Our firms interest in the meso space and its role in economic development is not new. This research theme is about our continued efforts to develop new instruments and concepts that are helpful to identify, improve and strengthen the organisations and programmes in the meso space.

Meso organisations are established to promote economic development and improve competitiveness of a region by responding to a variety of permanent and temporary market, structural and performance failures at the micro level. While they are the result of targeted meso policies, their success also depends on other policy measures to be effective. While meso organisations can perhaps make it easier for firms to identify ways to upgrade their technology or knowledge, there is a whole range of other interconnected features of the overall economic system that determine the investment climate and thus the framework conditions for upgrade efforts at the level of firms.

For the 2020 Annual Reflection, we wrote an article highlighting the four areas that we believe must receive attention to improve the resilience of the meso space. This article draws on several commissions that we received since 2017 to work with our clients to improve the visibility, responsiveness and relevance of the organisations in the meso level. This research is ongoing. 

We are currently organising our praxis around these four themes:

1 - Strengthening the system awareness and dynamics

2 - Deepening of the capabilities in the system to respond to change

3 - Improving the design of programmes and functions to enable innovation

4 - Catalyse future orientation

For more information about these four areas, take a look at our most recent article and the related case study. In the coming months we will work on short publications focused on each of these four areas.

In the period 2015 to 2019 we worked with several clients and collaborators to develop an Meso Organisational Development instrument. For the time being, we have put this development on hold, and have integrated our learning into areas 1,2 and 3 of the four areas outlined above. The Meso OD instrument that we developed can still be downloaded here. Read Article 4 in our Annual Reflection 2017 research output for more detail on the four dimentions covered by the framework.

If you are interested to follow this theme, or to contribute towards the development of any of the instruments and concepts, then please get in touch with us.

We are also searching for institutions or programmes that can host an experiment, where your team will do the research under our guidance. 

 

The Mesopartner Annual Reflection 2017 we deliberate on the significance and relevance of the meso level and meso policy options as a vehicle and lever for stimulating economic activities and strengthening enterprises at the micro level. We particularly focus our considerations on the role and importance of meso organisations from both a theoretical and a practical, work-related perspective.

The Mesopartner Annual Reflection 2018 the reader will find discussions on the roles and relevance of meso organisations in the context of specific concepts, tools and insights from the research and practical experience of Mesopartner. We are using the opportunity to introduce some of our favourite tools and reflect on how far meso organisations are an integral part of them.

26 results:
Why should we work on the meta level, even if it’s difficult?  
Why should we work on the meta level, even if it’s difficult? Systemic Competitiveness (SysCo) is a guiding framework for private sector development in the context of development cooperation. It…  
Returning to basic principles: Common denominators of the Mesopartner and the EU smart specialization approaches  
Returning to basic principles: Common denominators of the Mesopartner and the EU smart specialization approaches Common denominators between the Mesopartner philosophy and the smart specialisation…  
The role of meso organisations in the Product Space  
The role of meso organisations in the Product Space During the last 10 years, a promising approach has emerged from the Centre for International Development (CID) at Harvard University and Macro…  
Looking at discontinuous change through a Systemic Competitiveness lens  
Looking at discontinuous change through a Systemic Competitiveness lens The World Economic Forum (WEF) is raising the awareness of global leaders about the expected societal changes as the Fourth…  
Typology of Regions and meso organisations  
Typology of Regions and meso organisations The concept of the Typology of Regions was originally introduced in the Mesopartner Working Paper 10 which focuses on options and choices for designing a…  
Facilitation and change of meso organisations  
Facilitation and change of meso organisations This article reflects on selected experiences gained from the project Competitive Regional Economic Development (CREDO) in Krajina, funded by the Swedish…  
The emergence of a meso space – Country Case Myanmar  
The emergence of a meso space – Country Case Myanmar As is typical for a country such as Myanmar, which only started a transformation process in 2012 after decades of isolation, business…  
Why do meso organisations struggle to change?  
Why do meso organisations struggle to change? Markets and demands are changing constantly. Continuous structural change processes in industries, services and regions demonstrate the reality of…  
Meso organisations need to be innovative and anticipate future trends  
Meso organisations need to be innovative and anticipate future trends Meso organisations need to be innovative because their management style and creative use of resources infuses the system with…  
The role of the meso level in enabling economic evolution  
The role of the meso level in enabling economic evolution In 2016 Mesopartner was commissioned by the BEAM Exchange to conduct research into what systemic change is and how it can be achieved in an…  
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