Maria José Silva

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.

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.

Determinants of innovation capacity: Empirical evidence from services firms

Abstract This research aims to analyze the degree of importance of investment and expenditure on innovation activities for innovation capacity, in the scope of Portuguese services firms. The literature review considers three main approaches regarding service innovation: Assimilation, demarcation and synthesis. A conceptual model was proposed and several research hypotheses were empirically tested using secondary data, belonging to the 4th CIS 4, supervised by EUROSTAT. A data set from 1306 services firms was studied. The method used was the logistic regression model. According to the results obtained, the greater the financial investment in acquisition of machinery, equipment and software, in internal research and development, in acquisition of external knowledge, in marketing activities and other procedures, the greater the propensity for firms to innovate in terms of services. This study highlights the contributions that innovation activities can provide in what regards the development of innovation process, giving special emphasis to their service innovation.

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.

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.

R&D capital and private production: testing firm characteristics using micro data

This paper aims to provide evidence to add to current knowledge on the contribution of R%D capital to private production based on panel data of Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 1990 to 2005. The differences in how R%D capital affect firm production is explored for small and large firms and for technological intensity of the firm. The empirical exercise performed reflects that, for the whole sample, R%D effort has a significantly and positive impact on the firm production. We also find that belonging to technology-intensive sector exerts a positive effect on this relation. Firm characteristic of size does not lead to important differences according to the impact of R%D capital on production.