Abstract
South Baltic Sea Region (SBSR) is one of the EU cross-border regions that due to the patchy development patterns qualifies for EU financial support reinforcing innovation capacity and promoting collaborative and competitive mindset. Historically shaped by international collaboration patterns across the Baltic Sea, the SBSR turns into maritime or blue EU region. Being an integral part of the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) that has developed as role model for sustainable, green and smart region in the recent years, SBSR experiences increasing pace of change and the urge for sustainable transition. This creates a real conundrum for appropriate regional action. In this light, in the frame of the “InterMarE South Baltic” – a part-financed EU INTERREG project the researchers set out to contribute to situational improvement by developing tailor-made cooperative and region-wide Marketing and Banding Strategy for regional SMEs of all Blue Economy sectors. A joint macro-regional positioning strategy for the SBSR is highly missing and available strategic attempts can be traced back to joint marketing measures in the tourism sector only. Therefore, building on eclectic empirical data covering more than 130 surveyed SMEs from all participating countries – Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden, supported by expert interviews with representatives of Blue Economy sectors in the SBSR and BSR, direct observations and field research done in the frame of study visits outside the region, this treatise presents an innovative, integrative and topical cooperative model for joint cross-border marketing and branding of SMEs operating in the SBSR in all applicable Blue Economy sectors.
Highlights
Sustainable and smart development in the European Union (EU) is at the epicentre of all policy discourses
South Baltic Sea Region (SBSR) Marketing and Branding Strategy builds upon three blocks and shall be perceived from an ecosystem and processual perspectives
SBSR Marketing and Branding is driven by the following strategic actions: a) establishing tools for resource pooling, allocation andcombination leading to knowledge excellence and, in turn, innovation development, arriving at sustainable organisational ecosystem; b) providing key entrepreneurial and creative discovery related tools; and c) transforming the SBSR into a Brand with shared future vision and joint strategic positioning
Summary
Sustainable and smart development in the European Union (EU) is at the epicentre of all policy discourses. Sustainable transition in peripheral regions and remote areas of the EU, bearing in mind their poorer innovation performance and lower industrial power due to scarcity of human, financial or natural resources, low integration and exchange with outstanding regions or increasing macro-regional competitive pressure as well as decreasing cognitive, organisational and social proximity jeopardise the desired development avenues, as set in the recent EU policy agendas In this light, South Baltic Sea Region (SBSR) which is the geographical focus of the present research yields patchy development patterns, when it comes to innovation performance (Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2019). Discussion and conclusions’ chapter positions research results within theoretical and managerial contributions and provides future research avenues
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