Social and psychological causes of the destructive aspects of the development of innovative communities at the local level

Abstract

In the conditions of decentralization and changes in the social paradigm, creating unique breakthrough ideas regarding transforming the region into an innovative territory is of particular importance. Innovative communities have a unique potential in these conditions – a new type of relationship between the government, business, and civil society. However, in transformational and crisis societies, the creation and development of innovative communities are associated with a significant range of problems that need to be solved. A significant part of these problems has socio-psychological reasons, which often lead to destructive actions, significantly reducing the potential of innovative communities. The study aims to determine the socio-psychological reasons for the destructive aspects of the development of innovative communities at the local level and to develop proposals for increasing the effectiveness of the innovative communities’ development at the local level, considering the potential of using the archetypal methodology. The research goals are also to determine the factors of implementing innovation models in communities and to focus on overcoming problematic aspects in this field. Modern approaches to the definition of innovations were considered to determine the features of the development of innovative communities. It has been determined that innovation is a social process; therefore, the most crucial thing for innovation is to create an appropriate innovation climate based on safety and trust, in which people feel involved and are not afraid to express new ideas. This is especially important since innovations, especially the most radical and systemic, relate to the need to go against orthodox opinions to offer other forms of work and cooperation. Therefore, when managing innovative processes, it is necessary to consider the factor of human behaviour and understand how to encourage people to show initiative, put forward new ideas, and motivate and encourage their implementation. It is substantiated that it is vital for the public administration field that innovation’s success depends not only on the manager’s role in the process but primarily on the performers and participants (human resources). In this regard, the innovative community as a new form of organizational development is one of the most positive in innovation. It was determined that innovative communities could unite a wide range of stakeholders and be divided according to geographical or thematic principles. Community members freely share knowledge, resulting in new approaches, ideas, and talent retention and development. People are kept together only by a sense of involvement in collective experience and knowledge, a sincere desire to maintain relationships, and mutual obligations remain. Innovative communities, when they unite individuals and entire teams, can implement large-scale innovative projects. It is shown that any innovative community is formed on a specific basis. It is based on individual or collective creativity, ambition, spirit, and intellectual history of the place (heredity, archetypes). Ambition, spirit, and intelligence presuppose risk-taking ability and a track record in management. Only after the emergence of this combination of economic, resource and management factors, such as business incubation, project financing, creation of intensive horizontal connections between all participants, infrastructure, etc., are involved. From the point of view of destructive behaviour, the peculiarities of the innovation process are considered. It is also shown that innovation is a positive process according to the generally accepted position. Still, it is necessary to remember the other side, that innovation is a forced measure necessary to maintain or respond to changes. It is substantiated that it is necessary to agree on the scope of application and the duration of their existence to eliminate the factors of destructive behaviour when creating innovative communities. It has been determined that one of the leading causes of destructive actions within innovative communities is excessively rigid expectations, an excessive degree of subjective certainty that exceeds objective predictability.