Interdependence, knowledge and cooperation in cross-border cooperation in the North

Abstract

This chapter focuses on two scholarly discussions defining the organizational theory of the scholarly community, which are the projectification of society and open innovation in publicly funded programmes (West et al., 2006; Perkmann & Walsh, 2007; Chesbrough, 2019; Mu & Wang, 2022). Discussion on the projectification of society emphasizes effects with positive implications for knowledge production and innovativeness. However, the ad-hoc character of project organizations is seen to limit the formation of connections in different fields (Henning & Wald, 2019).Projectification and open innovations are examined in this chapter from a regional development perspective, and projectification is the starting point for the formation of the organization and its functions. In a case presented in this chapter, the financial instruments of regional development determine the basis for the implementation of innovations, and projectification is a way to support regional development in society. In regional development, the aim is to support the positive development of a certain region with various measures, taking into account processes such as a process transaction and the appropriation of knowledge (Audrechts & Belitski, 2023).The funding authorities of regional development and the European Union's cross-border cooperation programme Interreg Nord are no exception, accepting project plans, supporting regional development, considering and weighing the mutual weight and importance of the applications, and finally choosing the projects they want to finance in their best opinion. The interest of public funding programmes is to examine the effectiveness of the projects, not so much the way in which the projects are organized. Funding programmes based on the European Union's soft methods do not lead to a certain way of organizationEuropean Union's Interreg programmes are tools for regional development. This chapter examines the cross-border cooperation programme Interreg Nord, related to projectification and open innovation from a regional development perspective in the northern regions of Finland, Sweden, and Norway. The chapter analyses how open innovation emerged in the programme during the period 2014–2020 and what regional development themes local actors preferred to build the development of the region on within the framework of the programme. The data consist of Interreg Nord unfunded project applications, and the abstracts of the applications form an entity of data, where the project planners determine what is central to regional development. The analysis indicates that rejected projects aimed to develop the region mostly through the organizational, but also the wider societal, dimension of projectification. The funding instrument limits applicants’ autonomous intervention in regional development, and on the other hand, improves open innovation in the application process