Abstract
Small businesses and farms are today struggling to find an innovative solution to a globalizing market and a challenging society. Among different aspects, small businesses, especially in rural areas, need to find a balance among tailor-made innovative solutions, specific customers engagement strategies, creative value creation solutions, and new business concepts able to reshape existing markets. In this study, 16 small enterprises of rural areas near Turin belonging to different sectors collaborated to co-create innovative business models. To guide this discussion through a sustainable innovation path, a territorial Living Lab set up the four macro-topics of the co-creation workshops linked to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Innovative business ideas were elaborated through the Brainstorming and Business Model Canvas tool and data were examined with SWOT and cross-case analysis. The results of the workshops pointed out four different innovative business ideas elaborated by the entrepreneurs, all linked by the need to translate innovation into sustainable adaptive solutions to local specificities. This case study showed that a range of enabling factors, such as the creation of a shared vision among local actors, can be codified to clear barriers and/or create innovative business solutions linked to economic, environmental, and social sustainability in rural areas.
Highlights
The Desk analysis allowed the research group to understand the main features of the territory and to fix aspects to introduce in the discussion with local stakeholders
The Business Model Canvas analysis was the most relevant part of the process allowing us to explore the potential of ideas presented, and detail them through the participant contribution
Along with all steps, comparing and reflecting on the information we collected during the Desk analysis with the results of the Living Lab and Modelling phases, the main evidence is related to the coherence and the sequentially of the overall co-design participatory process
Summary
In front of many diverse natural, social, and economic challenges and in an era of fast technological evolution, new business models need to reorganize their focus to answer customer needs and societal–public and private–demands [1,2]. Despite the will of entrepreneurs to innovate, small- and medium-sized enterprises might often find barriers to this process. As reported by Rizos et al [4], barriers can be grouped into macro-categories concerning a lack of financial resources, a lack of technical and technological knowhow, institutional barriers, or sometimes a lack of support from the supply and demand network. The mentioned barriers are confirmed by studies on samples of small- and medium-sized enterprises [4], which always assume the firm as an individual decision-maker in front of the everyday, more complex socio-technical environment. A different perspective reflects on positive and enabling solutions [5] which can facilitate the creation of innovative ideas by the way of the involvement of a larger number of actors in the decision-making process
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