Embracing Corporate Social Entrepreneurship: a European Experience
Groningen, Netherlands, 30 September 2021
Hanze will be hosting the Embrace partners to a one-day event to meet and interact with local stakeholders engaged in social and regional challenges.
The morning programme includes visiting the Innovation Workplace (IWP) in Appingedam. The concept of the IWP as part of the Regional Innovation Framework will be explained. One important collaborating partner is Univé, which is also one of the good practices of Corporate Social Entrepreneurship (CSE) of the EMBRACE project. Univé is a cooperative organization and an insurance provider that is strengthening their cooperative identity in new business developments. One of their community outreach events will be visited by the EMBRACE partners. Univé and other enterprises are shifting their business strategies to service and support societal needs.
The partners will then have the opportunity to discuss the EMBRACE Corporate Social Entrepreneurship Curriculum for Higher Education and corporate professional development. Innovation managers of Univé and the IWP, Hanze Professors and experts and partners will engage on discussions related to the transition to CSE and how to support businesses and higher education institutions in this process.
The afternoon programme will be at the Area Cooperative Westerkwartier in Zuidhorn. The area cooperative is part of the Regional Innovation Framework (RIF) and operates on CSE principles and supports businesses, (semi-)government bodies and educational institutions in their region to become more ‘social’. The Rabobank, with cooperative roots and actively involved in the RIF will explain their engagement with supporting regional challenges and innovation capacities locally through the RIF. There will be room for discussions with local policymakers and intermediaries on their experiences of supporting CSE and of their own organization’s transitions.
Dinner in the city of Groningen is the last part of ‘a European experience’.
A transnational partner (hybrid) meeting will take place on the 30th morning at Hanze’s campus in Groningen. Waterford Institute of technology will host the meeting digitally. All 10 partners will participate in this meeting to discuss project progress, results and future activities. The transnational event and partner meeting is taking place with COVID-19 regulations and therefore not all partners are present and therefore video capture of the highlights will be made.
