Rural regions are considered a key element to allow a shift towards sustainable development. However, to what extent they are able to innovate and how they integrate into interactive innovation processes considering their distance from urban centres remains unclear. By drawing on 15 case studies of interactive innovation in agriculture and rural development in a variety of rural regions across Europe, and combining a rural-urban typology with data on the quality of AKIS (Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems), four classes of ruralities were defined. In them, the innovation process was analysed by paying special attention to the analytical aspects of: (i) organizational structure; (ii) initial idea; (iii) finance; (iv) access to extraregional resources. The results show that innovation in more rural regions is often inspired by external ideas, while drawing on already well-established networks. Rural entrepreneurs as individual actors drive innovation, but struggle in ‘thin’ environments with little support and scarce private funding. The private sector can buffer lack of AKIS support, but embedded NGOs and producers’ organizations act as last resorts in more remote regions. The study contributes to a profounder understanding of how rurality impacts innovation processes, offering an analytical framework for future rurality studies and policy interventions.

Risk identification and management are essential in innovation projects in the rural context, where cultural differences and relations between actors are decisive for assuring a project success. Risk management is especially important when considering innovation processes in rural areas that experience conflict or are lagging in development. Although there are studies focusing on the interaction of actors, there are only a few that approach the risks associated with stakeholders. This research aims to identify the risks and the associated stakeholders and draws on a risk map in order to develop effective risk management and action plans to mitigate risk. A rural project optimizing irrigation in Spain was taken as a case study and conduct semi-structural interviews with key actors were conducted. Social Network Analysis (SNA) was applied to recognize and investigate the network of stakeholder-associated risk factors. The main risks identified in the project were associated with technical, economic, and time problems and with irrigation communities and project developers. These findings offer a new visual perspective of risk management in rural innovation projects, improving the ability to assess and efficiently mitigate the risks.

The agrifood industry contributes to sustaining the population and the economic growth in rural areas of Spain. Innovation in the agrifood sector has therefore become a necessity as a means of improving the competitiveness of companies and the territory, thus promoting sustainable rural development in areas currently characterised by social issues such as depopulation. Meeting this need requires the generation of specific knowledge on innovation in the rural agrifood industry to strategically steer the business management of innovation. This study aims to contribute to further improving the competitiveness of the agrifood industry through the interrelation of critical innovation factors in small and medium-sized agrifood enterprises, thus shedding light on the innovation environment of differentiated local products in depopulated rural regions. The qualitative Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) methodology was used with the participation of entrepreneurs and experts from the sector. The ISM was applied to a case study in Alcarria Conquense, a Spanish region that embodies the current problems of many rural territories. The results show four factors (cooperation, managerial skills, absorptive capacity, and market orientation) are binding variables with a high power of influence and dependence, and a fifth factor, funding, is the most dependent on the others. The work contributes to the literature by revealing the needs and opportunities for a potential strategic planning of rural development that can positively influence the problems of the region through innovation management in this industry.

Purpose: European rural development programmes are driving multi-actor interactive innovation initiatives and alliances to create an environment in which innovation acts as a tool for accelerating rural development processes. In Europe, where rural areas are facing many challenges, identifying which challenges, difficulties, obstacles or risk factors that interactive innovation projects have had to face in rural areas while being planned and set up would be interesting. The objective of this research work was to, therefore, identify and analyse the risk factors of 200 rural projects and initiatives that were selected as case studies from the whole of Europe.Design/methodology/approach: The employed methodology consisted in conducting interviews to subsequently perform statistical independence analyses of the qualitative variables characterising the found projects and risk factors.Findings: The findings indicated that most of the risks that rural projects and initiatives faced were related to the social domain which was, in turn, the fundamental pillar of interactive innovation. Dependence was found between social risk factors appearing and the innovation type carried out; the risk factors corresponding to the political–legal risks category and the project or initiative coordinating country; and the economic–technical risks category and the initiatives' geographic magnitude.Originality/value: This paper exposes the main risks identified within various rural innovation initiatives and projects around Europe. For this purpose, a statistical analysis of independence was performed, allowing us to generate reliable and accurate results of the main risks associated with certain descriptive characteristics (coordinating region, domain, innovation type, gender balance and geographic magnitude) of the initiatives studied.

La gobernanza territorial es una práctica innovadora de coordinación y gestión que busca organizar las interacciones múltiples que convergen en un territorio. En Europa esta noción ha sido incorporada a los programas de desarrollo rural diseñados y ejecutados bajo los principios de la metodología LEADER. El presente trabajo se propone como objetivo analizar la contribución de estos programas a la gobernanza territorial de la Alcarria Conquense, España. Se pretende con ello determinar cómo este instrumento de política pública ha incentivado la participación, la cooperación, la construcción de redes y el fortalecimiento de la identidad en contextos caracterizados por el declive económico y demográfico.

LEADER development programs have a primary objective of enhancing the quality of life. However, their evaluation has been limited due to the extensive time required for analysis. This report investigates the contribution of the LEADER approach to improving the quality of life through a thirty-year case study in the Alcarria Conquense region of Spain (1991-2021). Funding for projects focused on rural heritage, infrastructure, and essential services has played a pivotal role in creating conditions for a prosperous life in the region. Nonetheless, limitations have emerged, including deepening territorial imbalances, a heavy reliance on local government entities, and potential drawbacks to the innovation and management capacity of other economic and social actors. While LEADER offer a valuable tool for policymakers seeking to enhance rural communities' quality of life, further analysis is necessary to refine their implementation and maximize their overall impact.