International CIRiEC conference

 

CIRIEC-International (the International Centre of Research and Information on the Public, Social and Cooperative Economy) is an international, non-governmental scientific organisation which brings together enterprises and organizations of the social economy (co-operatives, mutual societies and non-profit organizations) and of the public sector, as well as people interested in these fields. The aims of this organisation, which was founded in 1947, include promoting international exchanges between the different types of enterprise that are oriented towards serving the collective or general interest and between the world of business people and the scientific world.

CIRIEC-Spain, founded in 1986, is a non-profit scientific association that researches the field of public, social and cooperative economics. It is based at the University of Valencia and brings together social economy researchers from 25 Spanish Universities as well as the main social economy sector organizations in Spain.

CIRIEC has chosen “Innovation and Management: Answers to the great challenges of public, social economy and cooperative enterprises”, as the general topic of its 27th Congress. Public, social and cooperative enterprises find themselves impelled to reconcile their specific values and missions with the requirements of efficient, profitable management. The confrontation between these two logics constitutes a factor for innovation, as does, more globally, the diversity of the economic agents and their objectives.

The work of the 27th Congress will address how public, social and cooperative businesses respond to these challenges, innovating and administering change. The challenges to be overcome are many: an increasingly competitive economic environment, constant pressure to abandon the specific features that characterise the management and corporate government methods of these forms of enterprise, responses to new needs, technological changes, the need to take sustainable development into consideration, etc. The answers of public, social and cooperative enterprises to these challenges require strong participation in the knowledge economy and in all the different dimensions of innovation, including innovation in products, in markets, in processes, social innovation and organisational innovation.

Date & Venue: 22 to 24 September; Sevilla, Spain

Find out more: www.congresociriec.es