Policy Briefs

Judith Alms & Christine Tamásy

Social entrepreneurship involves establishing and managing organisations that innovatively address social needs through business means. Hence, the resulting social enterprises “are businesses that trade for a social purpose” (Steiner and Teasdale 2019). To foster social entrepreneurship within a country, region, or city, ecosystem models have become the most salient in research and practice. This concept, originating in biology, was initially applied to entrepreneurship development and later adapted for social entrepreneurship research and policy. A social entrepreneurship ecosystem includes all the elements necessary for social enterprises to germinate, grow, and flourish. According to Biggeri et al. (2017), these ecosystems comprise (1) access to diverse financial, human, physical, and intellectual resources; (2) human capital and linkages between organisations; (3) institutional robustness and political willingness; (4) collective action and social capital; (5) adequate demand for specific goods and services. The culture and state play significant roles in fostering or hindering the development of the social entrepreneurship ecosystem, which is why ecosystems differ significantly between countries.

Policy Brief 2026_2: Growing social entrepreneurship in the Baltic Sea region – An ecosystem approach

Judith Alms, Vasileios Kitsos, Lisann Schmidt, Steffen Fleßa, Daniel Schiller & Christine Tamásy

This policy brief summarizes the findings of an interdisciplinary research program on innovations in public services in the rural Baltic Sea region, which was funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR) from 2021 to 2026. The focus was on financing systems for regional development, the dissemination of innovations in healthcare, rural social entrepreneurship, and the transfer of policy measures in the rural Baltic Sea region. In this policy brief, we present exemplary innovative approaches to public services within the rural Baltic Sea macro-region.

Policy Brief 2026_1  Innovative Approaches to Public Services in Rural Baltic Sea Regions

Digital health is a powerful strategy for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare ser-vices. However, the degree of implementation and use can vary significantly across different contexts, organizations or regions, leading to different levels of success and impact. For example, countries in the Baltic Sea Region show wide variations in the penetration of digital health into healthcare processes. In order to harness the power of digital health in a country, it is worth analyzing these differences and identifying the success factors and barriers that prevent digital health from reaching its full potential. The following analysis is an essential element of the research consortium "Fragmented Transfor-mations" within the Interdisciplinary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research (IFZO) at the University of Greifswald. As a first step, the factors that determine the diffusion and penetration of digital health in the Baltic Sea Region were analyzed at an international and interdisciplinary workshop as part of a DFG-funded symposium on "Think Rural in the Baltic Sea Region" at the University of Greifswald on 23-25 March 2023. The workshop was attended by health researchers from all countries in the Baltic Sea Region (including Norway) except Russia. In a second step, we conducted and analyzed 15 in-depth interviews with experts from all countries in the Baltic Sea Region.

Policy Brief 2025_2  Digital Health as Innovation in the Baltic Sea Region

Judith Alms & Marko Palmgren & Johanna Endler & Tiia Muotkavaara & Outi Hedemäki-Kantola & Mikko Raappana & Christine Tamásy

Lapland is committed to advancing toward a holistic local economy where social, ecological, and economic sustainability are balanced. Purely economic success is no longer considered sufficient for the region’s future; rather, long-term prosperity requires attention to the well-being of residents, the availability of a skilled workforce, and the preservation of Lapland’s pristine nature and Arctic dimension as key attractions. Maintaining these values is essential for ensuring that Lapland remains vibrant and appealing for generations to come.

By bridging the gaps between the state, the market, and civic actors to benefit society, social entrepreneurship addresses societal issues through business methods. Particularly in rural areas, this type of involvement is crucial. Social entrepreneurship does not have a distinct legal position in Finland, which makes it all the more important to systematically promote value-driven, sustainable innovation through strategies, funding programmes, and public procurement. 

Policy Brief 2025_1 Innovative Businesses in Rural Areas: Social Entrepreneurship in Finnish Lapland (PDF)

Vassilis Kitsos, Prof. Dr. Christine Tamásy

This policy brief analyses the construction of policy spaces across the Baltic Sea macro-region, focusing on the LEADER/CLLD approach. A LEADER region is rural in character and covers a clearly defined area. Local actors in rural areas are involved by forming Local Actions Groups (LAGs) which design and implement strategies. At the beginning of an EU funding period, a regional development strategy which defines objectives and fields of action has to be developed. With this strategy, a designated LEADER region can apply for funding in the respective regional administration or national state. While this policy is well researched, we take a step back and observe that the spatial features of these designated regions are not often brought together in a macro regional perspective. We investigate how such LEADER regions have been spatially constructed within the Baltic Sea EU member-states and what kind of common characteristics or differences they have. Addressing this topic may offer a fresh perspective to policies for integrated (rural) development from a spatial perspective.

Policy Brief: European Policy Spaces Across the Baltic Sea Region (PDF)

Dr. Frauke Richter-Wilde, Prof. Dr. Daniel Schiller

Countries surrounding the Baltic Sea are characterized by a comparatively high amount of rural areas (Eurostat 2023). The supply of public infrastructure and services of general interest depends on a critical mass of demand within a given region to ensure accessibility for the population. In ruralperipheral regions, demand is often insufficient because of low population density or long distances to agglomerations. Nevertheless, infrastructure and services for education, social and health care as well as recreational, sports and cultural entities need to be provided to a certain degree in all regions. It is already stated in the literature that the provision of services of general interest has a positive impact on local welfare (Li et al. 2022 & 2020). These services of general interest offered at the local level and the different models to finance them are at the core of our research. To examine the role of local governments in different countries of the Baltic Sea Region, we distinguish public finance systems and decisionmaking power by their degree of decentralization. More centralized states seem to be more efficient in supplying infrastructure and services in administrative terms. Nevertheless, decentralization may lead to a better supply of public goods in all kinds of regions because municipalities know their citizens' preferences best (fiscal federalism, Oates 1972 & 1999).

Policy Brief: Fiscal Decentralization and Task Responsibilitites in the Baltic Sea Region (PDF)

Dr. Clemens Lisdat, Prof. Dr. Christine Tamásy

Currently, research increasingly focuses on the spread of political initiatives in space and time. This is not a matter of copying an innovative polical initiative, but of transferring ideas that emerge in a specific regional context and are then transferred to another regional context with characteristic social and political conditions. However, most research on the spatial mobility of policy initiatives and ideas focuses on urban policies.

This policy brief is dedicated to the rural Baltic Sea region. It starts with a clarification of how rural areas in countries bordering the Baltic Sea are defined. Then, shared themes in rural policies are identified and analysed.

Policy Brief: Policy Mobilities in the Rural Baltic Sea Region (PDF) [de]