Austria - South Korea
«RiSE» Project Launch

Cross-national research program officially started

Contributing to the celebration of 120 and50 years of Korean-Austrian relationships, Initiative Future Association initiated the cross-national research program «RiSE», addressing key socio-political issues in Austria and South Korea.

Seeing that today's economic system has fundamentally changed, the aim of this research program is to contribute to a favorable future development. There is mounting evidence that the missing integration of social and ecological issues led to increasing economic and social crises.

For example, both Austria and South Korea face rising costs of the social welfare system, paired with a strong need for higher productivity and innovativeness within companies.

According to the OECD, both raising productivity and tackling key issues in society strongly affects the positive economic development in South Korea and Austria.

Currently, South Korea has the potential to raise its productivity by approx. 50%, which is said to be a key issue in its economic development. Likewise, Austria’s economy has the opportunity to raise its output by 20 Billion through a higher level of motivation among employees.

 

Results of the 1st RiSE Conference

• The contributions at the Opening RiSE-Conference in Vienna, April 2013, showed that enterprises which integrate the social dimension into their business play a significant role in coping with socio-political issues.

The target of the RiSE Program, therefore, is to create social value within companies paired with business excellence.

• The outcome of the research program is the design of a viable socio-economic model, leading to the integration of social purpose into economic activity in order to raise competitive advantage and productivity.

Developing such a model will help solving major issues such as the advancement of the social economy sector, successful social innovations paired with increasing motivation at work, and decreasing polarization due to the support of SME structures and regional development.

That is how the RiSE Program contributes to a favorable future development in Austria and South Korea.

 

read more about the 3rd RiSE Conference ...