Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Rural Europe investigates how social entrepreneurship advances social innovation in rural Europe and contributes to fighting social and economic challenges in these regions. Based on longitudinal data collected in four European countries, this book explains how social enterprises enact their business model based on an entrepreneurial reconfiguration of resources they obtain from their network relations, and how their activities empower local communities, driving change and eventually innovation. In these activities, the entrepreneurial mindset and the role as intermediary between different groups and domains of society help to reframe challenges into opportunities. The argument in this book develops from a description of what social enterprises report to do to an analysis of how they do it, and results in an explanation of why they take these actions. In doing so it gradually broadens the view from a focus on the social enterprises themselves to their interactions and network partners and, finally, to their positioning in societal fields. The presented model complements network theory with the concept of strategic action fields. This book reveals the crucial role of social entrepreneurship in innovation in rural regions, and the rich insights provided have far reaching implications for research, practice and policy. This book will appeal to everyone interested in the interface of social entrepreneurship, innovation, and regional/rural development, either on a practical or academic level.

We investigate the role of the judicial system on whether or not the firms obtain the credit they applied for, by looking at the strength of the creditor protection, the strength of property rights, the time for resolving a dispute, its costs and the number of procedures the plaintiff faces. We use data about 48,590 firms from eleven countries collected via the Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises (European Central Bank) and data from the World Bank, the Heritage Foundation and Eurostat. The results suggest that the better the judicial enforcement system is (reduced costs, reduced time, and limited number of procedures) and the higher the creditor protection is (high overall strength of the legal system, high property rights protection), the lower the probability that the firms are credit constrained. Our results are robust to selection bias (Heckman selection) as well as different controls and different estimation techniques. More importantly, we find that these variables have considerable economic impact: the probability to obtain credit is up to 40% higher in countries with a better legal system.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is likely to contribute considerably to key targets of innovation policy such as employment, R&D and education. The expectations of those engaged in AM, such as providers, users and policy makers, regarding the potential of this technology influence its future development and thus create opportunities for technology entrepreneurship. Therefore, these expectations need to be researched so that opportunities for technology entrepreneurship can be identified. Based on prospect theory, we employ an integrative approach to online-based technology assessment. Using the outcome of a constructive technology assessment (CTA) as a reference, a comparison with the results of a traditional technology assessments (TTA) derived from the policy makers enables us to identify the need for action regarding the allocation of public resources. Further, the comparison of the outcome of our CTA with the TTA derived from the general public shows the need to establish a public opinion on AM that legitimizes AM-related innovation policies. The approach of an integrative technology assessment proves useful, as we can deduce concrete recommendations for action on innovation policy based on our empirical findings.