Responsible governance: challenges and prospects in Lithuanian rural areas

Purpose - This research aims to define the novel attitude toward social responsibility phenomena from a multi-level governance perspective and, based on the Lithuanian case, to illustrate the territorial perspective concerning the needs and challenges for future responsible governance in rural areas. Design/methodology/approach - This research is organized according to qualitative research principles. The seven-step Delphi technique was applied to reach the aim. The expert selection was done using the two criteria, based on the Quadruple Helix approach (Carayannis & Rakhmatullin, 2014; González-Martinez et al., 2023) and the Stakeholder Salience model (Mitchellet al., 2017). The complementary expertise was accumulated by involving experts from the ministry (government helix) as holding the highest level of legitimacy in the field of building responsible governance in rural areas; business helix representatives hold high urgency attributes; power attributes varied among the experts in different helixes. In total, 15 experts were selected to implement the necessary Delphi steps, where experts’ involvement is relevant. The research work lasted for four months, starting from December 2022, and finalizing in March 2023. Technical support and funding for this research were organized in parallel with part of the activities of the Horizon 2020 programme’s project “SHERPA – Sustainable Hub to Engage in Rural Policies with Actors” (2019–2023). Findings - The number of recently observed issues while realizing the increasingly complicated application of multi-level governance mechanisms, both scientific discussions and practical implementation evidence call for a novel attitude in governance. In particular areas, where imperfections are very sensitive and most evident, scientific elaborations are more demanded from the very top, i.e. from the EU. Throughout recent years, the European Commission started employing cocreative consortiums (e.g. SHERPA), which, as found much earlier in scientific discourse, represent the joint multi-level power, involving the most powerful, urgent and legitimate stakeholders, representing the four helixes – government, society, business and academia, in building innovative cocreative and collaborative policy formation and implementation practices in multi-level governance. However, the core component that might add to future responsible governance is the social responsibility phenomenon. In conjunction, the multi-level governance and social responsibility paradigms might propose the desired novel responsible governance concept, which would work for more responsible policy formation and implementation, especially considering the interests of local communities. Research limitations/implications - This paper presents empirical findings, based on limited qualitative data, collected in one EU new member state, i.e. Lithuania. International comparative perspectives are given referring to other related papers. Research findings are promising for further research in the field of novel responsible multi-level governance framework by using the Quadruple Helix stakeholder approach to foster collaboration for innovation in socially responsible governance both from theoretical and empirical points of view. Practical implications - The developed theoretical framework and described methodological approach might be applied to practitioners in any area policy formation process. The Quadruple Helix approach might be used in defining the needs and challenges of any unit of analysis, either a small canton or a metropolitan city. The study suggests a meaningful departing point starting with expert views on better and more responsible governance practices. The study envisages the ways and manners to define the best value for stakeholders that is the general public or citizens of a rural setting, and this could be extended to other levels of government or state. Social implications - The research takes into account the public interest from a very broad point of view – how to develop a political course for rural regions in a socially responsible way by using already established innovative methodology. Originality/value - The article proposes using the novel combination of the three-pillar and stakeholder perspective of CSR, fulfilled by the original Quadruple Helix innovation approach, for establishing proactive stakeholder needs-based responsible multi-level governance practices, enabling the socially responsible policy formation and implementation mechanisms.