Innovative response initiatives in the European Union to mitigate the effects of COVID-19

Abstract

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the European Union (EU) through heavy pressure on health services, business activity and people's life. To mitigate these effects, government agencies, civil society and the private sector are working together in proposing innovative initiatives. In this sense, this study aims to characterize and explore the relevance of these projects to mitigate the effects of COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach The Observatory of Public Sector Innovation provided by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development was considered to enable the identification and exploration of innovative projects to combat COVID-19. A methodology based on mixed methods is adopted to initially identify quantitatively the distribution of these projects, followed by a qualitative approach based on thematic analysis that allows exploring their relevance. Findings A total of 206 initiatives in the EU have been identified. The distribution of these projects is quite asymmetric, with Portugal and Austria totaling 33.52% of these projects. Most of these projects focus on the areas of public health, infection detection and control, virtual education, local commerce, digital services literacy, volunteering and solidarity and hackathons. Originality/value This work is relevant to identifying and understanding the various areas in which COVID-19 initiatives have been developed. This information is of great relevance for the actors involved in this process to be able to replicate these initiatives in their national, regional and local contexts.

Responsible innovation assessment tools: a systematic review and research agenda

“…The COVID-19 phenomenon and, consequently, the growing interest in the search for responsible innovation practices has been another major driver of this growth. A very diverse set of projects has emerged in multiple areas in which society, governments and private agents seek to contribute to the emergence of innovative solutions (Almeida, 2021). However, there is a risk that technological development in such a short period of time may neglect ethical issues.…”

Bottom-Up Initiatives Undertaken by Local Governments to Support Entrepreneurship

“…Moreover, Olsson et al [8] and Xing et al [21] highlight the critical importance of LGs in studying entrepreneurship at the local level. For this reason, in response to calls for research on the interaction between entrepreneurial actions undertaken by LGs and local entrepreneurship development [16,29,49], and to better understand the state of play and investigate research gaps, the authors chose a six-stage approach (see Figure 2). geographical, historical, socioeconomic, and political which also have direct impacts on the local entrepreneurship environment.…”

“…Moreover, Olsson et al [8] and Xing et al [21] highlight the critical importance of LGs in studying entrepreneurship at the local level. For this reason, in response to calls for research on the interaction between entrepreneurial actions undertaken by LGs and local entrepreneurship development [29][49] [16], and to better understand the state of play and investigate research gaps, the authors chose a six-stage approach (see Figure 2). Despite the widely held belief that entrepreneurial activities undertaken by LGs matter when it comes to local entrepreneurship development, there were no studies that Despite the widely held belief that entrepreneurial activities undertaken by LGs matter when it comes to local entrepreneurship development, there were no studies that provided evidence of the significance of LGs' different bottom-up initiatives for supporting the development of entrepreneurship at a local level.…”

“…The development of concepts focusing on entrepreneurship in the public sector led us to the analysis of the role and place of LGs in creating a local entrepreneurship environment. Finally, stimulation of local entrepreneurship and local commerce through a concrete set of initiatives is indicated as one of the key areas for mitigation in local contexts of the effects of the global pandemic which took place in 2020 [29]; therefore, our paper is intended to identify and assess the significance of LGs' different bottom-up initiatives for supporting entrepreneurship development at a local level. Bottom-up initiatives were purposefully selected as, in comparison, top-down initiatives led by the central government have proven to be prone to multiple failures and also to be ineffective from the perspective of local and regional disparities [30].…”

Entrepreneurship Education and Social Entrepreneurial Intentions: The Mediating Effects of Entrepreneurial Social Network

“…The rapid and devastating spread of the COVID-19 virus has overshadowed any other occurrence, spreading to more and more nations, including established, developing, and rising ones, where the economic effects are as dire ( Liñán and Jaén, 2020 ; Aman et al, 2022 ). However, due to COVID-19, poverty and a plethora of other social issues are widespread and widely evident, giving various options for social entrepreneurs ( Almeida, 2021 ). As a result, social entrepreneurship emerged as a field of research and gained increasing respect for entrepreneurs’ attempts to increase global social wealth by developing new models for delivering goods and services and offering solutions to social problems, which includes poverty, a lack of education, or provision of health care, that the present economic and social structure seems unable to address ( Saebi et al, 2019 ).…”