The role of Third Sector in the innovation ecosystem and in the global partnership for Sustainable Development – Case Study Illustration from Hungary

• In Event: United Nations SDGs and the Third Sector

Abstract

The study examines the role of the third sector in the efficiency of the innovation ecosystem, primarily approaching the opportunities open to civil organizations from the perspective of innovation communication. (Mast et al. 2005)

By applying the integrated framework of Quadruple and Quintuple Helix models and social innovation (Carayannis et al. 2019) it researches the role of the civil sector in the fulfillment of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the aspect of innovation. (Lahi et al. 2019)

Considering the helix model as a framework that facilitates communication and decision-making between individual social actors (Boelman et al. 2015), it emphasizes that civil organizations can perform significant socialization and communication tasks (Balázs and Rajcsányi-Molnár 2022 in terms of innovation, ensuring the effectiveness of the implementation of the innovative idea.

It starts from the hypothesis that with the effective participation of the third sphere in the socialization and communication tasks of an innovative idea, the partnership conditions required for the long-term fulfillment of sustainability goals are realized.

The study highlights the importance of civil actors in innovation, as well as the emphasis of innovation communication, and the tasks that civil organizations can fulfill in this communication for the sake of the sustainability of innovation results and the sustainability of the innovation ecosystem. (Hansson et al. 2014) In addition to the literature review, the study examines the role of civil actors' as partners in order to fulfill sustainable development goals (Lahi et al. 2019), using the methodology of case studies from different projects implemented in Hungary, where the civil sphere operates in an ever-shrinking space, but at the same time the real functioning NGO’s are able to achieve pronounced results in certain situations and areas. (Hummel 2020)

An important result of the study is that it identifies the role of the civil sphere in achieving the 17th objective of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals by applying the quadruple/quintuple helix model applied to the investigation of the innovation ecosystem.
The study provides a proposal for the cooperation and responsibility of the third sector in order to achieve the goals. (Filho et al. 2022)

Using the integrated scheme of quintuple helix and the social/business innovation model, the study sheds light on the possible activities of civil organizations that serve the UN-s Sustainable Development Goals (Dominik S. Meier 2023) and enhance the efficiency of the socialization and communication processes of innovation (Mast et al. 2005).

References

Bibliography
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Authors

• Nora Maria Halmai

• Monika Rajcsányi-Molnár, University of Dunaújváros

• Márta Dr. Konczosné Prof. Dr. Szombathelyi, University of Győr