Domingo Ribeiro

Factors affecting the performance of entrepreneurial service firms

In the current climate, the importance of the role played by entrepreneurship as a palpable reality that enables economic growth at a macroeconomic level, and as a factor that favours the progress of companies at a microeconomic level, has made it the subject of continual analyses from many different perspectives and in a variety of contexts by researchers from around the world. In this study, Spanish entrepreneurial firms in the service sector are analysed in order to determine the factors that influence their performance.

Government policies and services: an approach to the international context

This special issue analyses the relationship between services and industrial policy. Such a relationship covers a wide variety of aspects, going from measures designed to ensure the competential framework within which business activities are carried out, up to actions aimed at enabling structural change in service industries, with the incorporation of innovation as the essential factor for competitiveness. Two trends can currently be discerned. On the one hand, there is a growing tendency towards the decentralisation and specificity of public policy related to service industries. On the other, indirect actions aimed at strengthening the institutional context (technological infrastructures, consultancy services, etc.) in which productive activity occurs are presently receiving a good deal of attention from policy makers.

Support policy for the tourism business: a comparative case study in Spain

It is now well known that service industries, and especially the tourism sector, significantly contribute to economic and social development in the European Union. Intrinsic to the growth of the tourism industry has been the public interventions that, directly or indirectly, have facilitated the development of this sector. In this context, this paper aims to contribute to the knowledge on the design and implementation process of support policies for tourism businesses in Spain, using institutional economics as the theoretical framework. Based on a comparative case study, the article shows that despite the relevance of the legal system, the most important factors for the promotion of the tourism business are the socio-cultural ones.

Entrepreneurship: Concepts, Theory and Perspective. Introduction

The creation of a country’s wealth and dynamism depends upon the competitiveness of its firms and this, in turn, relies fundamentally on the capabilities of its entrepreneurs and managers.

Franchising in services

Organisational forms, including franchises, can be studied from two different perspectives. First, a fundamentals-based approach, which attempts to explain why franchises are an efficient form of o...

Sociocultural Factors and Female Entrepreneurship in the Innovative Service Sector in Catalonia: A Qualitative Analysis

The purpose of this chapter is to analyse the main sociocultural factors and their impact on female entrepreneurship in the innovative service sector in Catalonia (Spain) and to establish differences to male initiatives using the institutional approach as a theoretical framework. Based on a comparative case study, the principal findings suggest that social networks, role models, entrepreneurial attitudes and family context are important determinants of female entrepreneurship. Family context is, in particular, a crucial factor, which might have a larger impact on women than men. The research contributes both theoretically, with the creation of knowledge in less researched areas such as female entrepreneurship in Spain, and practically, through the development of sustainable support policies for female entrepreneurial activity.

Women’s Approach to Economics and Firms

Women and works by female economists appeared in the economic literature of the Classical and Neoclassical periods. While a portion of such literature popularized the approaches of male economists, others part criticized some established views, especially those dealing with wages, education, and the position of women in the family. The objective of this article is to analyze the main economic approaches held by women, starting with an analysis of the situation of women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The differences between women’s thoughts on economics and the classical and neoclassical economic approaches are considered, as well as women’s thoughts on productivity and firm’s activity.