New Paths of Entrepreneurship Development

This chapter presents challenges and methodological insights from applying smart city approaches in the context of public decision-making. It discusses the smart city as a changing and fuzzy concept which expresses the need for cities to find ICT-driven, intelligent and sustainable solutions to a panoply of urban challenges, covering many dimensions: smart economy; smart mobility; smart environment; smart people; smart living; and smart governance. In the urban planning context, where these dimensions need to be considered in an integrated manner, the smart approach relies on the ability to link infrastructures, services and users, increasing the flexibility and transparency of urban policies and decision-making. In this context, smart approaches must move beyond an urban labelling phenomenon and be grounded in a (horizontal) urban policy practice. Four Portuguese strategic plans are used as empirical examples of improving decision-making by incorporating ICT in the process design. The focus is on the methodological contributions and on illustrating how the smart city concept can be adjusted to analyse concrete policy approaches in the complex system of spatial interactions that form modern urban environments.

This chapter presents a case study that illustrates how the local structures of a developing medium-sized city in Portugal have been capable of, in times of public budget shortfalls, introducing structural changes based on the conceptualization of a smart city. Focusing on the case of Águeda, a city whose population is currently around 48 thousand inhabitants and whose economy is heavily based on manufacturing industries, with a predominance of micro-enterprises, the study explores how the concept of smart city has emerged and has been applied in a specific context and accordingly the extent to which public value has been generated.

The implementation of a research and innovation strategy anchored in the principles of ‘smart specialisation’ can be an important catalyst for regional development. Even in regions that are less technology intensive and with a gap in terms of socio-economic development, the potential of selectivity with the introduction of ‘entrepreneurial discovery’ mechanisms is essential for designing successful policies and actions. The ‘entrepreneurial discovery’—the finding of a new sector or activity emerging from existing localized capacities and market demands—is not an original idea, in practice it has always happened in any structural change process and most of the time in a spontaneous way. The novelty of ‘smart specialisation’ strategies is the formal and explicit character that the ‘entrepreneurial discovery process’ assumes. This chapter discusses different approaches to the process of ‘entrepreneurial discovery’, paying special attention to participatory models.

The aim of the chapter is the analysis of innovation and institution as key-elements for reaching a higher social welfare and for improving environmental quality. To determine a social optimum or a Pareto improvement, we consider the interaction between institution and firm in the short and in the medium/long run. Using a static comparative analysis, the interaction of these two agents, institution and market, is examined. Within the market an entrant and an incumbent firm are present, and the entrant firm radically innovates. Even if in the short run results show that the market alone is able to realize a Pareto improvement, an institution action through an innovation adoption is a preferable solution for gaining a higher social welfare equilibrium, both in the short and/or in the medium/long run. Our main results highlight that the strategic role of an innovating institution in each case considered consists in innovating towards green technology and in creating a competitive, attractive and environmentally sustainable milieu. From this point of view, technology innovation plays a central role in an economic and territorial development, orienting and optimizing the relationship between environmental and firm quality.

Within supply chains, the freight/cargo transportation is on the brink of a new revolution. The Internet of Things (IoT) leads the way to new levels of performance and competitiveness of those market players who adopt the technologies of machine-to-machine connectedness and communication. The upsurge of the IoT fundamentally depends on the entrepreneurial initiatives of the technological innovators that develop solutions in this field, as well as of the early adopters of these new technologies with high game-changing potential.

This chapter focuses on major entrepreneurial initiatives and structural changes generated by the IoT in the freight/cargo transportation. The goal of the chapter is to explore the main features of these entrepreneurial initiatives and their implications for the supply chains. The main objectives of the study are the following: to identify major types and features of IoT initiatives, illustrated by means of relevant business cases; to analyse the categories of “initiative owners” that initiated the IoT-based changes; to estimate the advantages and benefits of the IoT for the supply chain members.

The contribution of this study refers to the identification of the main features of the IoT-based entrepreneurial initiatives in the freight/cargo transportation. The added value of the chapter is also given by the detailed presentation of the implications of the IoT for the freight/cargo transportation, as well as by the recommendations for practitioners and researchers. The IoT has a high potential to enhance the intermodal/multimodal capabilities of freight/cargo transportation.

This chapter deals with the necessary connection among entrepreneurship and regional development, among entrepreneurship and digital economy. These are two of the main topics of this book. Although this bidirectional relationship can be carried out from a number of points of view, we will be focused on how higher education can foster entrepreneurship. The high rate of unemployment among young people, even after university studies, in the first decade of the twenty-first century, and their high level of education and training, make us entertain doubts if our present Higher Education System is prepared to solve this serious social problem, and if University can foster an ‘entrepreneurship culture’ in our society and help make the change in our territory.

This chapter highlights the relevance of micro-macro interfaces for the study of investment inflows in higher education, as an impulse concept, in the development of economies on a regional scale, as a response concept. The term ‘micro-macro interfaces’ refers to the systems of interactions that combine and channel the efforts made by individuals, often within collective organizations, to achieve their personal goals and the objectives set at the organizational level, and how the results from those efforts, once aggregated territorially, drive the rhythm of economic growth and the directions of regional development. The analysis brings together theory, research and practice from economics, management science, educational science and regional science in order to clarify the links among a number of connected impulse-response mechanisms at the individual, corporate and spatial levels. Since those impulse-response relationships involve concepts often measured at more than one level of aggregation, researchers have tended so far to exclude them from the models used to provide evidence on the economic and social impacts of higher education at the regional level. Particularly, the discussion focuses on the influence of local contexts and local invention and innovation systems, and the role of knowledge related spatial spillovers, on the one hand, and on the transition of individual university graduates from higher education institutions to post-graduate positions and careers within work organizations.

In the last two decades, with the widespread of Internet and global communication, the creation of the World Trade Organization and the liberalization of world trade, and the re-launch of neoliberalism, a lot of changes occurred in the economic and social order that still persist today.

However, this (r)evolution are not satisfactorily followed by all, with obvious costs in social and territorial cohesion. That is why the education system may be a way to provide a more adequate and beneficial convergence between this framework of changes, new demands and the universe of values, knowledge and skills held by citizens.

This resulted, in Portugal, in a process of decentralization of education competences from national to local authorities, which aims to promote quality and efficiency in the use of educational resources and to reinforce educational processes.

This model implies a better relationship between local actors, as they constitute a fundamental part of the local education system and are the main motivators of change. The local education system can therefore work as a tool to stimulate entrepreneurship and support the dynamics of structural change in the social and economic dimensions.

The process that intends to materialize this concept of education system was tested in the municipality of Cascais with the elaboration of a Municipal Educational Strategic Plan (PEEM). The methodological process applied in this PEEM that is revisited in this chapter as a way of illustrating an example of transforming a local education system through the involvement of the local actors led by the municipality.

This chapter focuses on the relationship between entrepreneurship, education and regional public policy. First, a theoretical background is developed to approach the idea of regional public policy fostering entrepreneurship through the educational system in developed countries. The Spanish case-study of the Autonomous Community of Extremadura was analyzed to show how the culture of entrepreneurship was integrated in the formal educational system. The chapter concludes with reflections and ideas for the near future. Concretely we present the Observatory of Entrepreneurship Culture, a new tool for analyzing the current programs, to learn from the different experiences and to improve the actions in the next editions. The Observatory will also serve for disseminating the results obtained in society in order to foster the culture of entrepreneurship at the regional level.

The chapter focuses on the reflection around the relationship between entrepreneurial empowerment and regional development, based on the assumptions, methodology and results of a self-sustained supramunicipal project in entrepreneurship education, promoted by a wide network of partners representing all the municipalities of Baixo Alentejo, Portugal, and coordinated by the Polytechnic Institute of Beja (IPBeja). The project Promoting Entrepreneurship Education at the Schools of Baixo Alentejo (PEEBA) was carried out in collaboration with Elementary Schools (1st to 2nd Ciclos) and kindergartens of Baixo Alentejo with the objective to nurture entrepreneurial competencies in children and youngsters aged 3–12 through practical and experiential entrepreneurship education. It provided them with entrepreneurial skills and attitudes that will increase their opportunities, by helping them face their lives with more initiative and confidence and/or be more proactive at work, or even start their own business in a near future, in the hope that this may eventually contribute to reduce the brain drain in Baixo Alentejo.

South Africa’s water policy has been criticised as an inefficient instrument to achieve the social goals of appropriately redistributing water in informal settlements. Growing global water challenges have demonstrated that Traditional Water Management methodologies based on improving the material conditions of impoverished informal settlements are not robust enough to tackle the constant emerging water challenges. Although several calls for more integrated water resources management appear in respect of global water governance highlighting the new social value and human rights, they are simply not enough to meet the needs and priorities of local informal settlements. Beyond Traditional water management and social and environmental water governance, it is important to develop not only management aspects but also the individuals themselves. An ethical view of managing water policies through social innovation has been addressed by meeting social needs in communities, which provide a new view of water management called Human Water Governance. It not only provides equal opportunities and innovative abilities to manage water but also analyses the impact of UNESCO principles in South African informal communities. Through Smart PLS, we tested 124 informal dwellers with a twofold purpose: (1) To measure the level of importance that the community gives to access to water services, and (2) To set up a water utilisation model for impoverished informal settlements that can be applied to other communities all over the world.

The main goal of this chapter is to reflect about the role of the Third Sector (TS) in generating social innovation on a local scale basis. Social innovation will be putted in the forefront of the discussion, as well as the way to evaluate it in context. A particular focus is thus given to discussions about the dilemmas concerning which indicators and theoretical framework can be more appropriate to evaluate the impact of social innovations. This is a very central and actual exigency in the framework of public policies and social development but very few consensuses exist at this level. So, it is critical to identify the innovation presuppositions and indicators to consider, according to scale, scope and local specificities. This will help to make “good decisions” in a local level and to shape evidence-based social policies and social entrepreneurship initiatives, as well as the right framework conditions for social innovation.

The reflection and proposals under these topics are illustrated by the general results of a local project based in the assessment of social and ecological experimentation initiatives in Portugal.

This chapter aims to show how social entrepreneurship contributes to solving persistent and complex problems in various parts of the world, in developed and developing countries, and, this way, how it contributes to sustainable development. By the theory review, research has focused on the activity of social enterprises. Considering the impact that social entrepreneurship has in the communities, there appears to be a clear surplus between results and resources used, both material and human, with a substantial incidence of volunteering. From the results of our study, including the examples of social enterprises presented, it is possible to imagine how empowering communities can contribute to a more sustainable future. Social entrepreneurship is still recent regarding its academic study, and several authors such as Roberts and Woods (Europe 7:45–51, 2000) or Parente et al. (Empreendedorismo social: Contributos teóricos para a sua definição, 2011) refer the scarcity and some confusion still existing in the literature. This work can help improve this picture. This chapter can contribute, in a relevant way, for the knowledge of how social entrepreneurship has an impact on the dynamics of the territories where it operates. And it goes beyond the more traditional approach, considering not only the situation in developing regions but also addressing social entrepreneurship in developed countries.

Conditioning factors of globalization create new demands and opportunities for the development of an organizational management model that takes into account the principles of sustainability, which presupposes significant investments in innovation. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between strategic management for sustainable innovation and the business model and performance of manufacturing companies. The strategic management of sustainable innovation was analyzed from two dimensions: strategic posture, underpinned on the studies of Schaltegger et al. (Int J Innov Sustain Dev 6:95–119, 2012) and Eiriz et al. (Innov Manag Policy Pract, 15:97–111, 2013); and sustainable innovation practices, evaluated on the basis of Bocken et al. (J Clean Prod 65: 42–56, 2014). The analysis of the business model was based on studies of Boons and Lüdeke-Freund (J Clean Prod 45:9–19, 2013), Kiron et al. (MIT Sloan Manag Rev, 54:69–73, 2013a) and Taran et al. (Decis Sci 46:301–331, 2015). Business performance was evaluated by considering the dimensions proposed by Gunday et al. (Int J Prod Econ 133:662–676, 2011). The study was characterized as quantitative and consisted of a survey with Brazilian manufacturing companies. The results allow to say that strategic management for sustainable innovation is related to the business model and corporate performance, given that positive associations between the dependent and independent variables dimensions were found. Therefore, it was possible to confirm the guiding hypotheses of the study.

This chapter discusses opportunities that can be seen in the Entrepreneurial Dynamics change, brought about by a set of concepts and new practices within what became known as CIRCULAR ECONOMY-CE. In particular cases of the application of CE in emerging countries members of the BRICS are presented, since these are regions where growth is a necessity and there is strong pressure for the continuity of the traditional model due to the obvious reasons of disparity in relation to developed countries.

The data source derives from qualitative exploratory research on Circular Economy based on bibliometric studies carried out in two phases. First, scientific articles of the last 5 years on CE were collected from the SCOPUS database, always linked to entrepreneurial applications, totaling 1207 general citations, which were reduced to 265 after being filtered considering title and abstract, and finally to 177 citations, Considering those published in the most prestigious scientific journals with high impact value. Second, the articles were selected by their content and organized according to the topics that form the text: concepts, limits of the paradigm of linear economy, elements of the dynamics of the emerging model of the Circular economy, trends in CE, limits and difficulties in implementation, and by Cases studied in Brazil and China.

The goal of this chapter is to contribute to the clarification of the concept of social innovation through an analytic deconstruction of its dimensions as well as through its application to the analysis of a concrete empirical case. The paper starts by outlining the history of the notion of “social innovation,” a multidimensional concept which is still under construction. The objective is to demonstrate the non-exclusive connection between this notion and the domains of technology and economic sociology, as well as the relevance of collective participation and the logic of social transformation underlying the recent reconfigurations of the notion. After establishing the idea that social innovation is not related solely to the sphere of economics or to a new attitude in the entrepreneurial sector, the chapter examines the social innovation initiatives promoted by a non-governmental organization (NGO) for development with headquarters in Cabo Verde and describes some of its social intervention projects. The NGO was founded in the period immediately following Cabo Verde’s independence and has always been strongly linked to the arts. These two factors should be regarded, in and of themselves, as proof of the existence of a strong will and desire to create dynamic transformations in the social fabric. Although the NGO operates on various islands of the Cabo Verde archipelago, the focus here is on the community project developed on the island of São Antão, which started in 1990 and is still ongoing.

Currently, we are living “strange/changing times”, mainly, for populations from developed countries. Those challenges are caused by internal and external factors that are taking place inside and outside the borders of developed countries. Still, as new challenges arise, men have found new solutions to overcome existing difficulties. This might be the case of the entrepreneurship within EU borders, as a possible solution for increasing regional development of border areas.

Contributing for sustainable regional development and growth, cross-border cooperation (CBC) projects and strategies of cross-border cooperation has been as seen as critical for achieving desired territorial success, constituting fertile habitats for entrepreneurship and investment.

In this regard, it is important to analyse successful examples of European CBC projects in order to better understand not only how those issues are connected, but also how they influence and contribute for regional development.

The performed analyses enable us to understand the impacts of CBC for a sustainable growth identifying the ways territories should implement specific tools to develop structural alternatives and to open new paths towards the desired sustainable city, throughout the use of entrepreneurship as a catalyst for development.