Human Rights

Strengthening the Role of Academic Institutions and Innovation Brokers in Agri-Food Innovation: Towards Hybridisation in Cross-Border Cooperation

“…), negotiating them and managing tensions [3,4,14], as well as reducing border effects by promoting business, academic and other interactions across the border [15]. Kraeger et al (2010) argue that one of the most inspiring scenarios is when the complementary strengths of regions lead to synergies "combin[ing] the best of different worlds", which can increase regional competitiveness on both sides of a border [16]. This is precisely what the hybridisation concept embodies: acknowledging mutual differences in economic, institutional and social structures, knowledge and technological capacity, political visions and cultural identities, and valorising them [3,4,14,17,18].…”

“…However, this concept has been vigorously debated over a long time, which initially resulted in polarised views on its use both theoretically and empirically. Even though there is still a lack of a uniform conceptualisation and no large-scale quantitative studies to date, recent empirical evidence indicates its significance and allows more balanced assessments of its application [16]. In this paper, we focus on, what was termed by Rago and Venturi (2015) [19], a positive interpretation of hybridisation.…”

“…The question how to best benefit from existing proximity in a cross-border area leads us to the third main concept-hybridisation [3,4,14,[16][17][18]. The two basic ideas of hybridisation are: first, a favourable balance of similarities and differences in knowledge infrastructures, institutional structures and processes, as well as socio-cultural, economic and policy contexts provide a sound basis for successful cross-border cooperation; second, more strategic use of relative regional strengths represents untapped potential for economic and social progress on both sides of the border.…”