This conceptual article identifies major changes in the 21st century society that gave birth to a new generation of cultural tourists and to an innovative type of cultural tourism business that meets their needs – transformative tourism. The transformative tourism business is analysed as an integral part of a transition from the paradigm of industrial to post-industrial servitized economic system by implementation of three major paradigm innovations. The research related to the development of paradigm innovations in cultural tourism provides an opportunity to supplement the existing knowledge not only about innovative ways of cultural tourism development in rural regions, but also about general challenges facing the rural development in the post-industrial society.
Most scholars of rural gender studies do not consider the essential changes in rural economy and life styles, defining rural areas as traditional and conservative. Research is still extremely fragmented into new problems facing the female population in rural areas, those arising from the changes in the lifestyle and the diversified income sources typical of post-industrial rural settlements. This article hence identifies several significant changes in economic and social life in rural areas dealing with the differences between the attractiveness of rural areas as living place for women in the industrial society of the 20th century and the post-industrial society of the 21st century. The empirical research presented here proves the relevance of post-industrial theory in a real-world environment by testing the validity of several stereotypical opinions about the motivation to live in Lithuanian rural areas from the position of young well-educated people. The analysis of the opinions of young well-educated women reveals that their motivation is rather different from the perceptions of what was important and motivating for finding good living places; these perceptions have otherwise been pointed out by many gender studies based on the industrial society framework. These findings are a call for implementation of new rural policy measures following the higher incidence of young females as rural entrepreneurs, family farm managers, professionals, and local community leaders.
Purpose This paper aims to examine the collaboration of livestock farming business with other three groups of actors and explore the gap between expectations and reality concerning biogas production as collaborative innovation for the socially responsible development of rural regions in Lithuania. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on the concept of the Quadruple Helix, which focusses on innovation, viewed as a process involving increasingly closer interactions and coordination among the following four groups of actors of the helix: government, academia, industry and civil society. Scientific literature analysis and generalization, expert interview and focus group methods were used to generate data for analysis. Data were collected during the period of July-November 2018 in Lithuania. Findings The research results reveal that the greatest gap among expectations and the actual situation in collaboration for socially responsible innovation, biogas production – is observed among non‐governmental organizations as representatives of civil society and all other questioned Quadruple Helix actors, whereas the government had been recognized as a most isolated part of the collaboration for innovation in biogas in Lithuania. Research limitations/implications This paper presents empirical findings, based on qualitative data, collected in one EU new member state, i.e. Lithuania. International comparative perspectives are given in other related papers. Research findings are promising for further research in the field of socially responsible development of rural regions using the Quadruple Helix approach to foster collaboration for modern circular economy innovation both from theoretical and empirical points of view. Practical implications The methodology might be used for practitioners to research collaboration excellence/gaps in any field of activity. Social implications The research takes into account the public interest from a very broad point of view – how to develop rural regions in a socially responsible way by using already established innovations in biogas in livestock farms by giving another dimension of socially responsible collaboration for innovation. Originality/value The paper proposes using the original Quadruple Helix approach to foster the socially responsible development of rural regions, thus enlarging the scope of the theory of corporate social responsibility (CSR) with the newly emerged discourse in the field. Socially responsible development of rural regions with the use of collaboration for circular innovations has been absent from theoretical to empirical CSR research.
Smart Specialization in this research is addressed to the use of collaboration as a tool for increasing efficiency of investment in entrepreneurship, research and innovation in a service-driven post-industrial economic system. This study provides evidence that collaboration potential is used only partly during the implementation of Smart Specialization strategy. The research illustrates given thesis by the evaluation of collaboration in Lithuanian biogas sector, which is listed among the priorities of Lithuania’s Smart Specialization strategy till 2020, using structured interviews. The main aim of this empirical research is to assess the will to collaborate in order to enhance the development of Smart Specialization and identify unused collaboration potential among all Quadruple Helix model counterparts in the biogas sector. Empirical findings show that collaboration in the Smart Specialization development has a big potential. However, this potential is used only partly because of lack of knowledge and available business infrastructure for this task and the passive role in collaboration processes of government institutions. Research findings suggest that current situation should be changed by supporting measures for business and NGOs with the aim to encourage collaborative initiatives for Smart Specialization. Research findings might serve as guidelines for policy makers, entrepreneurs, university and NGO managers.<br />
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