.0 transition: a systematic literature review combining the absorptive capacity theory and the data–information–knowledge hierarchy

  Lorenzo Ardito, Roberto Cerchione, Erica Mazzola, Elisabetta Raguseo · 2021 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  This systematic literature review examines Industry 4.0 digital transformation through a knowledge management lens, using absorptive capacity theory and the data-information-knowledge hierarchy. Analyzing 150 papers, the authors find that big data analytics receives the most research attention across all phases of knowledge acquisition and use, while internet of things technology is explored primarily for data collection. Cybersecurity and smart manufacturing remain understudied despite their relevance to digital transitions.

• INITIATING OPEN INNOVATION COLLABORATIONS BETWEEN INCUMBENTS AND STARTUPS: HOW CAN DAVID AND GOLIATH GET ALONG?

  Julia Katharina de Groote, Julia Backmann · 2019 · International Journal of Innovation Management

  This study examines how large established firms select startup partners for open innovation collaborations. Using qualitative research with perspectives from both incumbents and startups plus external experts, the authors develop a process model showing how partner selection works in these asymmetric partnerships. The research addresses a gap in understanding how open innovation collaborations actually get initiated, beyond just their success factors.

• Broad Search, Deep Search, and the Absorptive Capacity Performance of Family and Nonfamily Firm R&amp;D

  Jasper Brinkerink · 2018 · Family Business Review

  Family firms and nonfamily firms learn differently from their R&D investments. Family influence strengthens the ability to convert R&D into exploitative innovations through deep external search, but weakens the ability to develop exploratory innovations through broad external search. Analysis of 346 Dutch manufacturing firms confirms this pattern.

• Varieties of responsibility: two problems of responsible innovation

  Ibo van de Poel, Martin Sand · 2018 · Synthese

  This paper examines what responsibilities innovators actually bear toward society and stakeholders. The authors identify two core problems: first, innovation involves many agents and unpredictable causal chains, making it hard to assign responsibility fairly; second, backward-looking blame for failures can discourage forward-looking learning. They resolve these tensions by distinguishing between holding innovators responsible and their willingness to take responsibility, and by clarifying that responsibility applies to both innovation processes and outcomes. Accountability and virtue-based responsibility matter most.

• Intellectual Property Norms in Online Communities: How User-Organized Intellectual Property Regulation Supports Innovation

  Julia Bauer, Nikolaus Franke, Philipp Tuertscher · 2016 · Information Systems Research

  User-organized intellectual property norms in online communities like Threadless enable innovation by providing legal certainty and protecting creators' work without formal law enforcement. The study identifies an integrated system of established norms that regulate IP use, fostering cooperation and cumulative innovation in anonymous, large-scale communities. These norms-based systems compensate for formal IP law's ineffectiveness online and offer practical guidance for managing crowdsourcing platforms.

• Disruptive Innovation … in Reverse: Adding a Geographical Dimension to Disruptive Innovation Theory

  Simone Corsi, Alberto Di Minin · 2013 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  This paper integrates disruptive innovation theory with reverse innovation to explain how emerging economies generate new products and technological solutions. The authors propose a geographical framework for categorizing disruptive innovation, showing that innovations originating in developing regions can challenge established markets globally. The work expands innovation theory by recognizing emerging economies as legitimate sources of disruption rather than mere adopters.

• MNC KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER, SUBSIDIARY ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY AND HRM.

  Dana Minbaeva, Torben Pedersen, Ingmar Björkman, Carl F. Fey · 2002 · Academy of Management Proceedings

  This study of 169 multinational corporation subsidiaries in the USA, Russia, and Finland shows that human resource management practices strengthen subsidiaries' ability to absorb and apply knowledge from parent companies. The research identifies absorptive capacity as having two components—employee ability and motivation—and demonstrates that when both dimensions work together, knowledge transfer from other parts of the corporation becomes significantly more effective.

• The Impact of Absorptive Capacity on Innovation: The Mediating Role of Organizational Learning

  Rafael Sancho-Zamora, Felipe Hernández‐Perlines, Isidro Peña García‐Pardo, Santiago Gutiérrez-Broncano · 2022 · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

  This study examines how absorptive capacity drives innovation in small and medium-sized Spanish companies, revealing that organizational learning acts as a critical mediator in this relationship. Using structural equation modeling on 306 company surveys, the research shows that absorptive capacity translates into actual innovation primarily when learning capability is actively engaged. The findings help organizations understand how to manage knowledge more effectively to boost innovation performance.

• On the nexus of innovation, trade openness, financial development and economic growth in European countries: New perspective from a GMM panel VAR approach

  Kais Mtar, Walid Belazreg · 2021 · International Journal of Finance & Economics

  This study analyzes relationships between innovation, trade openness, financial development, and economic growth across 11 European countries from 2001 to 2016. The research finds that economic growth drives financial development, and trade drives growth, but innovation and trade both show negative relationships with growth. The authors recommend stronger financial regulation, country-specific innovation policies, improved institutional quality, and targeted incentives for local companies to maximize benefits from trade openness.

• Regional innovation systems: what can we learn from 25 years of scientific achievements?

  Cristina Fernandes, Luí­s Farinha, João J. Ferreira, Björn Asheim, Roel Rutten · 2020 · Regional Studies

  This paper reviews 25 years of research on regional innovation systems, identifying four main clusters in the literature: regional knowledge systems, institutional systems, research and development systems, and network systems. The authors map different theoretical approaches to regional innovation systems using bibliometric analysis, providing a foundation for policymakers and researchers to design new territorial innovation policies and guide future research directions.

• The impact of open-border organization culture and employees’ knowledge, attitudes, and rewards with regards to open innovation: an empirical study

  Deemah Alassaf, Marina Dabić, Dara Shifrer, Tuğrul Daim · 2020 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  Organizations with open-border cultures are significantly more likely to adopt open innovation practices. Employee knowledge and rewards act as key mediators strengthening this relationship. The study analyzed 528 employees across 28 industrial sectors in 37 European countries, finding that organizational openness directly increases open innovation adoption, while employee knowledge and reward systems amplify this effect.

• Innovating Pedagogy 2019: Open University Innovation Report 7

  Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Coughlan, Kjetil Egelandsdal, Mark Gaved, Christothea Herodotou, Garron Hillaire, Derek C. Jones, Iestyn Jowers, Agnes Kukulska‐Hulme, Patrick McAndrew, Kamila Misiejuk, Ness, Johanna, Bart Rienties, Eileen Scanlon, Mike Sharples, Barbara Wasson, Martin Weller, Denise Whitelock · 2019 · Open Research Online (The Open University)

  This report identifies ten emerging pedagogical innovations already in use but not yet widely adopted in education systems. The innovations address teaching, learning, and assessment for interactive environments. The report aims to guide teachers and policymakers in implementing these approaches effectively to improve educational outcomes.

• Key settings for successful Open Innovation Arena

  Ashwin Sivam, Teresa Dieguez, Luı́s Pinto Ferreira, F.J.G. Silva · 2019 · Journal of Computational Design and Engineering

  This paper identifies the key conditions for establishing successful open innovation arenas within organizations. Through a survey of 25 researchers at a Portuguese engineering institute, the authors find that culture, leadership, and strategy are the primary drivers enabling firms to access external knowledge and collaborate effectively. Culture emerges as the most critical factor, followed by resources, processes, and measurement systems that support open innovation practices.

• Implementing Responsible Research and Innovation Practices in SMEs: Insights into Drivers and Barriers from the Austrian Medical Device Sector

  Alexander Auer, Katharina Jarmai · 2017 · Sustainability

  Austrian medical device SMEs largely lack awareness of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) as a formal concept, yet many already practice elements of it. The paper identifies drivers and barriers to RRI implementation in small firms, showing that SMEs can build on existing responsible practices to develop more comprehensive RRI approaches tailored to their organizational contexts and constraints.

• Evolution, roots and influence of the literature on National Systems of Innovation: a bibliometric account

  Aurora A.C. Teixeira · 2013 · Cambridge Journal of Economics

  This bibliometric analysis traces the National Systems of Innovation literature from its roots in innovation economics and science policy research through its evolution over 20 years. The field shows irregular publication patterns and lacks a unified analytical framework. While NSI research concentrates in the United Kingdom, Denmark, and the United States, its influence spreads globally across economics, geography, environmental studies, and business disciplines, with citations from scholars worldwide particularly in Latin America and Asia.

• Managing knowledge within networked innovation

  Katri Valkokari, Jaakko Paasi, Tuija Rantala · 2012 · Knowledge Management Research & Practice

  Firms succeed in networked innovation by adopting strategic knowledge management practices. The paper identifies two types of innovation networks: those exchanging explicit knowledge and intellectual property, and those co-creating new knowledge and opportunities. Success requires firms to understand their partners' business models and strategic motivations, enabling effective knowledge management across collaborative relationships.

• Enabling knowledge creation through outsiders: towards a push model of open innovation

  Sebastian Spaeth, Matthias Stuermer, Georg von Krogh · 2010 · International Journal of Technology Management

  This paper introduces a push model of open innovation where external individuals and organizations voluntarily create and contribute knowledge to firms' projects. Analyzing the Eclipse Development Platform, the authors find that outsiders invest as much effort as the founding firm. They identify four enabling conditions: preemptive generosity, continuous commitment, adaptive governance, and low entry barriers that facilitate this external knowledge creation and contribution.

• Open innovation models adopted in practice: an extensive study in Italy

  Valentina Lazzarotti, Raffaella Manzini, Luisa Pellegrini · 2010 · Measuring Business Excellence

  Italian manufacturing companies adopt open innovation in four distinct models, varying by how many external partners they collaborate with and how many innovation process phases they open to outsiders. The study identifies 'open and closed innovators,' 'integrated collaborators,' and 'specialized collaborators,' showing that openness is not a binary choice but a spectrum companies calibrate to their specific contexts and performance goals.

• Industry Convergence and Its Implications for the Front End of Innovation: A Problem of Absorptive Capacity

  Stefanie Bröring, Jens Leker · 2007 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  When industries converge, companies struggle with idea generation and selection because they must integrate knowledge from different sectors. This study analyzed 54 R&D projects to understand how firms innovate during convergence. The research reveals that companies use different approaches to manage convergence innovation, and firms must develop absorptive capacity on both market and technological dimensions to succeed.

• The Importance of Public Research Institutes in Innovative Networks-Empirical Results from the Metropolitan Innovation Systems Barcelona, Stockholm and Vienna

  Javier Revilla Diez · 2000 · European Planning Studies

  Public research institutes play a smaller role in supporting business innovation than regional innovation theory suggests. Analysis of three European metropolitan areas—Barcelona, Stockholm, and Vienna—using the Regional Innovation Survey reveals that while research institutes are considered important for innovation networks, firms actually rely on them less than conceptual models predict.

• The role of digital business transformation in frugal innovation and SMEs’ resilience in emerging markets

  Khaled Saleh Al-Omoush, Carlos Lassala Navarré, Samuel Ribeiro‐Navarrete · 2023 · International Journal of Emerging Markets

  Digital business transformation significantly strengthens frugal innovation and SME resilience in emerging markets. Organizational learning drives all three factors. The study surveyed 214 SME owners and managers, finding that companies must develop dynamic capabilities in digital transformation, frugal innovation, and organizational learning to survive and thrive in emerging market conditions.

• Exploring Innovation Ecosystem from the Perspective of Sustainability: Towards a Conceptual Framework

  Zheng Liu, Victoria Stephens · 2019 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  This paper develops a conceptual framework connecting innovation and sustainability across three levels: individual firms, supply chains, and broader ecosystems. The authors argue that achieving sustainable innovation requires involving multiple stakeholders—customers, partners, government, and universities—working together systematically. The framework emerges from literature review and case studies, identifying how different actors can collaborate to embed sustainability into innovation processes.

• When do firms undertake open, collaborative activities? Introduction to the special section on open innovation and open business models

  Christopher L. Tucci, Henry Chesbrough, Frank T. Piller, Joel West · 2016 · Industrial and Corporate Change

  This introductory article frames the intellectual context of the World Open Innovation Conference, summarizing four leading papers on open innovation and open business models. The authors synthesize conference submissions and sessions to establish a research agenda for understanding when and why firms engage in collaborative, open innovation activities.

• Organising for reverse innovation in Western MNCs: the role of frugal product innovation capabilities

  Marco Zeschky, Bastian Widenmayer, Oliver Gassmann · 2014 · International Journal of Technology Management

  Western multinational companies in healthcare and electronics develop reverse innovations—products first adopted in developing countries—by locating design and development in resource-constrained subsidiaries. The study of four companies shows that frugal product innovation capabilities, not headquarters location, determine success in reverse innovation. Building these capabilities in subsidiaries operating under resource constraints proves critical for generating innovations that work in developing markets.

• Start-up absorptive capacity: Does the owner’s human and social capital matter?

  Jonas Debrulle, Johan Maes, Luc Sels · 2013 · International Small Business Journal Researching Entrepreneurship

  Owner human and social capital significantly influence how new ventures absorb external information. Analysis of 199 Flemish start-ups shows that owner experience and bridging social capital boost absorptive capacity. Management experience helps in dynamic environments but hinders performance in stable ones. The effect of owner human capital decreases as environmental turbulence increases.

• Networking Democracy? Social Media Innovations And Participatory Politics

  Brian D. Loader, Dan Mercea · 2011 · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

  Social media platforms offer new possibilities for democratic participation through open, collaborative networking, but evidence suggests a more cautious view is warranted. The paper examines claims about social media's capacity to strengthen participatory democracy, acknowledging both its potential to disrupt traditional power structures and its limitations in delivering genuine democratic renewal.

• Knowledge Ecologies and Ecosystems? An Empirically Grounded Reflection on Recent Developments in Innovation Systems Theory

  Theo Papaioannou, David Wield, Joanna Chataway · 2009 · Environment and Planning C Government and Policy

  This paper critiques the shift from innovation systems theory toward knowledge ecology and ecosystem frameworks. Using Cambridge's biotech sector as evidence, the authors argue these biological metaphors create conceptual problems including reductionism and functionalism. They contend that understanding innovation requires grounding analysis in historical socioeconomic development and the social division of labor, rather than applying abstract ecological concepts.

• "The Golden Thread of Innovation' and Northern Ireland's Evolving Regional Innovation System

  Philip Cooke, Stephen Roper, Peter Wylie · 2003 · Regional Studies

  Northern Ireland's innovation performance improved with rising business R&D spending, but many firms remain underperformers. Three categories of innovative firms developed strong systemic interactions with a venture capital-led support infrastructure that flexibly meets growth needs of local innovators. This private sector model sets a standard that public agencies should adopt in their regional innovation strategies.

• Innovation and users: virtual reality in the construction sector

  Jennifer Whyte · 2003 · Construction Management and Economics

  Construction firms act as users of virtual reality technology developed outside their sector, shaping how the technology evolves through their practical needs. A study of 11 construction organizations found that project characteristics—particularly project size and design reuse—drive different technological requirements for virtual reality use. These divergent user needs, communicated to suppliers, generate distinct solutions tailored to different project types.

• Ecosystem effectuation: creating new value through open innovation during a pandemic

  Agnieszka Radziwon, Marcel Bogers, Henry Chesbrough, Timo Minssen · 2021 · R and D Management

  During the COVID-19 pandemic, AirAsia transformed its grounded airline operations by building an open innovation ecosystem rather than pursuing incremental improvements. The company created new value by reconfiguring its business model based on available resources and capabilities, introducing the concept of ecosystem effectuation. This case demonstrates how organizations facing financial distress can use radical ambidexterity and open innovation to survive and generate opportunities.

• Aligning sustainability assessment with responsible research and innovation: Towards a framework for Constructive Sustainability Assessment

  Nicholas E. Matthews, Laurence Stamford, Philip Shapira · 2019 · Sustainable Production and Consumption

  This paper develops a Constructive Sustainability Assessment framework that combines life-cycle thinking with responsible research and innovation principles to evaluate emerging technologies. The framework uses four design principles—transdisciplinarity, opening-up, exploring uncertainty, and anticipation—and a three-step process involving stakeholder collaboration, sustainability evaluation, and deliberative interpretation. The approach enables scientists, engineers, and policymakers to govern emerging technologies toward sustainability outcomes.

• Benefits and costs of open innovation: the BeCO framework

  Marco Greco, Michele Grimaldi, Livio Cricelli · 2018 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  This study examines whether the benefits of open innovation outweigh its costs for small and medium manufacturing enterprises. The authors developed a framework identifying twelve propositions about benefits and costs of inbound and outbound open innovation. Testing this framework on 96 firms, they found that most companies experience the identified benefits and costs, but surprisingly few suffer from not-invented-here syndrome or loss of competitive advantage.

• Responsible Innovation: A Complementary View from Industry with Proposals for Bridging Different Perspectives

  Marc Dreyer, Luc Chefneux, Anne Goldberg, Joachim von Heimburg, Norberto Patrignani, Monica Schofield, Chris Shilling · 2017 · Sustainability

  Industry leaders argue that academic research on Responsible Research and Innovation fails to influence industrial practice because concepts and tools don't align with how companies actually operate. The authors propose bridging the gap between academic RRI frameworks and industry innovation processes by integrating related fields like corporate social responsibility, ethical leadership, and sustainable investment. They call for clearer terminology and methodologies that guide industrial innovation toward better societal outcomes.

• Public support for innovation and the openness of firms’ innovation activities

  Marcelo Cano‐Kollmann, Robert D. Hamilton, Ram Mudambi · 2016 · Industrial and Corporate Change

  Public support for innovation increases firms' openness to external collaboration and open innovation practices across 5,000+ European firms. However, this effect weakens for already-innovative firms, suggesting potential crowding-out. Non-financial support—institutions and policies—proves more effective than monetary subsidies at fostering open innovation, offering budget-constrained policymakers a cost-effective alternative.

• Inbound and Outbound Open Innovation: Organization and Performances

  Francesca Michelino, Mauro Caputo, Antonello Cammarano, Emilia Lamberti · 2014 · Journal of technology management & innovation

  This study examines how open innovation practices relate to company characteristics, R&D organization, and financial performance in 126 major bio-pharmaceutical firms from 2008-2012. Small and young companies adopt open innovation most frequently. Inbound practices (acquiring external knowledge) substitute for internal R&D and show an inverted-U relationship with performance, while outbound practices (licensing out technology) complement internal R&D but correlate with declining financial performance.

• <scp>CAP</scp> Reform and Innovation: The Role of Learning and Innovation Networks

  Gianluca Brunori, Dominique Barjolle, Anne‐Charlotte Dockes, Simone Helmle, Julie Ingram, Laurens Klerkx, Heidrun Moschitz, Gusztáv Nemes, Tālis Tīsenkopfs · 2013 · EuroChoices

  European agricultural innovation requires networks connecting farmers, experts, businesses, and knowledge institutions to develop sustainable practices. The paper proposes Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture (LINSA) as policy mechanisms that enable knowledge sharing and collaborative problem-solving across the rural economy. These networks can help agriculture adapt to future environmental and economic constraints while advancing sustainability goals.

• MANAGING WITHIN DISTRIBUTED INNOVATION NETWORKS

  Lawrence Dooley, David O’Sullivan · 2007 · International Journal of Innovation Management

  Effective innovation requires management across organizational networks involving suppliers, customers, and partners. This paper identifies relational capabilities needed for distributed innovation management—where multiple organizations collaborate to co-design, co-produce, and co-service customer needs. The authors present a framework and tools supporting innovation from individual employees to network level, illustrated through a case study of six biotechnology organizations working together.

• Modeling diffusion of innovations in a social network

  X. Guardiola, Albert Dı́az-Guilera, Conrad J. Pérez, Àlex Arenas, Mateu Llas · 2002 · Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics

  This paper presents a mathematical model showing how innovations spread through social networks when people must weigh upgrade benefits against costs. Agents decide whether to improve their technology level based on local information and economic trade-offs. The model identifies a critical threshold where technological adoption follows power-law patterns, and this threshold maximizes long-term technological growth across the network.

• Digitalizing business models in hospitality ecosystems: toward data-driven innovation

  Orlando Troisi, Anna Visvizi, Mara Grimaldi · 2023 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  Hospitality businesses must adopt data-driven business models to innovate and create value in digital ecosystems. This study interviewed managers at hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, and guesthouses to identify how they use data strategically. The research reveals that strategy is central to enabling data-driven innovation in hospitality, and develops a framework applicable to other service industries and small-to-medium enterprises seeking to leverage data for competitive advantage.

• Towards regional responsible research and innovation? Integrating RRI and RIS3 in European innovation policy

  Rune Dahl Fitjar, Paul Benneworth, Björn Asheim · 2019 · Science and Public Policy

  This paper proposes integrating two European Union innovation policy frameworks—Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3)—at the regional level. The authors identify tensions between the approaches: RIS3 emphasizes place-based strategies but lacks RRI's attention to diverse stakeholder values, while RRI lacks geographical specificity. The paper argues that combining both frameworks' strengths is necessary to address Europe's innovation challenges.

• Open data for open innovation: managing absorptive capacity in SMEs

  Franz Huber, Thomas Wainwright, Francesco Rentocchini · 2018 · R and D Management

  Small and medium enterprises struggle to use open data for innovation because they lack specific capabilities to acquire, process, and apply it effectively. The study identifies core factors that shape how SMEs handle open data and finds that without developing these unique capabilities, most SMEs cannot successfully leverage open data for digital innovation, explaining why adoption remains limited.

• Frugal or Fair? The Unfulfilled Promises of Frugal Innovation

  Mario Pansera · 2018 · Technology Innovation Management Review

  Frugal innovation has gained widespread attention among academics, practitioners, and corporations over the past two decades. This paper examines whether frugal innovation actually delivers on its promises, questioning the gap between the concept's popularity and its real-world outcomes in addressing development challenges and sustainability.

• Improving technology transfer through national systems of innovation: climate relevant innovation-system builders (CRIBs)

  David Ockwell, Rob Byrne · 2015 · Climate Policy

  National systems of innovation can more effectively transfer climate technologies to developing countries than existing UNFCCC mechanisms. The authors propose establishing Climate Relevant Innovation-System Builders (CRIBs)—institutions that nurture climate-relevant innovation systems and build technological capabilities in developing nations. This approach, grounded in innovation studies and socio-technical transition literature, offers a transformative policy mechanism for climate-compatible technological change and development.

• The use of a masticatory robot to analyze the shock absorption capacity of different restorative materials for prosthetic implants: a preliminary report.

  Enrico Conserva, María Menini, Tiziano Tealdo, Marco Giorgio Bevilacqua, Giambattista Ravera, Francisco Pera, Paolo Pera · 2009 · PubMed

  This paper is not about rural innovation. It reports a laboratory study using a masticatory robot to test how different dental crown materials (composite resins versus ceramic) transmit chewing forces to dental implants. The researchers found that composite crowns absorb shock better than ceramic crowns, transmitting significantly lower forces to the implant bone.

• Strategic Alliance Networks and Innovation: A Deterministic and Voluntaristic View Combined

  Victor Gilsing, Charmianne Lemmens, Geert Duysters · 2007 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  This paper reviews literature on strategic technology alliances and interfirm collaboration in high-tech sectors. It contrasts two perspectives: a structuralist view emphasizing how network embeddedness constrains firms, and a voluntaristic view showing how firms actively shape networks to achieve strategic goals. The authors argue the voluntaristic approach better explains network dynamics and change, addressing a major gap in existing research.

• Is digitalization a source of innovation? Exploring the role of digital diffusion in SME innovation performance

  Sohaib S. Hassan, Konrad Meisner, Kevin Krause, Levan Bzhalava, Petra Moog · 2023 · Small Business Economics

  Digital adoption significantly boosts innovation performance in small and medium-sized enterprises. The study of 1,100 German SMEs found that higher digital diffusion directly increases innovation output. Absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to learn and apply new knowledge—moderates this effect for product innovation specifically, but not for other innovation types. Digital tools act as a catalyst for SME innovation.

• The Triple Helix Model and the Future of Innovation: A Reflection on the Triple Helix Research Agenda

  Yuzhuo Cai, Marcelo Amaral · 2021 · Triple Helix Journal

  The Triple Helix model explains how academia, industry, and government interact to drive innovation and economic growth in knowledge-based economies. This paper reflects on the model's core concepts and boundary conditions, asking whether it applies universally or only under specific circumstances. The authors examine the model's usefulness for understanding innovation dynamics in changing societies and identify key concepts embedded within Triple Helix research.

• Building Responsible Innovation in International Organizations through Intrapreneurship

  Tina C. Ambos, Katherine Tatarinov · 2021 · Journal of Management Studies

  International organizations like the UN struggle to innovate despite their mandate for responsible innovation. This study examines eight intrapreneurial initiatives in socially oriented organizations, finding that initiatives originating in country offices scale through two pathways: organic country-by-country expansion or strategic headquarters-driven scaling. Both approaches manage tensions differently to build competence, align structures, and extend organizational mission. Intrapreneurship enables digital transformation and develops organizational capacity for responsible innovation.

• Evaluating the Determinants of EU Funds Absorption across Old and New Member States – the Role of Administrative Capacity and Political Governance

  Cristian Încalțărău, Gabriela Carmen Pascariu, Neculai‐Cristian Surubaru · 2019 · JCMS Journal of Common Market Studies

  This study examines how administrative capacity and political governance affect EU structural and cohesion fund absorption across member states from 2007 to 2015. Government effectiveness and corruption control significantly boosted fund absorption, particularly in newer member states that faced lower absorption rates than older EU members. The financial crisis reduced absorption capacity. The authors recommend strengthening administrative systems and combating corruption in new member states and lagging regions to improve fund utilization.

• How journalists innovate in the newsroom. Proposing a model of the diffusion of innovations in media outlets

  José Alberto García Avilés, Miguel Carvajal Prieto, Félix Arias, Alicia de Lara González · 2018 · The Journal of Media Innovations

  Spanish journalists leading newsroom innovation describe how media outlets drive change through innovations in content production, internal organization, distribution, and commercialization. The study identifies key factors that shape how innovations are adopted and implemented in newsrooms, then proposes a model explaining how media innovations spread across the industry.

• The virtues of variety in regional innovation systems and entrepreneurial ecosystems

  Philip Cooke · 2016 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  Regional innovation systems and entrepreneurial ecosystems drive growth through diverse, interconnected approaches rather than linear models. The paper examines how cooperative policy frameworks in South Korea, Scandinavia, Germany, and France foster regional innovation better than market-driven approaches. Variety in ecosystem design generates sustainable economic growth and entrepreneurial success at the regional level, outperforming individualistic growth theories.

• Direct and mediated ties to universities: “Scientific” absorptive capacity and innovation performance of pharmaceutical firms

  René Belderbos, Victor Gilsing, Shinya Suzuki · 2015 · Strategic Organization

  Pharmaceutical firms access university knowledge through direct collaborations or indirect ties via biotech intermediaries. The study finds that firms with strong internal scientific capacity benefit more from direct university partnerships, while firms with weaker capacity perform better using biotech brokers—unless those brokers connect to top universities. Success depends on matching a firm's research organization to its knowledge-sourcing strategy.

• Knowledge Sourcing and Innovation in “Thick” and “Thin” Regional Innovation Systems—Comparing ICT Firms in Two Austrian Regions

  Franz Tödtling, Lukas Lengauer, Christoph Höglinger · 2011 · European Planning Studies

  ICT firms in Vienna's dense metropolitan innovation system rely heavily on local knowledge sources from universities and research organizations, while firms in Salzburg's smaller regional system depend more on distant knowledge links with diverse partners. The study shows that regional innovation system characteristics—density and institutional setting—fundamentally shape how companies source knowledge for innovation.

• The design and testing of a tool for developing responsible innovation in start-up enterprises

  Thomas B. Long, Vincent Blok, Steven Dorrestijn, Phil Macnaghten · 2019 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  This paper develops and tests a tool designed to help startup enterprises integrate responsible innovation practices into their operations. The researchers tracked the tool's effectiveness across 12 sustainability-focused startups in agriculture, food, and energy sectors. The tool enables innovators to systematically identify socio-ethical issues through experiential learning cycles. The study demonstrates that completing full learning cycles allows the tool to successfully embed responsible innovation principles into real-world competitive business settings.

• The effect of network structure on radical innovation in living labs

  Seppo Leminen, Anna‐Greta Nyström, Mika Westerlund, Mika J. Kortelainen · 2016 · Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing

  Living labs with a distributed multiplex network structure generate radical innovations, while distributed and centralized structures produce incremental innovations. The study analyzed 24 living labs across four countries and found that radical innovation also depends on the driving actor and strategic objectives. A provider- or utilizer-driven living lab combined with distributed multiplex networks and clear future-oriented goals offers the best conditions for radical innovation.

• An empirical study of firm’s absorptive capacity dimensions, supplier involvement and new product development performance

  Saeed Najafi-Tavani, Hossein Sharifi, Sohrab Soleimanof, Manoochehr Najmi · 2013 · International Journal of Production Research

  This study examines how manufacturing firms develop new products by analyzing the role of supplier involvement and absorptive capacity—the organization's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply external knowledge. Using data from 161 firms, the research finds that absorptive capacity dimensions have varying effects on both financial and non-financial new product performance, and that absorptive capacity moderates how supplier involvement influences outcomes.

• Introduction: Small Business and Networked Innovation: Organizational and Managerial Challenges

  Massimo G. Colombo, Keld Laursen, Mats Magnusson, Cristina Rossi‐Lamastra · 2012 · Journal of Small Business Management

  Small and medium-sized enterprises face distinct organizational and managerial challenges when participating in networked innovation. This introduction to a special issue outlines these challenges and synthesizes findings from included articles that advance understanding of how smaller firms navigate collaborative innovation ecosystems and manage the complexities of working across organizational boundaries.

• Paradoxical tensions in open innovation networks

  Sirkka L. Järvenpää, Alina Wernick · 2011 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  Open innovation networks in Finland exhibit paradoxical tensions that managers must actively navigate. The study found that these networks—involving companies, universities, and government agencies—face internal and external complexities beyond those seen in single-organization innovation efforts. Managers who employ diverse behavioral approaches to handle these tensions achieve greater innovation outcomes. The research reveals that paradox management deserves explicit attention in open innovation strategy.

• Adaptive Legal Frameworks and Economic Dynamics in Emerging Tech-nologies: Navigating the Intersection for Responsible Innovation

  Lyytinen Lescrauwaet, Hekkert Wagner, C. Y. YOON, Sovacool Shukla · 2022 · Law and Economics

  This paper examines how legal frameworks must adapt to regulate emerging technologies like AI, blockchain, and biotechnology responsibly. The authors argue that effective regulation requires flexibility, interdisciplinary collaboration, and balance between stability and innovation incentives. They recommend building corporate responsibility cultures, educating policymakers, and aligning technological progress with ethical standards to enable responsible innovation.

• From Responsible Research and Innovation to responsibility by design

  Bernd Carsten Stahl, Simisola Akintoye, Lise Bitsch, Berit Bringedal, Damian Eke, Michele Farisco, Karin Grasenick, Manuel Guerrero, William Knight, Tonii Leach, Sven Nyholm, George Ogoh, Achim Rosemann, Arleen Salles, Julia Trattnig, Inga Ulnicane · 2021 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  This paper examines how Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) can create lasting impact beyond funded projects. Drawing on eight years implementing RRI in the Human Brain Project, the authors propose 'responsibility by design'—embedding ethical considerations directly into research outcomes and infrastructure so responsibility becomes inherent rather than temporary.

• Social labs as an inclusive methodology to implement and study social change: the case of responsible research and innovation

  Job Timmermans, Vincent Blok, Róbert Braun, R. Wesselink, Rasmus Øjvind Nielsen · 2020 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  This paper proposes a social lab methodology to implement and study responsible research and innovation (RRI) in practice. The methodology combines agility and real-world focus with action research and experiential learning, enabling parallel investigation and promotion of RRI while addressing the circular challenge of needing evidence to establish practices that don't yet exist widely.

• Moderating effect of absorptive capacity on the entrepreneurial orientation of international performance of family businesses

  Felipe Hernández‐Perlines · 2018 · Journal of Family Business Management

  Family businesses with stronger entrepreneurial orientation achieve better international performance. Absorptive capacity—the ability to acquire and apply new knowledge—strengthens this relationship. The study of 218 family firms shows that improving international results requires developing entrepreneurial orientation while building the firm's capacity to absorb and use external knowledge effectively.

• Innovation in service ecosystems

  Kotaiba Abdul Aal, Laura Di Pietro, Bo Edvardsson, Maria Francesca Renzi, Roberta Guglielmetti Mugion · 2016 · Journal of service management

  This paper examines how values resonance drives innovation in service ecosystems by integrating brands, service systems, and experience spaces. Through a case study using narrative analysis, the authors identify four key lessons showing that shared values enable service innovation, strengthen brand integration, facilitate resource integration across system boundaries, and support value co-creation through coherent servicescapes.

• The Driving Forces of Subsidiary Absorptive Capacity

  Stephanie Christine Schleimer, Torben Pedersen · 2012 · Journal of Management Studies

  This study examines how multinational corporations strengthen their subsidiaries' ability to absorb and implement marketing strategies. The research shows that subsidiaries operate within two competing environments—the MNC network and their local host country market. MNCs can enhance subsidiary competitiveness by creating organizational mechanisms that build absorptive capacity. Analysis of 213 subsidiaries reveals specific structures that enable effective strategy adoption in dynamic markets.

• Innovation and collaboration in traditional food chain networks

  Xavier Gellynck, Bianka Kühne · 2008 · Journal on Chain and Network Science

  Small and medium-sized enterprises in traditional food sectors across Italy, Hungary, and Belgium prioritize product innovation over organizational innovation. Collaboration among chain network members—suppliers, manufacturers, and customers—strengthens firms' innovation capabilities, though collaboration intensity varies by position in the network. The study identifies collaboration as a key driver of innovation competence in traditional food SMEs.

• Catching up in the global wine industry: innovation systems, cluster knowledge networks and firm-level capabilities in Italy and Chile

  Martin Bell, Elisa Giuliani · 2007 · International Journal of Technology and Globalisation

  Wine producers in Italian and Chilean clusters learn technology differently based on their knowledge resources and network positions. Strong geographic proximity alone doesn't create effective knowledge networks. Knowledge transfer from research institutions to firms succeeds only when firms occupy gatekeeper and broker roles within their clusters. Policy should strengthen these internal network connections rather than assuming proximity automatically generates innovation.

• Researching ecosystems in innovation contexts

  Erkko Autio, Llewellyn D W Thomas · 2021 · Innovation & Management Review

  The paper clarifies the concept of 'innovation ecosystem' by reviewing how scholars use the term across different contexts. The authors identify three basic types of ecosystems, all centered on producing coherent system-level outputs. They provide a framework to distinguish between different ecosystem types, reducing conceptual confusion and enabling clearer communication among researchers studying innovation.

• Web mining for innovation ecosystem mapping: a framework and a large-scale pilot study

  Jan Kinne, Janna Axenbeck · 2020 · Scientometrics

  This paper develops a web mining framework to map innovation ecosystems by analyzing firm websites at scale. Testing on 2.4 million German firms, the authors extract innovation-related information from websites to identify products, services, and business cooperation. They find systematic biases: larger, older, urban, and patenting firms are overrepresented because they maintain more sophisticated websites, while low broadband availability excludes some firms entirely. The framework successfully maps Berlin's artificial intelligence sector and demonstrates web mining as a cost-effective alternative to traditional innovation surveys.

• SME innovation and learning: the role of networks and crisis events

  Mark N. K. Saunders, Stacy W. Gray, Harshita Goregaokar · 2013 · European journal of training and development

  Small and medium enterprises learn and innovate primarily through informal networks, mentoring, and coaching rather than formal training. Innovative SMEs show stronger commitment to learning, embrace shared organizational vision, and learn effectively from crisis events through reflection. Access to external mentors and informal networks significantly supports SME innovation and learning.

• Studying disruptive events: Innovations in behaviour, opportunities for lower carbon transport policy?

  Greg Marsden, Jillian Anable, Tim Chatterton, Iain Docherty, James Faulconbridge, Lesley Murray, Helen Roby, Jeremy Shires · 2020 · Transport Policy

  Transport policy assumes travel patterns are fixed, leading to over-reliance on technological solutions like electric vehicles. This paper examines how people actually adapt mobility during disruptive events, revealing greater capacity for behavior change than policy recognizes. The authors argue that broadening interventions beyond technology to address when and how mobility matters for daily activities could reduce travel demand and carbon emissions more effectively.

• Decision-makers’ underestimation of user innovation

  Philip Bradonjic, Nikolaus Franke, Christian Lüthje · 2019 · Research Policy

  Managers and policymakers dramatically underestimate how much innovation comes from users. While research shows users generate 54% of valuable innovations across nine industries, decision-makers estimate only 22%. Academic textbooks and business media rarely mention user innovation, explaining this gap. The authors propose that this misperception leads to poor resource allocation and reduced innovation performance in companies and societies.

• Evolving Absorptive Capacity: The Mediating Role of Systematic Knowledge Management

  Marina Dabić, Ernest Vlačić, Usha Ramanathan, Carolyn P. Egri · 2019 · IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

  Absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to acquire and use external knowledge—drives innovation more effectively when supported by systematic knowledge management practices. The study of 127 manufacturing and technology firms in Croatia found that firms with stronger knowledge acquisition and transformation capabilities can build better knowledge management systems, which then produce higher innovation output. This explains why knowledge management alone sometimes fails to boost innovation.

• Distance to Customers, Absorptive Capacity, and Innovation in High‐Tech Firms: The Dark Face of Geographical Proximity

  Manuela Presutti, Cristina Boari, Antonio Majocchi, Xavier Molina-Morales · 2017 · Journal of Small Business Management

  This study of 158 high-tech firms in Italy finds that geographical proximity to customers does not drive innovation as commonly assumed. Instead, relational proximity to key customers works together with a firm's absorptive capacity to boost innovation. The research challenges the prevailing view that being physically close to customers automatically enhances innovative performance.

• Introduction: knowledge generation and innovation diffusion in the global automotive industry--change and stability during turbulent times

  Anja Schulze, John Paul MacDuffie, Florian Taübe · 2015 · Industrial and Corporate Change

  This introduction examines how automotive firms generate knowledge and diffuse innovations while navigating globalization, regulation, and technological change. The papers analyze both transformations and continuities in the industry, particularly how Original Equipment Manufacturers maintain control over product architecture and supply chains despite pressures from electronics, communication, and drivetrain advances. The collection explores why some innovative practices evolve while others persist.

• Twitter’s diffusion in sports journalism: Role models, laggards and followers of the social media innovation

  Peter English · 2014 · New Media & Society

  Sports journalists at major news organizations in Australia, India, and the United Kingdom adopted Twitter at different rates and for different reasons. The study used interviews and article analysis to show when and why journalists embraced the platform, and how much Twitter content appeared in sports coverage. Twitter adoption brought benefits to individual journalists and their organizations, with patterns that apply to other countries experiencing similar diffusion.

• Smart innovation policy: How network position and project composition affect the diversity of an emerging technology

  Frank J. van Rijnsoever, Jesse van den Berg, J. Koch, Marko P. Hekkert · 2014 · Research Policy

  Government subsidies for collaborative innovation projects shape technological diversity in emerging technologies. This study of Dutch biogas energy innovation reveals that projects sharing many actors reduce diversity, while projects with diverse actor types increase it. Larger project consortia decrease diversity. These findings suggest policymakers can design smarter innovation programs by strategically managing network connections and project composition to foster technological diversity and avoid technological lock-in.

• Use of Social Media in Inbound Open Innovation: Building Capabilities for Absorptive Capacity

  Ward Ooms, John Bell, R.A.W. Kok · 2014 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  Social media use in open innovation strengthens companies' ability to absorb external knowledge. Case studies of two large high-tech firms show that social media enables transparent, multi-directional interactions that build four key capabilities: connectedness, socialization tactics, cross-functionality, and receptivity. Social media acts as a boundary-spanning tool that helps companies access and integrate external ideas more effectively.

• Technology as system innovation: a key informant interview study of the application of the diffusion of innovation model to telecare

  Paul Sugarhood, Joseph Wherton, Rob Procter, Sue Hinder, Trisha Greenhalgh · 2013 · Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology

  This study examined factors influencing adoption and use of telecare technologies through interviews with 16 key participants from organizations developing and providing these services. The research found that successful telecare implementation depends on complex interactions between technology features, individual adopters, organizational readiness, and implementation processes. Critical barriers included user system complexity, insufficient ongoing support after initial adoption, and weak connections between technology designers and end users. Telecare succeeds only when treated as a coordinated system involving multiple stakeholders, not merely as a technology.

• Special Topic Forum On Innovation In Business Networks From A Supply Chain Perspective: Current Status and Opportunities for Future Research

  Jan Stentoft, Antony Paulraj · 2013 · Journal of Supply Chain Management

  This editorial identifies a significant gap between how businesses value innovation in supply chain networks and the limited academic research addressing this intersection. The authors assess current research status, highlight key issues, and propose a future research agenda while acknowledging the challenges scholars will face in pursuing these directions.

• Imports and TFP at the firm level: the role of absorptive capacity

  Patricia Augier, Olivier Cadot, Marion Dovis · 2013 · Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d économique

  This paper examines how importing intermediate goods and capital equipment affects firm productivity in Spain between 1991 and 2002. The researchers find that importing boosts total factor productivity, but only for firms with sufficient absorptive capacity—measured by their proportion of skilled workers. Firms lacking skilled labor see minimal productivity gains from imports.

• User innovation and the market

  Fred Gault · 2012 · Science and Public Policy

  This paper argues that official innovation statistics should include consumers who modify or develop products for their own use and share that knowledge freely. Current OECD definitions exclude consumer user innovation while focusing on market-based innovation. The author proposes redefining innovation to capture this activity, discusses policy implications for both consumer and firm innovation, and outlines how public sector measurement would change.

• Regional Innovation Systems and Knowledge-Sourcing Activities in Traditional Industries—Evidence from the Vienna Food Sector

  Michaela Trippl · 2011 · Environment and Planning A Economy and Space

  This study examines how food companies in Vienna source knowledge for innovation, combining formal scientific learning with practical experience-based learning. The research finds that innovative food firms selectively integrate into the regional innovation system, drawing on both local scientific knowledge and knowledge networks outside the region. The spatial pattern of knowledge links reflects the relative importance of these two learning modes in traditional industries.

• Lead-User Research for Breakthrough Innovation

  Ivy Eisenberg · 2011 · Research-Technology Management

  Lead-user research identifies customers whose needs and preferences lead the market, rather than typical users. These lead users modify products creatively to solve their problems. The paper reviews how this systematic method, developed in the late 1990s, has evolved and been adapted using online tools and communities. Lessons from over 20 projects show how companies can capture innovations from these advanced users to develop breakthrough products and services.

• Intermediaries in Regional Innovation Systems: High-Technology Enterprise Survey from Northern Finland

  Tommi Inkinen, Katri Suorsa · 2010 · European Planning Studies

  Intermediaries in Finland's northern innovation system provide critical support to high-technology firms, with funding services emerging as their most valuable function. A survey of 168 companies shows that TEKES, the national technology funding agency, ranks as the most important public organization for private sector product development. Growth-focused companies investing heavily in R&D and product innovation benefit most from intermediary support.

• Open science: policy implications for the evolving phenomenon of user-led scientific innovation

  Victoria Stodden · 2010 · Journal of Science Communication

  Non-scientists increasingly contribute to scientific research through citizen science projects, but legal barriers and access restrictions limit participation. The paper argues that open science policies—including the Reproducible Research Standard that makes publications, code, and data freely accessible—enable broader public engagement in research. Open dissemination models are reshaping how scientists share work and collaborate, blurring traditional distinctions between professional and lay contributors and requiring new approaches to peer review and recognition.

• Measurement of Social Networks for Innovation within Community Disaster Resilience

  Joanna Wilkin, Eloise M. Biggs, Andrew J. Tatem · 2019 · Sustainability

  Social networks are critical for community disaster resilience, but measuring their impact has lacked standardized methods. This paper reviews empirical studies from the Global South using social network analysis to quantify social capital in disaster risk reduction. The authors find that robust social network analysis methodologies are emerging, enabling better cross-study comparison. They argue that mapping local social networks is essential for effective disaster preparedness policy, and recommend social network analysis as a core methodology for future resilience research and planning.

• The Triple Helix model for innovation: a holistic exploration of barriers and enablers

  Azley Abd Razak, Gareth White · 2015 · International Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain Modelling

  The Triple Helix model brings together academia, industry, and government to drive innovation and economic development. This paper identifies the key barriers and enablers that affect whether this collaborative approach actually works in practice. The authors examine what factors help or hinder the model's implementation across different economies, emphasizing that successful collaboration requires all three actors to work toward shared long-term goals.

• Analysing organisational context: case studies on the contribution of absorptive capacity theory to understanding inter-organisational variation in performance improvement

  Gill Harvey, Pauline Jas, Kieran Walshe · 2014 · BMJ Quality & Safety

  This study examines how organizational context affects quality improvement in healthcare using absorptive capacity theory. Three UK NHS organizations with performance problems were studied through interviews with managers and external improvement teams. The organization with the highest absorptive capacity—strong strategic priorities, effective information management, and learning orientation—achieved the fastest and most comprehensive improvements. Internal characteristics enabled better engagement with external knowledge and support, even in challenging environments. Lower absorptive capacity delayed improvement efforts.

• The Geography and Structure of Global Innovation Networks: A Knowledge Base Perspective

  Ju Liu, Cristina Chamináde, Björn Asheim · 2013 · European Planning Studies

  This paper examines how global innovation networks are structured and organized geographically across two multinational companies in different industries. Using social network analysis, the authors identify two distinct organizational models: globally-organized and locally-organized networks. The study shows that a company's knowledge base fundamentally shapes both where its innovation network spreads and how it is internally organized.

• Enhancing Innovation Capacity in SMEs through Early Network Relationships

  Frances Jørgensen, John P. Ulhøi · 2010 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  Small firms develop innovation capacity through early network relationships that combine characteristics of both weak and strong ties. A longitudinal case study of a mobile-commerce startup shows that networks formed during the firm's earliest stages proved critical for sustained innovation. The research challenges traditional network theory's weak-strong tie distinction and recommends that entrepreneurs prioritize building strong relationships from the outset of network formation.

• The Application and Adaptation of a Diffusion of Innovation Framework for Information Systems Research in NHS General Medical Practice

  David Wainwright, Teresa Waring · 2007 · Journal of Information Technology

  This paper adapts the diffusion of innovation framework to study how healthcare organizations adopt information systems. The authors analyzed four existing DOI studies and applied their modified framework to examine ICT adoption across general medical practices in northern England. They found that professional cultures and organizational power structures significantly constrain how innovations are perceived and implemented in healthcare settings.

• Global network configuration for innovation: a study of international fibre innovation

  Helen Perks, Richard Jeffery · 2006 · R and D Management

  This study examines how firms configure innovation networks in the global fibre industry. The research identifies three types of network configurations and shows that successful innovation depends on firms recognizing where innovation value exists across dispersed networks and developing capabilities to access it. Firms struggle with this because they remain embedded in their own knowledge bases and established relationships.

• Learning from users for radical innovation

  Christopher Lettl, Cornelius Herstatt, Hans Georg Gemuenden · 2004 · WU Research

  Companies need radical innovations to stay competitive, not just incremental improvements. This study examined five medical technology projects—including robots and navigation systems—to identify which users contribute most effectively to radical innovation development. The researchers found that users with high motivation, openness to new technology, diverse skills, and supportive environments substantially advanced innovation. Manufacturers who adopted these users' ideas and prototypes significantly improved their radical innovation capabilities, suggesting firms should systematically identify and engage such users as a learning mechanism.

• Tackling COVID-19 through Responsible AI Innovation: Five Steps in the Right Direction

  David Leslie · 2020 · Harvard Data Science Review

  AI and machine learning innovations can help combat COVID-19 across biomedical, epidemiological, and socioeconomic challenges, but raise serious ethical concerns around data sharing, surveillance, privacy, and bias. The author proposes five steps for responsible AI innovation: open research, accountable processes, equitable design, democratic governance, and public trust. These practices enable faster global response while protecting civil liberties and preventing harm to vulnerable populations.

• Knowledge exchanges in innovation networks: evidences from an Italian aerospace cluster

  Fernando G. Alberti, Emanuele Pizzurno · 2015 · Competitiveness Review An International Business Journal incorporating Journal of Global Competitiveness

  This study examines how firms, universities, and research centers in an Italian aerospace cluster exchange different types of knowledge to drive innovation. The researchers found that technological knowledge flows openly among all cluster actors, while market and managerial knowledge exchanges are more selective. Different organizations play distinct roles in these knowledge networks, suggesting that innovation emerges from combining multiple knowledge types through heterogeneous collaborations.

• The<scp>S</scp>wedish system of innovation: Regional synergies in a knowledge‐based economy

  Loet Leydesdorff, Øivind Strand · 2013 · Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology

  Sweden's innovation system is highly centralized, with three metropolitan regions—Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö/Lund—generating nearly half of all regional synergy. Using firm-level data and a triple helix framework, the authors measure how geographical, technological, and organizational dimensions interact to create knowledge synergies. The analysis reveals Sweden operates as a hierarchically organized system rather than a distributed regional network.

• Absorptive capacity from foreign direct investment in Spanish manufacturing firms

  Pedro Sánchez‐Sellero, Jorge Rosell Martínez, José Manuel García‐Vázquez · 2013 · International Business Review

  This paper examines what determines a firm's ability to absorb knowledge from foreign direct investment in Spanish manufacturing. The researchers find that firm behavior, capabilities, and structure—including R&D activities, innovation organization, external partnerships, human capital quality, management type, and business complexity—all drive absorptive capacity. The study shows how different approaches to innovation activities mediate this capability.

• From single firm to network-based business model innovation

  Peter Lindgren, Yariv Taran, Harry Boer · 2010 · International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management

  This paper examines how companies develop network-based business models by studying three networks. The research reveals that network partners have different business models and success criteria, making it difficult to align their value equations during innovation. Partners also face varying demands to change their individual business models depending on how the network is constructed. Understanding these differences is critical for successfully moving network-based innovations from concept to market.

• Absorptive Capacity and Social Capital in Regional Innovation Systems: The Case of the Lahti Region in Finland

  Anne Kallio, Vesa Harmaakorpi, Timo Pihkala · 2009 · Urban Studies

  This study examines how absorptive capacity and social capital function in regional innovation systems, using the Lahti region in Finland as a case study. The research identifies three forms of social capital—organisational bonding, regional bridging, and personal creative—and categorizes actors into three interaction behavior groups: Missionaries, House Mice, and Passive Resistance. The findings show that social relationships and human interaction significantly influence how actors navigate structural gaps in innovation systems.

• Framework to study the social innovation networks

  Vesa Taatila, Jyrki Suomala, Reijo Siltala, Soili Keskinen · 2006 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  This paper develops a framework for studying how social networks influence economic innovation within organizations. The authors clarify what economic innovation means, identify key questions for researching innovation processes, and propose methods for collecting data about innovations. They argue that understanding innovation requires combining social and psychological factors with organizational material aspects, offering a holistic approach to studying how innovations actually develop.

• Utilization of social science knowledge in science policy: Systems of Innovation, Triple Helix and VINNOVA

  Merle Jacob · 2006 · Social Science Information

  This paper examines how Swedish innovation policy agency VINNOVA uses academic theories—Systems of Innovation and Triple Helix—in its policy statements. The analysis shows these academic narratives actively shape policy discourse beyond merely legitimating decisions. Despite criticism of linear knowledge transfer models, understanding how academic knowledge actually influences policy remains valuable for analyzing the science-policy relationship.

• Gross Morphology and Absorption Capacity of Cell-Fibers from the Fibrous Vascular System of Loofah (Luffa cylindrica)

  Kheir Eddine Bal, Youcef Bal, Abdelaziz Lallam · 2004 · Textile Research Journal

  This paper examines how loofah plant fibers absorb liquids based on their microscopic structure. Researchers tested raw fibers and chemically treated fibers using water and salt solutions. They found that loofah's natural spongy structure, made of bundled cells with small channels, enables strong liquid absorption—up to 22.6 grams of liquid per gram of fiber. Chemical treatment with formaldehyde further improved absorption capacity.

• How incumbents realize disruptive circular innovation ‐ Overcoming the innovator's dilemma for a circular economy

  Marianne Kuhlmann, Catharina R. Bening, Volker H. Hoffmann · 2022 · Business Strategy and the Environment

  Established companies struggle to adopt circular economy innovations because these threaten their existing profitable linear business models. This paper analyzes how incumbents can overcome this dilemma using disruptive innovation theory. Two case studies show that creating separate organizational units helps implement circular innovations, but success requires clear strategy, strategic partnerships, supportive culture, and relevant competencies.

• Probability-Guaranteed Distributed Filtering for Nonlinear Systems With Innovation Constraints Over Sensor Networks

  Lifeng Ma, Zidong Wang, Yun Chen, Xiaojian Yi · 2021 · IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems

  This paper develops a distributed filtering algorithm for nonlinear systems across sensor networks. The method uses innovation constraints with adaptive thresholds to handle abnormal data during transmission. The algorithm keeps estimation errors within specified bounds with guaranteed probability while meeting disturbance attenuation requirements. The authors derive conditions for the filter's existence and provide optimization methods to find optimal filtering parameters.

• A comprehensive appraisal of responsible research and innovation: From roots to leaves

  Martijn Wiarda, Geerten van de Kaa, Emad Yaghmaei, Neelke Doorn · 2021 · Technological Forecasting and Social Change

  This paper analyzes the academic field of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and Responsible Innovation (RI) through keyword, collaboration, and reference analysis. The authors identify shared research topics and knowledge bases between these two concepts, tracing their intellectual development over time. They conclude that RRI and RI have matured into a cumulative, interconnected research area with growing scholarly consensus and interconnection, similar to established research fields.

• Constructing innovative users and user-inclusive innovation communities

  Eva Heiskanen, Sampsa Hyysalo, Tanja Kotro, Petteri Repo · 2010 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  User involvement in innovation requires more than applying standard methods. The paper examines four case studies to show that effective user-inclusive innovation communities take varied forms. User contribution to innovation isn't an inherent user trait but results from how companies foster interaction and respond to user initiatives. Success depends on managing knowledge sharing, using mediating artifacts, and aligning divergent interests between users and producers.

• The Diffusion of Management Innovations: The Possibilities and Limitations of Memetics

  Joseph O’Mahoney · 2007 · Journal of Management Studies

  This paper applies memetics theory to explain how management innovations spread through organizations as evolutionary processes. Using case studies of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) implementation, the author shows that innovations replicate, mutate, and get selected in ways that function like evolutionary algorithms. The analysis reveals how innovations drive their own replication and why high failure rates in BPR can paradoxically increase the innovation's chances of spreading.

• The Role of Universities in the Regional Innovation Systems of the North East of England and Scania, Sweden: Providing Missing Links?

  Lars Coenen · 2007 · Environment and Planning C Government and Policy

  Universities play different roles in regional innovation systems depending on local economic conditions. This study compares the North East of England and Scania, Sweden, showing that universities contribute to regional development through varied institutional arrangements rather than a single entrepreneurial model. The specific constellation of university involvement depends on the particular innovation challenges each region faces.

• 3D‐Printed Soft and Hard Meta‐Structures with Supreme Energy Absorption and Dissipation Capacities in Cyclic Loading Conditions

  Armin Yousefi, Saman Jolaiy, Mohammadreza Lalegani Dezaki, Ali Zolfagharian, Ahmad Serjouei, Mahdi Bodaghi · 2022 · Advanced Engineering Materials

  Researchers developed 3D-printed auxetic meta-structures using soft and hard polymers to absorb and dissipate energy under repeated loading. They tested thermoplastic polyurethane and polyamide designs inspired by snowflake geometry, using multi-jet fusion printing. Both materials showed strong energy absorption with large recoverable deformations and high dissipation capacity. Computational models accurately predicted experimental results. The structures could enable lightweight, energy-absorbing components for drones and UAVs.

• Restructuring existing value networks to diffuse sustainable innovations in food packaging

  Outi Keränen, Hanna Komulainen, Tuula Lehtimäki, Pauliina Ulkuniemi · 2020 · Industrial Marketing Management

  Sustainable food packaging innovations struggle to reach markets because existing industry networks resist change. This study examines how value networks must restructure to enable diffusion of sustainable packaging made from agro-food waste. The research identifies necessary changes across firm, network, and macro levels: recognizing opportunities, integrating new actors and resources, building new relationships, creating supportive regulations, and stimulating market demand. Adopting sustainable packaging requires fundamental reorganization of entire value networks, not just product innovation.

• How social capital affects innovation in a cultural network

  Federica Ceci, Francesca Masciarelli, Simone Poledrini · 2019 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  Bonding and bridging social capital play distinct roles in innovation within cultural networks of firms. Bridging social capital—open relationships across distant sources—enables idea experimentation and combination, while bonding social capital—tight emotional ties—better supports implementing innovations. Both dimensions work together throughout the innovation process, with each contributing uniquely at different stages.

• Teacher education and the GERM: policy entrepreneurship, disruptive innovation and the rhetorics of reform

  Viv Ellis, Sarah Steadman, Tom Are Trippestad · 2018 · Educational Review

  This paper analyzes how the Institute for Teaching in England, influenced by global education reform movements, rhetorically constructs teacher education as a failing system and positions itself as a disruptive innovator offering practice-based solutions. The authors examine the organization's policy entrepreneurship and neo-liberal framing, concluding that despite sophisticated presentation, its arguments rely on fallacies rather than sound reasoning about complex educational problems.

• Organisational culture and cloud computing: coping with a disruptive innovation

  Nabil Sultan, Sylvia van de Bunt‐Kokhuis · 2012 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  Cloud computing represents a disruptive innovation that fundamentally changes how organizations deliver and consume computing services. The paper applies Christensen's disruptive innovation theory to cloud computing, examining how this shift requires organizations to transform their operational cultures and service delivery models to adapt to flexible cost structures, scalability, and efficiency gains.

• Information and communication technology innovations: radical and disruptive?

  Michael Latzer · 2009 · New Media & Society

  This paper examines how well disruption theory and other innovation classifications explain ICT innovations in communications. The author reviews multiple innovation frameworks and finds that while internet and wireless technologies show frequent disruptive changes, the disruption concept has limited applicability in the converged communications sector. Different analysts reach contradictory conclusions because they make different analytical choices, and findings from single firms cannot be reliably generalized.

• The formation of international innovation networks in the multinational corporation: an evolutionary perspective

  Ivo Zander · 2002 · Industrial and Corporate Change

  This paper examines how multinational corporations develop international innovation networks by studying ABB's historical growth. The author argues that existing frameworks overlook how a company's specific history and past events shape its ability to integrate knowledge across global operations. Understanding the actual processes behind network formation matters as much as analyzing the final structure.

• Neo-Triple Helix Model of Innovation Ecosystems: Integrating Triple, Quadruple and Quintuple Helix Models

  Yuzhuo Cai · 2022 · Triple Helix Journal

  This paper proposes an integrated neo-Triple Helix model that combines Triple, Quadruple, and Quintuple Helix frameworks to explain innovation ecosystems. The model operates at two levels: university-industry-government interactions at the innovation dynamics level, and the relationship between innovation dynamics, social structures, and the natural environment at the system level. The framework uses neo-institutional and neo-evolutionary perspectives to explain how these elements interact and evolve together.

• Learning to do responsible innovation in industry: six lessons

  Ibo van de Poel, Lotte Asveld, Steven M. Flipse, Pim Klaassen, Zenlin Kwee, Maria Maia, Elvio Mantovani, Christopher Nathan, Andrea Porcari, Emad Yaghmaei · 2020 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  Companies can adopt responsible research and innovation (RRI) practices, but require strategic shifts in approach. The authors distill six lessons from engaging industrial partners: prioritize stakeholder engagement, expand assessment methods, emphasize values, experiment iteratively, track progress, and pursue shared value creation. These findings apply to both industrial RRI implementation and broader RRI development.

• Synthesizing an implementation framework for responsible research and innovation

  Aafke Fraaije, Steven M. Flipse · 2019 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  This paper synthesizes existing frameworks for Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) into a practical implementation guide. The authors reviewed policy papers, EU projects, and academic literature from 2011-2016 to identify common RRI principles and develop a unified framework that researchers and engineers can actually use. The framework clarifies what RRI means in practice and identifies common pitfalls to avoid, helping move RRI from abstract concept to tangible application.

• Efficiency of National Innovation Systems – Poland and Bulgaria in The Context of the Global Innovation Index

  Barbara Jankowska, Anna Matysek-Jędrych, Katarzyna Mroczek‐Dąbrowska · 2017 · Comparative Economic Research Central and Eastern Europe

  This paper examines how national innovation systems convert innovation inputs into outputs across countries. Using the Global Innovation Index data from 228 countries, the authors find that Poland and Bulgaria fail to follow the expected pattern where higher innovation investment produces higher innovation output. Through detailed comparison of these two cases, the paper investigates why their national innovation systems underperform relative to their resource investments.

• Comparison of the shock absorption capacities of different mouthguards

  Melina Simonetta Bochnig, Min‐Jung Oh, Theresa Nagel, Fred Ziegler, Paul‐Georg Jost‐Brinkmann · 2017 · Dental Traumatology

  This study is not about rural innovation. It examines the protective qualities of different mouthguard designs through laboratory testing, measuring how various materials and thicknesses reduce tooth deflection and impact acceleration during collisions. The researchers found that thicker mouthguards with reinforced inserts and air spaces provided the best protection, with soft materials offering slightly better performance at lower impacts but degrading more at higher energies.

• Social Innovation and Human Development—How the Capabilities Approach and Social Innovation Theory Mutually Support Each Other

  Jürgen Howaldt, Michael Schwarz · 2017 · Journal of Human Development and Capabilities

  Social innovations address major social challenges by creating new configurations of social practices that drive social change. The paper grounds social innovation in social theory, examining how it emerges from different actors and cultural contexts. It demonstrates that social innovation and human development concepts mutually reinforce each other, with social practices serving as the mechanism through which innovations generate meaningful social change.

• Absorptive Capacity and Ambidexterity in R&amp;D: Linking Technology Alliance Diversity and Firm Innovation

  Abel Lucena, Stephen Roper · 2016 · European Management Review

  Spanish manufacturing firms benefit from diverse technology alliances by leveraging their absorptive capacity and R&D ambidexterity. These internal capabilities act as mediating mechanisms that enable firms to combine knowledge from multiple alliance partners and translate it into innovation. The study demonstrates that firms with stronger knowledge-combining abilities gain greater innovation returns from their alliance portfolios.

• Living Labs for User-Driven Innovation: A Process Reference Model

  Javier García Guzmán, Álvaro Fernández Del Carpio, Ricardo Colomo‐Palacios, Manuel Velasco de Diego · 2013 · Research-Technology Management

  Living labs bring together software companies, researchers, and users to co-create and test new products and services. The authors studied six living labs to develop a process reference model that outlines effective practices for managing collaboration within these innovation environments. The model helps living labs implement efficient management strategies to maximize benefits for all participants.

• Orchestrating Smart Business Network dynamics for innovation

  Javier Busquets · 2010 · European Journal of Information Systems

  This paper introduces orchestrating smart business networks as a managerial function that drives innovation by shaping network structure and dynamics. Using commitment and dynamic capabilities, managers can guide networks toward innovation by controlling structural changes, network boundaries, and digital platforms. The author tests this framework through a case study examining centripetal and centrifugal forces within networks.

• Social acceptance of green hydrogen in Germany: building trust through responsible innovation

  Johann Jakob Häußermann, Moritz Julian Maier, Thea C. Kirsch, Simone Kaiser, Martina Schraudner · 2023 · Energy Sustainability and Society

  Germans show low knowledge but high openness toward green hydrogen as a renewable energy technology. Trust in science, government, institutions, and media—shaped by regional values—drives acceptance. Participatory workshops and repeated positive engagement experiences strengthen support. The study recommends treating green hydrogen adoption as responsible innovation, building trust structurally to avoid conflicts like those surrounding wind energy.

• Innovation systems for technology diffusion: An analytical framework and two case studies

  Alvar Palm · 2022 · Technological Forecasting and Social Change

  This paper develops a diffusion innovation system framework that analyzes technology adoption by examining institutions, infrastructure, and supply-side dynamics together. Applied to Swedish renewable energy cases—solar photovoltaics and wind power—the framework shows how these factors co-develop over time through feedback loops that either support or hinder diffusion. The approach identifies specific barriers that policy and business strategy could address.

• Reading the road: challenges and opportunities on the path to responsible innovation in quantum computing

  Carolyn Ten Holter, Philip Inglesant, Marina Jirotka · 2021 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  Quantum computing researchers embedded in the UK's quantum programme studied how responsible innovation practices can be integrated into technology development. The team found significant challenges in embedding responsible innovation approaches and fostering dialogue between innovators and society. The authors recommend that policymakers, researchers, and industry prioritize societal considerations alongside commercial interests to ensure quantum technologies develop in ways that serve public needs and maintain public trust.

• Enabling Ecosystems for Social Enterprises and Social Innovation: A Capability Approach Perspective

  Mario Biggeri, Enrico Testi, Marco Bellucci · 2017 · Journal of Human Development and Capabilities

  Social enterprises can solve social problems innovatively, but their success depends on supportive ecosystems. This study analyzed data from 164 stakeholder interviews, 850 social enterprises across 11 EU countries, and behavioral experiments to identify what enables social innovation. The authors recommend policymakers adopt integrated, multi-disciplinary approaches to create ecosystems that help social enterprises develop and innovate effectively.

• The Role of Absorptive Capacity in Acquisition Knowledge Transfer

  Paulina Junni, Riikka M. Sarala · 2013 · Thunderbird International Business Review

  This study examines how absorptive capacity—the ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new knowledge—affects knowledge transfer during company acquisitions. The researchers identify key factors that strengthen absorptive capacity: reducing cultural differences between nations, minimizing employee withdrawal, improving communication during integration, and establishing effective knowledge processing systems. Testing their model on Finnish acquisitions, they demonstrate that absorptive capacity significantly determines whether acquired companies successfully transfer knowledge to their new owners.

• Organizing the Innovation Process: Complementarities in Innovation Networking

  James H. Love, Stephen Roper · 2009 · Industry and Innovation

  This paper examines how manufacturing plants in the UK and Germany use external networks across different stages of innovation. German firms show stronger complementarities between external networking activities, while UK firms tend to substitute external networks across stages. The findings reveal that optimal innovation strategies differ between countries and that the relationship between internal and external knowledge sources is more complex than previously understood.

• The Diffusion of Medical Innovations: Can Figurational Sociology Contribute?

  Sue Dopson · 2005 · Organization Studies

  This paper argues that figurational sociology, developed by Norbert Elias, provides a robust theoretical framework for understanding innovation and change. The author demonstrates how Elias's emphasis on long-term unplanned processes helps explain complex change management, using evidence-based medicine adoption in clinical practice as a case study. The approach offers insights for policymakers managing innovation implementation.

• The evolution of knowledge-intensive innovation ecosystems: co-evolving entrepreneurial activity and innovation policy in the West Swedish maritime system

  Ethan Gifford, Maureen McKelvey, Rögnvaldur J. Sæmundsson · 2020 · Industry and Innovation

  This paper examines how innovation ecosystems emerge by studying Sweden's West Swedish maritime cluster. The authors argue that sustainable innovation requires both top-down policy exploration by government and bottom-up entrepreneurial activity. They find that knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship combined with experimental policymaking and new collaborative approaches drive progress toward innovation-led sustainable development.

• Collaborative innovation and human-machine networks

  Rainer Kattel, Veiko Lember, Piret Tõnurist · 2019 · Public Management Review

  Digital technology shapes how public organizations collaborate and innovate. Through case studies of cross-sector coordination, the authors show that technology is not neutral—it actively determines who participates, how they interact, and what outcomes emerge. Technology can either enable or obstruct effective collaboration depending on how it structures human-machine interactions.

• Synergy in Knowledge-Based Innovation Systems at National and Regional Levels: The Triple-Helix Model and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

  Loet Leydesdorff · 2018 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  The paper argues that knowledge-based innovation systems operate through dynamic expectations that can be tested and refined. The Triple-Helix model provides a framework to measure synergy between institutions and assess how well innovation systems generate options and reduce uncertainty. The Fourth Industrial Revolution represents a shift toward model-based innovation, and the author demonstrates how to empirically evaluate whether technological revolutions are occurring using information-theoretic measures of redundancy.

• Innovative products and services with environmental benefits: design of search strategies for external knowledge and absorptive capacity

  Caroline Mothe, Uyen T. Nguyen-Thi, Ángela Triguero · 2017 · Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

  French firms pursuing environmental innovations use different external knowledge strategies depending on their goals. Acquiring machinery and equipment drives eco-process innovations, while external R&D partnerships specifically support eco-product development. Collaborative R&D sharing advances both types of environmental innovation. Market-based information sources consistently support all environmental innovation efforts.

• Trustworthiness and Responsible Research and Innovation: The Case of the Bio-Economy

  Lotte Asveld, Jurgen Ganzevles, Patrícia Osseweijer · 2015 · Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics

  Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) can advance sustainable bio-economy development in the Netherlands and Europe by building trust among value-chain actors. The paper argues that RRI creates conditions for trustworthiness through personal relationships, third-party guarantors, institutions, and value communication. These mechanisms help address public concerns about sensitive issues like genetic modification, enabling wider adoption of biomass-based technologies across socially complex innovation trajectories.

• Responsible innovation in the light of moral responsibility

  Sophie Pellé, Bernard Reber · 2015 · Journal on Chain and Network Science

  This paper examines moral responsibility within responsible innovation frameworks, particularly in supply chains and innovation networks. The authors critique responsible innovation advocates for underdeveloping the concept's normative foundations and neglecting corporate social responsibility approaches. They map ten philosophical meanings of responsibility—distinguishing negative from positive conceptions—and explore how these meanings apply practically to supply chains and innovation networks.

• Do Regions Make a Difference? Regional Innovation Systems and Global Innovation Networks in the ICT Industry

  Cristina Chamináde, Monica Plechero · 2014 · European Planning Studies

  Regional innovation systems shape how firms access global innovation networks in the ICT industry. The study compares European, Chinese, and Indian regions using firm surveys and case studies. Regions with weaker organizational and institutional thickness actually participate more in global networks, suggesting global connections compensate for local innovation system deficiencies.

• Development of small and medium-sized enterprise horizontal innovation networks: UK agri-food sector study

  Maura McAdam, Rodney McAdam, Adele Dunn, Clare McCall · 2014 · International Small Business Journal Researching Entrepreneurship

  Small and medium-sized bakery businesses in the UK agri-food sector formed a horizontal innovation network to share resources and develop new products together. Over 27 months, researchers tracked how this network evolved through three distinct stages. The study shows that competing businesses can overcome rivalries through collaboration, using shared knowledge and social connections to increase competitiveness and drive joint innovation.

• Exploring Social Network Dynamics Driving Knowledge Management for Innovation

  Claire Gubbins, Lawrence Dooley · 2013 · Journal of Management Inquiry

  Knowledge management drives innovation, but the process remains complex and poorly understood. This paper examines how social networks facilitate knowledge management for innovation by studying three university-industry partnerships. The research tracks how structural, relational, and cognitive social capital evolve across different innovation phases, identifying which network characteristics matter most at each stage.

• Ranking National Innovation Systems According to their technical Efficiency

  Monica Matei, Anamaria Aldea · 2012 · Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences

  This study measures and compares the technical efficiency of national innovation systems across EU27 member states plus Croatia, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey. Using data from the 2011 Innovation Union Scoreboard database and data envelopment analysis, the researchers ranked countries by innovation system performance. The analysis reveals how efficiently different nations convert innovation inputs into outputs.

• The role of a firm's absorptive capacity and the technology transfer process in clusters: How effective are technology centres in low-tech clusters?

  José-Luis Hervás-Oliver, José Albors Garrigós, Blanca de-Miguel, Antonio Hidalgo Nuchera · 2012 · Entrepreneurship and Regional Development

  Small and medium-sized firms in low-tech manufacturing clusters access technology centres and research institutes based on their absorptive capacity—their internal resources and ability to learn. The study of 80 firms found that knowledge-intensive sectors use research infrastructure more effectively, while less knowledge-intensive sectors rely instead on supplier relationships. Technology centres alone cannot drive innovation; firms must actively seek out and engage with available knowledge sources.

• User-driven innovation? Challenges of user involvement in future technology analysis

  Katrien De Moor, Katrien Berte, Lieven De Marez, Wout Joseph, Tom Deryckere, Luc Martens · 2010 · Science and Public Policy

  Companies increasingly adopt user-driven innovation strategies in information and communications technologies, placing users at the center of product development. This paper identifies two critical challenges: maintaining continuous user involvement and integrating user knowledge into interdisciplinary development processes. The authors demonstrate solutions through the ROMAS project, which tested future mobile applications in a living lab setting with systematic user participation.

• Network of Collaborations for Innovation: The Case of Biotechnology

  Vittorio Chiesa, Giovanni Toletti · 2004 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  Biotechnology firms developing new drugs and agricultural products increasingly rely on collaborations to navigate product development and commercialization. This study of 27 organizations examines how inter-institutional partnerships differ across various stages of introducing biotech products to market, comparing collaboration patterns between pharmaceutical and agricultural sectors.

• Knowlege networks for innovation in small Scottish software firms

  Simon Collinson · 2000 · Entrepreneurship and Regional Development

  Small Scottish software companies rely on regional knowledge networks and clusters of complementary expertise to innovate and grow. The study reveals how learning through sociotechnical networks drives firm development, and shows that Scotland's infrastructure supports indigenous software ventures despite competition from foreign multinationals. Policy efforts to create a 'silicon glen' effect must account for these localized knowledge dynamics.

• Start-up collaboration units as knowledge brokers in Corporate Innovation Ecosystems: A study in the automotive industry

  Vincenzo Corvello, Alberto Michele Felicetti, Annika Steiber, Sverker Alänge · 2023 · Journal of Innovation & Knowledge

  Start-up collaboration units within large automotive companies act as knowledge brokers between established firms and startups. The study identifies key barriers to knowledge exchange—including mismatched interpretations and conflicting expectations—and reveals six strategies SCUs use to improve collaboration: building networks, integrating communication, eliciting knowledge, orchestrating dialogue, encouraging creative thinking, and increasing organizational agility.

• From the Dark Side of Industry 4.0 to Society 5.0: Looking “Beyond the Box” to Developing Human-Centric Innovation Ecosystems

  Elias G. Carayannis, Rossella Canestrino, Pierpaolo Magliocca · 2023 · IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

  The paper argues that Industry 4.0's purely technology-focused approach has created problems, and proposes moving toward Society 5.0, which balances technology with human needs, sustainability, and resilience. Using the Quintuple Helix Model, the authors provide a framework showing how government, universities, industry, civil society, and the environment can work together to build innovation ecosystems that serve both business and society while addressing pandemic and climate challenges.

• Orchestrating innovation networks: Alignment and orchestration profile approach

  Pia Hurmelinna‐Laukkanen, Kristian Möller, Satu Nätti · 2021 · Journal of Business Research

  This paper develops an orchestration profile approach for managing inter-organizational innovation networks. The authors identify three generic orchestration profiles—translative, transformative, and transcending—that align management practices with different network types and value-creation logics. These profiles provide practical guidance for managers designing effective orchestration strategies across diverse innovation networks.

• Dual Networking: How Collaborators Network in Their Quest for Innovation

  Anne L. J. Ter Wal, Paola Criscuolo, Bill McEvily, Ammon Salter · 2020 · Administrative Science Quarterly

  Organizations divide innovation work between specialist and generalist roles. This study finds that collaborating pairs perform better when they network within the same groups but connect to different individuals, rather than splitting into entirely separate networks. This dual networking approach enables partners to interpret information from multiple angles, influence stakeholders more effectively, and champion ideas more successfully than pure divide-and-conquer strategies.

• Applying open innovation strategies in the context of a regional innovation ecosystem: The case of Janssen Pharmaceuticals

  Joanna Robaczewska, Wim Vanhaverbeke, Annika Lorenz · 2019 · Global Transitions

  Janssen Pharmaceuticals in Belgium actively shaped a regional innovation ecosystem around its R&D center by opening firm boundaries, sharing infrastructure, mobilizing funding, and influencing policy to attract external talent and expertise. The company moved beyond traditional open innovation to strategically embed itself in a regional environment, creating a world-class research hub. This approach integrates open innovation, innovation ecosystems, and regional economics theories.

• Network Centrality and Open Innovation: A Social Network Analysis of an SME Manufacturing Cluster

  Judith Woods, Brendan Galbraith, Nola Hewitt‐Dundas · 2019 · IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

  Small and medium-sized manufacturers in an Irish cluster benefit from their position within innovation networks. Firms occupying central network positions—connected to more cluster members—show greater innovation activity in product development. Firm size, absorptive capacity, and managerial orientation determine a firm's network position. Despite knowledge-sharing concerns, networking activity correlates positively with innovation performance in low-technology manufacturing.

• Supply chain agility: a mediator for absorptive capacity

  Angel Martı́nez Sánchez, Fernando Lahoz-Leo · 2018 · Baltic Journal of Management

  This study examines how supply chain agility mediates the relationship between absorptive capacity and firm performance. Using data from 231 Spanish firms, the authors find that supply chain agility does indeed mediate this relationship. Firms with more agile supply chains benefit more from their investments in absorptive capacity when improving overall performance.

• The contrasting effects of active and passive cooperation on innovation and productivity: Evidence from British local innovation networks

  Emanuele Giovannetti, Claudio A. Piga · 2017 · International Journal of Production Economics

  This study examines how different types of cooperation affect innovation and productivity in British firms. Active cooperation with suppliers and customers boosts innovation and productivity, while active cooperation among competitors actually reduces innovation rates. Passive knowledge spillovers from competitors' activities benefit firms. The findings suggest innovation policies should encourage cooperation within supply chains while discouraging direct competitor collaboration to maximize system-wide productivity gains.

• Building a middle-range theory of Transformative Social Innovation; theoretical pitfalls and methodological responses

  Alexander Haxeltine, Bonno Pel, Université libre de Bruxelles, Julia M. Wittmayer, Adina Dumitru, René Kemp, Flor Avelino · 2017 · European Public & Social Innovation Review

  This paper develops middle-range theory for transformative social innovation by identifying three theoretical pitfalls and proposing solutions centered on social relations and innovation processes. The authors use iterative cycles between case study research and analysis to build theory that provides practical insights into how social innovation drives transformative change. They emphasize maintaining reflexivity throughout theory development.

• Sustainable Innovation: A Competitive Advantage for Innovation Ecosystems

  Kaisa Oksanen, Antti Hautamäki · 2015 · Technology Innovation Management Review

  National and regional innovation systems face pressure to adapt as economies shift from manufacturing to services and socio-technical changes reshape innovation landscapes. The paper argues that sustainable innovation provides a competitive advantage for innovation ecosystems, helping countries, regions, and cities navigate structural economic changes and meet demands of the global competitive environment.

• A Qualitative Application of the Diffusion of Innovations Theory to Examine Determinants of Guideline Adherence Among Physical Therapists

  Janneke Harting, Geert M. Rutten, Steven TJ Rutten, Stef Kremers · 2009 · Physical Therapy

  Physical therapists in the Netherlands rarely adopt evidence-based guidelines for low back pain after they are disseminated. This study used focus group interviews and Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations Theory to understand why. Therapists had unfavorable views about how guidelines were shared but provided little information about their adoption decisions. The theory proved useful for structuring the research and revealed that guideline implementation remained incomplete among practitioners.

• Networks and innovation in European construction: benefits from inter-organisational cooperation in a fragmented industry

  Marcela Miozzo, Paul M. Dewick · 2004 · International Journal of Technology Management

  Construction industries across five European countries show varying performance levels. The research reveals that stronger inter-organisational networks—particularly between contractors, subcontractors, material suppliers, government, universities, architects, clients, and international partners—correlate with better industry performance. Cooperation networks drive innovation in this fragmented sector.

• Global drug diffusion and innovation with the medicines patent pool

  Lucy Xiaolu Wang · 2022 · Journal of Health Economics

  The Medicines Patent Pool, a joint licensing platform for patented drugs, significantly increases generic drug supply in developing countries, especially those with stronger patent protection. The pool enables generic firms worldwide to license drug bundles affordably for sales in designated developing nations. Analysis of licensing contracts, procurement data, clinical trials, and drug approvals shows the pool also generates modest increases in clinical trials and new drug approvals, primarily from non-pool firms.

• Transformative governance of innovation ecosystems

  Тотти Коннола, Ville Eloranta, Taija Turunen, Ahti Salo · 2021 · Technological Forecasting and Social Change

  This paper examines how governance structures shape innovation ecosystems and their transformative capacity. The authors analyze funding mechanisms and institutional frameworks that support innovation development, drawing on Finnish and European research programs. They identify governance approaches that enable ecosystems to adapt and create value across multiple sectors and stakeholder groups.

• Toward an Evolutionary and Sustainability Perspective of the Innovation Ecosystem: Revisiting the Panarchy Model

  James Boyer · 2020 · Sustainability

  This paper applies the Panarchy model to innovation ecosystems, arguing that they evolve through four phases: exploitation, conservation, decline, and reorganization. The framework shows how innovation ecosystems avoid technology lock-in and rigidity by balancing exploitative and generative functions. This evolutionary perspective helps policymakers and practitioners understand how ecosystems build resilience and competitiveness when facing major disruptions.

• Responsible Innovation for Sustainable Development Goals in Business: An Agenda for Cooperative Firms

  Oier Imaz Alias, Andoni Eizagirre Eizagirre · 2020 · Sustainability

  Responsible Innovation can help cooperative firms and social and solidarity economy businesses implement Sustainable Development Goals. The paper finds that these firms benefit from responsible innovation through business model transformation and contribute to SDGs by enabling partnerships and innovation. Cooperatives extend SDG implementation beyond their traditional principles to become key enablers of sustainable development across business sectors.

• Strategic marketing approaches for the diffusion of innovation in highly regulated industrial markets: the value of market access

  Francesco Schiavone, Michele Simoni · 2019 · Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing

  Two multinational healthcare companies in Italy overcame regulatory barriers to product diffusion by adopting three strategic approaches: conducting educational activities with opinion leaders and patient associations, simulating innovation impacts on the healthcare system, and establishing dedicated market access units. These strategies enabled firms to achieve regulatory compliance while promoting new product adoption in highly regulated markets.

• Frugal innovation in developed markets – Adaption of a criteria-based evaluation model

  Thomas Winkler, Anita Ulz, Wolfgang Knöbl, Hans Lercher · 2019 · Journal of Innovation & Knowledge

  This paper develops an evaluation model to assess why frugal innovations succeed or fail in developed markets. The authors adapt existing criteria for frugal innovation and introduce the concept of "second-degree frugal innovation" to distinguish developed-market frugal products from those in developing markets. Through three case studies, they demonstrate that frugal innovation success depends heavily on market context, with differences in usability, quality, and pricing. The model provides practitioners with tools like value analysis to optimize frugal product development.

• Industry Platforms and Ecosystem Innovation

  Annabelle Gawer, Michael A. Cusumano · 2013 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  This paper distinguishes between internal platforms (company-specific product foundations) and external platforms (industry-wide foundations for ecosystem innovation). The authors analyze how platform leaders like Intel manage innovation, competition, and technological change. They identify design principles, economic factors, and strategic practices that enable effective platform leadership and ecosystem development across diverse industries.

• State and development of innovation networks

  Christoph Dilk, Ronald Gleich, Andreas Wald, Jaideep Motwani · 2008 · Management Decision

  Innovation networks are increasingly important in the European automotive industry, enabling companies to access technologies flexibly, strengthen customer relationships, and retain suppliers. A study of 39 networks across large manufacturers and small suppliers found these networks perform well overall, though management practices have room for improvement. The research identifies key formation and governance patterns that could enhance network effectiveness.

• SIMULATING KNOWLEDGE-GENERATION AND DISTRIBUTION PROCESSES IN INNOVATION COLLABORATIONS AND NETWORKS

  Andreas Pyka, Nigel Gilbert, Petra Ahrweiler · 2007 · Cybernetics & Systems

  This paper presents an agent-based simulation model that represents how knowledge generation and distribution work in innovation networks. The model captures heterogeneous agents with different knowledge stocks, uncertainty, learning from experience and collaboration, and the effects of failure. The simulation demonstrates that artificial innovation networks exhibit characteristics matching real innovation networks in knowledge-intensive industries, revealing dynamics that traditional economic models cannot capture.

• The diffusion of environmental policy innovations: cornerstones of an analytical framework

  Kerstin Tews · 2005 · European Environment

  This paper develops a conceptual framework for understanding how environmental policy innovations spread across countries. The author argues that policy diffusion results from interactions between international forces, national factors, and the characteristics of specific policies. The framework bridges comparative policy analysis and international relations by explaining how countries adopt similar policies even without binding agreements, providing guidance for empirical research on policy innovation diffusion.

• Exploration, Exploitation and Co-evolution in Innovation Networks

  Victor Gilsing · 2003 · Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS)

  This study examines how sectoral innovation systems co-evolve by analyzing the relationships between institutional environments, firm networks, and learning regimes. Using multimedia and pharmaceutical biotechnology sectors in the Netherlands as case studies from the late 1980s to early 2000s, the research identifies a general co-evolutionary pattern while showing that how this pattern manifests in network structures and coordination mechanisms depends on each sector's specific institutional setup.

• The role of absorptive capacity and big data analytics in strategic purchasing and supply chain management decisions

  Pier Paolo Patrucco, Giacomo Marzi, Daniel Trabucchi · 2023 · Technovation

  Big data analytics adoption in purchasing and supply chain management remains slow despite widespread use elsewhere. A survey of 222 supply chain managers found that a company's absorptive capacity—its ability to explore, assimilate, and transform information—determines whether big data analytics improves strategic decision-making. Only well-resourced companies fully benefit; applying analytics to routine operational tasks yields limited gains.

• The global connectivity of regional innovation systems in Italy: a core–periphery perspective

  Alexander Berman, Alba Marino, Ram Mudambi · 2019 · Regional Studies

  This study examines how Italian regional innovation systems connect to global knowledge sources. The research finds that foreign companies and entities drive Italy's access to global innovation networks, while Italian firms show weak outward connections. Foreign investment and presence in Italian regions, rather than Italian firms reaching outward, explains the country's growing integration into global innovation systems.

• Makers and clusters. Knowledge leaks in open innovation networks

  Jessica D. Giusti, Fernando G. Alberti, Federica Belfanti · 2018 · Journal of Innovation & Knowledge

  This study examines how knowledge flows through open innovation networks involving makers in an Italian high-tech cluster. Using social network analysis, the researchers found that unintended knowledge leaks occur within these maker ecosystems. The findings reveal previously unstudied patterns of knowledge exchange in innovation networks, with implications for understanding how information spreads beyond formal channels in collaborative innovation environments.

• Responsible innovation in human germline gene editing: Background document to the recommendations of ESHG and ESHRE

  Guido de Wert, Björn Heindryckx, Guido Pennings, Angus Clarke, Ursula Eichenlaub-Ritter, Carla van El, Francesca Forzano, Mariëtte Goddijn, Heidi Howard, Dragica Radojković, Emmanuelle Rial‐Sebbag, Wybo Dondorp, Basil C. Tarlatzis, Martina C. Cornel, On behalf of the European Society of Human Genetics and the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology · 2018 · European Journal of Human Genetics

  This paper examines responsible innovation in human germline gene editing across Europe. The authors review scientific developments, legal regulations, and ethical considerations for gene editing in basic research, pre-clinical work, and clinical applications. They argue that deontological objections to gene editing lack conviction, while consequentialist concerns about safety require further research. The paper supports adapting regulations to technological progress while addressing ethical and societal concerns.

• X‐ray Absorption Spectroscopy Investigation of Lithium‐Rich, Cobalt‐Poor Layered‐Oxide Cathode Material with High Capacity

  Daniel Buchholz, Jie Li, Stefano Passerini, Giuliana Aquilanti, Diandian Wang, Marco Giorgetti · 2014 · ChemElectroChem

  This paper is not about rural innovation. It presents a materials science study investigating lithium-rich cathode materials for batteries using X-ray spectroscopy. The research examines electrochemical processes in a specific cobalt-poor oxide compound, identifying the roles of manganese, nickel, cobalt, and oxygen during charging cycles. The findings reveal unexpected partial reduction of cobalt and nickel during initial activation.

• SIMULATING KNOWLEDGE DYNAMICS IN INNOVATION NETWORKS (SKIN)

  Petra Ahrweiler, Andreas Pyka, Nigel Gilbert · 2004

  This paper presents SIMKIN, an agent-based simulation model that represents how innovation occurs in knowledge-based industries. The model features heterogeneous agents with different knowledge stocks who interact through markets and knowledge exchange. It captures uncertainty, learning from experience and collaboration, agent failure, and historical change. The simulation allows researchers to explore dynamic innovation processes in complex systems.

• Paradoxes of implementing digital manufacturing systems: A longitudinal study of digital innovation projects for disruptive change

  Lukas Moschko, Vera Blažević, Frank T. Piller · 2023 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Digital manufacturing technologies promise operational efficiency and business model transformation, yet many established companies achieve only incremental improvements. A longitudinal study of eight manufacturing firms identifies three key tensions blocking success: integrating physical and digital assets, innovating within existing operations, and coordinating internal and external stakeholders. These conflicting forces pull digital projects away from ambitious goals, explaining why digitization remains difficult for established firms.

• Virtual user communities contributing to upscaling innovations in transitions: The case of electric vehicles

  Toon Meelen, Bernhard Truffer, Tim Schwanen · 2019 · Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

  Virtual communities of electric vehicle users contribute significantly to scaling up EV adoption by enabling knowledge exchange across distances. The authors studied a large online EV community using internet ethnography and identified how virtual communities foster technology upscaling through distinctive participation mechanisms. These communities play an important role in promoting electric vehicle use beyond early technology development phases.

• The role of business networks for innovation

  Christina Öberg · 2018 · Journal of Innovation & Knowledge

  Business networks—interconnected companies linked by social and economic ties—shape innovation in two ways: innovations emerge from partner interactions, and innovations must fit within or reshape existing network patterns. This paper categorizes how different network characteristics produce incremental, radical, or disruptive innovations, and how each innovation type affects the network itself. Six case studies reveal that innovation type directly correlates with network role and consequences, filling a gap in research that typically ignores how innovations restructure business networks.

• The social dynamics of heterogeneous innovation ecosystems

  Jan-Peter Ferdinand, Uli Meyer · 2017 · International Journal of Engineering Business Management

  This paper develops a framework for analyzing innovation ecosystems that goes beyond focusing on single organizations. It examines how communities and firms interact through distributed innovation, showing how different levels of openness shape ecosystem dynamics. The authors apply their framework to two cases—the RepRap 3D printer and ARA modular smartphone—demonstrating how openness differences affect community-firm relationships and ecosystem functions.

• The business ecosystem concept in innovation policy context: building a conceptual framework

  Satu Rinkinen, Vesa Harmaakorpi · 2017 · Innovation The European Journal of Social Science Research

  This conceptual paper examines the business ecosystem concept within innovation policy, comparing it to three established policy approaches. The ecosystem concept distinguishes itself through its focus on innovation and its self-organizing, self-renewing characteristics. The authors establish a framework for future empirical research on how business ecosystems can inform innovation policy.

• Family firm performance: The influence of entrepreneurial orientation and absorptive capacity

  Felipe Hernández‐Perlines, Juan Moreno‐García, Benito Yáñez‐Araque · 2017 · Psychology and Marketing

  This study examines how entrepreneurial orientation affects family firm performance in Spain, finding that absorptive capacity—the ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new knowledge—mediates this relationship. The research shows that family firms cannot improve performance through entrepreneurial orientation alone; they must develop absorptive capacity to translate entrepreneurial efforts into actual business results.

• Innovation for a steady state: a case for responsible stagnation

  Stevienna de Saille, Fabien Medvecky · 2016 · Economy and Society

  This paper argues that responsible innovation frameworks should explicitly consider 'responsible stagnation'—deliberately slowing or halting innovation in certain sectors. Drawing on ecological economics, the authors challenge the growth-driven paradigm and contend that managing resource consumption and development pace in over-productive or risky sectors represents a legitimate form of responsible innovation, not its failure.

• The diffusion of grassroots innovations for sustainability in Italy and <scp>G</scp>reat <scp>B</scp>ritain: an exploratory spatial data analysis

  Giuseppe Feola, Anisa Butt · 2015 · Geographical Journal

  Grassroots sustainability networks spread unevenly across space and time. Transition Towns and Solidarity Purchasing Groups diffused differently in Great Britain and Italy, with similar patterns only in central Italy. The research reveals that spatial structure matters for grassroots innovation diffusion, challenging assumptions about their universal momentum and highlighting the importance of institutional context, cross-movement collaboration, and geographic proximity.

• What contextual factors shape ‘innovation in innovation’? Integration of insights from the Triple Helix and the institutional logics perspective

  Yuzhuo Cai · 2015 · Social Science Information

  The Triple Helix model of university-industry-government collaboration shapes innovation systems globally, but one-size-fits-all approaches fail. This paper integrates institutional logics with Triple Helix theory to explain how different national contexts produce varying innovation system configurations. The author identifies seven institutional logics that influence Triple Helix interactions and argues that institutional settings enable but don't determine outcomes—innovation policies and key actors ultimately decide Triple Helix development. The framework helps policymakers, especially in developing countries, design context-appropriate innovation strategies.

• Social network analysis in innovation research: using a mixed methods approach to analyze social innovations

  Nina Kolleck · 2013 · European Journal of Futures Research

  Social networks drive innovation diffusion and social change by enabling learning, problem-solving, and idea sharing among actors. This paper demonstrates how mixed-methods social network analysis can reveal how networks foster innovation by connecting resources and knowledge. The author applies this approach to five education networks focused on sustainable development, showing practical implementation of SNA for studying innovation processes.

• Festival Innovation: Complex and Dynamic Network Interaction

  Mia Larson · 2009 · Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism

  Festival innovation emerges through complex, dynamic networks of multiple actors with diverse interests rather than isolated efforts. Swedish case studies reveal that innovation occurs unpredictably through new partnerships and improvisation, resisting formal planning. Some innovations eventually become institutionalized in partnership routines. Festival organizers must strategically understand their networks and leverage partner contributions to drive successful innovation.

• Beyond Regulation: Risk Pricing and Responsible Innovation

  Richard Owen, David Baxter, Trevor Maynard, Michael H. Depledge · 2009 · Environmental Science & Technology

  The insurance industry can drive responsible technological innovation by pricing risk appropriately, offering an alternative to traditional regulation. The authors argue that insurers' financial incentives to assess and manage emerging technological risks create powerful mechanisms for encouraging safer innovation practices without relying solely on government oversight.

• Intestinal Morphology, Epithelial Cell Proliferation, and Absorptive Capacity in Neonatal Calves Fed Milk-Born Insulin-Like Growth Factor-I or a Colostrum Extract

  B. Roffler, A. Fäh, S.N. Sauter, H.M. Hammon, Peter Gallmann, Г. Брем, J.W. Blum · 2003 · Journal of Dairy Science

  This study examined how insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) affects intestinal development in newborn calves. Feeding calves supraphysiological amounts of human IGF-I from transgenic rabbit milk produced no effects. However, feeding a bovine colostrum extract containing physiological IGF-I levels increased intestinal villus size and epithelial cell proliferation, though it temporarily reduced absorptive capacity.

• How firms realign to tackle the grand challenge of climate change: An innovation ecosystems perspective

  Lukas Falcke, Ann‐Kristin Zobel, Stephen Comello · 2023 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  This study examines how established electric utilities and clean-tech startups collaborate in innovation ecosystems to address climate change. Analyzing 10 utilities and 57 startups across pilot projects, the researchers identify three ecosystem configurations that drive climate impact: incumbent-led digital platforms, device complementors that enable customers, and new orchestrators. These configurations succeed by improving resource efficiency, enhancing infrastructure flexibility, and enabling better information sharing.

• The role of regional innovation systems in mission-oriented innovation policy: exploring the problem-solution space in electrification of maritime transport

  Markus M. Bugge, Allan Dahl Andersen, Markus Steén · 2021 · European Planning Studies

  This paper examines how regional innovation systems contribute to mission-oriented innovation policy by studying ferry electrification in Western Norway. The research finds that transformative change succeeded because it created new regional economic opportunities while leveraging existing regional resources, actors, and institutions. The mission benefited from low technological uncertainty, multi-level coordination among actors, and strategic modification of established regional structures and regulations.

• Toward A Theory on the Reproduction of Social Innovations in Subsistence Marketplaces

  Laurel Steinfield, Diane Holt · 2019 · Journal of Product Innovation Management

  Social innovations often fail to spread in subsistence contexts despite their potential to address poverty. This paper develops a theory explaining how social innovations get reproduced in sub-Saharan Africa by examining what innovation attributes and actor capacities enable duplication. The authors identify three reproduction archetypes—mimetic, facilitated, and complex—based on the resource and knowledge requirements of innovations versus the capabilities of subsistence users and intermediaries. The framework reveals when users can independently reproduce innovations, when they need external support, and when innovations exceed local capacity.

• Analysis of open innovation communities from the perspective of social network analysis

  María del Rocío Martínez Torres · 2013 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  This paper analyzes online open innovation communities using social network analysis to understand how members participate and contribute ideas. The research measures correlations between different participation types and examines how collective intelligence evaluation methods can identify the most valuable user-generated ideas. The findings help organizations and community managers efficiently evaluate large volumes of ideas shared in online innovation platforms.

• Understanding the early stages of the innovation diffusion process: awareness, influence and communication networks

  Graeme D. Larsen · 2011 · Construction Management and Economics

  This paper examines how awareness and influence shape early-stage innovation adoption in the UK construction sector. Using social network analysis on data from chartered professionals and a case study organization, the research reveals that awareness and influence networks vary significantly across actors. The findings demonstrate that social network analysis effectively maps how innovations spread through professional networks and identifies key influencers, providing a framework for understanding adoption patterns in construction.

• Regional Innovation Systems: The Case of Angling Tourism

  Anne‐Mette Hjalager · 2010 · Tourism Geographies

  The Sea Trout Funen initiative in Denmark demonstrates how regional innovation systems work in tourism. Starting in 1989, collaboration between government, anglers, businesses, and educational institutions produced innovations in tourist products, environmental protection, and workforce development. The case shows that innovation systems theory applies to tourism and that stable multi-sector partnerships generate tangible benefits and adapt successfully to external changes.

• Tribal mattering spaces: Social-networking sites, celebrity affiliations, and tribal innovations

  Kathy Hamilton, Paul Hewer · 2010 · Journal of Marketing Management

  This paper examines how social-networking sites create tribal communities around celebrity brands. The authors analyze online fan groups to understand how members develop shared identities, interact creatively, and critique marketing practices. They identify tribal innovations that emerge from the sense of belonging and togetherness within these emotional communities.

• The use of social network analysis in innovation studies: Mapping actors and technologies

  Tessa van der Valk, G. Gijsbers · 2010 · Innovation

  Social network analysis remains underused in innovation policy and management. This paper identifies three research themes where SNA creates value: collaboration networks, communication networks, and technology networks. The authors examine how applying SNA to these themes generates insights for policy development and organizational management, and outline directions for future research.

• Exploring Factors Influencing Incumbents' Response to Disruptive Innovation

  Christian Sandström, Mats Magnusson, Jan Jörnmark · 2009 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  This case study of Hasselblad examines how incumbent firm characteristics shape responses to disruptive innovation. The company's limited resources and niche positioning in professional cameras constrained its ability to experiment with digital technology without damaging its brand. Hasselblad pursued collaborations and hybrid products but ultimately survived the shift from analog to digital through acquisitions. The paper argues that incumbent characteristics significantly influence how firms navigate disruptive threats, and that medium-sized premium firms can survive through strategic partnerships and acquisitions.

• Diffusion of Regional Innovation Capabilities: Evidence from Italian Patent Data

  Francesco Quatraro · 2008 · Regional Studies

  Innovation capabilities spread faster in late-industrializing Italian regions than in early-industrializing ones, driven by learning dynamics within expanding propulsive sectors. The study uses patent data to track how manufacturing innovation diffuses regionally, showing that research and development investment and complementary economic structural changes accelerate this diffusion process.

• Aid allocation to fragile states: Absorptive capacity constraints

  Simon Feeny, Mark McGillivray · 2008 · Journal of International Development

  This paper examines aid effectiveness in fragile states, finding that some countries can absorb more aid than they receive while others receive more than they can efficiently use. The authors analyze absorptive capacity constraints based on per capita income growth and provide policy recommendations for improving aid allocation to fragile states.

• How research policy changes can affect the organization and productivity of public research institutes: An analysis within the italian national system of innovation

  Mario Coccia, Secondo Rolfo · 2007 · Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis Research and Practice

  Italy reorganized public research institutes through mergers and consolidation between 1999 and 2003 to boost efficiency and knowledge transfer. The policy backfired: larger merged institutes became less productive due to bureaucratic overhead, while smaller institutes remained more productive. The study shows that consolidation created scale diseconomies rather than the intended efficiency gains.

• How incremental innovation becomes disruptive: the case of technology convergence

  Fredrik Hacklin, V. Raurich, Christian Marxt · 2005

  This paper challenges the static distinction between incremental and disruptive innovation by showing how convergence of multiple well-established technologies can create disruptive effects. Using mobile telecommunications operators as a case study, the authors demonstrate that incremental improvements across separate technologies can combine to produce market disruption. They argue that understanding this convergence mechanism helps firms manage strategy and technology planning in uncertain environments where disruptive change emerges.

• Fixing Technology with Society: The Coproduction of Democratic Deficits and Responsible Innovation at the OECD and the European Commission

  Nina Frahm, Tess Doezema, Sebastian Pfotenhauer · 2021 · Science Technology & Human Values

  This paper examines how the OECD and European Commission have promoted 'Responsible Innovation' frameworks globally. The authors argue these institutions use a 'democratic deficit' narrative—claiming insufficient public participation in innovation governance—to justify their authority over innovation policy. This approach frames societal engagement as essential to technological adoption while reinforcing market-liberal governance structures.

• Mapping Europe’s institutional landscape for forest ecosystem service provision, innovations and governance

  Eeva Primmer, Liisa Varumo, Torsten Krause, Francesco Orsi, Davide Geneletti, Sara Brogaard, Ewert J. Aukes, Marco Ciolli, Carol M. Grossmann, Mónica Hernández‐Morcillo, Jutta Kister, Tatiana Kluvánková, Lasse Loft, Carolin Maier, Claas Meyer, Christian Schleyer, Martin Špaček, Carsten Mann · 2020 · Ecosystem Services

  This paper analyzes European forest policies across national strategies on forests, biodiversity, and bioeconomy to map how institutions govern ecosystem service provision. The researchers found that policies focus heavily on wood and bioenergy value chains, while neglecting non-wood products, cultural heritage, and recreation. Regulating ecosystem services lack sufficient policy attention and innovation support, despite forests' prominence in sustainability agendas. The institutional landscape shows significant gaps where new governance mechanisms and innovations could better promote ecosystem service provision.

• Open social innovation dynamics and impact: exploratory study of a fab lab network

  Thierry Rayna, Ludmila Striukova · 2019 · R and D Management

  Open social innovation through fab labs and makerspaces in Eastern Europe enables rapid local adaptation and social impact. A study of 170 fab labs in the CMIT network found that despite identical initial funding and rules, an open approach produced three distinct types—Education, Industry, and Residential—each tailored to local needs. This decentralized strategy delivered measurable social impact within years, outperforming top-down approaches. The research identifies key challenges social entrepreneurs face and proposes sustainability strategies.

• Online consulting in general practice: making the move from disruptive innovation to mainstream service

  Martin Marshall, Robina Shah, Helen Stokes-Lampard · 2018 · BMJ

  Online consulting in general practice represents a shift from experimental innovation to standard healthcare delivery. The authors argue that rigorous evaluation of these services is essential to maximize their benefits while minimizing potential risks, enabling the transition from disruptive innovation to mainstream adoption in primary care.

• Business Models for Open Data Ecosystem: Challenges and Motivations for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

  Fotis Kitsios, Nikolaos Papachristos, Maria Kamariotou · 2017

  Open data ecosystems bring together data providers, consumers, and service creators to develop new business opportunities. This study interviewed six ecosystem actors to understand their motivations, relationships, and business model needs. Actors recognize significant potential in open data but identify barriers preventing win-win conditions for all participants. The research reveals both strong motivations for engagement and critical obstacles requiring resolution to enable sustainable open data businesses.

• Diffusion Dynamics of Sustainable Innovation - Insights on Diffusion Patterns Based on the Analysis of 100 Sustainable Product and Service Innovations

  Klaus Fichter, Jens Clausen · 2016 · Journal of Innovation Management

  This study analyzes 100 sustainable product and service innovations to understand what drives their market adoption. The researchers identified five distinct diffusion patterns, each shaped by different factors, actors, and institutional conditions. The findings show that sustainable innovations follow varied adoption paths, and understanding these differences helps explain why some innovations succeed while others fail.

• Measuring triple‐helix synergy in the <scp>R</scp>ussian innovation systems at regional, provincial, and national levels

  Loet Leydesdorff, Evgeniy Perevodchikov, Alexander Uvarov · 2014 · Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology

  This paper measures innovation system synergy across Russian regions by analyzing half a million firms' data on size, technological knowledge, and location. Knowledge concentrates heavily in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. High-tech manufacturing disrupts regional coordination rather than enhancing it. Knowledge-intensive services, often state-affiliated, strengthen synergy in most federal districts and administrative centers, but Russia's economy remains largely non-knowledge-based outside Moscow.

• Governance of new product development and perceptions of responsible innovation in the financial sector: insights from an ethnographic case study

  Keren Asante, Richard Owen, Glenn Williamson · 2014 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  An ethnographic study of a global asset management company reveals that new product development follows a structured stage-gating governance model involving multiple internal and external actors. The company frames responsible innovation primarily through client needs and risk management—operational, legal, regulatory, and reputational. Staff perceive a cautious organizational culture that minimizes destructive outcomes. The stage-gating architecture provides a mechanism for embedding broader responsible innovation concepts.

• The democratizing effects of frugal innovation

  Hanna Nari Kahle, Anna Dubiel, Holger Ernst, Jaideep Prabhu · 2013 · Journal of Indian Business Research

  Frugal innovation in livelihood, education, infrastructure, and distribution networks strengthens democratization and state-building in countries with large base-of-pyramid populations. The paper argues that creating inclusive markets through low-cost innovations drives socio-economic development, which reinforces democratic institutions and government capacity. Multinational corporations can advance democratization by profitably serving poor populations.

• Coordination in innovation‐generating business networks – the case of Finnish Mobile TV development

  Paavo Ritala, Pia Hurmelinna‐Laukkanen, Satu Nätti · 2012 · Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing

  This study examines how coordination mechanisms evolve in innovation-generating business networks through a case study of Finnish Mobile TV development. The research finds that successful network coordination combines two distinct approaches: orchestration, which builds vision and social capital in early phases, and management, which coordinates activities closer to commercialization. The findings show how these mechanisms shift as networks develop.

• Social capital, internationalization and absorptive capacity: The electronics and ICT cluster of the Basque Country

  Jesús María Valdaliso Gago, Aitziber Elola, Mari José Aranguren, Santiago M. López García · 2011 · Entrepreneurship and Regional Development

  Social capital and internationalization strengthen how electronics and ICT clusters absorb and use external knowledge. The Basque Country's successful high-tech cluster demonstrates that social capital builds internal knowledge connections between firms, while internationalization creates external knowledge linkages. Together, these factors increase a cluster's absorptive capacity and sustain long-term growth in mature industrial regions.

• From regional innovation systems to local innovation systems: Evidence from Italian industrial districts

  Alessandro Muscio · 2006 · European Planning Studies

  Italian industrial districts function as independent local innovation systems rather than simply components of larger regional systems. The paper argues that districts' specific socio-economic characteristics create distinct innovation patterns that regional frameworks cannot fully explain. In Lombardy, multiple autonomous local innovation systems operate within the broader regional structure, demonstrating that innovation processes operate at multiple nested levels.

• Innovation, Networks and Plant Location: Some Evidence for Ireland

  Stephen Roper · 2001 · Regional Studies

  Networks significantly influence whether plants innovate and the success of their innovations across Irish regions. The study examined four area types—urban, urban-periphery, rural, and second centres—and found no evidence supporting the urban hierarchy model of innovation. This suggests Ireland's regional dispersal policies had minimal impact on innovation outcomes, though network-based development strategies show promise.

• Embedding responsible innovation within synthetic biology research and innovation: insights from a UK multi-disciplinary research centre

  Mario Pansera, Richard Owen, Darian Meacham, Vivienne Kuh · 2020 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  A UK synthetic biology research centre embedded responsible innovation practices into its operations from 2014 to 2019, moving beyond public engagement to include anticipation, reflexivity, and deliberation. The centre struggled to measure how these interventions changed scientists' daily practices and research outcomes. Success required strong leadership, institutional support, openness to change, and robust impact measurement mechanisms.

• Public procurement of innovations, diffusion and endogenous institutions

  Max Rolfstam, Wendy Phillips, Elmer Bakker · 2011 · International Journal of Public Sector Management

  Public procurement is an important innovation policy tool, but diffusion of procured innovations within organizations is often overlooked. This case study identifies internal institutional barriers that prevent innovations from spreading throughout public agencies after procurement. The authors show that redesigning these internal institutions is critical for successful diffusion, and argue that understanding public procurement requires attention to informal institutional coordination, not just formal procurement processes.

• Failed policies but institutional innovation through “layering” and “diffusion” in Spanish central administration

  Salvador Parrado · 2008 · International Journal of Public Sector Management

  Spanish central administration agencies achieved significant managerial innovation through incremental institutional changes—layering and diffusion—despite failed large-scale public administration reforms. Tax, social security, and property registry agencies became more managerial within a public-law-dominated state by accumulating small modifications rather than radical restructuring. These mechanisms explain how modest changes produce substantial organizational transformation.

• The Role of Action Research in the Investigation and Diffusion of Innovations in Health Care: The PRIDE Project

  Heather Waterman, Martin Marshall, Jenny Noble, Helen Davies, Kieran Walshe, Rod Sheaff, Glyn Elwyn · 2007 · Qualitative Health Research

  Action research effectively investigates and spreads healthcare innovations, particularly when adaptations are needed for different settings. The authors analyze a UK project to show that action research combines research with practical implementation and development, making it valuable for studying how innovations diffuse through health systems. However, the method remains underutilized in innovation research despite its strengths as a whole-systems approach.

• Exploring the Research Regarding Frugal Innovation and Business Sustainability through Bibliometric Analysis

  Adriana Dima, Alexandru-Mihai Bugheanu, Ruxandra Dinulescu, Ana-Mădălina Potcovaru, Constanta Alice Stefanescu, Irinel Marin · 2022 · Sustainability

  This bibliometric analysis examines 2,072 scientific documents on frugal innovation and business sustainability using Web of Science data and science mapping software. The research identifies growing international interest in how frugal innovation contributes to sustainable business practices and consumer behavior. The USA, Germany, England, the Netherlands, and India lead research activity, with European scholars most prominent. The analysis maps the field's intellectual structure, highlights key journals and authors, and identifies emerging research directions.

• Systematic literature review paper: the regional innovation system-university-science park nexus

  Thunyanun Theera-Nattapong, David Pickernell, Chris Simms · 2021 · The Journal of Technology Transfer

  Universities play nine distinct dynamic roles within regional innovation systems and science parks, operating across three relationship types: resource sharing with the RIS, brokerage between RIS and science parks, and commercialization with science parks. These roles span knowledge co-creation, acting as conduits, and relationship building, encompassing activities from networking and research collaboration to startup creation and technology transfer. University engagement directly affects science park innovation performance.

• Experimental networks for business model innovation: A way for incumbents to navigate sustainability transitions?

  Mats Engwall, Matti Kaulio, Emrah Karakaya, Maxim Miterev, Daniel Berlin · 2021 · Technovation

  Incumbent firms struggle to innovate business models during sustainability transitions due to unclear pathways forward. This paper examines three case studies of emerging technology projects and shows how cross-industry networks operating on limited timescales help organizations collaboratively explore new business models for major socio-technical changes. The research introduces the concept of experimental networks as a mechanism enabling incumbents to actively shape sustainability transitions through interorganizational collaboration.

• Challenges and Opportunities for Technology Transfer Networks in the Context of Open Innovation: Russian Experience

  Nadezhda Shmeleva, Leyla Gamidullaeva, Tatyana Tolstykh, Denis Lazarenko · 2021 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  This paper examines Russia's technology transfer networks through the lens of open innovation and ecosystem approaches. Universities serve as knowledge integrators connecting innovation actors across sectors. The authors synthesize concepts of open innovation, networks, and ecosystems to propose a prospective national technology transfer model for Russia that supports cross-sectoral collaboration and interdisciplinary innovation.

• Developing the Transformative Capacity of Social Innovation through Learning: A Conceptual Framework and Research Agenda for the Roles of Network Leadership

  Tim Strasser, Joop de Kraker, René Kemp · 2019 · Sustainability

  This paper develops a conceptual framework for understanding how learning processes and network leadership build transformative capacity in social innovation. The authors extend Transformative Social Innovation theory by defining transformative change across three institutional dimensions—depth, width, and length—and explain how different types of learning support this change. They outline network leadership roles in facilitating learning across multiple levels and propose a research agenda for empirically testing these relationships in sustainability contexts.

• Social innovations in the German energy transition: an attempt to use the heuristics of the multi-level perspective of transitions to analyze the diffusion process of social innovations

  Rick Hölsgens, Stephanie Lübke, Marco Hasselkuß · 2018 · Energy Sustainability and Society

  This paper examines whether the multi-level perspective framework, commonly used to analyze technological transitions, can explain how social innovations spread in Germany's energy transition. The authors studied five social innovation projects in North Rhine-Westphalia and found that the framework works only for transformative social innovations that challenge existing systems, not for incremental improvements. The multi-level perspective proves useful for understanding diffusion barriers and drivers when social innovations compete with or reshape established regimes.

• Cross-border regional innovation systems: conceptual backgrounds, empirical evidence and policy implications

  Teemu Makkonen, Stephan Rohde · 2016 · European Planning Studies

  Cross-border regional innovation systems (CBRIS) have been developed as a theoretical framework for analyzing innovation across borders, but empirical research lags far behind. The authors identify a significant gap between conceptual advances and actual evidence, showing that policy recommendations rest on weak empirical foundations. They call for rigorous empirical validation of CBRIS theory and evaluation of how border-region policies based on this framework actually perform in practice.

• Oops, I did it again! Knowledge leaks in open innovation networks with start-ups

  Fernando G. Alberti, Emanuele Pizzurno · 2016 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  Start-ups in open innovation networks experience unintended knowledge leaks when collaborating with larger, unequal partners. Using social network analysis and case studies in an Italian aerospace cluster, the authors demonstrate that knowledge flows—both intentional and accidental—occur across different knowledge types. The research warns managers and policymakers that start-ups' eagerness to participate may expose them to knowledge loss, while also showing how open innovation benefits from diverse collaborations.

• Regional conditions and innovation in Russia: the impact of foreign direct investment and absorptive capacity

  Natalya Smith, Ekaterina Thomas · 2016 · Regional Studies

  This study examines how foreign direct investment and absorptive capacity drive regional innovation across Russia from 1997 to 2011, using patent applications and new technology development as measures. The research finds that FDI significantly boosts innovation in Russian regions. Regions with higher human capital benefit more from FDI spillovers, though human capital alone negatively affects innovation when absorptive capacity is included in the analysis.

• Managing Sustainable Innovation with a User Community Toolkit: The Case of the Video Game<i><scp>T</scp>rackmania</i>

  Guy Parmentier, Romain Gandia · 2013 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  A video game company used a toolkit connected to its user community to sustain innovation over time. The toolkit enabled users to create content and participate in value creation, acting as a boundary management tool between the firm and community. The study identifies four approaches for managing sustainable innovation through user toolkits, showing that structured community participation drives long-term innovation capacity beyond short-term collaboration benefits.

• Institutional Conditions and Innovation Systems: On the Impact of Regional Policy on Firms in Different Sectors

  Jerker Moodysson, Elena Zukauskaite · 2012 · Regional Studies

  Regional policies succeed or fail based on whether firms internalize and adopt them in their innovation practices. This study examines how institutions shape innovation activities across life science, media, and food sectors in Scania, Sweden. The research shows that effective regional policy doesn't just create external incentives—it must influence how organizations and individuals actually interact and organize their innovation work together.

• National culture, regulation and country interaction effects on the association of environmental management systems with environmentally beneficial innovation

  Marcus Wagner · 2009 · Business Strategy and the Environment

  Environmental management systems boost process innovations in firms, but this effect varies significantly by country. The study of nine European nations reveals that national culture and regulatory frameworks moderate whether firms implementing these systems actually develop environmental innovations. Management systems show no consistent link to product innovations across countries.

• The diffusion of electronic service delivery innovations in dutch E-policing: The case of digital warning systems

  Evelien Korteland, Victor Bekkers · 2008 · Public Management Review

  Dutch police forces adopted SMS-alert digital warning systems at different rates based on how they interpreted the innovation's value. The study reveals that police organizations attached functional meanings (operational efficiency), political meanings (strategic advantage), and institutional meanings (organizational fit) to the technology. Diffusion policies and strategies significantly influenced adoption patterns, a factor often overlooked in innovation research.

• Exploring the Antecedents of Potential Absorptive Capacity and Its Impact on Innovation Performance

  Andréa Fosfuri, Josep A. Tribó · 2008 · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas)

  This study examines what builds a firm's potential absorptive capacity—the ability to identify and assimilate external knowledge. Using data from 2,464 Spanish innovative firms, the authors find that R&D cooperation, external knowledge acquisition, and experience with knowledge search are key drivers. Firms invest more in building this capacity during major internal changes. The research shows that potential absorptive capacity creates competitive advantage in innovation when firms have strong internal knowledge flows.

• The Development and Diffusion of Radical Technological Innovation: The Role of Bus Demonstration Projects in Commercializing Fuel Cell Technology

  Paul Harborne, Chris Hendry, James Brown · 2007 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  Governments in North America, Europe, and Japan have funded demonstration projects to commercialize fuel cell bus technology as part of climate change strategies. This paper examines how various stakeholders—government agencies, automotive developers, and industry players—interact through these projects. The authors find that demonstration projects play a crucial role in technology adoption, but conflicting objectives among industry participants and complex government-developer relationships significantly hinder progress toward widespread commercialization.

• Knowledge processing and ecosystem co-creation for process innovation: Managing joint knowledge processing in process innovation projects

  David Sjödin · 2018 · International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal

  Firms pursuing process innovation must manage knowledge sharing across ecosystems of suppliers and customers. This study of nine industrial firms identifies three technological challenges—complexity, novelty, and customization—that create knowledge-processing demands. The research shows that joint problem-solving, open communication, and end-user involvement enable ecosystem partners to navigate these demands successfully. Procurement strategies that emphasize contracting and relationship development facilitate effective knowledge processing across partners.

• Orchestration Roles to Facilitate Networked Innovation in a Healthcare Ecosystem

  Minna Pikkarainen, Mari Ervasti, Pia Hurmelinna‐Laukkanen, Satu Nätti · 2017 · Technology Innovation Management Review

  Healthcare systems need innovation to address rising costs and digitalization demands. This paper identifies orchestration roles that facilitate networked innovation within healthcare ecosystems. The authors examine how different actors coordinate to develop more effective, cost-efficient care models and personalized healthcare solutions through connected health technologies.

• Subsistence over symbolism: the role of transnational municipal networks on cities’ climate policy innovation and adoption

  Kaveh Rashidi, Anthony Patt · 2017 · Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change

  City governments that join transnational municipal networks adopt significantly more climate mitigation policies than those outside such networks. The study analyzed global data on urban environmental policy adoption and found network membership matters, with differences between networks suggesting that tailored services drive results. Networks enable cities to adopt climate policies independently when international commitments lack local enforcement, while considering co-benefits optimizes global climate strategies.

• Construction innovation diffusion in the Russian Federation

  Emiliya Suprun, Rodney A. Stewart · 2015 · Construction Innovation

  The Russian construction industry lags in innovation adoption due to financial constraints and poor legislation. A survey of 52 industry experts identified economic difficulties and regulatory barriers as the primary obstacles to innovation diffusion. The study recommends financial incentives, legislative reform, and alternative procurement methods as key strategies to accelerate innovation adoption across building and infrastructure sectors.

• Managing BYOD: how do organizations incorporate user-driven IT innovations?

  Aurélie Leclercq‐Vandelannoitte · 2015 · Information Technology and People

  Organizations respond to employees bringing personal devices to work through three distinct strategies: induction, normalization, and regulation. These responses shape how companies incorporate employee-driven IT innovations into their operations. The study reveals that reversed adoption patterns—where employees drive technology use rather than organizations—create significant organizational change opportunities if managed strategically.

• Living Labs as Open Innovation Networks - Networks, Roles and Innovation Outcomes

  Seppo Leminen · 2015 · Aaltodoc (Aalto University)

  Living labs organize innovation by bringing together users and stakeholders in real-life environments to address socio-economic and technological challenges. This study identifies seven stakeholder roles and four role patterns in living labs, showing that successful collaboration and innovation outcomes occur without strict management objectives. Network structures—centralized, decentralized, and distributed—support different innovation types. The research provides frameworks for managers to understand and develop open innovation networks.

• The Global Research-and-Development Network and Its Effect on Innovation

  Changsu Kim, Jong‐Hun Park · 2010 · Journal of International Marketing

  This study examines how pharmaceutical firms' position in global research-and-development networks affects innovation impact. The research finds that a firm's scientific knowledge intensity enhances innovation when combined with strong network resources. International gatekeepers bridging U.S., Japanese, and European firms strengthen this relationship. The study demonstrates that innovation succeeds when internal research capability and external network connections work together.

• Organization-wide adoption of computerized provider order entry systems: a study based on diffusion of innovations theory

  Bahlol Rahimi, Toomas Timpka, Vivian Vimarlund, Srinivas Uppugunduri, Mikael Svensson · 2009 · BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making

  Computerized provider order entry systems were adopted unevenly across healthcare staff. Nurses reported better experiences and perceived greater advantages than physicians, who found the systems poorly adapted to their work and wanted to return to paper-based methods. The study reveals that successful adoption requires designs offering substantial additional benefits beyond error reduction, continuous user feedback collection, and better communication about system advantages to healthcare workers.

• Innovation Diffusion Processes: Concepts, Models, and Predictions

  Mariangela Guidolin, Piero Manfredi · 2022 · Annual Review of Statistics and Its Application

  This paper reviews mathematical models of how innovations spread through societies, integrating marketing and epidemiological approaches. The authors examine barriers to diffusion, the role of word-of-mouth communication, and how policy interventions can promote beneficial innovations while preventing harmful ones. They use deterministic models based on differential equations to analyze critical innovations essential for human progress.

• Digital revolution for the agroecological transition of food systems: A responsible research and innovation perspective

  Véronique Bellon-Maurel, Évelyne Lutton, Pierre Bisquert, Ludovic Brossard, Stéphanie Chambaron, Pierre Labarthe, Philippe Lagacherie, François Martignac, Jérôme Molénat, Nicolas Parisey, Sébastien Picault, Isabelle Piot‐Lepetit, Isabelle Veissier · 2022 · Agricultural Systems

  Digital technologies in agriculture have focused on precision farming for large-scale conventional systems. This paper argues that digital agriculture can instead accelerate agroecological transitions by redirecting research toward new data sources, processing methods, and connectivity. Using responsible research and innovation principles, an interdisciplinary team developed a research agenda prioritizing digitalization that empowers farmers, manages territories as commons, and supports local food systems while addressing tensions between rationalization and farming diversity.

• Urban robotics and responsible urban innovation

  Michael Nagenborg · 2018 · Ethics and Information Technology

  This paper examines how robots can be responsibly integrated into urban environments. The author argues for designing robots that preserve desirable qualities of city life and proposes that urban robotics should address city-specific challenges through participatory approaches involving stakeholders. The paper suggests architects, urban designers, and planners must collaborate to address spatial issues created by robots in cities.

• Staging aesthetic disruption through design methods for service innovation

  Katarina Wetter‐Edman, Josina Vink, Johan Blomkvist · 2017 · Design Studies

  Design methods trigger service innovation by creating aesthetic disruption—sensory experiences that challenge participants' assumptions and destabilize their habitual behaviors. The paper argues that bodily experience, not just cognitive processes, drives meaningful change. By staging these disruptions through design methods, organizations can help actors break free from existing institutional constraints and generate genuine service innovation.

• Evolutionary Economics, Responsible Innovation and Demand: Making a Case for the Role of Consumers

  Michael P. Schlaile, Matthias Mueller, Michael Schramm, Andreas Pyka · 2017 · Philosophy of Management

  This paper argues that consumer behavior fundamentally shapes responsible innovation. Using evolutionary economics and an agent-based model, the authors show that consumers' diverse preferences and limited rationality drive how innovations spread and whether they become responsible. The model represents products across multiple characteristics beyond price and quality, revealing that consumer heterogeneity directly influences which innovations succeed in markets.

• User voice and complaints as drivers of innovation in public services

  Richard Simmons, Carol Brennan · 2016 · Public Management Review

  User complaints and feedback drive innovation in public services when properly harnessed. The paper develops a framework showing how user voice prompts service improvements and identifies critical success factors for turning consumer knowledge into effective innovation. Six real-world examples demonstrate that while user input offers valuable insights for better service delivery, organizations often fail to fully develop these mechanisms.

• Frugal innovation, sustainable innovation, reverse innovation: why do they look alike? Why are they different?

  Christian Le Bas · 2016 · Journal of Innovation Economics & Management

  This paper compares three types of innovation: frugal, sustainable, and reverse innovation. The author argues these are distinct concepts with different objectives, firm strategies, and macroeconomic effects. Frugal innovation represents a new technological paradigm, sustainable innovation directs efforts toward social and environmental needs, and reverse innovation reflects shifting global knowledge flows. The paper consolidates fragmented literature on these innovation types.

• Making Decisions on Innovation: Meetings or Networks?

  John K. Christiansen, Claus J. Varnes · 2007 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  This paper challenges the traditional view that innovation decisions happen in formal gate and portfolio meetings. Through two case studies, the authors show that actual decision-making occurs through informal networks of negotiations and micro-decisions among project managers, team members, and other actors. Official meetings function as checkpoints where approvals are sought rather than decisions made. Mandatory templates and documents serve as boundary objects that create new control points in the innovation process.

• The dynamic contribution of innovation ecosystems to schumpeterian firms: A multi-level analysis

  David B. Audretsch, Maksim Belitski, Maribel Guerrero · 2022 · Journal of Business Research

  This study examines how proximity to innovation ecosystem agents affects Schumpeterian firms' innovation performance. Using firm-level data from 2002–2014 covering 3,074 observations, the authors apply knowledge spillover theory to show that geographical closeness to ecosystem agents drives innovation outcomes. The research clarifies how firm size moderates these effects and identifies specific mechanisms through which knowledge spillovers enhance firm performance.

• The Risk of Dissolution of Sustainable Innovation Ecosystems in Times of Crisis: The Electric Vehicle during the COVID-19 Pandemic

  Manel Arribas-Ibar, Petra A. Nylund, Alexander Brem · 2021 · Sustainability

  The paper examines how the electric vehicle ecosystem evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic and identifies factors that enable ecosystem growth despite crises. The authors argue that disruptions like pandemics can create opportunities for sustainable innovations to break through by shifting established behavioral patterns. They assess whether the EV sector capitalized on pandemic-driven changes to accelerate the transition from internal combustion engines to green mobility.

• Exploring Mission-Oriented Innovation Ecosystems for Sustainability: Towards a Literature-Based Typology

  Malte Jütting · 2020 · Sustainability

  This paper develops a typology of mission-oriented innovation ecosystems designed to address sustainability challenges. By analyzing literature and using bibliometric methods, the author finds that ecosystems vary significantly depending on their mission type, with differences in which actors participate and their roles throughout innovation processes. The research emphasizes the state's critical role in driving system-level transformations, the necessity of civil society participation, and the need for research organizations to adapt to new requirements.

• Circular Economy in the Triple Helix of Innovation Systems

  Markku Anttonen, Minna Lammi, Juri Mykkänen, Petteri Repo · 2018 · Sustainability

  This paper examines how industry, government, and universities conceptualize circular economy within innovation systems. Using natural language processing, the authors find that while each sector has distinct priorities—industry focuses on global business opportunities, government on waste-related policies and economic growth, and universities on production and environmental issues—they share limited consensus around materials, products, and creating resources from waste. This consensus space, the authors argue, can drive systemic innovation if strengthened across all three sectors.

• Managing Innovation Ecosystems to Create and Capture Value in ICT Industries

  Jarkko Pellikka, Timo Ali-Vehmas · 2016 · Technology Innovation Management Review

  Organizations seeking growth through innovation must understand innovation dynamics, develop clear strategies, and design effective processes. Success requires managing innovation ecosystems and collaborating with external partners. The paper examines how companies—both large and small—can create and capture value by orchestrating their innovation environments strategically.

• Modelling innovation support systems for regional development – analysis of cluster structures in innovation in Portugal

  Eric Vaz, Teresa de Noronha, Purificación Vicente‐Galindo, Peter Nijkamp · 2014 · Entrepreneurship and Regional Development

  This paper analyzes innovation support systems across three Portuguese regions by mapping institutional innovation profiles and regional clustering patterns. Using principal coordinates analysis and Logistic Biplot methods, the authors created a typology of innovation structures showing that institutional profiles and regional innovation patterns are region-specific. The findings demonstrate significant differences in how regions organize their innovation support, offering practical tools for policymakers and businesses to understand and design regional innovation systems.

• Links between Successful Innovation Diffusion and Stakeholder Engagement

  Kristian Widén, Stefan Olander, Brian Atkin · 2013 · Journal of Management in Engineering

  Stakeholder engagement significantly affects whether innovations succeed and spread. The authors studied 19 construction innovation projects and found that structured, planned engagement with key stakeholders before implementation is essential for successful innovation diffusion. Without systematic stakeholder involvement and clear communication strategies, innovation efforts face unpredictable obstacles and higher failure rates.

• No‐tillage farming: co‐creation of innovation through network building

  Flurina Schneider, David Steiger, Thomas Ledermann, P. S. Fry, Stephan Rist · 2010 · Land Degradation and Development

  No-tillage farming development in Switzerland involves complex networks of farmers, experts, scientists, and equipment working together to create innovation. Despite economic and environmental benefits, no-tillage spreads slowly because it requires radical transformations in farm equipment, work practices, institutional arrangements, and farmers' professional identities. Policy works best as a mediator facilitating these reciprocal translations rather than imposing top-down directives.

• The impact of market size and users’ sophistication on innovation: the patterns of demand

  Marco Guerzoni · 2009 · Economics of Innovation and New Technology

  This paper develops a theoretical model showing how demand drives innovation through two key factors: market size and user sophistication. The author argues that these conditions create firm incentives to innovate and proposes a taxonomy of industries based on these demand characteristics. The work provides analytical foundations for demand-pull innovation theory.

• The first business computer: a case study in user-driven innovation

  F. Land · 2000 · IEEE Annals of the History of Computing

  In 1949, J. Lyons & Co., a British catering and food-manufacturing company, deployed the world's first business computer application. The company designed and built its own computer specifically for business data processing. This case study examines why Lyons was uniquely positioned to pioneer this innovation and traces how their effort launched the information revolution.

• Global buyer–supplier networks and innovation: The role of technological distance and technological breadth

  Shubhobrata Palit, Manpreet Hora, Soumen Ghosh · 2022 · Journal of Operations Management

  Firms that source from global suppliers with diverse technological capabilities innovate more effectively, but only when technological distance between buyer and supplier remains manageable. The study analyzes 246 firms and their supplier networks, finding that broad supplier knowledge boosts innovation while excessive technological gaps hinder it. Global sourcing itself improves innovation, though this benefit diminishes when suppliers operate in distant technological domains.

• Responsible Leadership Competencies in leaders around the world: Assessing stakeholder engagement, ethics and values, systems thinking and innovation competencies in leaders around the world

  Katrin Muff, Coralie Delacoste, Thomas Dyllick · 2021 · Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management

  This study assesses responsible leadership competencies across 9,566 participants in 122 countries, measuring stakeholder engagement, ethics, systems thinking, and innovation. Self-awareness emerges as central to responsible leadership. Higher education correlates with better performance, and African region participants outperform others. Surprisingly, sustainability affinity doesn't improve scores, and executives show no improvement after leadership courses, while undergraduate students do.

• A retrospective analysis of responsible innovation for low-technology innovation in the Global South

  Sarah Hartley, Carmen McLeod, Mike Clifford, Sarah Jewitt, Charlotte Ray · 2019 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  Low-technology innovation in the Global South receives insufficient attention despite its potential to address global challenges. This retrospective analysis examines how researchers applied responsible innovation frameworks to low-technology projects in development contexts. The study finds that responsible innovation can facilitate stakeholder engagement and reflection, but remains difficult to implement in practice. A key barrier emerges: deficit-based public engagement models undermine inclusive participation. Notably, low-technology innovators face the same engagement challenges as high-technology developers when attempting to give end-users meaningful input into innovations that affect them.

• The impact of social networks on SMEs’ innovation potential

  Alexandra Ioanid, Dana Corina Deselnicu, Gheorghe Militaru · 2018 · Procedia Manufacturing

  Social networks change how businesses operate, but their role in innovation remains understudied. This exploratory study examines whether Romanian SMEs recognize that social media interactions with customers, suppliers, and academics boost innovation potential. The research finds that Romanian businesses primarily use social networks for marketing rather than deliberately engaging external parties in innovation processes.

• A critical hermeneutic reflection on the paradigm-level assumptions underlying responsible innovation

  Job Timmermans, Vincent Blok · 2018 · Synthese

  This paper examines the underlying assumptions in responsible innovation theory by analyzing paradigm-level beliefs across different RI frameworks. The authors identify how current RI approaches implicitly carry ontological and axiological assumptions that distance them from the dominant techno-economic innovation paradigm. They argue that implementing responsible innovation requires awareness of these deep-level paradigmatic barriers and enablers to achieve meaningful change in research and innovation practices.

• Diffusion of Innovations in Dynamic Networks

  Charlotte C. Greenan · 2014 · Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A (Statistics in Society)

  This paper develops a statistical model that simultaneously tracks how social networks evolve and how innovations spread through them. The model treats network changes and adoption decisions as interdependent processes, using a proportional hazards framework. The authors test their approach on adolescent cannabis use patterns and validate it through simulations.

• Social Capital and Effective Innovation in Industrial Districts: Dual Effect of Absorptive Capacity

  Gloria Parra‐Requena, María José Ruiz‐Ortega, Pedro Manuel García Villaverde · 2013 · Industry and Innovation

  This study examines how firms in Spanish footwear industrial districts convert social capital into effective innovation. The research finds that absorptive capacity—specifically the ability to identify and combine external knowledge—moderates this relationship. Firms with strong identification capabilities better acquire novel knowledge from external networks, while combinative capabilities strengthen that knowledge into successful innovations.

• Organizing Inter- and Intra-Firm Networks: What is the Impact on Innovation Performance?

  Massimo G. Colombo, Keld Laursen, Mats Magnusson, Cristina Rossi‐Lamastra · 2011 · Industry and Innovation

  This paper examines how firms organize their internal and external networks to improve innovation performance. The authors analyze the structural arrangements of inter-firm collaborations and intra-firm knowledge flows, demonstrating that network organization significantly affects a firm's ability to innovate. The findings show that deliberate network structuring enhances innovation outcomes by facilitating knowledge exchange and reducing coordination costs.

• With or Without Clusters: Facilitating Innovation through a Differentiated and Combined Network Approach

  Evert‐Jan Visser, Oedzge Atzema · 2008 · European Planning Studies

  European regions need not rely on cluster policies to drive innovation. Instead, a differentiated network approach combining global pipelines, local buzz, and standalone firm strategies proves more efficient, especially in non-cluster regions. Private and semi-public brokers mediate between these strategies, requiring region-specific knowledge of sectors, institutions, and culture. Public policy should recruit brokers, fund startups, and monitor performance within decentralized, multi-level innovation systems tailored to local conditions.

• Absorptive capacity and interpretation system's impact when ‘going green’: an empirical study of ford, volvo cars and toyota

  Mats Williander · 2006 · Business Strategy and the Environment

  Three automotive companies—Ford, Volvo, and Toyota—developed greener cars with lower fuel consumption. The study found that companies with an 'enacting' approach to environmental interpretation, actively shaping market demand, succeeded better than those with a 'discovering' approach that passively responded to existing demand. Companies using discovery mode needed to combine engineering expertise with consumer psychology insights to profitably market environmental benefits.

• Italy and European spatial policies: polycentrism, urban networks and local innovation practices1

  Francesca Governa, Carlo Salone · 2005 · European Planning Studies

  Italian spatial policies increasingly adopt European principles of polycentrism and networking to organize urban and territorial development. The paper examines how these concepts translate from European policy frameworks into Italian practice, analyzing operational examples of network-based approaches. It distinguishes between different meanings of networking—from relationships between cities to local collective action mechanisms—and assesses their empirical and political relevance for Italian territorial organization.

• Factors for innovation ecosystem frameworks: Comprehensive organizational aspects for evolution

  José da Silva Rabelo Neto, Cláudia Figueiredo, Bárbara Coelho Gabriel, Robertt Valente · 2024 · Technological Forecasting and Social Change

  This paper identifies organizational factors essential for developing innovation ecosystems beyond just scientific and technological elements. The authors review literature to isolate key factors including organizational actors, funding mechanisms, governance, human capital, and regional culture. They argue that regions must understand their own inherent factors rather than copying external models, and that effective ecosystem evolution requires attention to collaboration, relationships, and social behavioral aspects alongside institutional structures.

• A Conceptual Framework for Developing of Regional Innovation Ecosystems

  Iryna Pidorycheva, Hanna Shevtsova, Valentina Antonyuk, Nataliia Shvets, Hanna Pchelynska · 2020 · European Journal of Sustainable Development

  This paper develops a conceptual framework for regional innovation ecosystems in Ukraine and the EU, defining key dimensions including ecosystem goals, actors, environment, and relationships. The authors identify innovation hotspots concentrated in three EU macro-clusters and propose using Ukraine's existing regional research centers as institutional support tools. They recommend establishing regional innovation councils at NUTS 2 level to coordinate ecosystem development.

• Modified 2016 American College of Rheumatology Fibromyalgia Criteria, the Analgesic, Anesthetic, and Addiction Clinical Trial Translations Innovations Opportunities and Networks–American Pain Society Pain Taxonomy, and the Prevalence of Fibromyalgia

  Winfried Häuser, Elmar Brähler, Jacob N. Ablin, Frederick Wolfe · 2020 · Arthritis Care & Research

  This paper is not about rural innovation. It reports on fibromyalgia prevalence in the German general population using two diagnostic criteria sets, finding that AAPT criteria identify 73% more cases than the 2016 ACR criteria, though with lower symptom severity. The study compares diagnostic accuracy and clinical characteristics between the two approaches.

• How Firm Performs Under Stakeholder Pressure: Unpacking the Role of Absorptive Capacity and Innovation Capability

  Sanjay Kumar Singh, Manlio Del Giudice, Melita Nicotra, Fabio Fiano · 2020 · IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

  Stakeholder pressure drives small and medium-sized enterprises to develop absorptive capacity—the ability to learn and integrate new knowledge—which in turn builds innovation capability. The study of 291 manufacturing SMEs shows that absorptive capacity mediates how stakeholder pressure influences innovation capability, and innovation capability mediates how absorptive capacity affects firm performance. This chain demonstrates that managing external pressure through learning capacity directly improves business outcomes.

• Digital platforms and responsible innovation: expanding value sensitive design to overcome ontological uncertainty

  Mark de Reuver, Aimee van Wynsberghe, Marijn Janssen, Ibo van de Poel · 2020 · Ethics and Information Technology

  Digital platforms create unpredictable value impacts that traditional design methods cannot anticipate. The authors expand value sensitive design to handle ontological uncertainty—situations where even complete information cannot predict how users will actually employ platforms. They propose extending design across a platform's entire lifecycle, adding reflexive learning about which values matter, and introducing moral sandboxing and prototyping tools to navigate this uncertainty.

• Grassroots Social Innovation for Human Development: An Analysis of Alternative Food Networks in the City of Valencia (Spain)

  Victoria Pellicer-Sifres, Sergio Belda‐Miquel, Aurora López-Fogués, Alejandra Boni Aristizábal · 2017 · Journal of Human Development and Capabilities

  This paper examines organic food buying groups in Valencia, Spain, to understand how grassroots social innovation contributes to human development. The authors combine social innovation, grassroots innovation, and capability approach frameworks to create a new analytical model. Their analysis identifies key elements that bottom-up food initiatives must include—such as agent involvement, clear purposes, enabling drivers, and inclusive processes—to effectively advance human development and social transformation.

• Generating Democratic Legitimacy through Deliberative Innovations: The Role of Embeddedness and Disruptiveness

  Didier Caluwaerts, Min Reuchamps · 2016 · Representation

  Deliberative innovations—structured public participation events—can strengthen democratic legitimacy only when properly embedded in existing institutions. This study compares four deliberative events across Europe and Canada, finding that institutional integration significantly affects legitimacy outcomes, while a deliberative process's disruptive potential has no bearing on its legitimacy claims.

• Regional Horizontal Networks within the SME Agri-Food Sector: An Innovation and Social Network Perspective

  Maura McAdam, Rodney McAdam, Adele Dunn, Clare McCall · 2015 · Regional Studies

  Regional horizontal networks of small and medium-sized agri-food businesses develop innovative capability through distinct life cycle stages, each requiring different strategies for knowledge exchange. The study of 11 regional networks within the Slow Food Network reveals that successful innovation depends on balancing exploratory and exploitative learning approaches as network dynamics shift over time.

• Absorptive capacity and network orchestration in innovation communities – promoting service innovation

  Satu Nätti, Pia Hurmelinna‐Laukkanen, Wesley J. Johnston · 2014 · Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing

  Service innovation increasingly happens in loosely coupled networks called innovation communities. This paper shows that orchestrating these communities requires discrete guidance tailored to services' unique characteristics. The research identifies how orchestration mechanisms and contingency factors together build absorptive capacity—the network's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new knowledge—enabling service innovation. Managing networks demands rethinking traditional innovation management approaches.

• TRANSFORMING ECOSYSTEM RELATIONSHIPS IN DIGITAL INNOVATION

  Lisen Selander, Ola Henfridsson, Fredrik Svahn · 2010 · Journal of the Association for Information Systems

  This paper examines how firms transform their innovation ecosystem relationships to adopt open innovation models. Using Sony Ericsson's eight-year effort to increase external contributions in mobile device development, the authors identify five value competitions where the company's ambitions clashed with platform owners, operators, and competitors. The research shows that ecosystem transformation involves inherent tensions between competing values, and these tensions actually drive the formation of new ecosystem relationships.

• Horizontal and Vertical Networks for Innovation in the Traditional Food Sector

  Xavier Gellynck, Bianka Kühne · 2010 · International journal on food system dynamics

  Innovation in traditional food sectors occurs through networks rather than individual firms. This study examined vertical networks (same supply chain) and horizontal networks (competing firms) across Belgium, Hungary, and Italy in beer, cheese, ham, sausage, and paprika production. Both network types exist but face challenges: vertical networks struggle with trust issues despite quality schemes, while horizontal networks work better with producer consortiums but suffer from competition. Firms innovate mainly in packaging and form, not core products. Successful small firms use networks to share knowledge, information, and resources, overcoming barriers like lack of trust, skills, and financial resources.

• Comparative capacities of the pig colon and duodenum for luminal iron absorption

  François Blachier, P. Vaugelade, Véronique Robert, Bertille Kibangou, François Canonne‐Hergaux, Serge Delpal, F. Bureau, Hervé M. Blottière, Dominique Bouglé · 2007 · Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology

  This study compared iron absorption capacity between the small intestine (duodenum) and large intestine (colon) using a pig model. The colon absorbed only about 14% as much iron as the duodenum, despite expressing iron-transport proteins. Colonocytes showed lower accumulation of iron and reduced expression of absorption-related proteins compared to duodenal cells, though they remained capable of transferring iron to blood.

• Innovation in chains and networks

  S.W.F. Omta · 2002 · Journal on Chain and Network Science

  This editorial outlines a theoretical framework for studying innovation within supply chains and networks. The author proposes building an international collaborative research center at Wageningen to advance understanding of how innovation occurs across interconnected organizations and systems, inviting research groups worldwide to participate in cooperative investigations.

• The effects of entrepreneurial ecosystems, knowledge management capabilities, and knowledge spillovers on international open innovation

  João J. Ferreira, Cristina Fernandes, Pedro Mota Veiga, Lawrence Dooley · 2022 · R and D Management

  This study analyzes how entrepreneurial ecosystems, knowledge management capabilities, and knowledge spillovers influence international open innovation collaborations. Using data from nearly 99,000 firms across 15 EU countries, the research finds that knowledge spillovers directly boost open innovation engagement. Knowledge management capabilities mediate this relationship, while entrepreneurial ecosystems strengthen the link between firm capabilities and innovation outcomes. Strong ecosystems enhance firms' knowledge management and foster spillovers within their networks.

• Constraint-Based Thinking: A Structured Approach for Developing Frugal Innovations

  Nivedita Agarwal, Julia Oehler, Alexander Brem · 2021 · IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

  This paper introduces constraint-based thinking as a structured method for developing frugal innovations. The approach systematically identifies constraints, analyzes their root causes, maps causes to product features, and develops minimal viable products. Using medical device industry cases, the authors show how constraints become opportunities for innovation, providing a practical framework companies and researchers can use to create frugal solutions.

• Can we learn from hidden mistakes? Self-fulfilling prophecy and responsible neuroprognostic innovation

  Mayli Mertens, Owen C. King, Michel J. A. M. van Putten, Marianne Boenink · 2021 · Journal of Medical Ethics

  When doctors predict poor outcomes for comatose patients and withdraw life support based on that prediction, they create a self-fulfilling prophecy that prevents learning. The patient dies regardless, so doctors cannot determine if their original prediction was correct or incorrect. This epistemic problem allows false positives to persist undetected in prognostic tests, distorting research on new neuroprognostication techniques and amplifying bias toward early treatment withdrawal. The authors propose guidelines to help researchers mitigate these learning obstacles and develop more responsible innovations.

• Evolution and structure of technological systems - An innovation output network

  Josef Taalbi · 2020 · Research Policy

  This study maps how innovations spread across Swedish industries from 1970 to 2013, revealing that supply-and-use networks predict 30% of innovation patterns. The innovation network forms hierarchical structures with industry hubs creating tightly connected communities. Historical technological linkages and proximity strongly shape which industries innovate together, more so than skill or knowledge similarities alone. Innovations emerge from synergistic communities driven by technological requirements and imbalances rather than simple economic interdependencies.

• Digital innovation evaluation: user perceptions of innovation readiness, digital confidence, innovation adoption, user experience and behaviour change

  Tim Benson · 2019 · BMJ Health & Care Informatics

  This paper develops short user-reported measures to assess healthcare innovation adoption by evaluating user perceptions of capability, opportunity, and motivation for behavior change. The measures map onto existing frameworks for understanding why health innovations succeed or fail at scale. These tools help predict whether digital health innovations will spread successfully across health systems.

• Managing Strategic Partnerships with Universities in Innovation Ecosystems: A Research Agenda

  Giovanni Schiuma, Daniela Carlucci · 2018 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  This paper proposes a research framework for university-company partnerships in innovation ecosystems. It identifies four key dimensions: entrepreneurial learning network dynamics, university organizational structures supporting innovation, company capacity for successful partnerships, and tools for designing and assessing collaborative initiatives. The framework helps explain how strategic partnerships develop entrepreneurial and innovative capabilities in both academic and business organizations.

• Knowledge Processes, Absorptive Capacity and Innovation: A Mediation Analysis

  Ví­tor Costa, Samuel Monteiro · 2016 · Knowledge and Process Management

  Knowledge creation and absorptive capacity mediate how companies convert external knowledge into innovation. The study of 111 industrial organizations found that internal knowledge sharing drives innovation primarily through knowledge creation, while external knowledge acquisition strengthens absorptive capacity and internal sharing. Absorptive capacity itself does not directly boost innovation. Companies should prioritize creating environments where employees share ideas and develop solutions together.

• The preferences of users of electronic medical records in hospitals: quantifying the relative importance of barriers and facilitators of an innovation

  Marjolijn HL Struik, Ferry Koster, Albertine J. Schuit, Rutger Nugteren, Jorien Veldwijk, Mattijs Lambooij · 2014 · Implementation Science

  Hospital nurses and physicians prioritize different features when adopting electronic medical records. Both groups value flexible interfaces most highly, but nurses prioritize departmental support and performance feedback, while physicians prioritize decision support functionality. Current EMR systems inadequately meet user needs, suggesting hospitals should tailor implementation strategies to different professional groups and involve users earlier in system design.

• How internal users contribute to corporate product innovation: the case of embedded users

  Tim Schweisfurth, Cornelius Herstatt · 2014 · R and D Management

  Embedded users—employees who also use their company's products—contribute significantly to corporate innovation by bridging internal and external knowledge. Drawing on interviews across 23 firms, the study shows these employees deploy use knowledge, solution knowledge, and organizational knowledge alongside social capital throughout ideation, development, and marketing phases. Embedded users generate ideas, absorb external information, set specifications, conduct testing, and act as opinion leaders, effectively spanning organizational boundaries to bring customer needs into product development.

• Open innovation, networking, and business model dynamics: the two sides

  Brigitte Gay · 2014 · Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

  Business models must be dynamic and network-focused to survive in competitive markets. Small innovative companies face distinct challenges because their business models are embedded within those of larger partners. This study examines how large pharmaceutical companies and venture capital firms structure networked business models that shape the opportunities and constraints facing small biotech companies in open innovation partnerships.

• The Growth of Knowledge-Intensive Business Services: Innovation, Markets and Networks

  Robert Huggins · 2011 · European Planning Studies

  Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) are growing as firms increasingly outsource specialized expertise to maintain competitiveness. Interview data from London and Helsinki shows KIBS firms create new channels for global knowledge flow, yet regions remain central to innovation systems. Regional knowledge bases continue to anchor KIBS networks despite globalization trends.

• USER-INVOLVEMENT AND OPEN INNOVATION: THE CASE OF DECISION-MAKER OPENNESS

  Kristina Risom Jespersen · 2010 · International Journal of Innovation Management

  Decision-maker openness determines whether companies can truly implement open innovation through user involvement in product development. The cognitive distance between decision-makers and users creates barriers to adopting novel user inputs. The research shows that when decision-makers remain closed-minded, open innovation fails to materialize, even when users are available as external resources. Successful innovation requires decision-makers to act as boundary spanners who embrace cognitively distant user perspectives.

• Regional innovation, entrepreneurship and talent systems

  Philip Cooke · 2007 · International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management

  Regional innovation systems have evolved unpredictably since the 1990s, with global economic shifts destabilizing them more than national factors. This paper argues that entrepreneurship and talent formation have been overlooked in understanding how regional systems develop. The author categorizes regional innovation system evolution based on the strength of these two variables, showing they are critical to system robustness.

• KNOWLEDGE INFRASTRUCTURE, INNOVATION DYNAMICS, AND KNOWLEDGE CREATION/DIFFUSION/ACCUMULATION PROCESSES

  Abdelillah Hamdouch, Frank Moulaert · 2006 · Innovation The European Journal of Social Science Research

  This paper examines how knowledge infrastructure and institutional arrangements shape innovation and knowledge creation across Europe's knowledge-based economy. The authors analyze the roles of various agents, their interactions, and how institutional and spatial configurations influence innovation dynamics. They develop an analytical framework showing how institutions, strategies, and spatial scales interact to structure and deploy knowledge infrastructure for economic and social value creation.

• Innovation adoption in inter-organizational healthcare networks – the role of artificial intelligence

  Chiara Cannavale, Anna Esempio Tammaro, Daniele Leone, Francesco Schiavone · 2022 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  This paper examines how artificial intelligence adoption improves buyer-supplier relationships in healthcare networks. AI reduces information asymmetry by providing real-time access to supplier data, pricing, inventory, and delivery status. The authors position AI as both a technology tool and an innovation strategy that strengthens vertical alliances and cooperation across the healthcare supply chain, enabling better operational transparency and performance outcomes.

• Open innovation ecosystems of restaurants: geographical economics of successful restaurants from three cities

  JinHyo Joseph Yun, KyungBae Park, Giovanna Del Gaudio, Valentina Della Corte · 2020 · European Planning Studies

  Small restaurants succeed by adopting open innovation strategies across ingredients, recipes, and service delivery. The study of successful restaurants in Naples and South Korea shows that restaurants cannot rely on closed innovation alone. Instead, they must strategically open at least some aspects of their operations—whether sourcing ingredients, sharing recipes, or collaborating on service—to maintain competitive advantage and generate additional revenue streams.

• Evaluation of Circular and Integration Potentials of Innovation Ecosystems for Industrial Sustainability

  Tatyana Tolstykh, Nadezhda Shmeleva, Leyla Gamidullaeva · 2020 · Sustainability

  This paper develops methods to assess industrial ecosystem potential by examining circular economy and symbiotic integration principles. The authors analyze two real industrial ecosystems—Kalundborg Symbiosis and Baltic Industrial Symbiosis—to evaluate their circular and integration capabilities. They find that Kalundborg achieves productive but incomplete circularity. The framework helps policymakers and stakeholders understand how industrial symbiosis reduces environmental problems and advances sustainable development.

• What Fosters Individual-Level Absorptive Capacity in MNCs? An Extended Motivation–Ability–Opportunity Framework

  H. Emre Yildiz, Adis Murtic, Udo Zander, Anders Richtnér · 2018 · Management International Review

  This study examines what drives individual employees in multinational corporations to absorb new knowledge. Using data from 648 workers, the researchers found that intrinsic motivation and overall ability are the strongest predictors of absorptive capacity, while extrinsic motivation has no significant effect. International assignments to distant countries can harm knowledge absorption unless employees are open to new experiences, in which case such assignments become beneficial for capability development.

• Necessitated absorptive capacity and metaroutines in international technology transfer: A new model

  Patrick van der Heiden, Christine Pohl, Shuhaimi Mansor, J.L. van Genderen · 2016 · Journal of Engineering and Technology Management

  International technology transfer to developing nations requires firms to absorb advanced knowledge effectively. This paper identifies organizational routines as key drivers of absorptive capacity—the ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply external knowledge. The authors propose the Necessitated Absorptive Capacity model, which treats absorptive capacity as a dynamic organizational capability shaped by metaroutines, advancing both theoretical understanding and practical application of how firms in developing countries successfully adopt foreign technology.

• Diffusion in the Face of Failure: The Evolution of a Management Innovation

  Harry Scarbrough, Maxine Robertson, Jacky Swan · 2015 · British Journal of Management

  This paper examines how management innovations spread globally despite widespread implementation failures. Comparing resource planning (RP) and total quality management, the authors show that RP succeeded through continuous evolution into variants like ERP, while total quality management experienced boom-and-bust cycles. RP's success stemmed from how field-level actors framed it discursively, the innovation's technical properties, and organizational adaptation. Embedding RP in software enabled differentiation between field-level success and organizational failures, sustaining global diffusion.

• The role of organizational and social capital in the firm’s absorptive capacity

  Amal Aribi, Olivier Dupouët · 2015 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  This study examines how firms absorb and use new knowledge differently depending on their innovation goals. Researchers interviewed 23 people across three French industrial firms and found that companies pursuing incremental innovations rely more on social capital and informal networks, while those pursuing radical innovations depend more on formal organizational structures. The type of innovation a firm pursues fundamentally shapes how it acquires and processes external knowledge.

• Innovation and Destination Governance in Denmark: Tourism, Policy Networks and Spatial Development

  Henrik Halkier · 2013 · European Planning Studies

  Danish tourist destinations lost market share over a decade despite continued reliance on traditional marketing strategies. The paper argues that innovation-oriented destination development policies were slow to adopt because tourism policy networks prioritized short-term sectoral and local interests over renewal of tourist experiences. Recent governance reforms only marginally improved prospects for more innovative destination strategies.

• Regional innovation policy and public-private partnership: The case of Triple Helix Arenas in Western Sweden

  Hans Fogelberg, Stefan Thorpenberg · 2012 · Science and Public Policy

  Two Swedish regional innovation organizations called 'Arenas' were designed to bring together industry, universities, and government based on Triple Helix theory. The study found that these partnerships struggled to maintain stable collaboration because the different actors had conflicting interests, creating unresolved tensions that undermined the intended cooperation model.

• Understanding organisational development, sustainability, and diffusion of innovations within hospitals participating in a multilevel quality collaborative

  Michel Dückers, Cordula Wagner, Leti van Bodegom‐Vos, Peter Groenewegen · 2011 · Implementation Science

  Dutch hospitals participating in a multilevel quality collaborative developed systematic approaches to sustain and spread quality improvements. The program combined leadership training, quality-improvement teams, and internal coordination to build quality-management systems focused on patient safety and logistics. Hospitals used plan-do-study-act cycles, performance agreements, and monitoring to embed changes across organizational units and maintain improvements over time.

• Challenging the triple helix model of regional innovation systems: A venture-centric model

  Malin Brännback, Alan L. Carsrud, Norris Krueger, Jennie Elfving · 2008 · International Journal of Technoentrepreneurship

  This paper critiques the triple helix model of regional innovation systems for excluding entrepreneurs and innovators. Through interviews, the authors find that government, university, and industry actors lack integration, and that entrepreneurs and researchers feel excluded from policy frameworks. They propose an alternative bottom-up double helix model centered on entrepreneurs as drivers of innovation, rather than treating innovation as a top-down process controlled by institutions.

• Impact of absorptive capacity on project success through mediating role of strategic agility: Project complexity as a moderator

  Mário Nuno Mata, José Moleiro Martins, Pedro Leite Inácio · 2023 · Journal of Innovation & Knowledge

  This study examines how absorptive capacity—the ability to acquire and apply new knowledge—influences project success in Portuguese IT companies. The research finds that both potential and realized absorptive capacity directly improve project outcomes and also work indirectly through strategic agility. Project complexity strengthens the link between potential absorptive capacity and strategic agility but does not affect the realized absorptive capacity relationship.

• Frugal innovation and sustainability outcomes: findings from a systematic literature review

  Valentina De Marchi, María Alejandra Pineda-Escobar, Rachel Howell, Michelle Verheij, Peter Knorringa · 2022 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  This systematic review of 130 empirical studies examines how frugal innovation drives sustainability outcomes. The authors find that frugal innovation's potential to improve social, environmental, and economic conditions depends on who develops it—whether large firms, small firms, or non-profit actors, and whether they are foreign or local. Collaboration across innovation stages proves critical. The review identifies gaps in understanding when and where frugal innovation most effectively produces sustainability benefits.

• Inter-Organizational Trust on Financial Performance: Proposing Innovation as a Mediating Variable to Sustain in a Disruptive Era

  Judit Oláh, Yusmar Ardhi Hidayat, Zdzisława Dacko-Pikiewicz, Morshadul Hasan, József Popp · 2021 · Sustainability

  Hungarian ICT companies that build trust with business partners innovate more effectively and achieve better financial performance. The study of 100 micro, small, and medium-sized ICT firms shows that innovation acts as the mechanism linking inter-organizational trust to improved financial outcomes. Trust drives innovation, which then drives profitability in the disruptive technology sector.

• How to save the world during a pandemic event. A case study of frugal innovation

  Massimiliano Vesci, Rosangela Feola, Roberto Parente, Navi Radjou · 2021 · R and D Management

  Digital makers applied frugal innovation principles to develop rapid COVID-19 solutions during the pandemic. The study examines how these makers combined resource-efficient innovation, agile methods, and open innovation strategies to address urgent local health problems. Results show this approach effectively produced practical solutions with potential for global scaling, demonstrating frugal innovation's value in responding to unexpected crises.

• The Imperative of Responsible Innovation in Reproductive Medicine

  Sebastiaan Mastenbroek, Guido de Wert, Eli Y. Adashi · 2021 · New England Journal of Medicine

  This article examines the lack of evidence supporting widespread use of preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy in reproductive medicine. The authors use this case to highlight a broader problem: reproductive medicine adopts new technologies without sufficient data demonstrating their safety and effectiveness. They argue for more responsible innovation practices that require robust evidence before clinical implementation.

• The entrepreneur in the regional innovation system. A comparative study for high- and low-income regions

  José Fernández‐Serrano, Juan A. Martínez-Román, Isidoro Romero · 2018 · Entrepreneurship and Regional Development

  This study examines how entrepreneur characteristics influence firm innovation across Spanish regions with different income levels. Entrepreneurs' trust and growth ambition affect innovation differently depending on regional development. Low-income regions face human capital and infrastructure barriers, while high-income regions struggle with legal and financial systems. The findings show policymakers must tailor innovation strategies to regional contexts rather than applying uniform approaches.

• Open innovation and knowledge for fostering business ecosystems

  João J. Ferreira, Aurora A.C. Teixeira · 2018 · Journal of Innovation & Knowledge

  This special issue examines how open innovation and knowledge sharing drive business ecosystem development. Ten papers use different theoretical approaches and methods to explore how organizations collaborate and exchange knowledge to build stronger, more interconnected business environments that foster growth and competitiveness.

• Networking towards sustainable tourism: innovations between green growth and degrowth strategies

  Sabine Panzer-Krause · 2018 · Regional Studies

  This study examines a rural Irish tourism network using network analysis, categorizing businesses by their sustainability ideology from green growth to degrowth approaches. The research shows that sustainability networks help rural areas pursue change, but achieving genuine shifts away from conventional business practices requires degrowth strategists to play central roles in communication and collaborative activities.

• Understanding the multiple factors governing social learning and the diffusion of innovations

  Lucy M. Aplin · 2016 · Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences

  This paper examines how animals learn from social interactions and how innovations spread through populations via social learning. The author reviews evidence from wild animals and identifies key conditions enabling social learning: sensitive developmental periods, difficulty obtaining personal information, and situations where social information outperforms individual learning. The research demonstrates that social learning mechanisms allow animal populations to adapt behaviorally to environmental changes through innovation diffusion.

• User innovation in public service broadcasts: creating public value by media entrepreneurship

  Datis Khajeheian, Reza Tadayoni · 2016 · International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation

  Public service broadcasters can indirectly foster media entrepreneurship by creating demand for external creative sources, though they hesitate to outsource directly to small media entrepreneurs due to quality concerns. Instead, large media companies act as intermediaries, connecting broadcaster demand with independent media entrepreneurs and their user-generated innovations, turning audience creativity into professional content.

• The effect of human capital and networks on knowledge and innovation in SMEs

  Salvatore Farace, Fernanda Mazzotta · 2015 · Journal of Innovation Economics & Management

  Human capital and internal networks significantly boost innovation in small and medium manufacturing firms. A survey of 462 firms in Southern Italy found that entrepreneur and worker education, plus firm-internal networks, increase both the likelihood and intensity of innovation. External production chain networks also matter, but internal human capital drives innovation most strongly in traditional manufacturing sectors.

• Rekindling network protocol innovation with user-level stacks

  Michio Honda, Felipe Huici, Costin Raiciu, João Taveira Araújo, Luigi Rizzo · 2014 · ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review

  This paper is not about rural innovation. It addresses network protocol design and implementation in computing systems, specifically proposing user-level protocol stacks to accelerate innovation in internet transport protocols. The work presents MultiStack, a system enabling faster deployment of new network protocols and extensions without waiting for widespread adoption of kernel-level changes.

• Multi-parameter models of innovation diffusion on complex networks

  McCullen, NJ, Rucklidge, AM, Bale, CSE, Foxon, TJ, Gale, WF · 2012 · White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York)

  This paper develops a mathematical model to understand how innovations spread through populations via peer influence. Using household energy efficiency adoption as a case study, the model represents people as network nodes whose decision to adopt depends on personal preference, neighbors' choices, and broader social trends. The researchers test the model on different network structures and provide analytical methods to predict adoption rates, showing how network topology affects innovation diffusion patterns.

• Digital transformation and social change: Leadership strategies for responsible innovation

  Filomena Buonocore, María Carmela Annosi, Davide de Gennaro, Filomena Riemma · 2024 · Journal of Engineering and Technology Management

  Italian startup managers employ continuous learning, agile business models, and stakeholder engagement to navigate digital transformation while addressing ethical concerns. The study identifies key challenges including rapid technological change, scalability, and ethical considerations. Leaders emphasize collaborative partnerships and responsible innovation practices to balance technological advancement with societal impact, with emerging trends pointing toward tech-driven social enterprises and decentralized systems.

• Regional innovation systems in tourism: The role of collaboration and competition

  Simone Luongo, Fabiana Sepe, Giovanna Del Gaudio · 2023 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  Regional innovation systems in tourism thrive through collaboration and competition among companies. The paper develops a theoretical framework combining dynamic capabilities, relational view, and resource-based theory to explain how social capital and relational assets drive innovation. Using Campania Region as a case study, it shows that co-creation of innovation and strategic plans across regional stakeholders—supported by digital transition and modernized infrastructure—builds sustainable, innovative tourism systems.

• Innovation ecosystem strategies of industrial firms: A multilayered approach to alignment and strategic positioning

  Klaasjan Visscher, Katrin Hahn, Kornelia Konrad · 2021 · Creativity and Innovation Management

  Industrial firms in Germany and the Netherlands use two-layer innovation ecosystem strategies to manage innovation processes. Companies operate an open explorative layer to identify opportunities and a semi-closed exploitative layer to develop them into customer value. The study reveals how firms align partners and activities across these layers, create synergies between them, manage resulting tensions, and develop strategic positioning within ecosystems.

• Slow Innovation: the need for reflexivity in Responsible Innovation (RI)

  Marc Steen · 2021 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  This essay argues that Responsible Innovation should embrace slowness and reflexivity rather than prioritizing speed and efficiency. The author draws on personal project experiences to advocate for making time for difficult questions, vulnerable moments, and uncertainty in innovation processes. This approach supports more human-centered outcomes, including in artificial intelligence development.

• Regional innovation system research trends: toward knowledge management and entrepreneurial ecosystems

  Pedro López-Rubio, Norat Roig‐Tierno, Alicia Mas‐Tur · 2020 · International Journal of Quality Innovation

  This bibliometric analysis of regional innovation system research identifies three major research trends: innovation systems studies from the 1990s, knowledge management research from the 2000s onward, and entrepreneurial ecosystems research in recent years. The study examines Web of Science publications through 2017, revealing that knowledge, innovation, clusters, policy, networks, and R&D are central concepts in RIS research. The field has grown substantially, attracting attention from scientists, policymakers, and international organizations.

• Regional Innovation Systems as Complex Adaptive Systems: The Case of Lagging European Regions

  Cristina Ponsiglione, Ivana Quinto, Giuseppe Zollo · 2018 · Sustainability

  This paper develops a computational model called CARIS to understand how regional innovation systems in lagging European regions can become self-sustaining. The research identifies exploration capacity, cooperation propensity, and actor competencies as key drivers of innovation performance. The authors recommend policymakers invest in R&D, support public-private partnerships, strengthen universities, and increase researcher employment to improve regional innovation outcomes.

• UK higher education institutions’ technology-enhanced learning strategies from the perspective of disruptive innovation

  Michael Flavin, Valentina Quintero · 2018 · Research in Learning Technology

  UK universities publish technology-enhanced learning strategies, but most focus on sustaining and efficiency innovations rather than disruptive innovation. Analysis of 44 institutional strategies reveals a misalignment between what universities plan and how students and lecturers actually use technology in practice.

• A framework of disruptive sustainable innovation: an example of the Finnish food system

  Anna Kuokkanen, Ville Uusitalo, Katariina Koistinen · 2018 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  This paper develops a framework for understanding disruptive sustainable innovation by combining insights from socio-technical transition research and management literature. Using four Finnish food system companies as case studies, the authors show how disruptive innovation operates across production and consumption practices, involving both producer-entrepreneurs and citizen-consumers. The framework addresses gaps in existing literature by examining business model innovation and user practices alongside technological change.

• Disruptive Innovation vs Disruptive Technology: The Disruptive Potential of the Value Propositions of 3D Printing Technology Startups

  Finn Hahn, Søren Jensen, Stoyan Tanev · 2014 · Technology Innovation Management Review

  This paper examines 3D printing technology startups and their potential to disrupt manufacturing through additive production methods. Rather than traditional subtractive or molding approaches, 3D printing builds products layer-by-layer using digital controls. The authors analyze whether these startups represent genuinely disruptive innovation or merely disruptive technology, evaluating their value propositions and market impact.

• The structural, relational and cognitive configuration of innovation networks between SMEs and public research organisations

  Barbara Masiello, Francesco Izzo, Cristina Canoro · 2013 · International Small Business Journal Researching Entrepreneurship

  This study examines how small firms and public research organizations collaborate in innovation networks. The researchers analyzed twelve case studies to understand network structure, relationships, and shared knowledge. They found that successful partnerships evolve together through different governance stages, face risks when trust becomes stagnant, and require overlapping knowledge bases and common language to function effectively.

• Innovations in a relational context: Mechanisms to connect learning processes of absorptive capacity

  Desirée Knoppen, María Jesús Sáenz, David Johnston · 2011 · Management Learning

  Companies build competitive advantage through relationships with other firms. This study examines how learning mechanisms within customer-supplier relationships create absorptive capacity and drive innovation. The research identifies that structural mechanisms alone are insufficient; cultural, psychological, and policy mechanisms also shape how firms learn and absorb knowledge across relationships. The findings provide propositions for understanding absorptive capacity development in relational contexts.

• The Role of Finance and Corporate Governance in National Systems of Innovation

  Andrew Tylecote · 2007 · Organization Studies

  Corporate governance and finance systems shape how firms innovate within countries. Different industries demand different financial and governance structures to support innovation effectively. The paper explains why some countries gain technological advantages by matching their finance and governance systems to their industries' specific innovation needs.

• Nordic SMEs and Regional Innovation Systems

  Björn Asheim, Lars Coenen, Martin Henning · 2003 · Lund University Publications (Lund University)

  Nordic small and medium enterprises compete globally through innovation rather than cost-cutting, given their high wage levels. The paper examines how regional innovation systems support SME competitiveness in the Nordic countries, arguing that innovation capacity is essential for these firms to maintain economic viability in an increasingly globalized market.

• Collaborative innovation, strategic agility, &amp; absorptive capacity adoption in SMEs: the moderating effects of customer knowledge management capability

  Mário Nuno Mata, José Moleiro Martins, Pedro Leite Inácio · 2024 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  Collaborative innovation significantly improves financial performance in Portuguese IT firms. Strategic agility and absorptive capacity both mediate this relationship. Customer knowledge management capability strengthens the link between collaborative innovation and strategic agility, but does not moderate the absorptive capacity pathway. The study shows that combining customer-oriented strategies with innovation helps firms navigate complex, unpredictable situations.

• Responsible leadership, organizational ethical culture, strategic posture, and green innovation

  Muhammad Waheed Akhtar, Thomas N. Garavan, Muzhar Javed, Chunhui Huo, Muhammad Junaid, Khalid Hussain · 2023 · Service Industries Journal

  Responsible leadership in service organizations drives green innovation, with organizational ethical culture acting as the mechanism through which this influence operates. A progressive strategic posture strengthens this relationship. The study surveyed 168 hospitality employees across three waves and found that leaders signaling responsibility through ethical organizational culture encourage green innovation more effectively when the firm pursues progressive strategies.

• Frugal innovation in the midst of societal and operational pressures

  Jarkko Levänen, Mokter Hossain, Marleen Wierenga · 2022 · Journal of Cleaner Production

  Frugal innovation—developing solutions under resource and societal constraints—delivers sustainable outcomes primarily through business model design rather than technological sophistication. The authors establish a framework linking frugal innovation to sustainable business models, analyzing three firms to show that sustainability results depend on how companies integrate societal concerns with operational activities across their business model elements.

• An open innovation approach to co-produce scientific knowledge: an examination of citizen science in the healthcare ecosystem

  Maria Vincenza Ciasullo, Maria Rosaria Carli, Weng Marc Lim, Rocco Palumbo · 2021 · European Journal of Innovation Management

  Citizen science—where lay people participate in research—can drive innovation in healthcare by enabling large-scale data collection, educating the public, and co-creating value with scientists. The authors examined citizen science projects tackling COVID-19 and found that engaging non-experts as data collectors and analysts strengthens healthcare ecosystems. They argue policymakers must support lay participation in scientific research to address major health challenges.

• Water Absorption Capacity Determines the Functionality of Vital Gluten Related to Specific Bread Volume

  Marina Schopf, Katharina Anne Scherf · 2021 · Foods

  Vital gluten supplements weak wheat flour in baking, but different samples produce inconsistent bread volumes despite identical recipes. This study tested ten vital gluten samples and found that protein composition and chemical structure did not explain performance differences. Instead, each sample's water absorption capacity determined its optimal functionality and final bread volume, with different samples requiring different water levels to achieve peak results.

• Is point-of-care ultrasound disruptive innovation? Formulating why POCUS is different from conventional comprehensive ultrasound

  Jesper Weile, Jacob Brix, Anders Broens Moellekaer · 2018 · Critical Ultrasound Journal

  Point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS) represents disruptive innovation in medical imaging, fundamentally different from conventional comprehensive ultrasound. The authors apply disruptive innovation theory to show how PoCUS challenges established ultrasound specialties by offering faster, accessible imaging in emergency and critical care settings. They argue stakeholders must recognize these differences to collaborate effectively and optimize patient care across both approaches.

• Emerging issues on business innovation ecosystems: the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for knowledge management (KM) and innovation within and among enterprises

  Pedro Soto‐Acosta, Manlio Del Giudice, Veronica Scuotto · 2018 · Baltic Journal of Management

  Information and communication technologies function as digital platforms enabling businesses to exchange information and knowledge within innovation ecosystems. ICTs support knowledge management and foster innovation across and within enterprises by creating networked infrastructure systems where distinct business agents collaborate and share resources.

• The influence of knowledge absorptive capacity on shared value creation in social enterprises

  Vanessa Campos Climent, Joan Ramón Sanchís Palacio · 2017 · Journal of Knowledge Management

  Social enterprises that absorb and apply knowledge effectively create more shared value—combining economic and social benefits. The study tested 127 social enterprises in France and Spain, finding that knowledge absorptive capacity directly strengthens both economic and social value creation. Social value creation acts as a mechanism through which knowledge capacity drives economic gains, demonstrating that social enterprises generate profit by prioritizing social and environmental outcomes.

• Determinants of National Innovation Systems: Policy implications for developing countries

  Frank L. Bartels, Hinrich Voss, Suman Lederer, Christopher Bachtrog · 2012 · Innovation

  This study examines how knowledge institutions, governments, and businesses shape national innovation systems in 46 developed and emerging economies. The researchers find that market forces dominate innovation outcomes, while institutional structures around knowledge management and government-business relations also matter significantly. The analysis suggests developing countries should prioritize creating institutional environments that support market mechanisms to strengthen their innovation systems and economic growth.

• Dynamic capabilities for transitioning from product platform ecosystem to innovation platform ecosystem

  Kazem Haki, Michael Blaschke, Stephan Aier, Robert Winter, David Tilson · 2022 · European Journal of Information Systems

  Incumbent firms face disruption from platform-native competitors and must transition from product platforms to innovation platforms. This study identifies four dynamic capabilities required for this transition: resource curation, ecosystem preservation, resource reconfiguration, and ecosystem diversification. The findings emerge from analyzing perspectives of platform owners, partners, and end-users in enterprise software ecosystems.

• User-centered requirements engineering to manage the fuzzy front-end of open innovation in e-health: A study on support systems for seniors’ physical activity

  Maria Ehn, Mattias Derneborg, Åsa Revenäs, Antonio Cicchetti · 2021 · International Journal of Medical Informatics

  This study applies user-centered requirements engineering methods to manage the early stages of developing an e-health system supporting seniors' physical activity. Researchers conducted interviews with three user groups and used workshops with multidisciplinary teams to elicit, analyze, and prioritize requirements. The resulting Concept of Operations document successfully guided stakeholder recruitment and collaboration in the subsequent open innovation development process, demonstrating that involving users early produces systems meeting real-world complexity.

• Practising innovation in the healthcare ecosystem: the agency of third-party actors

  Tiziana Russo Spena, Mele Cristina · 2019 · Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing

  Third-party actors in digital healthcare ecosystems drive innovation by brokering connections between multiple stakeholders, mediating between different practices, and coalescing resources across networks. These intermediaries challenge established healthcare practices and enable new service co-creation opportunities by connecting diverse actors, institutions, and resources in ways that reshape how healthcare services are delivered.

• Combined Influence of Absorptive Capacity and Corporate Entrepreneurship on Performance

  M.a Magdalena Jiménez-Barrionuevo, Luis Miguel Molina Fernández, Victor Jesús García Morales · 2019 · Sustainability

  This study examines how absorptive capacity and corporate entrepreneurship together affect organizational performance in Spanish firms. The research finds that proactiveness drives innovativeness, which both strengthen a company's ability to absorb and apply new knowledge. Realized absorptive capacity then enables new business ventures and organizational renewal. Proactiveness and new business venturing directly improve performance, while companies must develop both potential and realized absorptive capacities simultaneously to succeed in corporate entrepreneurial projects.

• Responsible research and innovation indicators for science education assessment: how to measure the impact?

  María Heras, Isabel Ruíz-Mallén · 2017 · International Journal of Science Education

  This paper develops a framework for assessing responsible research and innovation (RRI) in science education. The authors identify 86 key indicators that measure RRI values, competences, and learning outcomes in science education practice. They argue that RRI-focused assessment can better capture metacognitive skills, emotional dimensions, and procedural learning, helping students develop the knowledge and citizenship skills needed to address complex societal challenges.

• The frequency of end-user innovation: A re-estimation of extant findings

  Nikolaus Franke, Florian Schirg, Kathrin Reinsberger · 2016 · Research Policy

  This study re-estimates how often consumers innovate by comparing two data collection methods. Telephone interviews found 10.8% of people innovate, but personal interviews revealed 39.7%—showing previous research significantly underestimated user innovation. Using this correction factor across six countries, the authors demonstrate that consumer innovation is a widespread phenomenon policymakers and businesses should recognize and support.

• Frugal Innovation and Knowledge Transferability

  Peter Altmann, Robert Engberg · 2016 · Research-Technology Management

  Western firms typically partner with emerging market companies to develop frugal innovations, assuming local partners better understand local needs. This paper argues for an alternative: high-tech firms can conduct breakthrough R&D at home while focusing on emerging market requirements. Three case studies from a Swedish medical device manufacturer demonstrate how home-based R&D successfully reconceptualizes core products for emerging markets and identifies conditions that make this approach effective.

• Managing systemic and disruptive innovation: lessons from the Renault Zero Emission Initiative

  Félix Von Pechmann, Christophe Midler, Rémi Maniak, Florence Charue‐Duboc · 2015 · Industrial and Corporate Change

  Managing systemic and disruptive innovations requires specific strategies. This study of Renault's electric vehicle development program identifies three effective management approaches: creating autonomous units that bridge organizational silos, building a portfolio of locally viable systems rather than one-size-fits-all solutions, and managing multiple technology platforms concurrently. These levers help companies deploy innovations that fundamentally challenge existing technologies and customer expectations.

• Teams’ innovation: getting there through knowledge sharing and absorptive capacity

  Carla Curado, Mírian Oliveira, Antônio Carlos Gastaud Maçada, Felipe Nodari · 2015 · Knowledge Management Research & Practice

  Knowledge sharing among team members drives innovation, but only when teams have strong absorptive capacity to process and apply that knowledge. The study tested this relationship across multiple Portuguese industries using 141 employees in organizational teams. Team tenure matters: longer-established teams share more knowledge than newer ones. Organizational size, geographic concentration, and gender had no significant effect on innovation outcomes.

• Foreword: responsible innovation in the private sector

  Victor Scholten, Vincent Blok · 2015 · Journal on Chain and Network Science

  Responsible Innovation is a governance framework that makes innovators and society mutually accountable for research and technology development. It emerged from public concerns about government-funded research in controversial fields like nanotechnology, genomics, and alternative energy. The concept emphasizes transparent processes ensuring innovations are ethically acceptable, sustainable, and socially desirable before reaching the market.

• Designing the Organization for User Innovation

  Peter Keinz, Christoph Hienerth, Christopher Lettl · 2012 · Journal of Organization Design

  Organizations are shifting from internal, producer-driven innovation toward user-centered and open innovation models. This paper identifies major user innovation strategies and explains how each one requires different organizational design choices. The authors propose that successful innovation increasingly depends on building symbiotic ecosystems where producers and users collaborate, fundamentally reshaping how companies structure themselves.

• Les facteurs de diffusion des innovations managériales en comptabilité et contrôle de gestion : une étude comparative

  Simon Alcouffe, Nicolas Berland, Yves Levant · 2003 · Comptabilité - Contrôle - Audit

  This comparative study examines what factors influence the spread of managerial innovations in accounting and management control. By analyzing the diffusion of three innovations—ABC costing, budgetary control, and the Georges Perrin method—in France, the authors identify that different categories of actors, communication channels, and contextual variables all significantly impact how these innovations spread across organizations.

• R&D and Technology Spillovers via FDI: Innovation and Absorptive Capacity

  Yuko Kinoshita · 2000 · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics

  This study examines how R&D and foreign direct investment affect firm productivity in Czech manufacturing. The research finds that R&D's learning effect matters far more than innovation for productivity growth. Technology spillovers from foreign partners occur only in specific sectors like electrical machinery and radio & TV, where foreign firms actively invest in R&D. No general spillover benefits reach local firms from foreign joint ventures.

• Profiting from innovation when digital business ecosystems emerge: A control point perspective

  René Bohnsack, Michael Rennings, Carolin Block, Stefanie Bröring · 2024 · Research Policy

  Digital transformation shifts how companies profit from innovation in emerging ecosystems. The paper examines smart farming through a control points framework, showing that value capture depends on who owns strategic, technical, generic, and institutional control points in layered digital architectures. Incumbents, new entrants, and diversifying firms compete in a seesaw pattern to establish bargaining positions. The findings help firms optimize ecosystem strategies and guide policymakers in supporting institutional development.

• Radical innovations as supply chain disruptions? A paradox between change and stability

  Canan Kocabasoglu‐Hillmer, Sinéad Roden, Evelyne Vanpoucke, Byung‐Gak Son, Marianne W. Lewis · 2023 · Journal of Supply Chain Management

  Radical innovations in products and processes create paradoxical tensions in supply chains, particularly between the need for change and the need for stability. The paper uses case illustrations to examine how these tensions emerge upstream after radical innovation and proposes paradox theory as a framework for understanding and managing them. It identifies supply chain management as an underexplored area for paradox research and calls for future studies on post-innovation tensions.

• Managing innovation ecosystems around Big Science Organizations

  Jason Li‐Ying, Wolfgang Sofka, Philipp Tuertscher · 2022 · Technovation

  Big Science Organizations are massive research institutions addressing complex scientific challenges through large networks of suppliers, collaborators, and partners. These organizations function as influential innovation ecosystems with permeable boundaries enabling technology transfer, knowledge sharing, and business creation. The paper introduces a special issue examining innovation and entrepreneurship around BSOs, providing a comprehensive overview of how these institutions drive innovation across science, government, and business sectors.

• Gaming innovation ecosystem: actors, roles and co-innovation processes

  Patrycja Klimas, Wojciech Czakon · 2022 · Review of Managerial Science

  This study examines Poland's gaming innovation ecosystem to understand how different actors contribute to co-innovation. Researchers conducted interviews and observations over three years and identified 21 types of actors playing four distinct roles: direct value creation, supporting value creation, encouraging entrepreneurship, and leadership. The co-innovation process unfolds across five stages from discovery through dissemination, with actors varying their engagement intensity at each phase.

• From ‘Publish or Perish’ to Societal Impact: Organizational Repurposing Towards Responsible Innovation through Creating a Medical Platform

  Madeleine Rauch, Shahzad Ansari · 2021 · Journal of Management Studies

  An academic research project studying user innovation shifted its core purpose to become Patient Innovation, a nonprofit medical platform providing global access to solutions for rare and chronic diseases. The transformation occurred through moral emotions, serendipitous inspiration, and socially conscious participants who reframed their mission from publishing research to creating societal impact. The authors develop a model showing how organizational purpose can drift spontaneously when actors feel morally motivated to serve collective goals over self-interest.

• Reconceptualising responsible research and innovation from a Global South perspective

  Kutoma Wakunuma, Fábio de Castro, Tilimbe Jiya, Edurne A. Iñigo, Vincent Blok, Vincent Bryce · 2021 · Journal of Responsible Innovation

  Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) has been developed primarily in wealthy northern countries with little consideration of how it operates in the Global South. This paper examines RRI practices across three countries—the Netherlands, Malawi, and Brazil—and finds that while some activities are comparable, important differences exist in motivations and structures. The authors propose a new theoretical framework that accounts for these regional differences, positioning RRI as a continuum rather than a fixed concept.

• Technology in the Age of Innovation: Responsible Innovation as a New Subdomain Within the Philosophy of Technology

  Lucien von Schomberg, Vincent Blok · 2019 · Philosophy & Technology

  This paper examines responsible innovation frameworks through a philosophical lens, arguing that current RI approaches fail to question the technological nature of innovation itself. The authors contend that innovation is presupposed as inherently technological within a techno-economic paradigm, which actually constrains rather than enables responsible steering of innovation outcomes. They conclude that RI frameworks are themselves shaped by the very paradigm they attempt to direct.

• The potential contribution of disruptive low-carbon innovations to 1.5 °C climate mitigation

  Charlie Wilson, Hazel Pettifor, Emma Cassar, Laurie Kerr, M. Wilson · 2018 · Energy Efficiency

  This paper identifies 99 disruptive low-carbon innovations across mobility, food, buildings, and energy sectors that could reduce emissions and help limit warming to 1.5°C. Examples include car clubs, mobility-as-a-service, prefabricated retrofits, and urban farming. Using expert surveys and UK population scaling analysis, the authors demonstrate that consumer-facing innovations offering alternative value propositions can meaningfully contribute to climate mitigation targets.

• National Innovation Systems of the South, Innovation and Economic Development Policies: A Multidimensional Approach

  Vanessa Casadella, Dimitri Uzunidis · 2017 · Journal of Innovation Economics & Management

  This paper reexamines the National Innovation System concept for developing countries, arguing that existing literature focuses too narrowly on technology policy without adequately addressing innovation capacity, innovation policy design, and economic development. The authors analyze how innovation policies function in developing nations, their governance structures, and the conditions that enable or hinder economic development within globalized growth contexts.

• Innovation and its diffusion: process, actors and actions

  Rosa Caiazza, Tiziana Volpe · 2016 · Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

  This paper systematizes research on innovation diffusion by organizing factors into three categories: process, actors, and actions. It identifies phases of how innovations spread between organizations, clarifies the roles of innovators, adopters, and intermediaries, and recommends policy actions to support diffusion. The framework synthesizes two decades of fragmented research into a coherent structure.

• Relational capital for shared vision in innovation ecosystems

  Martha G. Russell, Jukka Huhtamäki, Kaisa Still, Neil Rubens, Rahul C. Basole · 2015 · Triple Helix Journal

  This paper examines relationship networks in three metropolitan innovation ecosystems—Austin, Minneapolis, and Paris—using Triple Helix framework and network analysis. The authors measure relational capital through network metrics and visualizations, revealing distinct patterns that structure business activity at startup, growth, and enterprise levels. They demonstrate that data-driven indicators of relational capital can guide network orchestration, inform policy decisions, and build shared vision across spatially defined business ecosystems.

• The role of education and training in absorptive capacity of international technology transfer in the aerospace sector

  Patrick van der Heiden, Christine Pohl, Shuhaimi Mansor, J.L. van Genderen · 2015 · Progress in Aerospace Sciences

  Education and training programs are essential for building absorptive capacity in newly industrialized countries seeking to adopt aerospace technology from abroad. The paper identifies seven key aspects of education and training that policymakers should coordinate to strengthen technology transfer. Tailored training for specific groups and stakeholders enhances a nation's ability to absorb and apply imported aerospace knowledge and technology effectively.

• Responsible research and innovation in information systems

  Bernd Carsten Stahl · 2012 · European Journal of Information Systems

  This paper examines responsible research and innovation within information systems, arguing that the field's diverse approaches require careful consideration of ethical and social dimensions in how IS research and innovation are conducted and applied. The work addresses the need for IS scholars to engage with responsibility frameworks that go beyond technical solutions.

• Rural Entrepreneurship in Europe: A Research Framework and Agenda

  Σοφία Σταθοπούλου, Demetrios Psaltopoulos, Dimitris Skuras · 2004 · SSRN Electronic Journal

  Rural entrepreneurship operates within a distinct territorial context shaped by physical geography, social capital, governance structures, and networks. The authors argue that rurality itself functions as a dynamic entrepreneurial resource, creating both opportunities and constraints. They propose a three-stage sequential model of rural entrepreneurship and outline a research agenda addressing theoretical understanding and policy development to support rural business creation.

• An empirical investigation of the role of rural development policies in stimulating rural entrepreneurship in the Lazio Region of Italy

  Marcello De Rosa, Gerard McElwee · 2015 · Society and Business Review

  Rural development policies in Italy's Lazio region show uneven adoption by family farms, with significant variation based on family life cycle stage and farm composition. Farmers who succeed in accessing these funds demonstrate proactive, strategic behavior and coherent planning aligned with policy requirements. The analysis reveals low coordination among rural farms and highlights the need for multi-agency policy approaches that recognize entrepreneurial practices in agricultural settings.

• Considering the implications of place-based approaches for improving rural community wellbeing: The value of a relational lens

  Rachel Winterton, Alana Hulme-Chambers, Jane Farmer, Sarah‐Anne Muñoz · 2014 · Rural Society

  Place-based rural policy often treats rural space as homogenous, limiting its effectiveness for improving community wellbeing. This paper argues that adopting a relational view of rural space—understanding it as socially created through connections and flows—offers a better framework for designing and evaluating rural health and community development policies. A relational approach helps policymakers measure outcomes more accurately and address the complex, interconnected nature of rural wellbeing.

• Digital transformation, well-being and shrinking communities: Narrowing the divides between urban and rural

  Annamari Kiviaho, Johannes Einolander · 2023 · Heliyon

  Digital transformation in shrinking Finnish communities produces more positive than negative effects on resident well-being. While service concentration can reduce local offerings, digitalization enables previously unavailable services and creates new opportunities. Remote work and digital services attract new residents to rural areas, helping narrow the urban-rural divide and revitalizing shrinking communities.

• Anticipating gender impacts in scaling innovations for agriculture: Insights from the literature

  Erin McGuire, Anne M. Rietveld, Amanda Crump, Cees Leeuwis · 2021 · World Development Perspectives

  Small farms produce most of the world's food, but innovations often fail to address gender inequalities and may cause harm. This review identifies six critical areas where gender considerations matter when scaling agricultural innovations: team composition, innovation design, communication, business models, technology adaptation, and political economy. The authors recommend practical methods for collecting gender-disaggregated data and call for scaling tools that explicitly address gender and social marginalization.

• Innovation in the Rural Areas and the Linkage with the Quintuple Helix Model

  Vincenzo Provenzano, Massimo Arnone, Maria Rosaria Seminara · 2016 · Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences

  Rural areas function as productive systems where agriculture connects with other economic activities. The paper argues that protecting ecosystems and implementing the Quintuple Helix Model—which links innovation processes across multiple sectors—enables rural development based on sustainable competitiveness. Using Sicily and Italian regional data, the authors demonstrate how peripheral areas can adopt Smart Specialization Strategy to create new development models that balance economic growth with environmental protection.

• Embedded models of rural entrepreneurship: The case of pubs in Cumbria, North West of England

  Ignazio Cabras, Gary Bosworth · 2014 · Local Economy The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit

  Rural pubs in Cumbria have declined sharply, damaging community networks and local employment. This study examines why pubs fail and succeed through interviews with owners, managers, and customers. The authors find that pubs function as critical community hubs providing social connection and business opportunities. They conclude that stronger involvement from local communities and public sector support is essential to preserve these rural assets.

• ICTs for Agricultural Extension. Global Experiments, Innovations and Experiences

  Timothy Koehnen · 2011 · The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension

  This book examines global experiments and innovations in using information and communication technologies (ICTs) for agricultural extension services. It compiles case studies and experiences from various countries showing how ICTs are being deployed to improve agricultural knowledge transfer, farmer education, and extension service delivery in rural areas worldwide.

• Understanding the drivers of broadband adoption: the case of rural and remote Scotland

  Susan Howick, Jason Whalley · 2007 · Journal of the Operational Research Society

  Rural and remote Scotland lags in broadband adoption despite availability. This paper develops causal and simulation models showing how adoption drivers interact. Past policies have influenced adoption rates, but greatest impact comes from targeting people uninterested in broadband. The findings suggest policy should focus on non-adopters rather than infrastructure alone to realize broadband's socio-economic benefits in rural areas.

• Innovation context and technology traits explain heterogeneity across studies of agricultural technology adoption: A meta‐analysis

  Dario Schulz, Jan Börner · 2022 · Journal of Agricultural Economics

  A meta-analysis of 304 farm-level adoption studies across 60+ countries reveals that agricultural technology adoption depends on matching innovation characteristics with local contexts. Land, capital, and knowledge constraints matter most when technologies require those resources intensively, but constraints weaken where resources are abundant. Rural development and extension programs should tailor strategies to fit both geographic conditions and specific technology traits.

• Multi-actor co-innovation partnerships in agriculture, forestry and related sectors in Europe: Contrasting approaches to implementation

  Andrew F. Fieldsend, Eszter Varga, Szabolcs Bíró, Susanne von Münchhausen, Anna Maria Häring · 2022 · Agricultural Systems

  This paper analyzes 200 multi-actor co-innovation partnerships across Europe involving farmers and foresters. The authors develop a typology identifying eight ideal types of co-innovation partnerships based on organizational structure and interaction attitudes. They find that successful partnerships take different forms depending on context—actor capacities, networks, topic, and enabling environment—rather than one approach being universally superior. The framework helps policymakers design targeted interventions suited to local circumstances.

• Lifestyle Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Rural Areas: The Case of Tourism Entrepreneurs

  Álvaro Dias, Graça Miranda Silva · 2021 · Journal of Small Business Strategy

  Lifestyle entrepreneurs in rural tourism drive innovation and sustainability by leveraging their connection to place and building relationships. A survey of 221 rural tourism entrepreneurs found that familiarity with place and relational capital both boost innovation. Place familiarity strengthens relational capital, which improves knowledge absorption. Relational capital mediates the link between place attachment and innovation, creating indirect pathways to competitive advantage in rural destinations.

• Innovation Challenges and Opportunities in European Rural SMEs

  Inga Uvarova, Alise Vītola · 2019 · Public Policy And Administration

  Rural small and medium enterprises across Europe face significant barriers to innovation adoption, including weak innovation environments, inadequate policies, skill shortages, and difficulty attracting talent compared to urban competitors. The paper identifies these obstacles through literature review and stakeholder consultations in six European countries, then recommends policy solutions focused on fostering business networks, training programs, targeted innovation support, improved marketing, and workforce development.

• Methods for assessing the impact of research on innovation and development in the agriculture and food sectors

  Ludovic Temple, Estelle Biénabe, Danielle Barret, Gilles Saint-Martin · 2016 · African Journal of Science Technology Innovation and Development

  This paper reviews methods for measuring how agricultural and food research affects innovation and development in developing countries. The authors find that quantitative impact assessment approaches face significant controversies. They examine qualitative methodological innovations as alternatives and analyze case studies to identify the strategic resources that research generates to improve its real-world impact on innovation and development.

• Orchestrating Regional Development Through Projects: The ‘Innovation Paradox’ in Rural Finland

  Kjell Andersson · 2009 · Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning

  Project management dominates rural and regional development in Finland, yet creates an 'innovation paradox': regions are expected to innovate while lacking genuine innovative capacity. This professionalization of project management, combined with gender dynamics, reduces project value. The author argues that relaxing strict innovation requirements would unlock the actual innovation potential embedded in most development projects.

• Innovation in agriculture: An analysis of Swedish agricultural and non-agricultural firms

  Lina Bjerke, Sara Johansson · 2022 · Food Policy

  Swedish agricultural firms innovate at similar rates to non-agricultural firms, with one-third being innovation creators. Agriculture shows higher process innovation but not more technology adoption than other sectors. The key difference lies in how agricultural firms source knowledge—they rely less on external collaboration and more on internal capacity. Innovation support policies should strengthen in-house knowledge capabilities in agricultural firms rather than emphasizing collaborative research partnerships.

• Towards climate smart agriculture : How does innovation meet sustainability?

  Katalin Takács‐György, István Takács · 2022 · Ecocycles

  Precision farming and climate-smart agriculture innovations enable sustainable food production by efficiently using natural resources and reducing environmental harm. The authors argue that farming strategies based on farmer cooperation, technologies that minimize health risks, and de-growth principles are essential for sustainability. Strengthening rural areas and helping farmers adopt competitive, innovative practices through cooperation is necessary for maintaining a sustainable economy.

• Sustainability, Innovation and Rural Development: The Case of Parmigiano-Reggiano PDO

  Filippo Arfini, Federico Antonioli, Elena Cozzi, Michèle Donati, Marianna Guareschi, Maria Cecilia Mancini, Mario Veneziani · 2019 · Sustainability

  This paper develops a framework to measure sustainability across environmental, economic, and social dimensions in food quality schemes. Using Parmigiano-Reggiano PDO as a case study, the authors track how innovations between 2000 and 2018 affected product quality, value chain performance, and rural development. They create synthetic indexes showing how these innovations shifted the overall sustainability of the production system over time.

• Research and innovation in agriculture: beyond productivity?

  Davide Viaggi · 2019 · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA)

  Agricultural research impact assessment has traditionally focused on productivity gains, but this approach is insufficient. The paper argues that emerging concepts—bioeconomy, circular economy, eco-innovation, life cycle assessment, and ecosystem services—require rethinking how we measure research effects. While aggregate productivity metrics remain relevant, researchers need more nuanced analytical frameworks and broader definitions of productivity that account for environmental performance and sustainability outcomes.

• Innovation-Sustainability Nexus in Agriculture Transition: Case of Agroecology

  Hamid El Bilali · 2019 · Open Agriculture

  Agroecology offers a promising pathway for sustainable agricultural transition by combining innovation and sustainability across environmental, economic, and social dimensions. The paper argues that agroecology can harmonize these goals, though not all traditional practices qualify as agroecological, and farmer-led innovations require careful evaluation. Clarifying relationships between agroecology as science, movement, and practice remains essential for maximizing agricultural transition potential.

• Broadband: A Solution for Rural e-Learning?

  Robin Mason, Frank Rennie · 2004 · The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning

  Broadband infrastructure can overcome connectivity barriers that disadvantage rural and remote learners in online education. A project installing broadband in Scotland's Western Isles demonstrates how improved connections enable better e-learning course design and support informal learning opportunities in rural communities.

• Ai-driven innovations in greenhouse agriculture: Reanalysis of sustainability and energy efficiency impacts

  Siamak Hoseinzadeh, Davide Astiaso Garcia · 2024 · Energy Conversion and Management X

  AI integration in greenhouse agriculture significantly reduces heating energy consumption, improving energy efficiency. However, AI shows only marginal improvements in CO2 emissions, electricity, and water usage compared to traditional methods. Crop quality and profitability gains match conventional techniques. The study reveals AI's mixed impact on sustainability, highlighting strong potential in energy efficiency but limited effectiveness in other key sustainability areas, requiring further research and investment.

• Women's contributions to rural development: implications for entrepreneurship policy

  Helene Ahl, Karin Berglund, Katarina Pettersson, Malin Tillmar · 2023 · International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research

  Rural women entrepreneurs in Sweden make substantial, multidimensional contributions to rural development across diverse industries, deeply embedded in family and local structures. However, existing entrepreneurship and rural development policies largely bypass their businesses and miss their actual needs. Women entrepreneurs prioritize access to public services like schools and childcare over business training programs. Policymakers should integrate entrepreneurship policy with family, welfare, and rural development policy rather than treating women entrepreneurs as isolated economic actors.

• Supporting rural Small and Medium-sized Enterprises to take up broadband-enabled technology: What works?

  Liz Price, Jim Shutt, Jessica Sellick · 2018 · Local Economy The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit

  Rural SMEs in Lincolnshire, UK lag behind urban counterparts in broadband adoption despite improved availability. A publicly funded support programme combining training, one-to-one advice, ICT grants, and Technology Hub access significantly increased technology use and sales. Intensive personalized support and direct technology access proved more effective than basic training alone for driving rural business innovation.

• The drivers of innovation diffusion in agriculture: evidence from Italian census data

  G. Avolio, Emanuele Blasi, Clara Cicatiello, Silvio Franco · 2014 · Journal on Chain and Network Science

  Italian agricultural innovation spreads unevenly across regions, driven by local productive conditions, farm characteristics, and institutional frameworks. Using 2010 census data from 110 provinces, the authors mapped diffusion of product, process, organizational, and marketing innovations. Some innovations concentrate in specific areas with favorable market conditions, while others depend on individual farm features. Rural development spending and regulatory context significantly influence adoption rates, showing how productive and institutional systems interact to enable or constrain agricultural innovation.

• Harnessing biostimulants for sustainable agriculture: innovations, challenges, and future prospects

  Amine Khoulati, Sabir Ouahhoud, Mohamed Taibi, Said Ezrari, Samira Mamri, Othmane Merah, Abdelkader Hakkou, Mohamed Addi, Adil Maleb, Ennouamane Saalaoui · 2025 · Discover Agriculture

  Biostimulants enhance plant growth and resilience while reducing chemical inputs, but face adoption barriers from inconsistent formulations, unclear regulations, and limited mechanistic understanding. This review examines biostimulant development, classifications, and mechanisms while identifying challenges in product performance, regulatory compliance, and economics. The authors argue biostimulants can improve nutrient efficiency and climate resilience, and propose a framework integrating research, policy, and practice to advance sustainable agriculture.

• Contextualising rural entrepreneurship – A strong structuration perspective on gendered-local agency

  Nermin Elkafrawi, Annie Roos, Deema Refai · 2022 · International Small Business Journal Researching Entrepreneurship

  This paper uses Strong Structuration Theory to examine rural entrepreneurship through a case study of a woman entrepreneur in Sweden. The authors introduce the concept of gendered-local agency to explain how rural entrepreneurs actively navigate constraints and opportunities shaped by gender and locality. They show that agency emerges from the interplay between individual entrepreneurs and rural structures, demonstrating how everyday entrepreneurial actions both challenge and reinforce rural contexts.

• Eco-Innovations in Rural Territories: Organizational Dynamics and Resource Mobilization in Low Density Areas

  Danielle Galliano, Amélie Gonçalves, Pierre Triboulet · 2017 · Journal of Innovation Economics & Management

  Rural areas develop eco-innovation projects despite limited agglomeration. This study examines how organizational factors and environmental conditions influence eco-innovation in low-density areas. Using interviews across five French rural cases, researchers found that personal and local professional networks, combined with strong leadership, enable projects to absorb local resources effectively. While local resources remain essential, successful projects increasingly mobilize distant resources as they develop.

• Exploring business growth and eco innovation in rural small firms

  Lynn Martin, Tamara McNeill, Izzy Warren‐Smith · 2013 · International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research

  Rural small business owners implement eco-innovation by reducing waste and raw material consumption. While growth wasn't their primary motivation, all eight studied firms gained economic benefits from environmental practices. Rurality mattered significantly because owners felt climate change impacts directly and faced visibility within local communities. The findings show eco-innovation can simultaneously address environmental and economic goals in rural enterprises.

• Delivery of on-demand video services in rural areas via IEEE 802.16 broadband wireless access networks

  Odd Inge Hillestad, Andrew Perkis, Vasken Genc, Séan Murphy, John Murphy · 2006

  This simulation study evaluates IEEE 802.16 broadband wireless technology for delivering on-demand video to rural areas. The researchers found that IEEE 802.16 networks can support up to 9-10 simultaneous users streaming video at typical cinematic quality. They demonstrated that scalable video coding and adaptive congestion control improve performance in rural broadband deployments.

• Innovation Issues in Water, Agriculture and Food

  Maria do Rosário Cameira, L. S. Pereira · 2019 · Water

  Agriculture must produce more food despite growing competition for water and land, climate change, and droughts. This special issue examines innovations in agricultural water management across field and basin scales, focusing on irrigation efficiency, water productivity, sustainable practices, and inclusive water governance. Papers address crop water use, irrigation scheduling, system adaptation to water scarcity, drought impacts, water quality, remote sensing technologies, and participatory governance approaches to ensure food security and rural welfare.

• Rural Enterprise Hub Supporting Rural Entrepreneurship and Innovation – Case Studies from Hungary

  Judit Kovács, Erzsébet Szeréna Zoltán · 2017 · European Countryside

  Enterprise hubs established in rural Hungarian settlements can support entrepreneurship, but physical infrastructure alone is insufficient. The study of two hubs in Debrecen and Noszvaj over two years found that active facilitators and hosts are essential to foster real interaction networks and generate synergies among entrepreneurs, addressing the infrastructure needs of the emerging rural economy.

• Rural innovation activities as a means for changing development perspectives – An assessment of more than two decades of promoting LEADER initiatives across the European Union

  Thomas Dax, T. Oedl-Wieser, Dax, Thomas, Oedl-Wieser, Theresia · 2016 · Repository of the Academy's Library (Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences)

  The LEADER approach has mobilized rural actors across the European Union since the 1990s by activating local stakeholders and leveraging endogenous potential. After integrating LEADER into EU Rural Development Programmes in 2007, implementation became mainstream but highly diverse. The paper synthesizes 25 years of European experience, focusing on Austria, finding that LEADER's main impact lies in generating learning processes and improving local governance through stakeholder involvement, rather than in quantitative measures alone.

• Creating value from intangible cultural heritage—the role of innovation for sustainable tourism and regional rural development

  Martina Shakya, Gianluca Vagnarelli · 2024 · European Journal of Cultural Management and Policy

  Intangible cultural heritage drives sustainable rural development by creating economic and social value for communities. Two case studies—alpine farming in Bavaria and sharecropping heritage in Italy—show how innovation transforms traditional practices into tourism assets. Bad Hindelang succeeds through long-term collaboration between farmers, conservationists, and locals balancing tourism with conservation. Le Marche's culinary heritage project preserves oral traditions but has yet to generate significant economic returns. Storytelling and participatory engagement make cultural heritage accessible to tourists, enhancing both visitor experience and community wellbeing.

• Trust and Other Historical Proxies of Social Capital: Do They Matter in Promoting Social Entrepreneurship in Greek Rural Areas?

  Μάριος Τρίγκας, Maria Partalidou, Dimitra Lazaridou · 2020 · Journal of Social Entrepreneurship

  This study examines how trust and social capital foster social entrepreneurship in a mountainous Greek rural area. The researchers argue that trustworthy relationships generate social capital, which in turn supports social entrepreneurship development. By analyzing these dynamics, the paper develops policy recommendations for promoting the social economy in rural regions.

• Sustainable tourism development in rural and marginal areas and opportunities for female entrepreneurship: lessons from an exploratory study

  Umberto Martini, Karin Malacarne, Silvia Pederzolli Giovanazzi, Federica Buffa · 2020 · Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes

  Female entrepreneurs in rural mountain areas drive sustainable tourism development by creating authentic, experiential services and building local stakeholder networks. A study of 11 businesswomen in Italy's Trentino region found that women entrepreneurs naturally emphasize innovation and community collaboration, making them key agents for tourism growth in marginal rural areas where development remains limited.

• Becoming Spatially Embedded: Findings from a Study on Rural Immigrant Entrepreneurship in Norway

  Mai Camilla Munkejord · 2017 · Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review

  Rural immigrant entrepreneurs in northern Norway develop businesses through social and spatial embeddedness rather than individual traits alone. The study reveals how immigrants build economic success by integrating into local communities, leveraging place-based resources, and establishing networks within their geographic context. Spatial embedding emerges as a critical factor shaping entrepreneurial outcomes in rural areas.

• Small scale entrepreneurship – understanding behaviors of aspiring entrepreneurs in a rural area

  Susanne Gretzinger, Simon Fietze, Alexander Brem, Tochukwu Ugonna Ogbonna · 2017 · Competitiveness Review An International Business Journal incorporating Journal of Global Competitiveness

  Aspiring entrepreneurs in rural Denmark benefit from business networks in different ways depending on their innovation type. Those developing new products need strong ties with consultants and network-building experts, while service innovators rely on university connections. Rural entrepreneurs connected to a regional entrepreneurship center can build strong relationships and leverage weak ties effectively. Professional support organizations help less-privileged startups compensate for lacking strong ties.

• Foliage Attenuation Over Mixed Terrains in Rural Areas for Broadband Wireless Access at 3.5 GHz

  Kin Lien Chee, Saúl A. Torrico, Thomas Kürner · 2011 · IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation

  This paper develops a model to predict how tree foliage reduces wireless signal strength in rural broadband systems operating at 3.5 GHz. Researchers measured signal loss across seasons using WiMAX technology deployed in a mixed-terrain rural area, comparing winter baseline data against spring and summer conditions. The model treats leaves as lossy discs and leafstalks as cylinders, and the results validate predictions against empirical data.

• Innovation in the Norwegian Rural Tourism Industry: Results from a Norwegian Survey

  Martin Rønningen · 2010 · The Open Social Science Journal

  A survey of 133 Norwegian rural tourism businesses reveals high innovation rates, though slightly below the national tourism average. Innovation capacity correlates strongly with business cooperation, market information use, and employee training. Export-oriented firms produce more product innovations, and those receiving public grants implement more product and market innovations. The study identifies cooperation, information systems, and workforce development as key drivers of rural tourism innovation.

• Planning Innovations in Land Management and Governance in Fragmented Rural Areas: Two Examples from Galicia (Spain)

  Francisco-J Ónega-López, José A. Puppim de Oliveira, Rafael Crecente-Maseda · 2010 · European Planning Studies

  Land fragmentation in rural Galicia creates obstacles for agriculture and forestry, leading to abandonment and social decline. Traditional consolidation approaches fail due to high transaction costs. Two innovative governance models in Galicia combined individual and common property rights to improve land management without changing ownership. These structures increased labour productivity, clarified property rights, and reduced abandonment while promoting sustainable land use.

• Sustainable innovation in agriculture: Building competitiveness and business sustainability

  Pavla Vrabcová, Hana Urbancová · 2023 · Agricultural Economics (Zemědělská ekonomika)

  Agricultural companies must shift from merely meeting legal requirements to actively pursuing sustainable innovation through interdisciplinary approaches. This study analyzed 183 companies and five focus groups to identify factors driving sustainable innovation in agriculture. Six key factors emerged: process approach, corporate social responsibility, quality management systems, supply chain operations, production demand, and employee performance.

• Living Labs as an Approach to Strengthen Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems

  Jorieke Potters, Kevin Collins, H.B. Schoorlemmer, Egil Petter Stræte, Emīls Ķīlis, Andy Lane, Héloïse Leloup · 2022 · EuroChoices

  Living Labs bring together farmers, businesses, and public agencies to co-create and test agricultural innovations. This study evaluated six Living Labs across Europe from 2018 to 2021 and identified four critical conditions for success: the challenge must be appropriately complex, the enabling environment must support collaboration, facilitation must be skilled, and participants must maintain momentum. These findings help policymakers and practitioners design more effective Living Labs for sustainable farming.

• An Analytical Framework to Study Multi-Actor Partnerships Engaged in Interactive Innovation Processes in the Agriculture, Forestry, and Rural Development Sector

  Evelien Cronin, Sylvie Fosselle, Elke Rogge, Robert Home · 2021 · Sustainability

  This paper develops a framework for understanding multi-actor co-innovation partnerships in agriculture, forestry, and rural development across Europe. Analysis of 30 partnerships reveals that funding mechanisms often push partnerships to adapt their goals and overpromise outputs. Successful partnerships recruit experienced members with established networks who facilitate internal collaboration and navigate external political and market conditions. Aligning funding body goals with societal needs could better support partnerships pursuing socio-economic and environmental benefits.

• Place-Based Policies for Sustainability and Rural Development: The Case of a Portuguese Village “Spun” in Traditional Linen

  Vasta Alessandro, Elisabete Figueiredo, Sandra Valente, Hilkka Vihinen, Marta Nieto-Romero · 2019 · Social Sciences

  European rural development policies increasingly emphasize place-based approaches that leverage local resources for sustainability. This study examines a Portuguese village that revitalized itself through traditional linen production, using collective action and local identity to combat depopulation and marginalization. The case demonstrates how place-based policies enable sustainable practices that improve both social well-being and economic conditions in rural communities facing demographic decline.

• Opportunity entrepreneurship in the rural sector: evidence from Greece

  Leonidas A. Zampetakis, George Kanelakis · 2010 · Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship

  This study tests whether urban entrepreneurship theories apply to rural contexts by surveying 81 business owners in southern Crete, Greece. The researchers found that entrepreneurs' personality traits, prior knowledge, education level, and expectations of future social status significantly predict opportunity entrepreneurship in rural areas. The findings suggest existing entrepreneurship theories do transfer to rural settings and could guide policymakers developing rural small businesses.

• Farmers’ Participation in Operational Groups to Foster Innovation in the Agricultural Sector: An Italian Case Study

  Natalia Sanchez Molina, Gianluca Brunori, Elena Favilli, Stefano Grando, Patrizia Proietti · 2021 · Sustainability

  Italian farmers participate actively in EU-supported Operational Groups that bring together multiple stakeholders to solve agricultural problems collaboratively. The study finds farmers contribute meaningfully during design and implementation phases, but their involvement fluctuates throughout the process. Sustaining farmer participation requires motivation, commitment, trust, and open communication among diverse actors working together.

• Women, Rural Environment and Entrepreneurship

  Nuria Alonso, David Trillo del Pozo · 2014 · Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences

  Women in rural Spain face severe employment barriers, social exclusion, and economic marginalization that drive rural depopulation and aging. The authors analyze the socio-economic conditions of rural women and propose entrepreneurship as a pathway to improve their employability and economic opportunities, arguing that existing rural development policies lack gender-specific mechanisms to address women's particular challenges.

• Rural proofing entrepreneurship in two fields of research

  Shqipe Gashi Nulleshi, Malin Tillmar · 2022 · International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research

  This systematic review of 97 papers from entrepreneurship and rural studies journals reveals that rural entrepreneurship research inadequately addresses what makes rural contexts distinctive. While 56 papers engage with at least one dimension of rurality—remoteness, accessibility, or sense of place—41 papers ignore these dimensions entirely. Entrepreneurship journals particularly neglect rurality, focusing instead on generic topics like social capital and networks. The authors call for stronger collaboration between the two fields to develop more contextually grounded rural entrepreneurship research.

• Trademark potential increase and entrepreneurship rural development: A case study of Southern Transylvania, Romania

  Daniel Ștefan, Valentina Vasile, Maria-Alexandra Popa, Anca Cristea, Elena Bunduchi, Cezar Sigmirean, Anamari-Beatrice Ștefan, Călin-Adrian Comes, Liviu Ciucan-Rusu · 2021 · PLoS ONE

  Rural areas can drive economic development by capitalizing on cultural heritage through trademark creation and heritage tourism. This study develops a decision-making model using the Analytical Hierarchy Process to help local authorities identify and market lesser-known heritage assets as innovative tourism products. Applied to Southern Transylvania, Romania, the model shows how communities can leverage both tangible and intangible heritage to create branded tourism routes and diversify local economies.

• Features of the Content and Implementation of Innovation and Investment Projects for the Development of Enterprises in the Field of Rural Green Tourism

  Ihnatenko Mykola, Antoshkin Vadym, Postol Anatoliy, Hurbyk Yurii, Runcheva Nataliia · 2020 · SSRN Electronic Journal

  Rural green tourism enterprises in Ukraine face underdevelopment despite significant tourist resources and 5 million potential self-employed rural workers. The paper identifies innovation and investment project structures, competitive advantages, and funding sources needed for growth. Budget support combined with private investment from agribusiness and communities proved effective in the 2000s-2010s, rapidly expanding rural tourism entrepreneurship, but these programs were later discontinued.

• Intellectual Property and Agricultural Science and Innovation in Germany and the United States

  Barbara Brandl, Leland Glenna · 2016 · Science Technology & Human Values

  The paper challenges the dominant U.S. theory that treats scientific knowledge as either a public or private good. By examining Germany's approach to agricultural science as a club good, the authors compare how the United States and Germany manage food and agricultural research differently. They argue these distinct approaches have different impacts on social welfare and call for democratic debate on how to best govern scientific knowledge for public benefit.

• Learning as Issue Framing in Agricultural Innovation Networks

  Tālis Tīsenkopfs, Ilona Kunda, Sandra Šūmane · 2014 · The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension

  Learning in agricultural innovation networks happens through how members frame and reframe issues together. The study tracked two networks over two years and found that sustainable agricultural practices emerge when network members gradually adjust their understanding of problems and their relationships with each other. Complex contexts affect how well members align on issues, but identifying key actor roles and facilitation methods helps networks collaborate effectively on shared concerns.

• Neoliberalism, the University, Public Goods and Agricultural Innovation

  Leland Glenna, Sally Shortall, Barbara Brandl · 2014 · Sociologia Ruralis

  Agricultural research funding has shifted from government-led public institutions toward private funding and public-private partnerships over the past four decades. This trend risks neglecting public goods that don't generate profit. The authors document funding patterns across the USA, UK, Ireland, and Germany, finding that while neoliberal approaches appear in all four countries, their implementation and effects vary significantly based on national and institutional contexts.

• The Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship in Agriculture and Rural Development

  Uchendu Eugene Chigbu · 2012 · Community Development

  This handbook examines entrepreneurship within agriculture and rural development contexts. It brings together research on how entrepreneurs drive innovation and economic growth in rural areas through agricultural ventures and related activities. The work synthesizes knowledge about rural entrepreneurial practices, challenges, and opportunities across different regions and agricultural sectors.

• Gendered Entrepreneurship in Rural Latvia: Exploring Femininities, Work, and Livelihood Within Rural Tourism

  Cecilia Möller · 2011 · Journal of Baltic Studies

  Women entrepreneurs in rural Latvia's tourism sector pursue livelihoods driven by both economic necessity and lifestyle preferences. The study reveals how women navigate their livelihood strategies while balancing desires for independence against economic and social constraints. Women organize their work and personal lives across time and space, negotiating complex paradoxes inherent in rural entrepreneurship within the post-socialist context.

• Unlocking the Potential of Agrifood Waste for Sustainable Innovation in Agriculture

  Mônica Voss, C. Reyes Valle, Emanuela Calcio Gaudino, Silvia Tabasso, Claudio Forte, Giancarlo Cravotto · 2024 · Recycling

  Food waste represents a major global challenge, with 1 billion tons generated annually. This review examines how agricultural and food waste can be converted into valuable products—biocides, bio-based fertilizers, and biostimulants—that boost crop yields and plant health. Using waste-derived compounds supports circular economy principles while addressing food security and environmental sustainability goals simultaneously.

• The multi-actor approach in thematic networks for agriculture and forestry innovation

  Elena Feo, Pieter Spanoghe, Els Berckmoes, Elodie Pascal, M. R. Mosquera‐Losada, Alexander Opdebeeck, Sylvia Burssens · 2022 · Agricultural and Food Economics

  Horizon2020 Thematic Networks use multi-actor approaches to share agricultural and forestry knowledge across different expertise types. The study finds that participation remains unequal across actor types, limiting demand-driven outcomes. Facilitators strengthen relationships between actors, while digital platforms combined with demonstration activities and peer exchange significantly improve knowledge sharing and innovation impact.

• Citizen Science as Democratic Innovation That Renews Environmental Monitoring and Assessment for the Sustainable Development Goals in Rural Areas

  Cristián Alarcón Ferrari, Mari Jönsson, Solomon Gebreyohannis Gebrehiwot, Linley Chiwona‐Karltun, Cecilia Mark‐Herbert, Daniela Manuschevich, Neil Powell, Thao Do, Kevin Bishop, Tuija Hilding-Rydevik · 2021 · Sustainability

  Citizen science offers a democratic approach to environmental monitoring that strengthens the legitimacy of data used for sustainable development in rural areas. Traditional environmental monitoring fails to adequately support local implementation of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. By incorporating citizen science into environmental assessment, rural communities can produce and use data more effectively for transformative governance, particularly for protecting land and natural resources while addressing resource conflicts.

• International Comparison of the Efficiency of Agricultural Science, Technology, and Innovation: A Case Study of G20 Countries

  Xiangyu Guo, Canhui Deng, Dan Wang, Xu Du, Jiali Li, Bowen Wan · 2021 · Sustainability

  This study measures agricultural science, technology, and innovation (ASTI) efficiency across G20 countries using data envelopment analysis. Developed G20 nations show declining efficiency trends but stronger innovation capacity, while developing G20 countries demonstrate rising efficiency but lower capacity. R&D spending redundancy and insufficient agricultural research output constrain efficiency gains. Technological change drives most productivity improvements across both groups.

• An Assessment of Seaweed Extracts: Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture

  Daniel El Chami, Fabio Galli · 2020 · Agronomy

  Seaweed-based plant growth regulators reduce fertilizer inputs while improving pear production. Field trials in Italy cut primary nutrients by 35–46% and total fertilization by 13%, while increasing fruit weight by 5% and yield by 19–55%. The agronomic efficiency of the seaweed treatment exceeded conventional fertilization by five to nine times, demonstrating that farmers can achieve better results with fewer inputs.

• Successful agricultural innovation in emerging economies: new genetic technologies for global food production

  David J. Bennett · 2013 · Choice Reviews Online

  This edited volume examines how genetic technologies and crop biotechnology drive agricultural innovation in emerging economies to address food security. It covers the scientific basis for genetically modified crops, their adoption across Africa, Argentina, China, and India, regulatory frameworks enabling innovation, and social and ethical considerations. The work argues that new genetic technologies offer practical solutions for improving food production and nutrition in developing regions.

• Enhancing competitiveness and sustainability in Spanish agriculture: The role of technological innovation and corporate social responsibility

  Emilio Abad‐Segura, Francisco José Castillo‐Díaz, Ana Batlles‐delaFuente, Luis Jesús Belmonte Ureña · 2024 · Business Strategy & Development

  Spanish agricultural firms that adopt sustainable technological innovations—particularly precision agriculture and smart livestock management—achieve better corporate social responsibility outcomes by using resources more efficiently and reducing environmental harm. However, regional differences exist based on local economic resources, infrastructure, and policy support. The study shows that combining technological innovation with corporate social responsibility strategies strengthens both sustainability and competitiveness, and calls for targeted policies to help lagging regions.

• How to assess agricultural innovation systems in a transformation perspective: a Delphi consensus study

  Aurélie Toillier, Syndhia Mathé, Abdoulaye Saley Moussa, Guy Faure · 2021 · The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension

  This study used a modified Delphi technique with international experts to design a framework for assessing agricultural innovation systems across multiple countries. Experts reached consensus on a capacity-oriented assessment model with standardized yet flexible components. The research identifies factors that helped and hindered consensus-building, offering practical lessons for future Delphi studies and demonstrating how group-based Delphi methods can support international knowledge co-production on agricultural innovation systems.

• Formation of an Export-Oriented Agricultural Economy and Regional Open Innovations

  Viktor L. Shabanov, Marianna Vasilchenko, Elena Anatol’evna Derunova, А. П. Потапов · 2021 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  This paper develops indicators and modeling tools to assess how agricultural investments, production output, and exports relate to each other across Russian regions. Using factor and cluster analysis, the authors identify five regional groups with distinct investment levels, production volumes, and export patterns. They find that investment intensity and agricultural production efficiency are undervalued in current assessments. The results support better institutional management of regional agricultural systems oriented toward export.

• Word of Mouth, Digital Media, and Open Innovation at the Agricultural SMEs

  Tutur Wicaksono, Agus Dwi Nugroho, Zoltán Lakner, Anna Dunay, Csaba Bálint Illés · 2021 · Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity

  Agricultural SMEs in Hungary's local markets rely on two main information channels: word-of-mouth and digital media. Research with 156 consumers at Budapest's Central Market Hall found that older consumers prefer word-of-mouth, while educated, foreign, or socially isolated consumers choose digital platforms. The study recommends SMEs strengthen product quality and develop two-way digital communication strategies to reach diverse customer segments.

• On the Way to Eco-Innovations in Agriculture: Concepts, Implementation and Effects at National and Local Level. The Case of Poland

  Michał Dudek, Wioletta Wrzaszcz · 2020 · Sustainability

  Polish agriculture adopted eco-innovations through two pathways: policy-driven organizational changes like organic certification and CAP greening mechanisms, which expanded organic farms from 0.5% to 4.6% of holdings between 2005–2016; and farmer-led product and process innovations driven by individual knowledge, family capital, and local institutional support. Both approaches proved effective at increasing sustainable farming practices and soil-protective crops.

• The issue of digital divide in rural areas of the European Union

  Joanna Kos-Łabędowicz · 2017 · Ekonomiczne Problemy Usług

  Rural areas across the European Union face a digital divide that limits access to internet and ICT opportunities compared to urban regions. Population aging and rural depopulation compound this inequality, creating barriers to digital convergence. The paper examines factors preventing rural communities from achieving equal digital access and socioeconomic development opportunities available in cities.

• Introduction : Innovations et agricultures urbaines durables

  Christophe‐Toussaint Soulard, Christine Margétic, Élodie Valette · 2011 · Norois

  Urban agriculture represents a new agricultural frontier addressing food security and health for growing urban populations. The paper examines how innovation in urban agriculture creates proximity between cities, nature, and farming systems. Urban farming practices challenge traditional agricultural concepts and offer sustainable solutions for reconnecting urban populations with food production.

• Rural innovation chains. Two examples for the diffusion of rural innovations

  László Letenyei · 2001 · Review of Sociology

  Rural innovation spreads through social networks where prestigious community members serve as economic models. Peasant societies adopt innovations through imitation rather than independent innovation, following respected figures within their networks. Two case studies—one from the Peruvian Andes and one from Hungary—demonstrate that economic changes and new technologies can be adopted while local social networks remain stable and intact, reinforcing rather than destroying existing community bonds.

• Do Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems Have the Dynamic Capabilities to Guide the Digital Transition of Short Food Supply Chains?

  Chrysanthi Charatsari, Anastasios Michailidis, Martina Francescone, Marcello De Rosa, Dimitrios Aidonis, Luca Bartoli, Giuseppe La Rocca, Luca Camanzi, Evagelos D. Lioutas · 2023 · Information

  Agricultural knowledge and innovation systems in Greece and Italy struggle to capitalize on digital opportunities in short food supply chains, despite sensing external changes. Knowledge emerges as critical for building transformative capacity, but systems lack functional connections between stakeholders. Strengthening engagement from public advisory organizations, universities, and technology providers is essential for developing the collective knowledge base needed for successful digital transition.

• Interpreting community enterprises’ ability to survive in depleted contexts through the Humane Entrepreneurship lens: evidence from Italian rural areas

  Nicoletta Buratti, Massimo Albanese, Cécile Sillig · 2021 · Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development

  Community enterprises in depleted Italian rural areas survive by adopting humane entrepreneurship—a strategic approach that balances economic goals with environmental and social values. This framework better explains why entrepreneurs operate in high-risk contexts and reveals how community involvement and altruistic values enable these businesses to succeed where conventional ventures fail.

• Climate variability, innovation and firm performance: evidence from the European agricultural sector

  Sabrina Auci, Nicolò Barbieri, Manuela Coromaldi, Melania Michetti · 2021 · European Review of Agricultural Economics

  Climate variability drives agricultural firms to develop adaptation innovations, which significantly improve their performance. Using panel data from European farms between 2007 and 2017, the authors find that firms generating knowledge about climate adaptation technologies perform better, particularly in aquaculture and fishing sectors in northern Europe. Innovation emerges as a key mechanism linking climate stress to business success.

• Making Darkness a Place-Based Resource: How the Fight against Light Pollution Reconfigures Rural Areas in France

  Dany Lapostolle, Samuel Challéat · 2020 · Annals of the American Association of Geographers

  French rural communities are turning darkness into an economic and environmental resource by fighting light pollution. The paper identifies three approaches: economicizing darkness for profit, protecting it for biodiversity conservation, and integrating it into sustainable development planning. These rural areas become experimental spaces where communities resolve conflicts between different visions of darkness protection, ultimately enabling new development trajectories that balance economic, ecological, and energy goals.

• 5G New Radio for Rural Broadband: How to Achieve Long-Range Coverage on the 3.5 GHz Band

  Jialu Lun, Pål Frenger, Anders Furuskär, Elmar Trojer · 2019

  This paper demonstrates that 5G New Radio technology can deliver high-speed broadband to rural areas using the 3.5 GHz band. The authors propose network enhancements including massive MIMO antennas deployed on existing GSM sites and TV towers, combined with low-cost booster equipment for user terminals. Their approach achieves over 100 Mbps downlink speeds at cell edges, and with hardware improvements, exceeds 350 Mbps downlink and 30 Mbps uplink performance while extending coverage significantly beyond conventional GSM infrastructure.

• Innovation in rural development in Puglia, Italy: critical issues and potentialities starting from empirical evidence

  Marilena Labianca, Stefano De Rubertis, Angelo Belliggiano, Angelo Salento · 2016 · Studies in Agricultural Economics

  In Puglia, Italy, rural innovation policy under the LEADER approach emphasizes social and cultural change, yet local implementation remains narrowly focused on technological solutions and productivist goals. Despite significant CAP funding for innovation axes, governance structures at regional and local levels fail to support broader institutional and social innovation. Stakeholder interviews reveal a gap between policy intent and practice, with entrenched conservatism limiting transformative rural development.

• Supporting Innovation in Organic Agriculture: A European Perspective Using Experience from the SOLID Project

  Susanne Padel, Mette Vaarst, Konstantinos Zaralis · 2015 · Sustainable Agriculture Research

  Organic farming drives agricultural innovation through stakeholder collaboration rather than just new technologies. The SOLID project used farmer-led participatory research across Europe to identify and solve problems in organic dairy farming. Farmers lacked confidence in forage production reliability despite recognizing its importance. The study shows that combining scientific expertise with farmers' practical knowledge through systems-based approaches effectively develops sustainable innovations.

• Patterns and Collaborators of Innovation in the Primary Sector: A Study of the Danish Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery Industry

  Jesper Lindgaard Christensen, Michael S. Dahl, Søren Qvist Eliasen, René Ernst Nielsen, Christian Richter Østergaard · 2011 · Industry and Innovation

  Danish agricultural, forestry, and fishery firms show substantial innovation despite being classified as low-tech. Nearly half of 640 surveyed firms reported some innovation activity, with product/process innovation at 23 percent. Firms selling directly to consumers innovated more than those in processing or wholesale. Most innovative firms worked independently, citing internal drivers. The industry's strong extended knowledge base—universities, research institutions, advisory services—provides critical innovation support that traditional surveys often miss.

• Sustainable Rural Healthcare Entrepreneurship: A Case Study of Serbia

  Ivan Paunović, Sotiris Apostolopoulos, Ivana Božić Miljković, Miloš Stojanović · 2024 · Sustainability

  Rural health entrepreneurs in Serbia provide essential medical services through private practices, policlinics, and dental clinics in underserved areas. The study identifies frugality, family orientation, and sustainability-driven innovation as key characteristics. While aging populations increase healthcare demand and financing instruments have improved, non-reimbursable services from the state health fund create significant barriers, perpetuating rural healthcare inequalities.

• Infrastructure required, skill needed: Digital entrepreneurship in rural and urban areas

  Christian Bergholz, Lena Füner, Moritz Lubczyk, Rolf Sternberg, Johannes Bersch · 2024 · Journal of Business Venturing Insights

  Digital entrepreneurship in Germany grows faster than conventional entrepreneurship and concentrates in cities, but the study reveals it can thrive in rural areas when two conditions are met: adequate digital infrastructure and a highly-skilled workforce. Policy should focus on building both elements to enable rural digital venture formation.

• Navigating psychological barriers in agricultural innovation adoption: A multi-stakeholder perspective

  Nopparuj Chindasombatcharoen, Naoum Tsolakis, Mukesh Kumar, Eoin O’Sullivan · 2024 · Journal of Cleaner Production

  Smallholder farmers in the Global South face psychological barriers that prevent them from adopting agricultural innovations. This study identifies four key psychological obstacles: trust, effort, attitudinal, and normative barriers. The researchers interviewed rice farmers and agricultural technology companies to develop an integrated framework showing how to overcome these barriers through demonstrating clear benefits, building trust, reducing effort requirements, and developing human capital.

• MODELING OF FACTORS INFLUENCING INNOVATION ACTIVITIES OF AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISES OF UKRAINE

  Vitalina Babenko · 2017 · SCIENTIFIC BULLETIN OF POLISSIA

  This paper analyzes factors influencing innovation activities in Ukrainian agricultural enterprises. The author develops economic-mathematical models to identify latent factors affecting innovation dynamics, including costs, funding sources, and implementation rates. The research reveals patterns in how agricultural enterprises manage innovation processes and their internal and external relationships. The findings provide guidelines for determining Ukraine's innovation strategy in global agricultural markets.

• Agricultural innovations at a Late Iron Age oppidum: Archaeobotanical evidence for flax, food and fodder from Calleva Atrebatum, UK

  Lisa Lodwick · 2016 · Quaternary International

  Archaeological plant remains from a Late Iron Age settlement in Britain reveal that agricultural innovations focused on animal fodder production rather than feeding urban populations. Evidence shows flax cultivation, hay meadow management, and heathland use alongside staple crops and imported foods. These findings challenge existing theories about how proto-urban settlements sustained themselves and demonstrate that new grassland management and oil crops supported livestock rather than people.

• Agricultural business model innovation in Swedish food production : The influence of self-leadership and lean innovation

  Pia Ulvenblad, Maya Hoveskog, Joakim Tell, Per‐Ola Ulvenblad, Jenny Ståhl, Henrik Barth · 2014 · Hogskolan Ihalmstad (Halmstad University)

  Swedish agricultural producers need stronger leadership and organizational practices to innovate their business models across the food value chain. The paper proposes that self-leadership and lean innovation methods can drive business model innovation in farming. It presents a framework combining these approaches and recommends action research through learning networks as a method for agricultural sectors to develop and improve operations from farm to consumer.

• Innovation and Productivity Advances in British Agriculture: 1620–1850

  James B. Ang, Rajabrata Banerjee, Jakob B. Madsen · 2012 · Southern Economic Journal

  British agriculture between 1620 and 1850 experienced substantial productivity gains driven primarily by technological progress. The researchers measured technological advancement through agricultural patents and published books on farming methods, finding strong evidence that innovation directly fueled productivity improvements. This supports economic theory linking agricultural development to broader economic growth.

• Rural entrepreneurship: expanding the horizons

  Alex Avramenko, Jane A.K. Silver · 2009 · International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management

  Rural entrepreneurs typically operate within local or regional constraints, but this paper argues they should expand beyond territorial boundaries. The authors show that rural businesses can export solutions to problems elsewhere and import expertise from other regions. They use the 'passport to trade' project to demonstrate how understanding different local business cultures enables successful cross-regional commerce, challenging policies that treat rural entrepreneurship as purely local.

• Reducing food loss through sustainable business models and agricultural innovation systems

  Subhanjan Sengupta, Sonal Choudhary, Raymond Obayi, Rakesh Nayak · 2024 · Supply Chain Management An International Journal

  This study identifies how sustainable business models integrated with agricultural innovation systems reduce food loss in postharvest supply chains. Researchers found that value losses cascade through supply chains via multiplier and stacking effects. They propose four strategies: redefining ownership as stewardship, enabling beneficiary identification, strengthening value addition, and building community capacity. The findings emphasize networked approaches combining agricultural innovation systems with sustainable business models to address early-stage food loss.

• 5G and 6G Broadband Cellular Network Technologies as Enablers of New Avenues for Behavioral Influence with Examples from Reduced Rural-Urban Digital Divide

  Harri Oinas‐Kukkonen, Pasi Karppinen, Markku Kekkonen · 2021 · Urban Science

  Fifth and sixth generation broadband networks enable faster feedback loops for persuasive design and behavioral influence. The authors argue these technologies can reduce the rural-urban digital divide, but only if rural populations gain actual access. Without equitable deployment, next-generation networks risk widening existing inequalities rather than closing them.

• A machine learning approach to rural entrepreneurship

  Mehmet Güney Celbiş · 2021 · Papers of the Regional Science Association

  Machine learning models trained on Life in Transition Survey data identify key factors associated with rural business success and failure across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Capital constraints, age, trust levels, awareness of trends, media use, competitive character, institutional support, and education all predict entrepreneurial outcomes with 72–92% accuracy. The findings reveal which personal and structural factors determine whether rural entrepreneurs successfully launch businesses.

• Digital Divide of Rural Territories in Russia

  Marina Kupriyanova, Valeriy Dronov, Tatiana Gordov · 2019 · Agris on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics

  Rural territories in Russia face severe digital inequality that undermines agricultural competitiveness and widens the urban-rural quality-of-life gap. The paper develops a qualitative analytical method to measure the digital divide in rural areas, addressing how unequal ICT access excludes rural populations from economic and social progress.

• Innovation in rural development: "neo-rural" farmers branding local quality of food and territory

  B. Orria, Vincenzo Luise · 2017 · Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca (Universita Degli Studi Di Milano)

  Neo-rural farmers in Campania, Italy are innovating through collective branding that links local food quality with territorial identity. These farmers reshape production-consumption relationships by combining economic practices with environmental and cultural values. Their narrative-based brand represents an alternative agri-food movement that promotes local development, food quality, and resource stewardship in inner rural areas.

• Benchmarking innovations and new practices in rural tourism development

  Vik­neswaran Nair, Kashif Hussain, May‐Chiun Lo, Neethiahnanthan Ari Ragavan · 2015 · Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes

  Rural tourism in Asia can become more sustainable by adopting innovations and best practices from both within the region and internationally. The authors reviewed case studies from nine Asian countries plus New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Lesotho, and Poland to identify successful approaches. They found that Asian countries can replicate management strategies and development models from other nations to improve their own rural tourism initiatives.

• A Predictive Model of Innovation in Rural Entrepreneurship

  Elena Harpa, Sorina Moica, Dana Rus · 2015 · Procedia Technology

  Rural entrepreneurs succeed when they embrace innovation. This study identifies key factors driving economic development in rural areas and builds a predictive model showing how innovation levels directly influence business success. The model helps explain the relationship between entrepreneurial innovation and rural well-being, providing practical guidance for supporting local business growth.

• Literary rural tourism entrepreneurship: case study evidence from Northern Portugal

  Lénia Marques, Conceição Cunha · 2013 · Journal of Policy Research in Tourism Leisure and Events

  This case study examines how literary tourism entrepreneurs in Northern Portugal develop and operate their businesses. The research demonstrates that literary heritage and cultural narratives drive rural tourism ventures in the region, creating economic opportunities for local entrepreneurs who leverage regional identity and literary connections to attract visitors and build sustainable tourism enterprises.

• RURAL WOMEN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A CASE STUDY IN HERAKLION CRETE PREFECTURE, GREECE

  Lassithiotaki Aikaterini · 2011 · Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship

  Rural women in Crete who formed cooperative enterprises for traditional food production hold entrepreneurial ambitions but face significant barriers. Low education, lack of professional skills, and risk aversion push them toward cooperatives rather than individual ventures. These cooperatives lack modern business practices including quality control systems, certification processes, technology adoption, marketing, and administrative innovation.

• Charting Digital Divides: Comparing Socioeconomic, Gender, Life Stage, and Rural-Urban Internet Access and Use in Five Countries

  William H. Dutton, Brian Kahin, Ramón O'Callaghan, Andrew Wyckoff · 2004

  This paper examines internet access and use patterns across five countries, analyzing how socioeconomic status, gender, life stage, and rural-urban location create persistent digital divides. The authors document that the digital divide operates across multiple dimensions simultaneously, shaped by both technological infrastructure and social factors, with rural populations facing distinct barriers compared to urban counterparts.

• Digital divide, craft firms’ websites and urban-rural disparities—empirical evidence from a web-scraping approach

  Anita Thonipara, Rolf Sternberg, Till Proeger, Lukas Haefner · 2022 · Review of Regional Research

  Using web-scraping data from 345,000 German small firms, this study reveals a significant digital divide between urban and rural areas. Rural firms are half as likely to operate websites as urban firms, despite similar adoption of social media and website maintenance practices. Population density, youth, and education positively correlate with website adoption, while GDP per capita shows a surprising negative association in urban regions. The findings challenge the "death of distance" hypothesis and highlight persistent spatial inequalities in digitalization.

• Entrepreneurial ecosystems and local economy sustainability: institutional actors' views on neo-rural entrepreneurship in low-density Portuguese territories

  Ubyrajara Dal Bello, Carla Susana Marques, Octávio Sacramento, Anderson Galvão · 2021 · Management of Environmental Quality An International Journal

  Neo-rural entrepreneurs in low-density Portuguese territories drive local economic development and sustainability, according to institutional actors interviewed in this study. The research identifies territorial attractiveness factors and institutional support from municipalities and polytechnic institutes, but also reveals significant entrepreneurial obstacles. Most neo-rural ventures are necessity-driven rather than opportunity-driven, suggesting these entrepreneurs fill economic gaps in declining rural areas.

• The role of actors’ cooperation, local anchoring and innovation in creating culinary tourism experiences in the rural Slovenian Mediterranean

  Peter Kumer, Primož Pipan, Mateja Šmid Hribar, Nika Razpotnik Visković · 2019 · Geografski vestnik

  Rural culinary tourism experiences in Slovenia's Mediterranean region drive sustainable development when local actors cooperate closely and embed community values. The researchers analyzed 213 culinary experiences, examining ten in depth across cooperation, local anchoring, and innovation. They found that innovation significantly influences success and that experience types correlate with organizer types, making culinary tourism a viable alternative to mass coastal tourism.

• Rural broadband initiatives in the Netherlands as a training ground for neo-endogenous development

  Koen Salemink, Dirk Strijker · 2016 · Local Economy The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit

  Rural broadband initiatives in the Netherlands involve citizens, governments, and market players working together to improve internet connectivity. An analysis of 75 initiatives reveals an eight-stage development model showing how all three actors influence progress. However, market players use rigid policies to protect market share, while governments offer vague or generic policies that ignore local differences. These initiatives require substantial social, intellectual, and financial capital to succeed, but current operating conditions threaten their ability to deliver broadband to rural areas.

• Beyond the Transfer of Capital? Second-Home Owners as Competence Brokers for Rural Entrepreneurship and Innovation

  Ingeborg Nordbø · 2013 · European Planning Studies

  Second-home owners in Norwegian rural municipalities possess significant untapped potential as competence brokers for local entrepreneurship and innovation. A survey of 2,200 second-home owners in Telemark found they demonstrate genuine interest in their communities, willingness to contribute, and extensive higher education and business experience. These characteristics position them as valuable resources for stimulating rural economic development beyond simple capital transfer.

• Territory and innovation behaviour in agri-food firms: does rurality matter?

  Jose-Maria Garcia Alvarez-Coque, Teresa López-García Usach, Mercedes Sánchez · 2012 · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics

  Innovation in agri-food firms depends on both company structure and territorial characteristics. Using data from Valencia, Spain, the study finds that rural location itself does not hinder innovation. Instead, proximity to training services and technological institutes significantly boosts innovation rates. Education levels and access to knowledge infrastructure matter more than urban versus rural designation.

• What a Pandemic Has Taught Us About the Potential for Innovation in Rural Health: Commencing an Ethnography in Canada, the United States, Sweden, and Australia

  Samuel Petrie, Dean B. Carson, Paul A. Peters, Anna‐Karin Hurtig, Michele LeBlanc, Holly Simpson, Jaymie Barnabe, Mikayla Young, Mara Ostafichuk, Heidi Hodge, Justin Gladman, Matilda Smale, Manueal Gonzalez Garcia · 2021 · Frontiers in Public Health

  The paper examines how rural health systems in Canada, the United States, Sweden, and Australia built resilience and capacity during the pandemic. Using antifragility as a framework—the concept that systems strengthen under stress—the authors conducted ethnographic research to understand how rural health innovations emerged and persisted through crisis conditions.

• AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION AS AN INNOVATION FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT

  Oleksandr Shpykuliak, Olena Sакоvska · 2020 · Baltic Journal of Economic Studies

  Agricultural cooperatives serve as a mechanism for integrated rural development in Ukraine, addressing economic and settlement challenges while increasing investment attractiveness. The study analyzes European cooperative models and identifies growth points in Ukrainian rural areas—meat, construction, tourism, and recreational clusters—where cooperatives can reduce costs for members and support small and medium-sized businesses. The research concludes that cooperatives require stronger state institutional support to function effectively as mechanisms for economic self-regulation and rural prosperity.

• Creating a smart rural economy through smart specialisation: The microsphere model

  Steve Talbot · 2016 · Local Economy The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit

  This paper proposes the microsphere model, a framework for applying smart specialisation strategies to rural economies. The model shifts innovation focus from large-scale capital investment to entrepreneurial activity, helping policymakers support innovation among small rural firms. The author tests the framework using a Scottish rural region case study, demonstrating how smart specialisation can address economic stagnation and boost regional growth through demand-led innovation strategies.

• Information and Communication Technologies for Regional Development in the Czech Republic – Broadband Connectivity in Rural Areas

  Jiří Vaněk, Jan Jarolímek, Tereza Vogeltanzová, Vanek, Jiri, Jarolimek, Jan, Vogeltanzova, Tereza · 2011 · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA)

  A survey of Czech rural regions reveals significant digital inequality despite recent improvements. Urban areas achieve near-complete broadband coverage, suburban areas exceed 85%, but rural areas lag at only 75% availability. Many rural areas lack high-quality internet connections entirely. The research documents how agricultural enterprises in rural Czech regions face persistent connectivity challenges despite EU and national digital development initiatives.

• Agricultural extension services and rural innovation in inner Scandinavia

  Bjørnar Sæther · 2010 · Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography

  Agricultural extension services in Norwegian Hedmark and Swedish Värmland take different approaches to supporting rural innovation. Värmland's extension services foster entrepreneurship and rural development through networked regional systems, while Hedmark's services remain tied to conventional agro-industrial models within a centralized national system. The study shows extension services function as either catalysts for agricultural restructuring or defenders of traditional farming approaches.

• Multi-actor rural innovation ecosystems: Definition, dynamics, and spatial relations

  Simona Bravaglieri, Hanna Elisabet Åberg, Alessia Bertuca, Claudia De Luca · 2024 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Rural innovation ecosystems differ fundamentally from urban ones in their structure and dynamics. This paper defines rural innovation ecosystems by identifying their unique characteristics: geographic dependencies, sector-specific relationships, and social and human capital rooted in local communities. The authors argue that rural areas possess distinct resources and capacities to generate innovation through multi-actor collaboration, and that understanding these differences is essential for establishing vibrant innovation ecosystems that address rural disparities.

• How Knowledge-Based Local and Global Networks Foster Innovations in Rural Areas

  Gesine Tuitjer, Patrick Küpper · 2020 · Journal of Innovation Economics & Management

  Rural micro-businesses in peripheral areas innovate by combining local and global knowledge networks. Analysis of three German case studies shows that extra-local knowledge sources spark initial ideas and support product marketing, while local ties prove essential for production. The findings challenge rural development policies that focus solely on local networks, demonstrating that global knowledge flows significantly enable innovation even in institutionally thin regions.

• Macroeconomic Analysis of the Competitive Factors which Influence Innovation in Rural Entrepreneurship

  Elena Harpa · 2017 · Procedia Engineering

  This study identifies macroeconomic factors that drive entrepreneurial innovation in rural areas by analyzing competitiveness at regional levels. The research develops a descriptive model placing entrepreneurial innovation at the center of rural competitiveness, incorporating Porter's diamond framework and institutional influences. The model shows how four key elements interact with external institutions to foster innovation in rural entrepreneurship.

• Fablabs as Drivers for Open Innovation and Co-creation to Foster Rural Development

  Emilija Stojmenova Duh, Andrej Kos · 2016

  Fablabs function as collaborative spaces where policymakers, businesses, and citizens jointly develop innovative products and services. The paper demonstrates how these makerspaces drive rural development by examining two case studies from rural Slovenian municipalities, showing how open innovation and co-creation platforms can generate economic opportunities in rural regions.

• Social Media-Innovation: The Case of Indigenous Tweets

  Niamh Ní Bhroin · 2015 · The Journal of Media Innovations

  This paper develops a theoretical framework for social media innovation by analyzing Indigenous Tweets, a platform supporting minority language use on Twitter. The author identifies three key attributes of social media innovation: addressing identified social needs, supporting relevant communication capabilities, and enhancing society's capacity to act. The study finds that Indigenous Tweets' relevance varies across cultural contexts, relies on incremental experimentation, and operates within a hybrid media ecosystem shaped by multiple stakeholders.

• The Digital Divide and the Elderly: How Urban and Rural Realities Shape Well-Being and Social Inclusion in the Sardinian Context

  Marco Diana, Maria Lidia Mascia, Łukasz Tomczyk, Maria Pietronilla Penna · 2025 · Sustainability

  Rural elderly people in Sardinia have significantly lower access to and use of digital tools compared to urban elderly, creating a digital divide that threatens social inclusion and well-being. Psychological and cognitive well-being predict digital use differently in rural versus urban areas. The study demonstrates that digital inequality persists even in developed countries, particularly affecting older populations, and calls for targeted interventions to improve rural digitalization and reduce exclusion.

• Confidence Across Cleavage: The Swiss Rural–Urban Divide, Place‐Based Identity and Political Trust

  Alina Zumbrunn · 2024 · Swiss Political Science Review

  This study examines political trust differences between rural and urban Switzerland using survey data from 4,000 respondents. While a rural–urban divide exists in direct democratic votes, the paper finds only a small direct difference in political trust levels. However, place-based identity significantly shapes this relationship: rural residents show higher trust when place identity is weak, but urban residents show higher trust when place identity is strong.

• Rural businesses and levelling up: A rural-urban analysis of business innovation and exporting in England's north and midlands

  Pattanapong Tiwasing, Matthew Gorton, Jeremy Phillipson, Sara Maioli · 2023 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Rural and urban small businesses in England's North and Midlands show no significant differences in innovation or exporting rates, according to analysis of longitudinal survey data. The study challenges the assumption that cities provide better conditions for business growth, suggesting that levelling-up policies should not prioritize urban areas over rural ones.

• The Role of Buildings in Rural Areas: Trends, Challenges, and Innovations for Sustainable Development

  Alessia Cogato, Leonardo Cei, Francesco Marinello, Andrea Pezzuolo · 2023 · Agronomy

  Rural buildings are central to agricultural sustainability. This systematic review of 2000–2022 research identifies five main research areas: production (25.1%), environmental management (23.2%), construction and efficiency (20.6%), sustainability (20.8%), and engineering technologies (10.3%). The authors find that life cycle assessment, green building design, energy efficiency, and remote detection systems represent the most promising directions for improving rural building performance and reducing environmental impact.

• “Do you Know What's Underneath your Feet?”: Underground Landscapes &amp; Place‐Based Risk Perceptions of Proposed Shale Gas Sites in Rural British Communities^☆

  Stacia Ryder, Jennifer Dickie, Patrick Devine‐Wright · 2023 · Rural Sociology

  Rural communities in the United Kingdom perceive risks from proposed shale gas exploration through deep, place-based knowledge rooted in generations of connection to their local landscapes, including underground features. Residents' understanding of subsurface geology shapes their concerns about how extraction threatens their communities' distinctiveness and character. The study shows that effective risk management for underground energy projects must incorporate local, place-based knowledge alongside technical expertise.

• Building a Culture of Entrepreneurial Initiative in Rural Regions Based on Sustainable Development Goals: A Case Study of University of Applied Sciences–Municipality Innovation Partnership

  Ivan Paunović, Cathleen Müller, Klaus Deimel · 2022 · Sustainability

  Universities and municipalities can build entrepreneurial culture in rural regions through creative partnerships that extend beyond economic contributions. The study examines a university-municipality innovation partnership, showing that universities should integrate social, environmental, and economic dimensions across teaching, research, and community engagement. Governments should move beyond regulation to actively collaborate with universities in fostering regional entrepreneurial initiatives aligned with sustainable development goals.

• Research on Rural Entrepreneurship in Terms of the Literature: Definition Problems and Selected Research Issues

  Anita Kulawiak, Andrzej Suliborski, Tomasz Rachwał · 2022 · Quaestiones Geographicae

  Rural entrepreneurship represents a critical research area amid significant socio-economic changes in rural regions. This paper reviews Polish and international literature on rural entrepreneurship, emphasizing geographical perspectives. The authors organize existing theoretical research, propose a definition of rural entrepreneurship, and identify future research directions and opportunities.

• Exploring the potential of local food and drink entrepreneurship in rural Wales

  Eifiona Thomas Lane, Rebecca Jones, Arwel Jones, Siwan Mitchelmore · 2016 · Local Economy The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit

  Rural food and drink entrepreneurs in Wales create microenterprises and food tourism initiatives that address social and economic challenges in farming communities. Case studies show how these ventures deliver sustainable local food systems with community benefits, operating within Wales's One Planet Sustainable Development framework. The research demonstrates entrepreneurship's role in translating policy into rural development, particularly as European funding and Welsh Government increasingly support food heritage tourism for rural wellbeing.

• Local development in the rural regions of Eastern Europe: Post-socialist paradoxes of economic and social entrepreneurship

  Bruno Grancelli · 2011 · Journal of East European Management Studies

  Agricultural transformation in Hungary and Poland created paradoxes for rural development. The paper examines how de-collectivization reshaped cooperative management and the relationship between large cooperatives and rural households. It analyzes how Europeanization and globalization affected these dynamics, identifying what distinguishes successful cooperatives and households in this post-socialist context.

• DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL TOURISM THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP

  Camelia Surugiu · 2009 · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics

  Rural tourism entrepreneurship in Romania drives economic development in rural areas through small businesses. Romanian rural tourism entrepreneurs demonstrate optimism and openness to learning since the post-1989 revival. Success depends on initiative, achievement motivation, and the ability to identify and capitalize on market opportunities.

• Mobile devices and services: bridging the digital divide in rural areas

  Elias Pimenidis, Alexander B. Sideridis, Eleni Antonopoulou · 2009 · International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics

  Mobile phones offer a practical solution to bridge the digital divide in rural areas where internet connectivity remains limited. The paper reviews successful implementations of secure e-services delivered through mobile networks, demonstrating how these services can reach low-income rural populations who currently lack access to e-government services designed for them.

• Co-creating cultural narratives for sustainable rural development: a transdisciplinary learning framework for guiding place-based social-ecological research

  Iris Bohnet, Rosalind Bryce, Inger Elisabeth Måren, Alicia Donnellan Barraclough, Zoe Malcolm, Siiri Külm, Toomas Kokovkin, Steve Taylor, Eva Cudlínová, Kalev Sepp · 2025 · Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability

  This paper presents a transdisciplinary framework that combines cultural heritage, landscape, and social-ecological systems thinking to support sustainable rural development. The framework emphasizes continuous dialogue and collaboration among communities, stakeholders, and researchers across four steps. Testing in four European UNESCO Biosphere Reserves demonstrated that the framework successfully guides place-based research and enables comparative analysis, allowing insights from local contexts to scale up to national and global levels.

• Redefining rural entrepreneurship: The impact of business ecosystems on the success of rural businesses in Extremadura, Spain

  Project Manager at Fundación Maimona, Junior Reseacher, Lecturer, Carretera Paraje la Nava, S/n Centro Diego HIdalgo de Empresas e Innovación, 06230 Santos De Maimona ( Los ), Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain, e-mail: crcandela@lossantos.org, Cristina Candelario-Moreno, María Isabel Sánchez Hernández · 2024 · Journal of Entrepreneurship Management and Innovation

  Rural businesses in Extremadura, Spain succeed based on community connection and value creation, not just location or primary sector activity. The study finds that local business ecosystems lack sufficient resources tailored to rural entrepreneurship. Policymakers must develop new, place-based support strategies and resources that leverage endogenous rural assets to increase viable rural businesses and drive regional development.

• Fostering rural entrepreneurship: An ex-post analysis for Spanish municipalities

  Ana Patricia Fanjul Alemany, Liliana Herrera, MARÍA FELISA MUÑOZ-DOYAGUE · 2023 · Technological Forecasting and Social Change

  A Spanish policy promoting rural entrepreneurship through bottom-up ecosystem relationships reduced unemployment in treated municipalities, but showed no spillover effects. Infrastructure and innovation funding proved effective at lowering joblessness, while technology adoption alone did not. Female workers experienced smaller benefits, revealing that basic infrastructure matters more than technology alone for rural economic development.

• Is the Rural Population Caught in the Whirlwind of the Digital Divide?

  Hayet Kerras, Francisca Rosique, Susana Bautista, María Dolores de Miguel Gómez · 2022 · Agriculture

  Rural populations in Spain face significant digital divides compared to urban areas, particularly among vulnerable groups like the elderly, unemployed, and women. Using structural equation modeling on survey data, the study reveals that digital access and technology use gaps correlate directly with users' socioeconomic status. The findings demonstrate that technology adoption in rural agriculture requires urgent policy intervention to address inequality and ensure equitable access across demographic groups.

• Capacity and Coverage Analysis of High Altitude Platform (HAP) Antenna Arrays for Rural Vehicular Broadband Services

  Kayode Popoola, David Grace, Tim Clarke · 2020

  High altitude platforms using millimeter-wave technology can deliver broadband services to rural vehicles lacking connectivity. The study analyzes antenna array configurations to optimize coverage and data rates. Results show that 900-element arrays achieve 95% coverage with average user capacity between 34–135 Mbps, while 64-element arrays deliver 50 Mbps even at network edges despite higher path loss.

• Self-employment and development of non-agricultural entrepreneurship in rural areas

  Mykola Malik, Volodymyr Mamchur · 2019 · Ekonomika APK

  Rural self-employment and non-agricultural entrepreneurship drive economic development in rural areas. The paper examines how farmers and rural residents shift toward business activities beyond agriculture, creating new income sources and employment opportunities. This diversification strengthens rural economies and reduces dependence on traditional farming.

• THE RURAL TOURIST ENTREPRENEURSHIP – NEW OPPORTUNITIES OF CAPITALIZING THE RURAL TOURIST POTENTIAL IN THE CONTEXT OF DURABLE DEVELOPMENT

  Ionica Soare, Răzvan Cătălin Dobrea, Marian Năstase · 2017 · European Journal of Sustainable Development

  Rural tourism entrepreneurship can revitalize economically disadvantaged communities by leveraging traditional agro-food products and regional food systems. The authors analyze how integrated rural tourism ventures create economic benefits at national levels across European Union countries. They develop metrics to measure rural tourism entrepreneurship potential, finding that mountainous and adjacent areas can achieve sustainable development by capitalizing on their distinctive food heritage and tourist appeal.

• Women’s Entrepreneurship in Rural Greece

  Isabella Gidarakou · 2015 · International Journal of Business and Management

  In rural Greece, women entrepreneurs operate primarily as solo business owners or through cooperatives, focusing on direct consumer sales. While solo enterprises dominate, they struggle with survival and succession. Women's cooperatives, though created top-down, show promise as sustainable models. The paper recommends Greek policymakers reduce business registration bureaucracy, develop alternative financing, and improve information access to strengthen women's rural entrepreneurship.

• Enabling rural broadband via TV &amp;#x201C;white space&amp;#x201D;

  Colin McGuire, Malcolm Brew, Faisal Darbari, Stephan Weiss, R.W. Stewart · 2012

  HopScotch, a rural broadband testbed in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, uses TV white space frequencies alongside 5 GHz bands to deliver high-speed internet across remote areas with fewer base stations and lower power consumption. This approach reduces infrastructure costs and energy use while maintaining strong coverage and data rates.

• Practical aspects of broadband access for rural communities using a cost and power efficient multi-hop/relay network

  Faisal Darbari, Malcolm Brew, Stephan Weiss, W. Stewart Robert · 2010

  Wireless radio networks offer practical broadband solutions for sparse rural populations where fiber and DSL are economically unfeasible in mountainous terrain. The authors deployed a test bed in the Scottish Highlands and Islands using 5GHz networks with UHF white space overlay. They demonstrate that energy self-sufficient relay nodes create a robust, independent system for delivering broadband to remote rural communities.

• Wireless-broadband over power lines networks: A promising broadband solution in rural areas

  Georgios I. Tsiropoulos, Angeliki M. Sarafi, Panayotis G. Cottis · 2009

  Wireless-broadband over power lines (W-BPL) technology combines power line communication and wireless transmission to deliver broadband access in rural areas where traditional infrastructure investment is economically unfeasible. A trial deployment in rural Greece demonstrated that this hybrid approach successfully provides broadband services and enables smart grid applications across a 70 km medium-voltage power network, offering a cost-effective alternative for remote communities.

• A new model of rural development based on human capital and entrepreneurship

  Darko Radosavljević, Sonja Josipović, Gordana Kokeza, Snežana Urošević · 2022 · Ekonomika poljoprivrede

  Rural development depends heavily on entrepreneurship and human capital, which together drive economic growth in rural areas. The paper reviews academic literature on rural development and presents research findings on economic growth models for rural regions in the 21st century. The authors argue that connecting rural amenities with socio-economic development is essential and demonstrate how successful rural economic growth models can be implemented in Serbia.

• Evaluating the Real-World Performance of 5G Fixed Wireless Broadband in Rural Areas

  Raouf Abozariba, E. Davies, Matthew Broadbent, Nicholas Race · 2019 · 2019 IEEE 2nd 5G World Forum (5GWF)

  This paper evaluates two 5G technologies for delivering broadband to rural UK communities. TV White Space (TVWS) technology proved reliable for stable broadband service in rural areas, while millimetre wave (mmWave) solutions, despite offering high speeds, suffered from rain interference and line-of-sight limitations that made them unsuitable for irregular terrain. TVWS emerged as the more practical option for rural deployment.

• Social entrepreneurship in a rural context: an over-ideological 'state'?

  Artur Steiner, Sarah Jack, Jane Farmer · 2008 · ResearchOnline

  This study examines how social entrepreneurs operate in rural Scotland and what challenges they face. Researchers surveyed thirty stakeholders in the Scottish Highlands and Islands and identified major constraints limiting social entrepreneurship development, factors that support it, and conditions that act as both barriers and promoters depending on context. The findings reveal issues specific to remote rural areas alongside problems affecting Scotland's broader social economy.

• Entrepreneurship and institutional change in Post-socialist rural areas: Some evidence from Russia und the Ukraine

  Christos Kalantaridis, Lois Labrianidis, Ivaylo Vassilev · 2007 · Journal of East European Management Studies

  Rural entrepreneurs in post-socialist Russia and Ukraine differ significantly from their urban counterparts, operating within weaker institutional frameworks. The study examines three regions—Novosibirsk and Bashkortostan in Russia, and Transcarpathia in Ukraine—finding that while urban areas show increased entrepreneurial diversity following transformation, rural areas lag behind. Even within these rural regions, divergent development pathways are emerging, raising questions about the pace and direction of institutional change.

• Promoting the 'Civic' in Entrepreneurship: The Case of Rural Slovakia

  Mildred E. Warner, Christine Weiss Daugherty · 2004 · Community Development Society Journal

  Rural Slovakia successfully developed entrepreneurs through a mini-grants program that built civic capacity before economic entrepreneurship. The approach emphasized social and cultural norms alongside individual characteristics and networks. This model proved effective in post-communist Eastern Europe, where institutional support for entrepreneurship had been neglected during the transition to capitalism.

• Determinants of innovation by agri-food firms in rural Spain: an MCA PLS-SEM analysis

  Xosé-Manuel Martínez-Filgueira, David Peón, Edelmiro López Iglesias · 2021 · The International Food and Agribusiness Management Review

  Small and medium agri-food firms in Spain innovate primarily to increase sales, enter new markets, and improve product quality, driven by firm capacity and financial resources. Smaller and younger firms face greater barriers to innovation. The study finds that firms rarely innovate to reduce costs or meet regulatory requirements. Public policy should address environmental compliance and employment maintenance, while supporting market-driven innovation incentives.

• Potential for Deep Rural Broadband Coverage With Terrestrial and Non-Terrestrial Radio Networks

  Luca Feltrin, Niklas Jaldén, Elmar Trojer, Gustav Wikström · 2021 · Frontiers in Communications and Networks

  Rural areas lag behind cities in broadband connectivity because sparse populations make wireless networks economically unviable with current technology. This paper examines two emerging solutions: satellite-based non-terrestrial networks and sparse terrestrial networks using tall towers and large antenna arrays. Both approaches can serve remote areas cost-effectively, but they excel in different scenarios and complement each other depending on traffic demands and infrastructure requirements.

• The Role of Social Entrepreneurship for Rural Development

  Nelly Bencheva, Teodora Stoeva, Венелин Терзиев, Milena Tepavicharova, Ekaterina Arabska · 2017 · SSRN Electronic Journal

  Social entrepreneurship can drive sustainable rural development in Bulgaria by addressing poverty, migration, and depopulation while creating employment. The paper analyzes economic, social, and institutional factors that enable or hinder social enterprises in rural areas. Results show that social entrepreneurship effectively solves socially significant problems and should be promoted to retain working populations in rural communities.

• Rural Entrepreneurship: Challenges and Opportunities

  Sopiko Imedashvili, Ani Kekua, Polina Ivchenko · 2013 · KTH Publication Database DiVA (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

  Rural entrepreneurship is critical for Sweden's development, where 15.3% of the population lives in rural areas. Previous research focused narrowly on economic perspectives of rural development. This paper identifies new challenges and opportunities facing entrepreneurs in small rural firms, moving beyond purely economic analysis to provide a more comprehensive understanding of rural entrepreneurship.

• Is wireless broadband provision to rural communities in TV whitespaces viable? A UK case study and analysis

  Santosh Kawade, Maziar Nekovee · 2012

  This paper evaluates whether TV whitespace spectrum can economically deliver broadband to rural areas in the UK. The authors model a hybrid system using wireless links from existing fixed-line infrastructure endpoints to underserved communities. Their analysis incorporates actual whitespace availability, population density, and infrastructure costs. The findings show that whitespace-based rural broadband is both technically and commercially viable, primarily because it eliminates spectrum costs and reuses existing infrastructure, reducing site acquisition and backhaul expenses.

• Outdoor-to-indoor propagation loss measurements for broadband wireless access in rural areas

  Kin Lien Chee, Anggia Anggraini, Thomas Kaiser, Thomas Kürner · 2011 · European Conference on Antennas and Propagation

  This paper measures how radio signals from WiMAX broadband systems penetrate into rural homes in Germany. Researchers tested two frequencies (825 MHz and 3500 MHz) and found that walls without windows blocked 10-20 dB of signal strength, while windows reduced this loss by 5-6 dB. The authors developed a prediction model to estimate penetration loss for rural broadband deployment planning.

• ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN RURAL AREAS: CASE OF ROMANIA

  Nicolae Nemirschi, Adrian Craciun · 2010 · Romanian economic business review

  Romania's EU accession in 2007 shifted rural development focus from agriculture to entrepreneurship and tourism. The paper examines how this transition created opportunities for small family tourism businesses in peripheral rural regions, particularly encouraging women entrepreneurs. Rural tourism emerged as a new survival strategy for rural communities adapting to globalization and EU integration.

• Alleviating poverty: entrepreneurship and social capital in rural Denmark 1800-1900

  Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen, Gert Tinggaard Svendsen · 2001 · BELGEO

  Social capital—built through formal cooperative associations with written rules—motivated rural entrepreneurs to organize collective action in 19th-century Denmark. Peasants formed cooperative groups that provided public goods and drove economic growth in poor agricultural areas, solving the puzzle of why individuals voluntarily contribute to collective efforts despite negative personal economic incentives.

• Internationalization, innovation, and resilience: Financial performance of agricultural cooperatives in southeastern Spain's rural economy

  Antonio Martos‐Pedrero, Francisco Joaquín Cortés‐García, Emilio Abad‐Segura, Luis Jesús Belmonte Ureña · 2025 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Agricultural cooperatives in southeastern Spain that expand into international markets achieve stronger financial resilience, increased profitability, and greater innovation capacity than non-internationalized enterprises. Digital innovation proves essential for successful export performance. The study demonstrates that internationalization strengthens cooperative governance and positions these organizations as drivers of sustainable rural economic development, particularly in the post-pandemic context.

• Off-grid PV systems modelling and optimisation for rural communities - leveraging understandability and interpretability of modelling tools

  Rundong Liao, Massimiliano Manfren, Benedetto Nastasi · 2025 · Energy

  This paper develops a transparent, open-source framework for designing off-grid solar photovoltaic systems in rural buildings. The authors combine particle swarm optimization with physics-informed modeling tools to size solar-plus-battery systems while accounting for climate change, user behavior changes, and evolving energy needs. Testing shows that open-source models reduce costs, increase flexibility, and improve confidence in rural electrification solutions compared to proprietary software.

• To know is to accept. Uncovering the perception of renewables as a behavioural trigger of rural energy transition

  Justyna Chodkowska‐Miszczuk, Sylwia Kuziemkowska, Pramit Verma, Stanislav Martinát, Agata Lewandowska · 2022 · Moravian Geographical Reports

  Rural communities in Poland show broad awareness of renewable energy but lack deep, balanced knowledge about specific sources and their local applications. The study finds that personal experience with small-scale renewable installations drives attitude change and motivates new energy investments. Direct community involvement in renewable projects ensures both costs and benefits are distributed fairly across rural areas, making inclusive, place-based approaches essential for sustainable energy transitions.

• How rural is too rural for transit? Optimal transit subsidies and supply in rural areas

  Maria Börjesson, Chau Man Fung, Stef Proost · 2020 · Journal of Transport Geography

  This paper models optimal public transit supply in low-density rural areas by analyzing trade-offs between passenger welfare and operating costs. Using data from a rural corridor, the authors test different network lengths, service frequencies, and population sizes across car, bus, and rail modes. They find that adjusting rail frequency generates the largest welfare gains, that existing rail networks provide marginal benefits until major repairs are needed, and that bus service remains worthwhile even when rail closure becomes optimal as populations decline.

• Innovation and Investment in the Roman Rural Economy Through the Lens of Marzuolo (Tuscany, Italy)*

  Astrid Van Oyen · 2019 · Past & Present

  This historical study of a Roman pottery production site in Tuscany reveals that rural innovation was driven by local smallholders experimenting with production techniques, not by elite landowners as traditionally assumed. Local experimentation was limited by lack of capital, while later large-scale production involved a landowner appropriating the facility. The findings reframe innovation as a process rooted in human capital, labor, and production relationships rather than external investment.

• Innovation, Spatial Loyalty, and ICTs as Locational Determinants of Rural Development in the Catalan Pyrenees

  Ana Vera Martin, Antoni F. Tulla i Pujol · 2019 · European Countryside

  Information and communication technologies enable rural and mountain development by dispersing economic activity from cities and connecting local territories to global markets. In the Catalan Pyrenees, companies leverage local identity and lower costs while performing high-value activities like design locally and manufacturing elsewhere. ICTs support education, workforce development, and new business creation in these areas, offsetting labor shortages through small company structures and spatial loyalty among clustered firms.

• Models of entrepreneurship development in rural tourism destinations in Vojvodina

  Vaso Jegdić, Iva Škrbić, Srđan Milošević · 2017 · Ekonomika poljoprivrede

  Rural tourism in Vojvodina can drive economic development through entrepreneurship models centered on farm stays, village experiences, traditional events, organic food production, and eco-tourism. The paper identifies key rural tourism products and argues that targeted investment in these entrepreneurial ventures aligned with current market demand will increase tourism income and boost rural economic growth.

• Enabling community-powered co-innovation by connecting rural stakeholders with global knowledge brokers

  Rainer Haas, Oliver Meixner, Marcus Petz · 2016 · British Food Journal

  The paper demonstrates how community-powered co-innovation improves conditions for small-scale farmers in developing countries. By connecting rural stakeholders with global knowledge brokers, the approach addresses economic, social, and ecological sustainability simultaneously. The authors show this model can be successfully implemented to support farming communities.

• A Comparative Study of Rural Entrepreneurship Romania – Greece

  Elena Harpa, Sorina Moca, Dana Rus · 2016 · Procedia Technology

  This comparative study examines rural entrepreneurship in Romania and Greece using statistical data on rural development indicators and country reports. The research documents how the economic crisis affected rural and urban areas differently across these European nations, while also identifying general improvements in various development domains despite persistent regional disparities.

• Modes of entry to male immigrant entrepreneurship in a rural context: Start-up stories from Northern Norway

  Mai Camilla Munkejord · 2015 · Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review

  This study examines how nine male immigrants started businesses in Finnmark, northern Norway. The research fills gaps in entrepreneurship literature by focusing on rural immigrant entrepreneurs and their entry strategies. The analysis of their start-up narratives reveals how these men navigated business creation in a remote, sparsely populated region.

• INNOVATION IN RURAL TOURISM: A MODEL FOR HUNGARIAN ACCOMMODATION PROVIDERS

  Csilla Raffai · 2013 · Management and Marketing

  Rural tourism accommodation providers in Hungary succeed by innovating continuously to meet shifting guest demands for experiences and knowledge rather than simple leisure. The authors developed a maturity model identifying five innovation capability areas—market knowledge, training, managing possibilities, guest orientation, and rationality—that drive success for rural accommodation providers in Veszprém County. The model helps providers understand innovation and better satisfy customer needs.

• HopScotch-a low-power renewable energy base station network for rural broadband access

  Colin McGuire, Malcolm Brew, Faisal Darbari, Gregour Bolton, Anthony McMahon, David Crawford, Stephan Weiss, R.W. Stewart · 2012 · EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking

  Researchers deployed a wireless broadband network in the Scottish Highlands and Islands using low-power relay base stations powered by renewable energy. The system uses 5 GHz bands and white space frequencies to deliver high data rates with minimal infrastructure. This renewable-powered approach creates a scalable, cost-effective solution suitable for community ownership that addresses rural broadband access gaps.

• Techno-economic analyses of wireline and wireless broadband access networks deployment in Croatian rural areas

  Višnja Križanović, Drago Žagar, Krešimir Grgić · 2011 · International Conference on Telecommunications

  This paper analyzes the technical and economic feasibility of deploying broadband networks in Croatian rural areas. The authors model costs for wireline and wireless technologies currently used in Croatia, evaluate their cost-effectiveness using standard profitability methods, and conduct sensitivity analyses on key cost parameters. The results show how different rural scenarios affect broadband deployment costs and identify which technologies work best under different conditions.

• Hybrid Broadband Access with IEEE 802.16e: An Economic Approach for Rural Areas

  Waldemar Gerok, Simon F. Rusche, Peter Unger · 2009

  This paper addresses the digital divide between urban and rural areas by proposing hybrid broadband networks combining wired and wireless (IEEE 802.16e/Mobile WiMAX) technologies. The authors analyzed user requirements across 18 rural areas, dimensioned a wireless network, and conducted economic analysis showing that this hybrid approach reduces investment and operational costs compared to traditional wired-only broadband infrastructure in rural regions.

• Challenges for tourism-related lifestyle migrant entrepreneurship in rural areas of the Algarve, Portugal

  Kate Torkington, Marco Eimermann, Filipa Perdigão Ribeiro, Susana Conceição · 2025 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Lifestyle migrant entrepreneurs in rural Portugal's Algarve region face significant barriers when starting and running tourism businesses. Bureaucratic complexity, unclear legal procedures, and inadequate specialized support create the biggest obstacles. The study reveals that better cooperation and communication among stakeholders—including government agencies, local authorities, and support organizations—is essential to help these entrepreneurs succeed and enable sustainable rural tourism development.

• Measuring financial divide in the rural environment. The potential role of the digital transformation of finance

  María-Jesús Gallego-Losada, Antonio Montero, Rocío Gallego Losada, José-Luis Rodríguez-Sánchez · 2024 · International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal

  Rural areas in Spain show lower financial literacy than urban regions, particularly among populations with limited income and education. This gap prevents financial inclusion and perpetuates rural decline. The authors argue that digital transformation of financial services offers a concrete pathway to improve financial literacy and inclusion in sparsely populated Spanish regions, enabling rural economic regeneration.

• Entrepreneurship Education with Purpose: Active Ageing for 50+ Entrepreneurs and Sustainable Development for Rural Areas

  Tarja Römer-Paakkanen, Maija Suonpää · 2023 · Education Sciences

  Older entrepreneurs aged 50+ possess stronger networks, financial resources, and credibility than younger counterparts, making them well-suited to launch successful rural businesses. The ENTRUST project surveyed 72 potential 50+ entrepreneurs and 100 rural development experts, finding significant business opportunities in rural tourism and strong demand for targeted training. Interviews with eight experienced 50+ rural entrepreneurs revealed they find meaningful work in developing rural areas and preserving cultural heritage, with most wanting to continue working as long as health permits.

• Consolidating passenger and freight transportation in an urban–rural transit system

  Tao Wang, Hongzhang Shao, Xiaobo Qu, Jonas Eliasson · 2023 · Fundamental Research

  This paper demonstrates that combining freight and passenger transportation on buses in urban-rural areas improves profitability and reduces costs. The authors developed a mathematical model to optimize coordination between these services and tested it through a case study. Results show that consolidating freight with passenger transport cuts logistics costs and increases bus company profits while benefiting society.

• The geography of innovation in times of crisis: a comparison of rural and urban RDI patterns during COVID-19

  Teemu Makkonen, Timo Mitze · 2022 · Geografiska Annaler Series B Human Geography

  Rural firms in Finland lagged behind urban firms in securing competitive research and development funding before COVID-19, but this gap narrowed significantly during the pandemic. Rural enterprises demonstrated strategic flexibility and resilience by taking advantage of more accessible and flexible funding mechanisms introduced during the crisis. The findings challenge assumptions that rural innovation capacity is fragile during economic shocks.

• Exploring the impact of participative place-based community archaeology in rural Europe: Community archaeology in rural environments meeting societal challenges

  Carenza Lewis, H. van Londen, Arkadiusz Marciniak, Pavel Vařeka, J.P.W. Verspay · 2022 · Journal of Community Archaeology & Heritage

  A participative archaeology project in rural Czech Republic, Netherlands, and Poland demonstrates that community-led excavations within villages are popular and effective. Residents conducted test pit excavations in their own communities, generating both archaeological knowledge and social benefits. The approach successfully attracted and sustained local interest in heritage participation across all three countries, proving the feasibility of this participatory method in rural European contexts.

• Hidden Champions and their integration in rural regional innovation systems: Insights from Germany

  Carsten Rietmann · 2021 · ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography

  Hidden Champions—little-known global market leaders—show weak integration into rural German regional innovation systems despite their high innovation capacity. The study of 57 expert interviews reveals that family ownership, firm size, organizational structure, and local economic conditions shape integration levels. Family businesses integrate more than other firm types, though with significant variation, primarily because their international focus and technological specialization limit local knowledge exchange.

• Designing Rural Policies for Sustainable Innovations through a Participatory Approach

  Federica Cisilino, Alessandro Monteleone · 2020 · Sustainability

  This paper examines how involving local stakeholders in policy design strengthens rural innovation outcomes. Researchers applied a participatory approach using SWOT analysis with experts and stakeholders in an Italian region developing a Rural Development Program. The analysis identified that sustainable innovations, rural services, and training require improvement, and that financial resources dedicated to these areas must increase.

• SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT OF LITHUANIA

  Jolita Greblikaitė, Rolandas Rakštys, Donatello Caruso · 2017 · Management Theory and Studies for Rural Business and Infrastructure Development

  Social entrepreneurship plays a significant role in rural development in Lithuania. The paper examines trends in Lithuanian social enterprises and identifies successful examples to inform policy recommendations. While the government has taken steps to support social entrepreneurship and innovation, substantial improvements remain necessary. Family business traditions are weak in Lithuania, having existed for only about 20 years, but rural areas show potential for young social enterprises, particularly in agriculture-based family farms.

• Vino, turismo e innovación: Las Rutas del Vino de España, una estrategia integrada de desarrollo rural/Wine, Tourism and Innovation: The Wine Routes of Spain, an Integrated Strategy of Rural Development

  Belén Miranda Escolar, Ricardo Fernández Morueco · 2011 · Estudios de Economia Aplicada

  Spain's Wine Routes program integrates wine production, tourism, and rural development by positioning wine as a territory-intensive product. The strategy responds to global market competition by diversifying offerings beyond wine itself, creating wine tourism experiences that leverage regional identity and quality. This approach guarantees visitors high-quality tourism products while supporting rural economies through innovation in complementary services.

• Collective entrepreneurship in agriculture and its contribution to sustainable rural development in Greece

  Panagiota Sergaki, Stefanos A. Nastis · 2011 · Journal of the Geographical Institute Jovan Cvijic SASA

  Greek agricultural cooperatives face financial crises that threaten their survival. The paper identifies how cooperatives are adopting new forms of collective entrepreneurship, transforming from traditional models into new generation cooperatives to remain competitive. The authors develop a typology showing how different collaborative structures balance economic development, environmental protection, and social equity to support sustainable rural development.

• Genset-Solar-Wind Hybrid Power System of Off-grid Power Station for Rural Applications

  L.E. Weldemariam · 2010 · Research Repository (Delft University of Technology)

  This paper designs and evaluates hybrid power systems combining diesel generators, solar panels, and wind turbines for off-grid rural electricity. The researchers tested eleven different power management strategies using computer simulations to determine how each strategy affects system sizing, fuel consumption, battery life, and costs. They found that hybrid renewable systems become cost-competitive over their lifetime because diesel fuel costs eventually exceed the initial investment in renewable equipment.

• Embeddedness and innovation in low and medium technology rural enterprises

  Kevin Heanue, David Jacobson · 2008 · Irish Geography

  This paper examines how location influences innovation in low and medium technology rural firms. Through case studies of four Irish companies in furniture and metal products, the authors investigate whether deep local embeddedness is necessary for innovation and how this relationship changes over time. The findings inform understanding of rural industrial development and the role geographic proximity plays in firm innovativeness.

• INNOVATION TRANSFER AND RURAL SMES

  Carmelo Cannarella, Valeria Piccioni · 2003 · University of Zagreb University Computing Centre (SRCE)

  Rural small and medium enterprises struggle to access innovation due to financial, technical, and organizational barriers. This paper examines innovation transfer to agro-industrial SMEs in Central Italy, identifying cultural and communication gaps between researchers and entrepreneurs. The authors propose methodological guidelines for analyzing and meeting innovation demands in rural enterprises, based on their experience deploying research personnel into SMEs.

• Awareness of the population in rural regions of Serbia about renewable energy sources

  Srdjan Zikic, Dragana Trifunović, Goran Lalić, Mihailo Jovanović · 2022 · Ekonomika poljoprivrede

  Rural Serbians lack awareness about renewable energy sources, limiting public support for sustainable energy projects. A survey of over 400 respondents across southern, eastern, and central Serbia found that rural populations are poorly informed about both general energy production and specific renewable energy benefits. The study calls for intensive public information campaigns to build support for renewable energy adoption in Serbia's energy sector.

• ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS THE BASIS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL COMMUNES IN EASTERN POLAND

  Andrzej Pawlik, Paweł Dziekański · 2021 · Baltic Journal of Economic Studies

  Entrepreneurship drives rural development in eastern Poland. Researchers assessed entrepreneurship levels across 484 rural communes using data from 2009 and 2018, applying the TOPSIS method. They found entrepreneurship scores ranged from 0.07 to 0.63, while development scores ranged from 0.23 to 0.62. Rural communes showed greater variation in entrepreneurship than in overall development, and entrepreneurship levels correlated positively with development outcomes.

• Trust in Collective Entrepreneurship in the Context of the Development of Rural Areas in Poland

  Leszek Sieczko, Anna Parzonko, Anna Sieczko · 2021 · Agriculture

  Personal trust matters more than institutional trust for collective entrepreneurship in rural Poland. The study surveyed 132 people in agricultural producer organizations, women's circles, and local action groups. Social factors outweigh economic ones in determining success. Trust grows over time and strengthens both economic and social dimensions of collective enterprises, with social benefits slightly exceeding economic gains.

• Structural and functional principles of entrepreneurship development in rural areas

  Yurii Lopatynskyi, Зоряна Кобеля, Andzhei Halytskyi · 2021 · Ekonomika APK

  This paper outlines the structural and functional principles of rural entrepreneurship development using institutional theory. The authors identify key functions, development factors, and institutional environment elements that support rural business growth. They argue that effective rural entrepreneurship requires multilevel, bottom-up implementation of support measures, with state involvement playing a crucial role in achieving inclusive rural development.

• Renewable Energy Plants and Business Models: A New Rural Development Perspective

  María-José Prados, Marta Pallarès-Blanch, Ramón García Marín, Carolina del Valle Ramos · 2021 · Energies

  Renewable energy plants in Spain create opportunities for rural development through local economic activities and business model innovation. Some businesses directly connect to energy plants and generate stable jobs, while others diversify through land leasing arrangements. The study finds that renewable energy integration requires stronger governance frameworks and strategic planning to align energy transition with sustainable development goals and rural community well-being.

• Eco-Innovation Activities in the Czech Economy 2008–2014: Impact of the Eco-Innovative Approach to the Profit Stream and Differences in Urban and Rural Enterprises

  Marek Vokoun, Jiřina Jílková · 2020 · Economies

  Rural and urban enterprises in the Czech Republic show similar capacity to develop and market eco-innovations, despite urban firms engaging more broadly in innovation activities. Rural enterprises that relocated to countryside areas actually achieved higher sales from innovative goods and services. High-tech industries paradoxically show lower rates of eco-innovation adoption. The study reveals that eco-innovation represents a viable strategy for both rural and urban businesses, with location having minimal impact on R&D intensity or new-to-market eco-innovation success.

• Innovations in rural tourism in Poland and Romania

  Alexandru Sin, Czesław Nowak, Małgorzata Bogusz, Magdalena Kowalska, Emília Janigová · 2020 · Ekonomika poljoprivrede

  Rural tourism in Poland and Romania is growing due to economic and social demand from both residents and visitors. Tourist businesses in rural areas are implementing innovative products and services to meet this demand. This study examines what types of innovations rural tourism businesses adopt, using case studies and interviews with owners of tourist facilities in both countries.

• How local resources shape innovation and path development in rural regions. Insights from rural Estonia

  Merli Reidolf, Martin Graffenberger · 2019 · Journal of Entrepreneurship Management and Innovation

  Local resources—physical, human, social, financial, and immaterial—shape how rural firms innovate and develop. Research in rural Estonia shows that firms actively mobilizing these place-specific resources drive innovation and extend regional development paths. However, local resources alone cannot transform regional trajectories; they enrich existing paths but require strategic firm action to create substantial change.

• AGRO-TOURISM ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE CONTEXT OF INCREASING THE RURAL BUSINESS COMPETITIVENESS IN ROMANIA

  Elena Sima · 2016 · Agricultural Economics and Rural Development

  Agro-tourism entrepreneurship strengthens rural business competitiveness in Romania by leveraging local agricultural and non-agricultural resources. The paper identifies methods to promote and support agro-tourism ventures, examines mechanisms for integrating Romanian agro-tourism into international markets, and demonstrates how these investments create jobs, retain local labor, and revitalize rural communities.

• Who Controls Tourism Innovation Policy? The Case of Rural Tourism

  Anne‐Mette Hjalager · 2014 · Tourism Analysis

  Rural tourism innovation in Denmark occurs through local action groups implementing EU's LEADER program, which decentralizes policy control away from national authorities. While these groups effectively leverage local resources and incrementally upgrade tourism facilities, innovation performance remains low. The study finds that this radical decentralization undermines national coordination and strategy, making it difficult to align tourism development with broader welfare and environmental goals.

• Innovations and Opportunities for Entrepreneurial Rural Developments

  Elena Rădulescu, Liviu Marian, Sorina Moica · 2014 · Procedia Economics and Finance

  Young people in rural Romania show strong interest in starting businesses, but entrepreneurial culture remains underdeveloped in villages. The research identifies barriers to rural business creation and proposes strategies to foster entrepreneurship in Romania's Central Region. Building supportive environments and promoting entrepreneurial values are essential to converting this interest into actual rural business development.

• Mas Roig mini-grid: A renewable-energy-based rural islanded microgrid

  Pep Salas, Josep M. Guerrero, Francesc X. Sureda · 2014

  A renewable energy microgrid deployed on a Spanish farm uses intelligent load management and real-time control to maximize renewable energy use while maintaining reliable power supply. The system classifies electrical loads by priority and controls them through networked smart sockets. After five years of operation, the project demonstrates that distributed generation and active management reduce costs and ensure energy security even during extreme weather events.

• Energy Autarky of Rural Municipality Created on the Basis of Renewable Energy Resources

  F. Woch, Józef Hernik, Urszula Wiklina, Monika Tolak · 2014 · Polish Journal of Environmental Studies

  This study evaluates whether a rural Polish municipality can meet its energy needs using renewable sources. Researchers assessed solar, hydro, wind, and biogas potential in Rakow municipality through 2020. Currently, renewables cover only 2.2% of total energy demand and 24% of electricity demand. However, renewable heat production already exceeds local needs by 20% and could reach 256% with biomass from set-aside land, creating exportable surplus energy.

• Service innovation: a virtual informal network of care to support a ‘lean’ therapeutic community in a new rural personality disorder service

  Mike Rigby, Dale Ashman · 2008 · Psychiatric Bulletin

  A rural personality disorder service in England created a virtual informal care network using internet messaging and chat rooms to support therapeutic community principles across a large mixed urban-rural catchment area. The system is inexpensive, easily transferable, and allows therapeutic work to continue with reduced in-person programming. This innovation demonstrates how virtual networks can expand access to community-based therapeutic services in rural areas.

• Mapping Innovation and Sustainability in Rural Tourism: A Bibliometric Approach

  Maria Lúcia Pato, Ana Sofía Duque · 2025 · Sustainability

  This bibliometric analysis of 94 articles reveals that innovation and sustainability research in rural tourism concentrates in Europe, particularly in China, Italy, and Spain, with most publications from the last decade. The study identifies influential researchers and research centers, maps current approaches and trends, and calls for more integrated research connecting innovation, sustainability, and rural tourism—especially in less developed regions where these tools could drive economic success.

• Renewable Energy Integration into Industrial and Residential Buildings: A Study Across Urban, Rural, and Coastal Areas

  Mohammad Ghiasi, Vahed Ghiasi, Pierluigi Siano · 2025 · IET Renewable Power Generation

  This study evaluates how different renewable energy sources—photovoltaic, wind, geothermal, and biomass—perform when integrated into residential, commercial, and industrial buildings across urban, rural, and coastal areas. The research finds that photovoltaic energy works best for urban residential buildings, wind energy suits coastal industrial buildings, and geothermal energy provides the most consistent baseload power across all settings. Combining multiple renewable sources reduces grid dependence and improves sustainability more effectively than relying on single sources.

• Innovation and rural context: An exploratory case study of a small rural enterprise from the Czech Republic

  Izabella Steinerowska–Streb, Jindra Peterková, Artur Steiner · 2024 · The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

  Rural businesses face barriers like inadequate staffing and market volatility, yet successfully innovate by converting obstacles into opportunities. The study identifies pull factors (incentives and opportunities) and push factors (pressures for change) that drive both product and business innovation. Owner vision and strategic outlook significantly influence innovation outcomes. Rural enterprises innovate effectively by building local, regional, national, and international connections to access wider markets.

• Inventory of Water–Energy–Waste Resources in Rural Houses in Gran Canaria Island: Application and Potential of Renewable Resources and Mitigation of Carbon Footprint and GHG

  Melania L. Rodríguez-Pérez, Carlos Alberto Mendieta Pino, Alejandro Ramos Martín, FEDERICO LEON ZERPA, Fabián Déniz · 2022 · Water

  Rural houses in Gran Canaria can substantially reduce their carbon footprint by adopting renewable energy technologies including solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, and waste methanation. The study inventoried water, energy, and waste resources across rural tourism properties and found that renewable energy generation tailored to available surface area significantly lowers environmental impact while supporting sustainable rural tourism development and EU decarbonization targets.

• Breaking the Digital Divide in Rural Africa

  Josué Kuika Watat, Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan · 2020 · Americas Conference on Information Systems

  Telecentres reduce the digital divide between urban and rural areas in developing countries. When properly organized and functional, with adequate awareness campaigns, telecentres enable rural populations to access digital services and information. The paper examines how these community technology hubs bridge connectivity gaps and support rural development in Africa.

• Business Model Design for Rural Off-the-Grid Electrification and Digitalization Concept

  Henock Dibaba, Evgenia Vanadzina, Gonçalo Mendes, Antti Pinomaa, Samuli Honkapuro · 2020

  Microgrids can provide electricity to remote rural areas in Sub-Saharan Africa, but lack clear business models. This paper analyzes an integrated off-grid concept delivering renewable electricity, internet connectivity, and digital services together using a business model canvas approach. The authors propose a framework for developing sustainable rural microgrids in Sub-Saharan Africa.

• Human Capital, Innovation and Internationalization of Micro and Small Enterprises in Rural Territory - a Case Study

  Pedro Oliveira, Jana Turčínková · 2019 · Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis

  This case study of Portugal's Tagus Valley agri-food sector reveals that micro and small enterprises leverage human capital and stable partnerships with intermediary organizations to drive innovation and internationalization. The research demonstrates that endogenous assets, particularly non-market resources, significantly boost rural competitiveness. Public institutions, regional governments, and business training centers working together on a shared agenda for developing local assets prove strategically vital for sustaining small enterprises dependent on collaborative networks.

• CIRCULAR ECONOMY DRIVEN INNOVATIONS WITHIN BUSINESS MODELS OF RURAL SMEs

  Inga Uvarova, Dzintra Atstāja, Alise Vītola · 2019 · SOCIETY INTEGRATION EDUCATION Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference

  Rural small and medium enterprises face low competitiveness due to limited scale, distance from markets, and weak innovation capacity. This research examines how circular economy principles can drive new business models in rural SMEs, enabling them to turn environmental challenges into opportunities while meeting consumer demand. Analysis of seven focus groups across six European countries reveals practical pathways for rural SMEs to adopt eco-efficient, waste-minimizing production models.

• The coordination program of the studies and innovation of rural schools in Catalonia

  Departamento de Sociología y Geografía en la Facultad de Educación, Psicología y Trabajo Social (FEPTS) de la Universidad de Lleida., Jaume Sanuy, Núria Llevot Calvet, Jordi Soldevilla · 2018 · Ehquidad Revista Internacional de Políticas de Bienestar y Trabajo Social

  Rural schools in Catalonia face persistent educational challenges. The University of Lleida launched a coordination program (CEIER) to improve rural school quality through innovative projects, enhanced teaching practices, and research. The program combines teacher training, scientific research, and knowledge dissemination to strengthen rural education outcomes.

• Examining the Renewable Energy Investments in Hungarian Rural Settlements: The Gained Local Benefits and the Aspects of Local Community Involvement

  Patrícia Honvári, Irén Szörényiné Kukorelli · 2018 · European Countryside

  This study examines renewable energy investments across 748 Hungarian rural settlements, analyzing 159 municipality responses. The research finds that while renewable energy projects generate some local benefits, direct benefits remain limited. Communities receive only moderate involvement and information efforts. The study identifies significant threats that could undermine the success of these investments and hinder future renewable energy development at the local level.

• Urban-rural relations in renewable electric energy supply – the case of a German energy region

  Caroline Möller, Martin Faulstich, S. Rosenberger · 2018 · SHILAP Revista de lepidopterología

  This study examines how urban and rural regions can work together to supply renewable electricity. Using a German energy region as a case study, researchers analyzed cooperation between the city of Osnabrück and neighboring rural municipalities. They found that linking urban and rural areas increases self-sufficiency in cities but decreases it in rural regions. For example, rural Landkreis Osnabrück achieved 68% self-sufficiency alone but dropped to 60% when connected to the city, while the city's self-sufficiency rose from 27% to 60%.

• Renewables, energy saving and welfare in Italian fragile rural areas

  Giorgio Osti · 2016 · SOCIOLOGIA E POLITICHE SOCIALI

  This study examines whether renewable energy development and energy-saving initiatives improve welfare in Italian rural areas. The research focuses on four rural regions with major energy infrastructure, analyzing how new jobs, royalties, and social cohesion from renewable energy projects affect communities facing population aging, poverty, and reduced social services. The findings combine institutional and network analysis to understand how energy transitions can address rural welfare challenges.

• Entrepreneurship as a potential driving force for the further development of rural areas – good examples from Visegrad countries

  Tamás Egedy, Denis Cerić, Michał Konopski, Silvie R. Kučerová, Marián Kulla, Janetta Nestorová Dická, Romana Svobodová · 2015 · Studia Obszarów Wiejskich

  Rural entrepreneurship drives development in Visegrad countries by creating local economic opportunities and employment. The paper examines successful entrepreneurial initiatives across the region, demonstrating how business creation and innovation in rural areas strengthen communities and reduce urban-rural disparities. These examples show entrepreneurship as a practical strategy for sustainable rural growth.

• Innovation of organization model for integral rural development: Serbia case study

  Vladimir M. Nikolić, Marko Ivaniš, Ivan Stevović · 2014 · Ekonomika poljoprivrede

  Serbia's rural municipalities need new organizational models to boost economic growth. Research in two Sumadija municipalities shows that effective rural development requires municipalities to pursue active financing, identity-based policies, and continuous education. Innovation should include initiative teams for decision-making, agricultural incubators combining business and technology support, and vertical merger systems.

• Understanding the place based social value created by new-start social enterprises: evidence from 10 rural UK communities

  Christopher Dayson · 2013 · People Place and Policy Online

  Social enterprises in rural UK communities create measurable social value for residents. This study analyzed ten National Lottery-funded new social enterprise projects across rural areas to understand how different enterprise approaches generate local social impact. The findings show that social enterprises contribute meaningfully to community regeneration and economic development in deprived rural regions.

• “WindFi” - A renewable powered base station for rural broadband

  Colin McGuire, Malcolm Brew, Faisal Darbari, Stephan Weiss, R.W. Stewart · 2012 · Strathprints: The University of Strathclyde institutional repository (University of Strathclyde)

  HopScotch is a rural broadband network using low-power base stations powered by renewable energy to deliver affordable internet access to remote areas. The researchers designed energy-efficient base stations and calculated the renewable generation capacity, battery storage, and solar panel tracking systems needed to sustain continuous operation.

• Entrepreneurship and the Environment for Rural SMEs in the Shropshire Hills, UK, 1997–2009

  Graham Tate · 2010 · The Journal of Entrepreneurship

  This study tracked farm businesses in South Shropshire's Environmentally Sensitive Area between 1997 and 2008. Environmental scheme participation increased significantly as government policy became more output-focused. Some farmers left cattle production but avoided diversification or pluriactivity despite government support. Most farmers showed traditional rather than entrepreneurial characteristics, leaving their future uncertain as key financial supports faced closure.

• Distance Learning for Food Security and Rural Development: A Perspective from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization

  Scott McLean, Lavinia Gasperini, Stephen Rudgard · 2002 · The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning

  The FAO examines how distance learning can address food security and rural development globally. The paper reviews existing distance learning examples from FAO and other sources, then synthesizes debate about distance learning's potential in developing countries. It proposes five practical strategies for applying distance learning to food security and rural development challenges, aiming to share ideas with professionals and scholars worldwide.

• Innovation and Sustainable Solutions for Mobility in Rural Areas: A Comparative Analysis of Case Studies in Europe

  Muhammad Junaid, Maddalena Ferretti, Giovanni Marinelli · 2025 · Sustainability

  Rural areas across Europe face severe transport limitations that restrict access to services, education, and jobs, perpetuating socio-economic exclusion. This study examines successful mobility solutions implemented across EU countries through case study analysis and literature review. The research identifies effective practices—including door-to-door service delivery, infrastructure repurposing, and volunteer transport networks—that improve accessibility and social inclusion in rural communities by tailoring solutions to local needs rather than applying urban models.

• Rural entrepreneurship as-practice: a framework for research beyond stereotypical notions of entrepreneurial agency and contextual constraints

  Gesine Tuitjer, Neil Thompson · 2025 · Entrepreneurship and Regional Development

  Rural entrepreneurship research often relies on stereotypical views of rurality and how context shapes business activity. This paper proposes a new theoretical framework treating rural context and entrepreneurship as interconnected practice-material bundles. The authors identify four types of relations between entrepreneurial agency and rural context—causal, prefigurative, constitutive, and intelligibility—to better understand how they mutually shape each other. The framework bridges positivist and constructivist approaches and emphasizes analyzing practice-material dynamics as the core unit for studying rural entrepreneurship.

• Unlocking renewable energy potential: Overcoming knowledge sharing hurdles in rural EU regions on example of poland, sweden and france

  Justyna Żywiołek, Radosław Wolniak, Wieslaw Grebski, Sunil Tiwari, Marek Matuszewski, Adam Koliński · 2025 · PLoS ONE

  A survey of 12,428 rural residents in Poland, Sweden, and France reveals that while environmental awareness is high, significant barriers block renewable energy adoption. Respondents across all three countries express concerns about security, affordability, and infrastructure. Knowledge gaps, insufficient expert guidance, and reliance on unreliable online sources limit understanding of renewable energy benefits. The study identifies targeted education, financial incentives, and infrastructure investment as essential to overcoming these barriers and accelerating the energy transition.

• Transit Safety of Women in Rural-Urban Contexts

  Vânia Ceccato, Catherine Sundling, Gabriel Gliori · 2024 · Feminist Criminology

  Young women experience sexual harassment and transit crime that restricts their mobility and public participation. A survey of Swedish railway passengers in 2022 found that young women face higher victimization rates than older women. Rural women report feeling safer than urban women but take more precautions before traveling, such as avoiding certain stations or traveling with companions at night. The research calls for gender and age-sensitive mobility policies that address women's safety needs in rural contexts.

• Urban-Rural Cooperation for an Economy with 100% Renewable Energy and Climate Protection towards 2030 - the Region Berlin-Brandenburg

  Thure Traber, Hans-Josef Fell, Christian Breyer · 2023 · International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management

  Berlin and Brandenburg can achieve 100% renewable energy by 2030 through a system based primarily on rooftop solar panels and green hydrogen production, with electricity replacing fossil fuels across all sectors. The analysis shows this transition is technically feasible and costs less than continuing with fossil and nuclear energy. Hydrogen storage emerges as a critical cost factor, and coordinating with broader German and European energy transitions could further reduce expenses.

• How rurality influences interactive innovation processes: lessons learnt from 15 case studies in 12 countries

  Paul G. Schmidt, José M. Díaz-Puente, Maddalena Bettoni · 2022 · European Planning Studies

  Rural regions innovate differently based on their distance from urban centers. Analyzing 15 case studies across Europe, the authors found that remote rural areas rely on external ideas and established networks, with individual entrepreneurs driving innovation despite thin support systems and limited private funding. NGOs and producer organizations become critical support mechanisms in the most isolated regions, while the private sector can compensate for weak agricultural knowledge systems.

• Social entrepreneurship in tourism: a chance for rural communities

  Inna Kulish · 2022 · Socio-Economic Problems of the Modern Period of Ukraine

  Social enterprises developing tourism in rural Ukrainian communities can improve resident well-being, but success requires local awareness, sustainable resource management, and alignment with community values. The paper shows that diversified tourism approaches outperform single-activity models like ski resorts, which create economic vulnerability. Social tourism enterprises deliver greater positive social impact than conventional tourism businesses when they maximize local resources and respect traditions.

• Bringing innovation back in–strategies and driving forces behind entrepreneurial responses in small-scale rural industries in Sweden

  Paulina Rytkönen, Pejvak Oghazi · 2021 · British Food Journal

  Small-scale dairy businesses in Sweden innovate primarily through business model changes and imitation rather than disruptive innovation. Social capital and collective action enable firms to break established patterns and create new markets. The study distinguishes rural entrepreneurship from self-employment, showing both drive economic growth. Support mechanisms like flexible regulations and knowledge-sharing help rural firms innovate and survive.

• RURAL GREEN TOURISM AS AN INNOVATIVE FORM OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

  M. Zhybak, H. Khrystenko · 2021 · Agrosvit

  Rural green tourism represents an innovative entrepreneurship model that drives rural development in Ukraine. The paper identifies key factors enabling agritourism, agro-ecotourism, and rural tourism enterprises, and develops a framework for their growth. It demonstrates how green tourism entrepreneurship achieves economic, environmental, social, and cultural goals while addressing barriers to expansion. The authors recommend specific government support measures to strengthen this sector.

• The role of entrepreneurship, cooperation and agro-industrial integration in the development of rural areas

  Mykola Malik, Andrii Shvets · 2021 · Ekonomika APK

  Entrepreneurship, cooperation, and agro-industrial integration are essential for sustainable rural development. The paper identifies organizational and economic components needed to support these activities and demonstrates that entrepreneurship drives stable agrarian economy growth through integration and cooperation. The authors forecast entrepreneurial structure development through 2025 and provide recommendations for state policies supporting agricultural sector growth and rural transformation.

• Is place or person more important in determining higher rural cancer mortality? A data-linkage study to compare individual versus area-based measures of deprivation

  Peter Murchie, Shona Fielding, Melanie Turner, Lisa Iversen, Chris Dibben · 2021 · International Journal for Population Data Science

  Rural cancer patients in Northeast Scotland living over 60 minutes from treatment centers experienced worse one-year survival rates than those living closer, despite receiving timely treatment more often. This geographic disadvantage persisted regardless of whether researchers adjusted for area-based or individual socioeconomic status, indicating that distance to services, not personal characteristics, drives poorer rural cancer outcomes.

• Management of Innovation of the Economic Potential of the Rural Enterprises

  Petra Pártlová, Jarmila Straková, Jan Váchal, František Pollák, Ján Dobrovič · 2020 · Marketing and Management of Innovations

  Rural enterprises face innovation challenges that threaten their stability and viability. This paper develops a clustering methodology to identify the economic potential of rural settlements across four dimensions: economic, social, infrastructure, and environmental. Using data from Czech municipalities, the authors create models to classify areas by their innovation capacity and define business potential through regression analysis. The method enables practitioners to identify which rural locations have suitable conditions for innovation and economic development.

• The role of European funds in developing and sustaining rural entrepreneurship in Romania

  Florina Răzvanţă Puie · 2020 · Proceedings of the ... International Conference on Business Excellence

  European Union funding through Romania's National Rural Development Program (2014-2020) supports rural entrepreneurship by enabling SMEs to access grants for business development. The study analyzes program results using official statistics and reports, measuring outcomes like job creation and population reach. It identifies how EU funds drive rural economic development while documenting persistent challenges Romanian rural entrepreneurs face despite these funding mechanisms.

• Migration, meaning(s) of place and implications for rural innovation policy

  Christos Kalantaridis, Zografia Bika, Debbie Millard · 2019 · Regional Studies

  Migration shapes how rural communities understand and value their places, which directly affects their capacity for innovation. The paper argues that rural innovation policy must account for migrants' diverse perspectives and attachments to place. Policymakers who ignore these meaning-making processes risk designing interventions that fail to engage local populations or leverage the knowledge migrants bring to rural economies.

• Agrotourism as one of the ways to develop entrepreneurship in rural areas

  Oleh Hrymak, Myroslava Vovk, О. В. Кіндрат · 2019 · Scientific Messenger of LNU of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnologies

  Agrotourism offers rural entrepreneurs a diversified income strategy that addresses unemployment, migration, and rural decline. The paper argues agrotourism delivers economic benefits through agricultural diversification and new jobs, environmental gains by conserving ecosystems and farmland, and social-cultural benefits by preserving heritage and improving farmer status. Key barriers include weak strategic planning, insufficient funding, inadequate training, and lack of professionalism. State-level policy support is essential to unlock agrotourism's potential for regional development.

• Economic Strategy of the Development of Renewable Energy in Rural Areas of Ukraine

  Vasyl Tkachuk, Maryna Yaremova, Liudmyla Tarasovych, Volodymyr Kozlovskyi, Тетяна Пілявоз · 2019 · MONTENEGRIN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS

  This study examines how strategic orientation and market orientation affect hotel business performance in Ukraine using structural equation modeling with 183 hotel survey responses. Market orientation significantly improved hotel performance, while strategic orientation's direct effect on performance was not significant. The findings suggest market orientation mediates the relationship between strategic orientation and business outcomes in the hotel sector.

• A Critical Approach on Sustainable Renewable Energy Sources in Rural Area: Evidence from North-West Region of Romania

  Gabriela Chiciudean, Rezhen Harun, Felix Arion, Daniel Chiciudean, Camelia Oroian, Iulia Mureşan · 2018 · Energies

  Rural residents in Romania's North-West region show positive attitudes toward renewable energy, particularly younger and more educated people. However, actual adoption remains low with little intention to switch to renewable sources in the future. The research identifies lack of knowledge as the primary barrier and calls for government-led public education campaigns to bridge the gap between positive perception and actual implementation of renewable energy adoption.

• Social entrepreneurship in the rural areas - a sports club's mobilisation of people, money and social capital

  Yvonne von Friedrichs, Olof Wahlberg · 2016 · International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business

  A sports club in a small rural community became a social entrepreneur by taking on public responsibilities and driving community development. The club succeeded by leveraging its local credibility, geographical proximity, and ability to mobilize resources. Volunteers in the club acted as change agents, demonstrating how the voluntary sector can address gaps left by traditional public institutions in peripheral rural societies.

• Optimisation of a TV White Space Broadband Market Model for Rural Entrepreneurs

  Sindiso Nleya, Antoine Bagula, Marco Zennaro, Ermmano Pietrosemoli · 2014 · Journal of ICT Standardization

  This paper develops a game-theoretic model for TV white space broadband markets serving rural entrepreneurs. Using Bertrand competition theory, the authors analyze how primary spectrum users compete on price to sell access to secondary users operating mesh routers. The model optimizes inter-operator agreements based on quality-of-service metrics like delay and throughput, comparing outcomes across cost, revenue, and profit parameters to identify competitive equilibria.

• Unnoticed Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Latvia’s Rural Economy

  Agnese Cimdiņa · 2013 · Journal of Baltic Studies

  Rural entrepreneurs in Latvia drive innovation through smallholder farming and traditional practices, yet their contributions remain largely unrecognized. The paper examines how rural Latvians, particularly those engaged in traditional activities like bath-house operations, generate economic value and foster development through entrepreneurial ventures that official statistics and policy frameworks overlook.

• Innovation centres as growth points for smaller towns and rural areas

  Anna V. Belova, А. В. Левченков · 2012 · Baltic Region

  Innovation centres and science parks in smaller towns and rural areas drive socioeconomic development beyond major cities. The authors examine a science park in Gusev, Kaliningrad region, showing how regional and municipal legal frameworks support innovation adoption. Composite development strategies integrating innovation at municipality level strengthen surrounding rural territories.

• Orthogonal beamforming for overlay mode of OFDMA-based rural broadband wireless access

  Jinho Choi, Jeongseok Ha · 2012

  This paper proposes an overlay mode for OFDMA-based cellular systems that delivers broadband wireless access to rural users without interfering with urban mobile users. Using orthogonal beamforming, the system constrains signals to rural users to remain orthogonal to channels serving higher-priority mobile users. The authors demonstrate that rural users achieve acceptable signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratios despite these constraints, making the approach viable for rural broadband deployment.

• Effects of Carrier Frequency, Antenna Height and Season on Broadband Wireless Access in Rural Areas

  Kin Lien Chee, Anggia Anggraini, Thomas Kürner · 2012 · IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation

  This paper investigates how carrier frequency, antenna height, and seasonal changes affect broadband wireless access systems in rural areas. Using field measurements in Germany at two frequency bands, the researchers found that wireless channel characteristics vary significantly with environment and terrain. Antenna height effects depend on local terrain clearance, and seasonal changes alter fading distributions and multipath propagation patterns in rural channels.

• SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DETERMINANTS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN RURAL AREAS IN POLAND

  Małgorzata Michalewska-Pawlak · 2012 · SHILAP Revista de lepidopterología

  Rural entrepreneurship in Poland is shaped by social and cultural factors rooted in communist-era attitudes and post-1989 transformation. Polish rural residents show low entrepreneurial activity, preferring passive survival strategies over economic risk-taking. However, strong family and neighborhood ties, combined with generations of farm ownership experience, create conditions that support entrepreneurship when it does emerge. Rural enterprise thus carries both economic and social dimensions.

• Development of Renewable Energy and Sustainability for Off-Grid Rural Communities of Developing Countries and Energy Efficiency

  Tewodros Tesfaye Erbato, Thomas Hartkopf · 2011

  Off-grid rural communities in developing countries face severe energy shortages due to high fuel costs and lack of renewable energy infrastructure. This paper proposes an incentive-driven approach to deploy renewable energy technology while promoting energy efficiency. The strategy emphasizes community engagement, awareness-building, and government participation to overcome past project failures and ensure local ownership of renewable energy systems.

• Tourism management in rural innovation programs of Castilla-La Mancha

  Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales. Cobertizo San Pedro Mártir, s/n – 45.071-TOLEDO, Águeda Esteban Talaya, Juan Antonio Mondéjar Jiménez, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales.Avenida de los Alfares, 44 – 16.071-CUENCA. Email: JuanAntonio.Mondejar@uclm.es, Jośe Mondéjar Jiménez, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales. Avenida de los Alfares, 44 – 16.071-CUENCA, María Leticia Meseguer Santamaría, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales.Plaza de la Universidad, 1 – 02.071-ALBACETE · 2010 · Cuadernos de Gestión

  Rural innovation programs in Castilla-La Mancha invested heavily in tourism development, expanding rural accommodation, heritage rehabilitation, and cultural preservation. Using shift-share analysis, the study identifies how these European structural funds generated global, structural, and competitive effects across tourism initiatives, demonstrating significant increases in rural tourism supply and infrastructure.

• Older people as actors in the rural community, innovation and empowerment

  Pilar Monreal‐Bosch, Arantza del Valle Gómez · 2010 · Athenea Digital Revista de pensamiento e investigación social

  Older people in rural communities actively contribute to social life and innovation when given opportunities for participation. This qualitative study of 53 rural residents in Catalonia, Spain found that community engagement is central to successful aging. The research identifies the need for rural-focused professionals and proposes community-based strategies that strengthen social participation systems while preserving rural character, rather than imposing urban models.

• Broadband access network investment optimization in rural areas

  Luka Vidmar, Blaz Peternel, Mitja Štular, Andrej Kos · 2010

  This paper develops an optimization method for deploying broadband networks in rural areas by combining digital subscriber line and fiber-to-home technologies. The authors use dynamic programming to determine optimal placement of network equipment while considering existing copper infrastructure, cable lengths, and user locations. They calculate financial metrics like payback periods and net present value for different deployment scenarios, and introduce a planning tool called BANeT to support rural broadband network design decisions.

• The Problem of Transforming the Energy System Towards Renewable Energy Sources as Perceived by Inhabitants of Rural Areas in South-Eastern Poland

  Ewa Chomać-Pierzecka, Magdalena Kowalska, Krzysztof Czyrka · 2025 · Energies

  Rural residents in south-eastern Poland largely support the country's transition to renewable energy and understand its necessity. However, older respondents show less clarity or preference for non-renewable sources. The study surveyed 300 people across five districts in Małopolska, finding age significantly influences energy transition attitudes. Targeted awareness campaigns for mature populations could strengthen public backing for renewable energy adoption.

• Application of artistic design innovation in promoting rural cultural brand construction

  Min Zeng, Chao Jin · 2024 · Scientific Reports

  This study uses AI and text mining to analyze how users in 15 countries respond emotionally to rural cultural brand designs. The researchers built a virtual simulator and recommendation system to match design elements with regional preferences. Brazilian users preferred vibrant, festive folk art styles, while Russian, Japanese, German, South Korean, and Thai users showed strong emotional responses to rural architecture, handicrafts, and performing arts designs. The findings help tailor rural cultural brand promotion to different international markets.

• Exacerbating the divide? Investigating rural inequalities in high speed broadband availability

  Seraphim Dempsey, Aislinn Hoy · 2024 · Telecommunications Policy

  Rural areas in Ireland have significantly less high-speed broadband coverage than urban areas, and within rural regions, coverage increases with affluence. This means socially deprived rural communities face a compounded disadvantage, receiving less commercial broadband investment despite public funding for infrastructure. The findings reveal that the digital divide operates not just between urban and rural areas, but also within rural areas themselves, correlating with social deprivation.

• Investments in Renewable Energy in Rural Communes: An Analysis of Regional Disparities in Poland

  Agnieszka Kozera, Aldona Standar, Joanna Stanisławska, Anna Rosa · 2024 · Energies

  Rural communes in Poland drive renewable energy transformation more actively than previously recognized, despite receiving little research attention. Eastern provinces like Lublin and Podlasie secured substantial EU funding for renewable projects, particularly solar installations. Regional disparities in investment activity are significant, with rural communes demonstrating crucial roles in Poland's energy transition that larger urban centers do not capture.

• International immigration and entrepreneurship in rural areas of the Spanish Pyrenees

  Cristóbal Mendoza · 2023 · Hungarian Geographical Bulletin

  Immigrant entrepreneurs in Spain's Pyrenees create innovative businesses in farming and tourism, introducing new products to niche markets and strengthening local sustainability values. However, their companies remain small and undercapitalized, producing limited economic impact and job creation. The study challenges the focus on retirement and low-skilled migration by documenting how immigrant professionals and lifestyle movers contribute to rural economies through entrepreneurship.

• L’Agriculture biologique, une innovation territoriale au service du développement rural : le cas du Gers

  Charlène Arnaud, Pierre Triboulet · 2022 · Revue d’Économie Régionale & Urbaine

  Organic agriculture in the Gers department of France demonstrates how rural areas drive innovation through territorial anchoring. The study finds strong institutional and economic support for organic farming development, positioning it as intelligent specialization that diversifies the existing agricultural system. However, competing visions of organic agriculture among stakeholders may hinder its further development as a territorial innovation.

• The impact of system contraction on the rural youth access to higher education in Poland

  Dominik Antonowicz, Krzysztof Wasielewski, Jarosław Domalewski · 2022 · Tertiary Education and Management

  After Poland's higher education system contracted post-2005, rural youth—historically disadvantaged in accessing university—gained greater entry to prestigious public institutions. The study challenges the conventional belief that system expansion reduces educational inequality. Instead, contraction forced elite universities to become less selective and more inclusive when traditional student pools dried up and state-funded places needed filling.

• Spaces of Innovation and Women Rural Entrepreneurship in Italy

  Marcello De Rosa, Luca Bartoli, McElwee Gerard · 2021 · New Medit

  Women farmers across Italian regions drive innovation adoption through entrepreneurial orientation, creating distinct innovation spaces within both conventional and alternative agrifood networks. The research identifies multiple "worlds of female innovation" and argues that policymakers must design differentiated policy actions targeting these entrepreneurial spaces to support gender mainstreaming in EU rural development.

• Policies for innovations in the new Rural Development Programs (RDP): the Italian regional experience

  Anna Vagnozzi · 2019

  Italy's 2014-2020 rural development policy emphasizes knowledge systems and innovation diffusion by valuing both tacit and scientific knowledge for human capital development. The policy achieves better innovation transfer results when all chain players—farmers, researchers, and advisors—participate together. An interactive approach helps identify farm problems and develop innovative solutions. This paper examines whether Europe 2020's ambitious objectives translated into actual implementation within Italy's Rural Development Regulation and identifies ongoing problems.

• Can Solar Power Help Providing Broadband Cellular Coverage in Extreme-Rural Sweden?

  Jaap van de Beek, Math Bollen, Anders Larsson, Mats Eriksson · 2016 · KTH Publication Database DiVA (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

  This paper investigates whether solar power can enable broadband cellular coverage in extremely remote areas of Sweden. The authors examine the technical and practical feasibility of combining renewable energy with mobile network infrastructure to serve sparsely populated regions where traditional grid connections are unavailable or uneconomical.

• Broadband ecosystem elements in techno-economic modelling and analysing of broadband access solutions for rural areas

  Križanović Čik, Višnja, Žagar, Drago, Rimac-Drlje, Snježana · 2016 · Tehnicki vjesnik - Technical Gazette

  This paper analyzes Croatia's rural broadband market and proposes an extended techno-economic model to evaluate broadband access solutions for rural areas. The model incorporates ecosystem elements and allows detailed analysis of different rural contexts to identify the most efficient business strategies for fixed and mobile broadband technologies. The work addresses Europe's digital divide between rural and urban regions.

• Community-Based Entrepreneurship and Rural Development

  Gary Bosworth · 2015 · International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research

  A survey of small and medium enterprises across five Central European nations examines how local institutions and conditions shape SME performance in rural regions. The research uses municipalities as the primary unit of analysis to understand the relationship between institutional organization and entrepreneurial success in rural areas.

• IncrEase: A tool for incremental planning of rural fixed Broadband Wireless Access networks

  Giacomo Bernardi, Mahesh K. Marina, Francesco Talamona, Dmitry Rykovanov · 2011

  IncrEase is a planning tool that helps rural broadband operators deploy wireless networks incrementally rather than all at once. The tool analyzes operational metrics to identify which areas should be upgraded first and recommends specific transmission sites to deploy, balancing immediate returns with long-term strategy. Testing on a real network with thousands of towers shows the approach reduces computation time while improving deployment decisions in infrastructure-limited rural areas.

• Analyses and comparisons of fixed access technologies for rural broadband implementation

  Višnja Križanović, Krešimir Grgić, Drago Žagar · 2010 · Information Technology Interfaces

  This paper evaluates fixed broadband technologies for rural deployment in Croatia by analyzing costs and profitability. The authors model and compare three systems—PLC, ADSL, and WiMAX—across different rural scenarios, calculating implementation costs using standard financial methods. The analysis identifies which technologies work best under specific rural conditions and highlights factors that drive broadband access costs.

• The Rural Wings Project: Bridging the Digital Divide with Satellite-Provided Internet. Phase I: Identifying and Analysing the Learning Needs of 31 Communities in 10 Countries

  Henrik Hansson, Paul Mihailidis, Ken Larsson, Menelaos Sotiriou, Sοfoklis Sotiriou, Nikolaos Uzunoglu, Michail Gargalakos · 2007 · E-Learning and Digital Media

  The Rural Wings project investigated digital access needs across 31 rural communities in 10 European countries. Researchers found that digitally isolated communities—particularly in mainland and island highlands—lack reliable infrastructure and ICT connectivity. Communities identified multiple reasons for needing better internet access: education, language learning, government services, news, medical services, and weather information. The study maps European patterns in rural digital exclusion and identifies satellite internet as a viable long-term solution.

• Manufacturing strategy and innovation in indigenous and foreign firms: an international study

  Déirdre Crowe, Alessandra Vecchi, Louis Brennan, Paul Coughlan · 2007 · International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management

  This study compares manufacturing strategy and innovation between domestic and foreign firms across 17 countries using the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey. The researchers found that while foreign firms generally outperform domestic ones in most areas, innovative firms achieve greater competitiveness regardless of whether they operate in their home country or abroad. Innovation emerges as the key driver of competitive advantage.

• Performance Evaluation of RF-Powered IoT in Rural Areas: The Wireless Power Digital Divide

  Hao Lin, Mustafa A. Kishk, Mohamed‐Slim Alouini · 2024 · IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking

  This paper evaluates wireless power transfer for battery-less IoT devices in rural areas using ambient radio-frequency signals. The researchers model rural networks with base stations and access points as RF signal sources and analyze coverage probability based on energy harvesting and signal quality requirements. Devices at the center of rural areas achieve twice the coverage of edge devices, and deploying 100 access points in small rural areas (under 100m radius) can support over 80% of RF-powered IoT devices.

• Toward a Renewable and Sustainable Energy Pattern in Non-Interconnected Rural Monasteries: A Case Study for the Xenofontos Monastery, Mount Athos

  Dimitris Al. Katsaprakakis · 2024 · Sustainability

  This paper designs renewable energy systems for Xenofontos Monastery on Mount Athos, Greece, which operates independently without grid connection. The author models two alternative systems combining wind turbines or solar panels with either pumped hydro storage or battery storage. Results show that 100% electricity demand coverage is achievable using hydro power with pumped storage at 0.22 EUR/kWh, or 90% coverage with lithium-ion batteries at 0.11 EUR/kWh, enabling the monastery to transition from diesel generators to sustainable energy.

• Customers’ Perception of Microfinance Services as a Tool for Rural Development: A Romanian Case Study

  Denisa Henegar, Garofița Loredana Ilieș, Iulia Mureşan, Andra Poruțiu, Iulia Diana Arion, Felix Arion · 2024 · Agriculture

  Microfinance institutions in Romania succeed when they build trust, demonstrate empathy, and maintain strong organizational culture and reputation. A survey of 110 microfinance clients identified three key service quality dimensions: empathy and assurance, trust, and intangibles. While gender differences in perception were minimal, age, education, and business type significantly shaped how clients viewed services. Improving these intangible factors strengthens client relationships and enables sustainable rural development.

• Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Local Finance and Development Strategies. Case of Urban and Rural Areas in the Mazovia Region

  Marta Maćkiewicz, Mariusz-Jan Radło, Ewelina Szczech-Pietkiewicz · 2022 · Lex localis - Journal of Local Self-Government

  COVID-19 reduced local government revenues across urban and rural areas in Poland's Mazovia region while expenditures rose, creating a fiscal squeeze. Rural and urban local administrative units responded differently to this crisis, with their distinct characteristics shaping their resilience and recovery strategies. The pandemic forced local governments to adjust development plans based on their financial capacity.

• Microfinance as a Mechanism against Financial Exclusion in the European Rural Areas – an Inspiration for the Czech Republic

  Gabriela Chmelíková, Annette Krauss, François Lategan · 2021 · Agris on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics

  Microfinance institutions in Europe show better repayment performance in rural areas than urban areas, according to analysis of a European microfinance database. The Czech Republic lacks microfinance infrastructure, forcing rural entrepreneurs to rely on expensive consumer credit. The authors recommend that policymakers develop legal frameworks supporting microfinance systems to reduce financial exclusion and disparities between rural and urban regions.

• Innovation supports for small-scale development in rural regions: a create, build, test and learn approach

  Johan Lugnet, Åsa Ericson, Johan Wenngren · 2020 · International Journal of Product Development

  Small rural manufacturers face resource constraints that limit innovation despite needing it to survive market downturns. This paper presents a support toolbox designed to help these firms develop new products through learning cycles and communicative prototyping. The approach formalizes their existing trial-and-error methods while building organizational learning capabilities into early-stage product development work.

• Improving competitiveness between EU rural regions through access to tertiary education and sources of innovation

  Iona Cecily Moore Kirkpatrick, Tatjana Horvat, Vito Bobek · 2020 · International Journal of Diplomacy and Economy

  Rural EU regions suffer from poor educational access, weak role models, and low dietary standards, creating limited social mobility and health problems. The authors propose integrating tertiary education with agricultural innovation to address these interconnected challenges. They argue that combining educational access with sector-specific innovation can improve regional competitiveness, social welfare, and economic viability in marginalized rural areas.

• EUROPEAN UNION REGIONAL POLICY SUPPORT FOR INVESTMENTS IN RENEWABLE ENERGY IN RURAL AREAS OF THE MAZOVIAN VOIVODSHIP

  Joanna Rakowska · 2020 · Annals of the Polish Association of Agricultural and Agribusiness Economists

  EU regional policy funding supported renewable energy investments in rural Poland's Mazovian Voivodship, but only wind and solar projects by local governments and enterprises received support. The study finds that eligible cost ceilings and low EU funding shares forced projects to rely heavily on non-EU sources. Insufficient funding emerged as the primary barrier to rural development, causing authorities to prioritize other initiatives over renewable energy.

• Profitable small-scale renewable energy systems in agrifood industry and rural areas: demonstration in the wine sector

  José L. Bernal‐Agustín, Rodolfo Dufo‐López, Javier Carroquino, Jesús Sergio Artal Sevil, José A. Domínguez‐Navarro, Ángel A. Bayod-Rújula, Jesús Yago-Loscos · 2017 · Renewable Energy and Power Quality Journal

  This EU-funded project demonstrates small-scale renewable energy systems for rural wine production, installing photovoltaic prototypes in vineyard fields and wineries. The systems reduce CO2 emissions from rural energy consumption, enable clean energy for irrigation in areas without grid access, and eliminate noise, waste, and visual impacts from traditional electrical infrastructure. The approach addresses both climate change mitigation and agricultural adaptation.

• Development of design principles of microgrid on the basis of renewable energy sources for rural settlements in Central European part of Russia

  Pavel P. Bezrukikh, Sergey M. Karabanov, Dmitriy V. Suvorov · 2017

  This paper develops design principles for microgrids powered by renewable energy in rural Russian settlements without access to centralized electricity networks. The authors calculate annual power consumption requirements, determine optimal combinations of solar and wind generation, and design microgrid structures that ensure reliable continuous power supply to residents.

• Prospective modelling of the hourly response of local renewable energy sources to the residential energy demand in a mixed urban-rural territory

  Pierre Peigné · 2017 · Energy Procedia

  This paper models how local renewable energy sources can meet residential electricity demand in a mixed urban-rural French territory by 2050. The researchers calculated hourly energy consumption using building archetypes and geographic data, estimated local renewable potential, and tested scenarios showing how different energy transition approaches affect the balance between demand and production. The analysis reveals specific challenges for residential energy transition and local renewable deployment.

• Renewable Energy – Implications for Agriculture and Rural Development in Poland

  Katarzyna Bańkowska, Piotr Gradziuk · 2017 · Wieś i Rolnictwo

  Rural areas in Poland significantly contributed to renewable energy targets between 2005–2014, with renewable energy's share of primary production doubling from 5.8% to 12.1%. Biomass dominated initially, but wind and solar grew rapidly after 2010. However, Poland's subsidy system favors large hydroelectric plants and co-combustion over citizen-led renewable initiatives, limiting economic potential in small installations and community energy development.

• Rural resilience and renewable energy in North-East Groningen, the Netherlands: in search of synergies

  Rozanne C. Spijkerboer, Elen‐Maarja Trell, Christian Zuidema · 2016 · University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology)

  This paper examines whether Dutch government policies recognize renewable energy's potential to strengthen rural resilience and address socio-economic decline. The authors analyze governance at multiple levels in North-East Groningen, a coastal rural region facing peripheralization while positioning itself as an energy hub. They investigate whether formal government institutions anticipate and support renewable energy's role in rural development alongside growing local renewable energy initiatives.

• Energy Sovereignty in Rural Areas: Off-Grid Paradigm for Strengthen the Use of Renewable Energy.

  Stefano Dell’Anna, Bys Dell'anna, Maria Elena Menconi, M Menconi, R Menges, A Salkind, A Cannone, F Trumbure · 2016 · European Journal of Sustainable Development

  This paper presents the Off-Grid Box, a containerized renewable energy system designed to provide electricity, hot water, water harvesting, and purification to isolated rural communities. The system enables energy independence and sovereignty in marginal areas while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The authors demonstrate that modular off-grid systems can support sustainable livelihoods for small family farms and local communities, creating small-scale smart grids integrated into rural territories.

• FROM WATER TO BIOFUELS: KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES AMONG RURAL RESIDENTS IN EASTERN POLAND

  Anna Us, Wojciech J. Florkowski, Anna M. Klepacka, Us, Anna, Florkowski, Wojciech J., Klepacka, Anna M. · 2015 · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA)

  Rural residents in eastern Poland show varying knowledge of renewable energy types, with solar and wind energy most familiar and biofuels least known. Farmers, those viewing renewable energy as important, high-income households, larger families, and married individuals demonstrate significantly higher knowledge levels. The study identifies key demographic and socioeconomic factors that predict renewable energy awareness in rural communities.

• Croatia's rural areas - renewable energy based electricity generation for isolated grids

  Sonja M. Protic, Robert Pašičko · 2014 · Thermal Science

  Croatia's rural areas suffer from aging electricity infrastructure and poor grid connections. This paper compares decentralized renewable energy systems for isolated grids against extending the public network to remote regions. The analysis shows isolated grids powered by renewables are often more cost-effective and faster to deploy. The authors call for better evaluation methods that account for non-monetary benefits and advocate an interdisciplinary approach to rural electrification.

• Techno-economic analysis for Rural Broadband Access Networks

  Nafarizal Nayan, Rong Zhao, Carmen Mas Machuca, Nikolay Zhelev, Wolfgang Knospe · 2012

  This paper develops a techno-economic cost model for deploying broadband networks in rural areas worldwide. It identifies major benefits and challenges of rural broadband access, presents factors affecting costs and revenues, and proposes a technology selection strategy that incorporates technical, economic, regulatory, and funding considerations. The authors create an empirical model to calculate total costs and benefits, illustrated through a Germany case study.

• The Need for Technological Innovations for Indigenous Knowledge Transfer in Culturally Inclusive Education

  John Loewen, Kinshuk Kinshuk · 2012

  Indigenous knowledge systems in remote and rural communities face extinction due to colonization and cultural displacement. The paper proposes using information and communications technology to preserve oral and traditional knowledge systems and integrate them into community education. Technological innovation can help gather, store, and retrieve indigenous knowledge to support culturally inclusive education.

• Analyses and comparisons of technologies for rural broadband implementation

  Drago Žagar, Višnja Križanović · 2009 · International Conference on Software, Telecommunications and Computer Networks

  This paper analyzes the costs of deploying broadband networks in rural Croatia using techno-economic models. The authors compare DSL and WiMAX technologies across three rural scenarios, calculating implementation costs through standard profitability methods. The analysis identifies which factors in each scenario most affect broadband access costs, providing evidence to support rural broadband deployment as a driver of economic growth and quality of life.

• 43 nd European Regional Science Association Congress "Peripheries, Centres, and Spatial Development in the New Europe" University of Jyväskylä, Finland, August 27 th -30 th 2003 Innovation and Business Performance in Rural and Peripheral Areas of Greece

  Alexandra Goudis, Dimitris Skuras, Kyriaki Tsegenidi · 2003

  This study examines innovation patterns in two mountainous Greek regions and their effect on business performance. Surveying 100 manufacturing and service enterprises, the researchers found that product and market innovation varies between the more accessible and remote areas. Business networks, entrepreneurial characteristics, and firm-specific factors drive innovation, which in turn improves business performance. The findings support territorially tailored innovation policies for peripheral rural areas.

• The Long‐term Socioeconomic Impacts of Renewable Energy Deployment: Lessons From Case Studies in European Rural Regions

  Álvaro García‐Riazuelo, Rosa Duarte, Cristina Sarasa · 2025 · Journal of Regional Science

  Renewable energy installations in European rural regions generate long-term economic growth, employment, and population recovery. The authors built a database tracking wind and solar capacity across European regions over decades, then used synthetic control methods to measure socioeconomic impacts. Results show both within-region and between-region effects from renewable energy deployment in rural areas.

• Energy Valorization Strategies in Rural Renewable Energy Communities: A Path to Social Revitalization and Sustainable Development

  Cristina Sanz‐Cuadrado, Luís Narvarte, Ana Belén Cristóbal · 2025 · Energies

  Rural energy communities in Spain can help combat depopulation by adopting innovative energy valorization strategies. The study analyzed seven villages across three scenarios: self-consumption models, battery storage systems, and advanced options like hydrogen production. While no single strategy reverses depopulation alone, combining social impact principles with approaches like energy retail or unified community structures significantly mitigates rural decline and supports sustainable revitalization.

• Cost-effectiveness of rural energy access strategies

  Jörg Peters, Gunther Bensch, Kevin Moull, Mascha Rauschenbach, Maximiliane Sievert · 2025 · Energy Policy

  This paper evaluates cost-effectiveness of rural energy access strategies in sub-Saharan Africa by comparing on-grid electrification, off-grid solar, mini-grids, and improved cooking technologies. The authors find that on-grid electrification delivers disappointing results relative to costs, while stand-alone solar systems and energy-efficient biomass cookstoves emerge as the most cost-effective options. Mini-grids face unresolved sustainability challenges that undermine their viability.

• Relying on LEADER? A place-based policy approach to the rural development of Finnish municipalities

  Ella Mustakangas · 2024 · Fennia

  Finnish municipalities play a modest role in rural development despite place-based policy frameworks that should empower them. This study identifies three causal factors: the ideology of responsible local communities, shrinking-municipality development policies, and projectification challenges. The research finds that increased village involvement in rural development actually discourages municipal participation, and municipalities struggle to trust rural potential when focused on economic growth. LEADER groups dominate because they face fewer projectification obstacles than other municipal projects.

• Rural development: People-centered and place-based approach

  А.С. Наумов · 2023 · Russian Journal of Economics

  This paper advocates for rural development strategies that prioritize people and place-based approaches. Rather than top-down policies, the work emphasizes community-centered methods that account for local conditions, resources, and needs. The author argues that sustainable rural innovation requires understanding specific regional contexts and engaging local populations as active participants in development processes.

• Impact evaluation of broadband investment on coverage and household internet use in rural areas

  Ignacio Arce, María Gorriti, Miguel Gómez‐Antonio · 2025 · Papers of the Regional Science Association

  Spanish rural municipalities that received broadband investment subsidies significantly increased their high-speed internet coverage between 2013 and 2019, narrowing the rural-urban divide. However, improved broadband coverage alone did not substantially increase household internet use in rural areas. The study reveals a persistent digital divide, with rural coverage at 38% compared to 90% in urban areas, suggesting that infrastructure investment must be paired with other interventions to drive actual adoption.

• Rural innovation and the green transition: The role of further education colleges

  Dylan Henderson, Kevin Morgan · 2025 · Journal of Rural Studies

  Further Education Colleges in rural areas can drive innovation addressing the green transition, particularly in agriculture. A Welsh case study shows how one college developed slurry management solutions by aligning skills training with innovation goals, distributing leadership across stakeholders, and creating experimental regulatory spaces. The findings demonstrate FECs' overlooked potential to tackle major environmental challenges while strengthening rural economies.

• Integration of renewable resources into the electricity energy matrix. Practical case applied to a small rural municipality

  Daniel Dasí-Crespo, Carlos Roldán-Blay, Guillermo Escrivá-Escrivà, Carlos Roldán-Porta · 2023 · Renewable Energy and Power Quality Journal

  This paper designs and manages renewable energy resources for a small rural municipality in Spain's Valencian Community. The researchers modeled how solar, wind, and other renewables could meet the municipality's annual electricity demand while maximizing self-consumption and reducing grid dependence. Results demonstrate that rural communities can achieve high renewable self-sufficiency, supporting Europe's energy transition away from fossil fuels.

• Place-based rural health professional pre-registration education programs: a scoping review

  Lara Fuller, Jessica Beattie, Matthew McGrail, Vincent L Versace, Gary David Rogers · 2025 · Frontiers in Medicine

  Place-based health professional education programs train students in rural communities to address healthcare workforce shortages. A review of 138 programs across 12 countries identified four training models: short-term placements, extended placements, rural campuses, and distributed blended learning. Programs recruit local students, engage communities in selection and delivery, and evaluate graduate work locations and access outcomes. Successful programs combine widening educational access, comprehensive design, and community engagement aligned with social accountability.

• A Registered Report on Place-Based Resentment: Exploring Urban-Rural Tensions in Sweden

  Kajsa Hansson, Gissur Ó Erlingsson, Gustav Tinghög · 2025 · Journal of Experimental Political Science

  This Swedish study reveals significant urban-rural tensions despite the country's egalitarian welfare state and equalization policies. Rural respondents showed stronger in-group identification, greater place-based resentment, and more negative stereotypes of urban people than vice versa. However, these tensions did not translate into systematic bias when evaluating political statements from rural versus urban politicians, suggesting regional identity matters for political discourse without creating systematic partisan divides.

• Numerical performance assessment of an innovative PV-driven air-conditioning system based on hydraulic vapour-compression concept for off-grid rural houses

  Merzaka Dahmani, Fouad Khaldi, Driss Stitou, Hamza Semmari · 2025 · International Journal of Ambient Energy

  This paper evaluates a photovoltaic-powered air-conditioning system using hydraulic vapor-compression technology designed for off-grid rural homes. The researchers assess the system's numerical performance, demonstrating how solar energy can provide cooling to remote rural areas without grid connection. The innovation combines renewable energy generation with efficient cooling technology to address rural electrification and climate control challenges.

• Rural-Urban Pay Difference in the Microfinance Industry: Evidence from Developing Countries

  Md Aslam Mia, Lucia Dalla Pellegrina · 2025 · Journal of Alternative Finance

  Microfinance institutions across 111 developing countries pay employees significantly more in urban areas than rural areas. The wage gap stems from agglomeration effects, higher urban living costs, and greater urban productivity. Larger and financially stable MFIs pay higher wages regardless of location. The findings suggest policymakers should intervene to address rural-urban pay disparities and help MFIs retain talent in underserved areas.

• Integration of renewable energy-powered cold storage solutions for reducing post-harvest food waste in rural agricultural areas

  Oluwaseun Francis Owolabi, Dupe Stella Ogundipe, Peter Makinde · 2024 · World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews

  Researchers developed a renewable energy-powered cold storage system combining solar and wind power with smart sensors and AI for rural farms. Field trials in the UK and US showed the system reduced post-harvest food waste by 43.5%, extended produce shelf-life by 300%, and increased farmer income by 43%. It cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% compared to diesel systems and achieved strong economic returns and farmer adoption rates.

• Bridging the Divide: Digitalization and Young Rural Women in Bulgaria

  Vladislava Lendzhova · 2025 · International Journal of Digital Research

  Young rural women in Bulgaria face significant barriers to digital engagement, with 73% experiencing unreliable internet access and 67% lacking adequate digital literacy training. Structural inequalities rooted in limited infrastructure, gender norms, and educational gaps prevent these women from participating in the digital economy. The study calls for gender-sensitive policies expanding broadband access and digital skills programs to enable social mobility and regional economic growth.

• Place-based resources as a means for local economic development – local planning in shrinking rural areas

  Ida Nilsson, Sabrina Fredin · 2025 · Planning Practice and Research

  Local planning in shrinking rural areas can actively shape economic development by engaging with place-based resources and global economic demands. Using a Swedish municipality case study, the authors show how planning functions as a proactive, socio-materially distributed practice rather than simply reacting to external pressures. Local planning agencies directly influenced spatial and economic transformation through their engagement with resource extraction projects.

• Defence innovation ecosystems and rural economic development: pathways to sustainable growth and military adaptation

  Jānis Kondrāts, Jeļena Pundure, Inga Jēkabsone · 2025 · Research for Rural Development/Research for Rural Development (Online)

  Latvia is integrating rural regions into its defence innovation ecosystem to strengthen military capabilities and economic development. The study finds that while government investment and policy frameworks exist—including test sites in Latgale and dual-use technology grants—rural participation remains limited by infrastructure gaps, weak SME involvement, and unequal funding distribution. The authors recommend targeted policies to boost rural innovation capacity while aligning with NATO and EU standards.

• Innovations of Rural Areas as a Necessity of Green Economy and Sustainable Development

  Katica Radosavljević, Simona Roxana Pătărlăgeanu, Branko Mihailović, Mirela Mitrašević · 2024 · Proceedings of the ... International Conference on Business Excellence

  Rural innovation in Serbia requires applying green economy principles to increase agricultural competitiveness and ensure sustainable development. The paper examines plum production as a case study, revealing unstable market placement and declining rural populations. Serbia's EU accession demands alignment with environmental standards. Success depends on state support, institutional frameworks, farmer training, advisory services, and promotion of innovation through shorter marketing channels and knowledge exchange.

• Bridging the Digital Divide: The XGain Knowledge Facilitation Tool for Rural Connectivity

  August Betzler, Anargyros J. Roumeliotis, Adrián Pino, Panayiotis Klitou, Vasilis Kotsikoris, Anna Pouliou, Damianos Michailidis, Ioannis Neokosmidis, Theodoros Rokkas, Hatem Chouchane, Annabel Oosterwijk, Evangelos Kosmatos, Pau Pamplona, Pamela Bartar, Gorazd Weiss · 2024

  The XGain Knowledge Facilitation Tool helps rural communities bridge the digital divide by providing decision-making support for digital infrastructure deployment. The tool integrates socio-environmental and techno-economic assessments with business model proposals, enabling rural stakeholders to make informed choices about telecommunications technologies. This approach addresses rural connectivity challenges and promotes resilience and competitiveness in digital transformation.

• Place-Based Collaborative Action as a Means of Delivering Goods and Services in Rural Areas of Developed Economies

  Bill Slee, Jonathan Hopkins · 2024 · World

  Rural communities in developed economies deliver goods and services through household, community, and third-sector provision alongside market and state actors. The paper identifies three types of place-based collaborative action, driven by different motivations. Using Scotland as a case study, it demonstrates that community-led initiatives in land management, renewable energy, and social care can succeed when supported by effective public policy, challenging assumptions that such efforts cannot overcome class-based constraints.

• The Multilateral Development Banks and Rural Climate Finance: Adaptation, Mitigation, and Resilience

  Adrian Robert Bazbauers · 2024 · The Journal of Environment & Development

  Multilateral development banks emphasize climate adaptation and mitigation in their governance documents as essential for equitable outcomes and poverty reduction. However, analysis of 140 governance documents and 284 lending operations reveals they predominantly finance climate resilience projects that focus on reducing agricultural and rural income vulnerability to climate change rather than pursuing transformative adaptation or mitigation strategies.

• Agricultural Chambers in the Process of Transfer of Knowledge and Innovations for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas in Poland

  Anna Kasprzyk, Alina Walenia, Dariusz Kusz, Bożena Kusz · 2023 · Agriculture

  Agricultural chambers in Poland function as part of the EU's Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System, facilitating technology and knowledge transfer to farms. Research across Polish regions shows these chambers significantly influenced EU Rural Development Program fund absorption. However, Polish chambers prove less effective at driving agricultural development than counterparts in other EU countries. The study recommends chambers strengthen their roles in policy formation, income stabilization, information dissemination, and farmer advocacy.

• Bridging the gap or widening the divide? Municipal decision-makers’ perceptions of healthcare digitalization in shrinking rural regions

  Annamari Kiviaho, Johannes Einolander · 2026 · Heliyon

  Municipal decision-makers in shrinking rural Finnish regions view healthcare digitalization as a potential solution for aging populations, but worry it may deepen inequality rather than improve access. The study examines whether digital healthcare actually bridges gaps or widens divides in rural communities, considering both local accessibility and broader regional development impacts.

• Learning with Surrounding Heritage: Education, Innovation and Rural Empowerment Along European Pilgrimage Routes

  María José Andrade Suárez, Silvia González Soutelo, Laura García-Juan, Miguel Gomez-Heras, Estefanía López-Salas · 2026 · Heritage

  Heritage education along European pilgrimage routes drives rural development by addressing digital skills and tourism management gaps. The study across seven European countries reveals that inclusive, place-based learning strengthens local identity and community resilience. Pilgrimage routes function as learning landscapes that promote cultural sustainability and reduce territorial disparities through heritage-led tourism innovation.

• Evaluating Integrated Care Innovations: NICHE Anchor Institute’s Impact on Overcoming Constraints in Tackling Health Equity in Rural Coastal Communities

  Johnny Yuen, Jonathan Webster, Joanne Odell, Sally Hardy · 2026 · International Journal of Integrated Care

  The NICHE Anchor Institute in Norfolk and Waveney, England, developed integrated care models to address health disparities in rural coastal communities facing workforce shortages and isolation. Using participatory evaluation methods with over 50 healthcare professionals and community groups, the institute improved service delivery accessibility, strengthened workforce resilience through leadership training, and built community ownership of healthcare solutions. Early evidence shows improved return on investment and workforce retention, offering a scalable model for addressing health inequalities in rural areas.

• Place as a microcosm: Community-based citizenship education approaches among schools and rural low-density communities

  Nicolas Martins da Silva, Sofia Marques da Silva · 2026 · Educar

  This study examines how rural schools in Portugal's border regions teach citizenship through community-based approaches. Researchers analyzed 29 schools' educational projects, interviewed teachers, and surveyed students. Schools led diverse initiatives engaging local communities to promote well-being and cultural values. The findings show how schools, stakeholders, and young people collaborate to strengthen community well-being and social cohesion through place-based citizenship education.

• Localising the Sustainable Development Goals. A Place‐Based Analysis of Sustainable Development in Rural and Urban Areas

  Lucas Teótimo Frutos Olmedo, Paul Holloway, John F. Barimo, Mary O'Shaughnessy · 2026 · Sustainable Development

  This paper creates a Sustainable Development Index for rural and urban areas in Ireland using 33 indicators across 13 SDGs. Using high-resolution geographic data and GIS analysis, the authors find that rural areas near cities show the strongest sustainable development outcomes, while remote rural areas and major cities perform worse. The research demonstrates that examining rural-urban connections matters for achieving the SDGs and supports using geographic methods to design targeted, place-based policies.

• Democratizing Access to Science and Technology in Rural Schools: Educational Innovation through Remote Laboratories. The R3 Project.

  Verónica Canivell Castillo, Javier García Zubía, Jordi Cuadros, Marcelo Leslabay, Cristina Giménez, Nora Gallastegui, Giovanna Lani, Ander Herrero · 2026 · Afinidad

  The R3 Project uses remote laboratory technology to bring hands-on science and engineering education to rural schools, eliminating the need for expensive physical infrastructure. Developed by University of Deusto researchers and LabsLand, the platform lets students conduct real experiments online. Results show the approach increases student motivation and learning while reducing educational gaps between rural and urban schools, promoting STEM interest and educational equity.

• Harmonizing Solar Energy Access and Affordability in Nigeria: The Role of Policy and Energy Management in Rural Electrification

  Muhammad Mubarak Abdulkarim, Abdul-Jalal Babakano, Dolapo Popoola, Shehu Sani Gaddafi · 2026 · SustainE

  This study examines how policy and energy management can improve solar energy access and affordability in rural Nigeria. Using case studies in Abuja, Kaduna, and the University of Abuja, the researchers assess current strategies for deploying decentralized solar systems, optimizing energy efficiency, and financing renewable energy. They compare approaches from India, Egypt, China, and Germany to identify deployment solutions and propose policy reforms that expand rural electrification while reducing emissions.

• The Impact of Mini-Grids on Rural Energy-Access Indicators in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review

  Ibanga Effiong, Gabrial Anandarajah, Olivier Dessens · 2026 · Energies

  Mini-grids expand rural electrification in developing countries, but service quality varies widely. This systematic review of 22 studies (2005–2025) finds that electrification rates improve frequently, but availability ranges from 5 to 24 hours daily with demand-capacity mismatches common. Affordability is well-documented but varies by location. Reliability and power quality remain poorly measured. Mini-grids deliver real benefits, but inconsistent metrics and short monitoring periods limit evidence quality.

• Reimagining rural transit: model-based insights into demand-responsive transportation

  Nina Thomsen, Gernot Liedtke · 2026 · Transportation

  Demand-responsive transportation (DRT) can reduce rural car dependency and improve service quality in low-density regions. A model of a German rural area shows DRT achieving 14% modal share, with stronger uptake in peripheral zones. While DRT increases overall road traffic slightly by shifting from other transit modes, it remains economically viable at roughly double current transit fares and significantly improves accessibility in areas with poor traditional public transit.

• From Rural Underdevelopment to Innovation: The Strategic Role of Skilled Labor in the South-East Development Region of Romania

  Daniela Lavinia Balasan, Dragoş Horia Buhociu · 2025 · Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development Studies.

  Romania's South-East Development Region struggles with rural skilled labor shortages and uneven human resource development across its six counties. Constanța and Galați have stronger educational infrastructure and labor market connections, while Tulcea and Vrancea lag in vocational training and youth employment. The region underperforms compared to Romania's Centre Region, which has successfully implemented dual education and public-private partnerships. The paper identifies factors affecting skilled labor availability and proposes strategic directions for balanced regional development.

• Bridging the Digital Divide: The Transformative Role of AI-Driven Infrastructure in Rural Connectivity

  Ajay Averineni · 2025 · European Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology

  Artificial intelligence and cloud-native technologies can bridge the digital divide by optimizing rural network infrastructure, reducing costs, and enabling remote management. AI-driven solutions including network optimization, predictive analytics, and edge computing improve connectivity for telemedicine and online education. Telecommunications providers have demonstrated practical success with these innovations, though regulatory frameworks and collaborative models remain necessary for sustainable rural digital inclusion.

• Digital Divide between Urban and Rural Population? State Wide Mobile Network Quality Assessment for Bavaria, Germany

  Frank Loh, Flavian Raithel, Anika Seufert, Claus Heller, Robert Fröhler, Stefan Wunderer, Tobias Hoßfeld · 2025

  Researchers analyzed over 225 million mobile network measurements across Bavaria to assess whether 5G deployment reduces the digital divide between urban and rural areas. They measured throughput, latency, jitter, and packet loss across different network generations and providers. The study maps these performance metrics to population distribution to identify whether rural areas experience consistently lower Quality of Experience than urban regions.

• Innovation-investment mechanisms for stimulating small business in rural communities

  Denys Solomko · 2025 · Ukrainian Journal of Applied Economics and Technology

  This paper examines how artificial intelligence and digital technologies drive innovation in rural small business development. It analyzes AI's benefits for research efficiency and data processing while addressing risks like academic integrity violations and algorithmic bias. The authors argue that responsible AI implementation requires clear institutional policies and ethical guidelines to balance technological innovation with maintaining credibility in research and education.

• Abstract C098: Analysis of disparities in access to modern cancer therapies based on the place of residence (rural/urban) of participants

  Izabela Gudewicz, Renata Zaucha · 2025 · Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention

  A Polish study of 148 cancer patients in clinical trials found that rural residents made up only 28% of participants compared to 72% from urban areas. Rural men over 64 participated significantly less often than their urban counterparts. The researchers attribute this disparity to limited mobility, transportation challenges, and lower awareness of trial opportunities in rural communities. They recommend targeted education, expanded local research infrastructure, and logistical support to ensure equitable access to cancer treatments.

• Place-Based Rural Development: A Role for Complex Adaptive Assemblages?

  J Willett (21908600) · 2025 · Figshare

  Rural development programs often improve measurable indicators without making residents feel their lives have actually improved. Using ethnographic research in Cornwall and Southwest Virginia, this paper develops the concept of complex adaptive region assemblages to explain this gap. The author finds that revitalization systems work better when they strengthen connections between local residents and help them navigate their communities more effectively.

• “Do you know what's underneath your feet?”: Underground landscapes & place‐based risk perceptions of proposed shale gas sites in rural British communities

  SS Ryder (21966644), JA Dickie (21966647), P Devine‐Wright (21966650) · 2025 · Figshare

  Rural communities in the United Kingdom perceive risks from proposed shale gas exploration through deep, place-based knowledge rooted in generations of connection to their local landscapes, including underground features. Residents' understanding of subsurface geology shapes their concerns about how extraction threatens the distinctiveness of their places. The study shows that effective risk management for underground energy projects must incorporate local, place-based knowledge alongside technical assessments.

• Innovation and inclusion in multigrade settings: A case study in a secondary rural school in Catalonia

  Laura Domingo Peñafiel, Laura Farré-Riera, Núria Carrete-Marín, Núria Simó-Gil · 2025 · International Journal of Educational Research

  A rural secondary school in Catalonia implements pedagogical renewal through multigrade classrooms using active methodologies, democratic structures, and ICT integration. The study identifies how the school achieves educational innovation and social inclusion through personalized learning, reflective teaching, and community engagement. The research confirms alignment between the school's innovative discourse and actual classroom practices that promote inclusion.