Developing Community Innovators through Appreciative Inquiry: A Case of Community Enterprise Entrepreneurs
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Abstract
This study aimed to develop community innovators among community enterprise entrepreneurs by employing the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) process. The participants consisted of 12 co-researchers from Nong Saeng Sub-district, Pak Phli District, Nakhon Nayok Province, with an average of 10–30 years of experience in agriculture, product processing, and handicrafts. A qualitative research design was applied, using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and follow-up observations of actual practices.
The findings revealed that the four stages of AI—Discovery, Dream, Design, and Destiny—enabled the participants to recognize their human, resource, and cultural capital, co-create a shared vision, design practical approaches, and implement them in practice. As a result, nine key characteristics of community innovators were developed: courage to think and act, creative thinking, effective communication and selling, perseverance, opportunity recognition, openness to new learning, practical implementation, knowledge transfer, and management capability. Furthermore, the process led to the establishment of a systematic community innovation development process, comprising idea generation, prototype testing, pilot implementation, and scaling-up through network collaboration. The study contributes new knowledge that “building community innovators occurs through creating innovation,” meaning that active participation in innovation practices was the crucial condition fostering the natural and sustainable development of community innovator characteristics. This reflects the creation of a learning and innovation ecosystem that enables community enterprises to achieve sustainable growth and expand to other contexts. In terms of policy, the study suggests that government agencies and partner networks adopt the Appreciative Inquiry process to develop community innovators, thereby enhancing their capabilities and strengthening the foundation of the local economy.
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