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- Interaction between innovation in small firms and their environments: modelling entrepreneurial patternsPublication . Noronha, Teresa de; Cesário, M.; Fernandes, L.Small food firms make up an important sector in the European economy and are particularly significant in rural areas where they are potential sources of employment and growth. Despite this, their behaviour as regards innovation has been relatively little studied to date. This exploratory investigation finds different types of innovative behaviours among small agro-food firms in peripheral regions and identifies some of the factors with which they are associated. The research reported here is based on a sample of 323 small and very small food and drink (hereafter “food”) firms drawn from 11 regions in six European countries. The food industry is generally regarded as a mature, low-technology industry, but this study identifies different clusters of small food firms according to innovative behaviours. It finds that, although a substantial number of firms may be defined as non-innovators, by far the largest cluster of food firms is involved in multiple forms of innovative activity. Recent studies have demonstrated the complexity of the determinants of technological progress. This may be modelled as a learning process in which small innovative firms tend to draw on internal and external sources of expertise and are both influenced by and influence the broader socio-economic environment in which they operate. This study uses cluster analyses to identify four types of innovative behaviours and examines the factors influencing these. It takes first steps to incorporate both measures of innovative capacity at the firm level as well as of the local development environment in order to explore links between the innovative capacity of small food firms and the characteristics of their regional contexts.
- Padrões comportamentais dos empresários portugueses face à inovação: o caso das PMEs do sector agro–alimentar localizadas no Alentejo Central e OestePublication . Noronha, Teresa de; Cesário, M.Muitos têm sido os autores a desenvolver uma argumentação sobre a influência dos comportamentos empresariais no meio e vice-versa.
- Factores determinantes de inovação nas pequenas empresas : uma aplicação ao sector agro-alimentar em PortugalPublication . Noronha, Teresa de; Cesário, M.Este trabalho desenvolve instrumentos para pesquisar, ao nível regional, sinais determinantes de inovação em pequenas empresas localizadas em zonas desfavorecidas da União Europeia. Foram criados indicadores de performance inovadora para diagnosticar factores internos e externos determinantes da inovação em empresas portuguesas do Ribatejo Oeste e do Alentejo. Foi utilizada uma amostra aleatória de 52 empresas do sector agro-alimentar, com dimensão inferior a 50 trabalhadores, à qual foi aplicado um inquérito composto por 90 questões fechadas. Tais questões focaram grupos de determinantes possíveis de inovação, tais como: as características do empresário, a história e perfil da empresa, a força de trabalho e sua formação, os tipos de produtos e processos utilizados, as relações inter-empresariais e os apoios públicos fornecidos. Através das correlações de Spearman encontrámos relações de causa - efeito entre determinantes e performance inovadora.
- Behavioural patterns towards innovation: the case of European rural regionsPublication . Noronha, Teresa de; Cesário, M.Contrarily to big firms, small firms interact intensively with the territory in which they locate, as a signal of their embeddedness. The particular tight links they develop with their external environment reduce uncertainty risks. In general, for them, geographical and sociological proximities constitute the main sources of assets and information determining their perspectives and strategic choices. The present study uses a set of enquires, developed within the framework of a European research project, with the purpose of modelling the determinants of innovation in a bi-univocal relationship of interdependencies between small firms and their environmental contexts. We dealt mainly with lagging regions and a panel of 323 firms from the agro-food sector, located in 11 different European rural regions from six different countries. Using a set of variables able to characterise the innovative processes and through the application of k-mean clusters statistical analysis, it was possible to detect behavioural patterns towards innovation among those firms. Non-innovators, pioneer innovators and follower innovators were the identified patterns. Using cross tabs analysis between those patterns and a set of attributes dealing with the importance of human capital, the profile of each group were drawn.
- Sistemas territoriais e performance das PME’s: tipologia de classificação das regiões portuguesasPublication . Cesário, M.; Noronha, Teresa deA presente dissertação baseia-se no recente interesse colocado no papel dos contextos regionais enquanto incubadoras da actividade produtiva. O objectivo do trabalho é, numa primeira fase, enquadrar teoricamente a temática ligada ao território e às suas capacidades endógenas para induzir desenvolvimento. Posteriormente é apresentada uma análise empírica que pretende fundamentar quantitativamente as abordagens desenvolvidas. A metodologia utilizada baseia-se na selecção de um conjunto de indicadores (Indicadores de Desenvolvimento Local) que permitiu classificar as regiões portuguesas simultaneamente pela sua estrutura produtiva e seu nível de atractividade local. Esta dupla classificação esteve na origem da construção de uma tipologia aplicada às 28 regiões Nuts III de Portugal Continental. Foi possível observar que todas as regiões com um elevado nível de industrialização registaram bons comportamentos em termos de atractividade local, verificando-se ainda uma associação entre níveis médios/fracos de atractividade e estruturas produtivas dominantemente agrícolas. A comparação dos primeiros resultados com o comportamento destas regiões em termos da performance das suas PME´s (nicho empresarial particularmente dependente da sua envolvente externa) revelou uma clara associação entre as melhores performances e melhores condições de atractividade local.
- Regional attractability to business: an empirical application to Souther Euroupean regionsPublication . Noronha, Teresa de; Barbosa, Ana B.; Cesário, M.; Guerreiro, A.The main objective of this paper is to analyse the entrepreneurial attractivity capacity of a range of South European regions. The methodology is based on multivariate statistical analyses in order to evaluate quantitatively the existence of appropriate conditions in the allocation of dynamic enterprises.
- Territorial systems in the rural areas of the European UnionPublication . Noronha, Teresa de; Cesário, M.The emergence of dynamic forms of interdependent adjustment demands new local development processes in terms of socio-economic change: regional activities have been rearranged not only by globalisation but also by a new financial and political logic that reduces territorial and consumer's specificities. Many different factors contribute to regional dynamism; they are mostly correlated to entrepreneurial activity. In this paper we try to observe the set of characteristics able to create adequate environments for the entrepreneurial activity of innovative firms.
- Territory and entrepreneurial performance: an exercise on the industrial regions of Ave, Entre Douro e Vouga, Baixo Vouga, Pinhal Litoral and Península de SetúbalPublication . Cesário, M.; Noronha, Teresa deThe present paper was motivated by the recent interest put on the regional context as having a major role tracing economic agents behaviours and inducing productive activity. Three main goals have been defined: to emphasise the relation between favourable regional factors for development and firm performance in the case of the most industrialised Portuguese regions; to distinguish in each region its own propensity for sustainable development and to evaluate if the region may be considered as intrinsic co-operative or resistant to co-operation. Methodologically, the analysis followed three major steps: 1) selection of regions with industrial characteristics; 2) creation and use of the endogenous growth capacity indicators; 3) consequent analysis of the SMEs (small and medium size firms) behaviour’s evolution. Based on Multivariate Analysis, the following regions were selected: Ave, Entre Douro e Vouga, Baixo Vouga, Pinhal Litoral and Península de Setúbal. Basically, they represent the areas where industrial activity is predominant in Portugal. When comparing the observed local environmental conditions of these regions with the results for the performance of their small firms, some conclusions could be achieved, regarding to three major issues: the relation between regional development factors development and firm performance; the regional propensity for sustainable development and the regional adequacy to networking.
- Factors affecting the adoption of new technologies by labour-intensive firms: an empirical exercise on European southern regionsPublication . Cesário, M.; Noronha, Teresa deO presente artigo tem como argumento teórico a hipótese de que, não apenas as condicionantes envolventes afectam o desempenho dos agentes económicos, também a forma como estes se comportam e reagem aos diferentes desafios tem um impacto nos contextos locais.
- Driving forces for innovation: are they measurable?Publication . Noronha, Teresa de; Cesário, M.This paper outlines a synthetic framework based on the concept of the learning process as a driver to redress stakeholders’ attitudes and strategic choices. The discussion is focused on the advantages that may result from institutional proximity, knowledge diffusion and coordination for the specific building up of a territorial knowledge base and the consequent achievement of sustainable regional development. This theoretical framework is applied to an empirical exercise identifying a number of variables supposed to be able to characterise firms and regional performances towards different forms of innovation. Modelling techniques are used to demonstrate that firms’ capacity to innovate is a complex attribute whose determinants change. The results permit to conclude causal links that may be useful for a better understanding of innovation and as support instruments for policy-makers which intend to search for specificities in the regional development process.
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