ABSTRACT

Innovations in rural areas are increasingly informed by exemplary cases that contribute to sustainable rural development and tackle global challenges. The study of rural innovations requires approaches that reach beyond technology and include social and organisational aspects. One such approach is the relational perspective of organisational innovation systems. This paper examines four innovation initiatives in rural Iberia with the aim of identifying the characteristics of actors and networks key to consolidating multi-actor interactive innovation partnerships. Social Network Analysis (SNA) was applied at three different phases: before the innovation initiative (phase 0), during its implementation (phase 1), after its implementation (phase 2). We adopted as premise the need to optimise co-innovation initiatives and networks to attain sustainable rural development. Our results permitted to identify key factors that influence the consolidation of co-innovation rural initiatives: (i) pre-existing relationships among actors, (ii) the design of networks around central actors with reputation in their territory, (iii) market orientation, and (iv) innovations focus on key sectors that are well established in a territory.

Keywords: rural development; sustainable development; planning