João Leitão

Barriers to innovation faced by manufacturing firms in Portugal: how to overcome it for fostering business excellence?

This paper aims to identify the barriers to innovation that influence the innovation capability of Portuguese manufacturing firms. The literature review about innovation makes use of two reference approaches: (1)the systemic and (2) the networks and interorganisational relationships. The database is obtained through the Community Innovation Survey II (CIS II) conducted by the Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT). Furthermore, from the results, several public policies are proposed in order to overcome the restraining factors of the entrepreneurial innovative capability and to promote business excellence at the firm level, especially alternative financing sources, incentives for innovation activities and open innovation networks.

Strategic Coopetition of Global Brands: A Game Theory Approach to ‘Nike + iPod Sport Kit’ Co-branding

Co-branding can be implemented by establishing an agreement of strategic coopetition that allows companies to compete and cooperate simultaneously in order to obtain competitive advantages through operational synergy. With this type of agreement, brands enter markets sharing loyal customers they would be unlikely to reach individually. The main advantages associated with implementation of this form of strategic coopetition are the possibility of jointly communicating brand image, reputation and credibility in a global market where consumers tend to have homogeneous preferences and convergent lifestyles. The strategic coopetition between two global brands, Apple and Nike, through development of the ‘Nike+iPod Sport Kit’ product, serves as a benchmark to illustrate the benefits associated with implementation of coopetitive cooperation agreements. From application of the game theory, simulation of a game of strategic coopetition provided results that confirm global brands obtain benefits, albeit not in equal measure, in terms of adding value to the brand image at a world level.

Cooperation in innovation practices among firms in Portugal: do external partners stimulate innovative advances?

This paper analyses whether the entrepreneurial innovation capability of firms is stimulated through the relationship established with external partners. The literature review on innovation makes use of two approaches: (1) systemic and (2) networks and interorganisational relationships. The theoretical approach developed supports the basic idea that innovation is an evolutionary, nonlinear and interactive process established between the firm and the environment. Together with the firms assets, a wide range of agents contribute towards acquiring external resources, knowledge and information essential for developing productive and innovative activities. The database was obtained through the Community Innovation Survey II (CIS II) coordinated by EUROSTAT. Relationships with science partners have a crucial role in promoting cooperation in innovative practices and stimulate the propensity to make advances at the level of product innovation.

Individual Entrepreneurship Capacity and Performance of SMEs

This paper analyses the importance of human capital and organizational capital on the determination of SME’s performance, by proposing and testing a conceptual model about Individual Entrepreneurship Capacity, and its impact both on non-economic and economic performance. This constitutes an innovative approach in the sense that uses information collected at the individual level, that is, the entrepreneur. Moreover, it constitutes a first attempt for facing the caveat in the literature on the relationship among types of capital and entrepreneurial performance. A model where the individual entrepreneurship capital is defined as a function of two types of capital: Human and Organizational; is proposed and empirically tested. For the Human Capital we consider three dimensions: (a) Individual Characteristics; (b) Managerial Push; and (c) Managerial Pull. As concerns the Organizational Capital, four dimensions are considered: (i) Individual Entrepreneurial Behavior; (ii) Collective Entrepreneurial Behavior; (iii) Managerial Practices; and (iv) Organizational Culture (in terms of the Superstructure and the Socio-Structure). The use of the stepwise method provides the selection of significant variables that impact on SME’s performance. When only non-economic indicators are considered for measuring the performance, in what respects the human capital we find out that the only significant variable is: enthusiasm at work. In what concerns the organizational capital the significant variables are: efficient organizational structure; participative management; incentives for interdisciplinary discussion and dialogue; and frequent meetings of working groups. For its turn, when economic indicators are considered for measuring the performance, we find out that the significant human capital determinants are: entrepreneur’s intuition; and propensity for innovating activities. In terms of organizational capital determinants we reveal that the significant variables are: efficient organizational structure; and use of external indicators for improving entrepreneurial performance. The main policy implication of the paper is the possibility of creating, at an individual level, new incentives and motivational tools based on the identification of the most important variables of human capital and organizational capital, for fostering SME’s performance.

Sources of finance for R&D investment: Empirical evidence from Portuguese SMEs using dynamic estimators

Abstract This paper makes two specific contributions to the SME literature: (i) it is pioneering in using the two-step estimation method, considering SME R&D intensity as dependent variable and cash flow, short and long-term debt and government subsidies as determinants; and (ii) the empirical evidence obtained allows us make important empirical contributions. Cash flow and short-term debt, regardless of the respective level, influence positively R&D intensity by SMEs. Secondly, long-term debt and government subsidies are only important for increased R&D intensity for higher levels of long-term debt and government subsidies. The multiple empirical evidence obtained in this study allows us to make important suggestions to policy-makers, as well as to SME managers/owners.

Reinforcing the Entrepreneurial Innovation Capacity of Industrial SMEs with Networks

The article is structured as follows: the second section presents relevant literature on relationships regarding innovation, and the hypotheses to be tested in the statistical model are formulated. Section 8.3 presents the sample, the variables, and the logistic regression model for innovative advances. Section 8.4 discusses the results, while Sect. 8.5 presents policy implications and conclusions.

The theory and practice of entrepreneurship

Contents: Foreword Thomas M. Cooney 1. Introduction David Smallbone, Joao Leitao, Mario Raposo and Friederike Welter 2. Entrepreneurial Climate at Universities: The Impact of Organizational Factors Mario Geissler, Steffen Jahn and Peter Haefner 3. Overcoming Critical Junctures in Spin-offs Companies from Non-elite Universities: Evidence from Catalonia Pablo Migliorini, Christian Serarols and Andrea Bikfalvi 4. Benefiting from Publicly Funded Pre-Competitive Research: Differences between Insiders and Outsiders Verena Eckl and Dirk Engel 5. A Feminist Inquiry into Entrepreneurship Training Janice Byrne and Alain Fayolle 6. Knowledge and Experience in the Internationalization of Knowledge-Intensive Firms Niina Nummela, Sami Saarenketo, Eriika Paavilainen-Mantymaki and Kaisu Puumalainen 7. The Nature of International Relationships and Performance: Policy Implications from the Case of Globally Integrated Small Firms Christos Kalantaridis and Ayvalo Vassilev 8. Exploring Entrepreneurial Exits: A Study of Individual Exit Experiences in Finland and the UK Satu Aaltonen, Robert Blackburn and Jarna Heinonen 9. The Virtualisation Potential of SME Networks: An Exploratory Investigation Emilio Esposito, Pietro Evangelista, Vincenzo Lauro and Mario Raffa 10. Knowledge and Organizational Entrepreneurship: A Relational Perspective Ana Maria Bojica, Maria del Mar Fuentes Fuentes and Matilde Ruiz Arroyo 11. The Impact of Legitimacy Building Signals on Access to Resources Cristina Diaz Garcia and Juan Jimenez Moreno 12. Antecedents of the Entrepreneurial Orientation of the Firm: The Case of St Petersburg, Russia Tatiana Iakovleva 13. Entrepreneurial Orientation and Performance in Micro-sized Firms: Comparing Agricultural and Non-agricultural Firms Jorunn Grande 14. Entrepreneurship in Urban and Rural Switzerland: Similar or Worlds Apart? Heiko Bergmann and Daniel Baumgartner

Entrepreneurship and ICT: a comparative analysis between Germany and Portugal

The paper aims to investigate the impact of the liberalisation of the European telecommunications markets on the business ownership rate, employment, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and investment in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in two European countries: Germany and Portugal. For this purpose, a Cointegrated Vector Autoregressive (CVAR) model is used in order to identify the impacts that originate from the adoption of this kind of public policy. In the case of Germany, a surprising causality relationship is detected, in the sense that the GDP precedes the decreasing business ownership rate. In the case of Portugal, the business ownership rate pulls for additional investments in ICT. Besides, a creative entrepreneurial destruction is somehow ratified, since the business ownership rate impacts negatively on the level of employment.

Absorptive capacity, coopetition and generation of product innovation: contrasting Italian and Portuguese manufacturing firms

This paper focuses on the effects of absorptive capacity and coopetition on the generation of product innovation, by making use of a sample of manufacturing firms, both high-tech and medium-low-tech, from Italy and Portugal. For this purpose, we use two datasets of 4,912 Italian manufacturing firms and 3,660 Portuguese manufacturing firms that participated in the European Community Innovation Survey (CIS) 2010. A logit analysis is conducted for high-tech firms and medium-low-tech firms and the results reveal that for both types of firms, the absorptive capacity enablers of Italian manufacturing firms, such as internal R&D, external R&D and employee expertise have a positive and significant effect on the generation of product innovation. In addition, the establishment of coopetition relationships with Italian competitors denotes a positive and significant effect on the generation of product innovation. For the Portuguese manufacturing firms, both high-tech and medium-low-tech, we find that the absorptive capacity enablers mentioned above have a positive and significant effect on the generation of product innovation. In addition, the formation of coopetition relationships with Portuguese competitors also presents a positive and significant effect on the generation of product innovation.

Cooperation in Innovation Practices among Portuguese Firms: Do Universities Interface Innovative Advances?

This paper aims to identify the nature of the relationships that are established amongst agents who co-operate in terms of innovation practices. It analyses whether the entrepreneurial innovation capability of firms is stimulated through the relationships developed with external partners. The data of 2nd Community Innovation Survey of EUROSTAT is used in a logistic model. In the estimation process of the Logit function, the entrepreneurial innovation capability is considered as the answer variable. The scientific agents who cooperate in terms of innovation activities impact, positively, on the propensity to engage in innovative advances revealed by the firms, at the level of product innovation. The paper presents policy implications, which may be used in the design of public policies for fostering open innovation networks between scientific agents and firms.