SS1. Innovation, knowledge and corporate social responsibility in order to improve regional competitiveness and sustainability

Coordinator: Antonio Juan Briones Peñalver (aj.briones@upct.es)

Territories and regions address different measures on a public basis, with the support of private entities that impact territorial sustainability through innovation strategies, more knowledge of the productive environment and corporate social responsibility (CSR) measures. In this case, the agents involved and the entities and institutions with which they relate have the challenge of improving the socioeconomic environment and the well-being of citizens in a context of transition and globalization with other bordering or diverse territories.

This session aims to publicize those works on the governance of entities, institutions and companies that positively impact regional competitiveness and can constitute good practices for the sustainability of regional well-being indices of citizens and territorial wealth. . With a holistic innovation approach “or strategic, technological, total, open and collaborative”; knowledge of natural, human and social capital, as well as the integration of responsibility (CSR) and sustainability strategies, the latest regional policies can be incorporated. In a triple, quadruple or quintuple helix paradigm, the design of innovation policies, improvement of knowledge and CSR measures will constitute a wide range of possibilities for work towards the sustainable development of the regions, serve as an engine for economic development, achieve desirable demographic growth, improvement of competitiveness and its productive fabric.

 

Bibliographic citation

Briones Peñalver, A. J. (Coord.). Territorial Sustainability and CSR Actions as a regional strategy to promote the Blue Economy. Cartagena: Polytechnic University of Cartagena, 2024. 135 p. ISBN: 978-84-17853-77-8

Biographical quote

– Antonio Juan Briones-Peñalver, is currently director of the Chair of Corporate Social Responsibility and Circular Economy at the Polytechnic University of Cartagena; and Researcher responsible for the Organizational and Commercial Strategies of Companies group. Associate Professor in the area of Business Organization in the Department of Business Economics, Faculty of Business Sciences (UPCT).

 

SS2. Environmental impact of global value chains reconfiguration and emerging trends in international trade

Coordinators: M. Ángeles Cadarso and Jorge Zafrilla – Department of Economic Analysis and Finance, Faculty of Economics and Business Science, University of Castilla-La Mancha

Theme/objectives of the session:

Political instability, trade protectionism, and the pandemic, among others, provoke disruptions in international trade that reveal the vulnerability of global value chains and countries and have accelerated new trends in international trade and global value chains reconfiguration looking for resilience. Reshoring, backshoring, friendshoring, greenshoring are terms increasingly used to name these new trends. These evolutions will impact the environment at several levels, depending on economies’ production specialization, trade dependency and technology adoption. The quantification and evaluation of these environmental impacts, in terms of changes in carbon emissions, business practices and diffusion of environmentally friendly production strategies, including the role of MNEs are crucial to assess the resilience of the economies and to inform policy makers to increase synergies between the resilience goal and others like the fight against climate change.

 

SS3. Input-output models in regional analysis. Theory and applications

Coordinator: Carmen Ramos

Input-output analysis is a methodology usually applied in economic studies given its undeniable potential both at a theoretical level, in the construction and development of new models, and applied, by enabling the resolution of practical problems.

The expansion of this methodology is undeniable, allowing increasingly complex conceptualizations, among which we can point out the construction of social accounting matrices or the approach of computable general equilibrium models. Furthermore, the consideration of multiple input-output tables that relate not only sectors but also more or less extensive territories, allows the creation of multi-regional models and, therefore, the study of spaces as interrelated and not isolated entities.

On the other hand, and from a more applied perspective, we can refer to the extension of the input-output methodology to the study of problems related to energy, the environment or the impacts of natural disasters or pandemics on territories.

This session aims to be a forum for discussion and reflection on the latest research (theoretical or applied) in input-output analysis, as well as to be the seed of new research in this field.

 

SS4. Rural depopulation and territorial transformation: interdisciplinary strategies and solutions from local innovation

Coordinators: Jaime de Pablo Valenciano and Francisco Javier García Corral

Summary:

Rural depopulation is a phenomenon that affects numerous municipalities in our country. From this special session we propose to analyze it together with the territorial transformation that emerges from a multidisciplinary perspective that will integrate local innovation approaches to provide a complete understanding of the problem. The influence of globalization on local systems will be addressed, the interrelation of competition and complementarity that arises between different municipalities, as well as the need for territories to form networks of synergies in response to the freedom of development in which they see themselves competing. against big cities.

It is therefore proposed to explore and show strategies or projects to attract investment, residence, employment and leisure to rural municipalities, including, for example, the improvement of accessibility infrastructure, training in human resources, the promotion of R&D and technological diffusion, or the capture of productive private investment.

This, at all times, remembering that for correct local development the importance of the participation and commitment of local social agents in the definition of their strategies must be highlighted. This should be seen in a projectual way, highlighting the need for consensus among them to legitimize the actions that are carried out.

This teaches us that we must promote collaborative projects between small rural municipalities, taking advantage of the links to overcome common challenges, and highlighting the advantages of each town along the way. Therefore, economic and social agents are pillars that will maintain the different sectors, promoting diversification and adaptation to new trends.

Knowing the elements that differentiate each one, along with the involvement and affection for “what is one’s own” will be the idea of any promotion. With this, the objective of this session aims to foster a uniquely enriching and productive debate of “what each person has distinctively” showing both the importance of rural depopulation, as well as possible effective solutions to this persistent challenge.

 

SS5. The new demographic dynamics in the rural world. Imaginaries, community strategies and challenges

 

Organizers: Antonio Martínez Puche, University of Alicante and AVANT Chair (anti-depopulation), J. Serafí Bernat, Universitat Jaume I and Local Development Institute and Vicente Budí, Universitat Jaume I and Territorial Cohesion and Innovation Chair

 

Summary:

On January 1, 2023 in Spain, 61.2% of the municipalities had less than 1,000 inhabitants, and 3% of those registered resided there. 9.1% of the municipalities had more than 10,000 inhabitants, and 80% of those registered resided there. These data show the depth of the territorial imbalances.

On the other hand, the historical process of population reduction in smaller towns is experiencing significant changes, both in its quantitative aspect, as well as in the causes that generate them and in the consequences in social, cultural and political terms. Furthermore, the fall in fertility, aging and the increase in migratory movements are phenomena in which both the countryside and the city participate.

The increase in mobility, the productive reorganization of territories, the new values linked to nature and sustainability are diluting the borders between rural and urban, inviting a reformulation of both concepts. This is also generating renewed imaginaries that use the rural world for creation (literature and cinema) as a support for stories and stories that also project an updated image of the rural world. Without forgetting the participatory local development strategies that are used as diagnostic and project management tools that connect with the real needs of rural communities in the context of the current seven-year period of the LEADER Community Initiative.

This special session is presented as a forum for research proposals that contribute to explaining these recent changes, from the different methodological approaches and disciplines that have the rural environment as their object of study, placing special emphasis on the use of sources that have hitherto been little used or non-existent, which address aspects hitherto neglected in the analysis of depopulation that range from statistical sources, EDLP (Participatory Local Development Strategies), more qualitative analysis supports, communication, analysis of audiovisual fiction, etc.