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Culture and innovation in SMEs: the intellectual structure of research for further inquiry
Publication . Gonzalez-Loureiro, Miguel; Sousa, Maria; Pinto, Hugo
Regional and organizational cultures are commonly considered key enablers to innovation dynamics in organizations, in particular to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Although this intersection is a crucial topic of research, studies addressing this issue remain limited in number and scope in the case of SMEs. In this article, a systematic literature review of that intersection is presented by gathering articles from ISI-WoS and Scopus databases. It combines a qualitative approach (content analysis) and a statistical procedure (HOMALS) to analyse the information from 1947 articles found. As a result, the contribution is twofold: a map of the intellectual structure of research and a codebook of descriptors. The study helps identify relevant gaps for future research, specifically the need for mixed approaches from a variety of social sciences with a particular focus on regional science. Future research should shift from a static to a dynamic perspective of culture in groups, organizations and territories. In the case of SMEs, this can be labelled as transformational culture: the study of how organizational and regional cultures may co-evolve along with the changes in the environment by seizing on the SMEs' flexibility and flattened organizational structure.
Cooperation and the emergence of maritime clusters in the Atlantic: analysis and implications of innovation and human capital for blue growth
Publication . Pinto, Hugo; Cruz, Ana Rita; Combe, Colin
The so-called 'blue economy' is gaining emphasis in European policy making due to the expansion of its relevance beyond traditional economic sectors but also to new and developing ones that exhibit rapid growth. Much of the discourse has focused on the emergence and consolidation of maritime clusters. However, there has been less attention on the regional development aspect and this article provides a timely contribution to filling the gap in knowledge by presenting the findings and analysis of a survey applied to blue economy organisations in Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Scotland. Specifically, issues of innovation, human capital and social capital provide the basis of inquiry around the creation and consolidation of maritime clusters. The article uses the survey data to understand the determinants of the variety of cooperation dynamics. A key finding reveals that participation in innovation activities and absorptive capacity are critical factors in increasing cooperation. From the analysis it is clear that there are significant discrepancies in participation between sectors, such as tourism where participation rates are below average. The article concludes by defining the core activities that should feature in a maritime cluster. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Innovation in firms, resilience and the economic downturn: insights from CIS data in Portugal
Publication . Pinto, Hugo; Pereira, Tiago Santos; Uyarra, Elvira
There is an interest in understanding the effect of economic crises such as the one that hit the financial markets in the late 2000s, on the innovation performance of countries and regions. This paper introduces the concept of "resilience of innovation" to illustrate how the economic slowdown affects firms' behaviour in terms of their ability to maintain and develop innovative activities and deploy product and process innovation. Using Portugal as a case study-an EU member-state that was heavily affected by the economic downturn-this paper explores the data collected from four waves of the Community Innovation Survey from 2006 to 2012. It presents two-stage limited dependent variable models to understand the changing impacts of structural factors, innovative activities and strategies in terms of exploration and exploitation of knowledge on the development of product and process innovation. We find knowledge exploration to be particularly important for product innovation, while exploitation is a strong determinant for process innovation. Size, market knowledge sources and public funding for innovation are positively associated with both types of innovation in the peak of the crisis. This reiterates the importance of innovation support efforts to mitigate the effects of economic shocks and boost recovery.

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Funding agency

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

Funding programme

SFRH

Funding Award Number

SFRH/BPD/84038/2012

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