Innovation Best Practices

A best practice is distinguished by the presence of the following factors: innovation, transferability, transversality, sustainability, usefulness, efficiency, impact and evaluation .

First of all, the concept of innovation is connected with creativity and a best practice is innovative if it has been applied for the first time, if it introduces a new approach or if it was never been adopted before in a specific context or region.

Second factor, transferability or replicability . This factor concerns the possibility to duplicate and implement the best practice in different contexts. For this to happen the best practice has to be valuable and feasible in economic, technical and environmental terms.

Third, transversality . This dimension means that the nature of a good practice should be globalising and interdisciplinary, it should embrace different areas of knowledge, integrate them, so that it can be seen as a unique concept.

Fourth factor is the sustainability . This factor is related to the capacity of the good practice to maintain its quality during at least three to five years.

Fifth, effectiveness or usefulness , this factor concerns the best practice positive and tangible impact on society.

Sixth, efficiency. It establishes a relation between resources, money spent to realize the project and its achievements. Considering this factor, a good practice exploits less resources and money to accomplish the same result or applies the same means to reach better outcomes.

The seventh factor is the impact of a good practice. The impact is both economic and social, providing a positive and sustainable development in the surrounding environment and the collaboration among professionals, organizations and citizens.

Finally, the eighth factor is evaluation and monitoring. A system of control is essential to redefine the objectives for the success of the good practice while the monitoring is necessary to judge its benefits and weakness.

By taking this into account and given its global outreach, its active involvement in the OECD Working Party on SMEs and Entrepreneurship and a diversified pool of Members, INSME collects and formalizes best practices, by exploiting its exclusive and primary point of view on success cases in the field of innovation, technology transfer, entrepreneurship and SMEs support worldwide.

INSME Best Practices are programmes, initiatives and projects that stood out for the results achieved and for the innovative approach towards creating a better ecosystem for SMEs. The aim of the collection is to stimulate the transfer of knowledge to duplicate these success models and encourage the cooperation among the Members.

The Network operates as a one stop gateway to:

• access up-to-date information on trends, methodologies and policies;
• analyse strengths and weaknesses and their potential replicability;
• share innovative approaches, techniques and tools;
• compare policies and programmes to understand the impact of innovation.

This section includes a selection of programmes, initiatives, projects and policies endorsed and implemented by key innovation players that represent successful and ‘best in class’ approaches. The collection and diffusion of international best practices stimulates a valuable transfer of knowledge among members and enables them to raise the international profile of their organisations and achieve a greater impact on a global, national and regional scale.

It is possible to browse the best practices in the list below or by topic and tag of interest in the menu on the right.