The following information was submitted:
Transactions: WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
Transactions ID Number: 28-165
Full Name: Teresa Vaz
Position: Research Director
Age: ON
Sex: Female
Address: Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139, Faro
Country: PORTUGAL
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E-mail address: mtvaz@ualg.pt
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Title of the Paper: How do small firms from European rural regions learn and innovate?
Authors as they appear in the Paper: Marisa Cesário; Maria Teresa de Noronha Vaz
Email addresses of all the authors: mtvaz@ualg.pt,mcesario@ualg.pt
Number of paper pages: 11
Abstract: Contrarily to big firms, small firms interact intensively with the territory in which they located, as a signal of their embeddedness. The particular tight links they develop with their external environment reduce uncertainty risks. In general, for them, geographical and sociological proximities constitute the main sources of assets and information determining their perspectives and strategic choices. The present study uses a set of enquires, developed within the framework of a European research project, with the purpose of modelling the determinants of innovation in a bi-univocal relationship of interdependencies between small firms and their environmental contexts. We dealt mainly with lagging regions and a panel of 323 firms from the agro-food sector, located in 11 different European rural regions from six different countries. Using a set of variables able to characterise the innovative processes and through the application of k-mean clusters statistical analysi!
s, it was possible to detect behavioural patterns towards innovation among those firms. Non-innovators, pioneer innovators and follower innovators were the identified patterns. Using cross tabs analysis between those patterns and a set of attributes dealing with the importance of human capital, the profile of each group were drawn.
Keywords: patterns of innovation, determinants of innovation, regional innovation systems, rural areas
EXTENSION of the file: .doc
Special (Invited) Session: Learning in Small Firms Across European Rural Regions
Organizer of the Session: 588-386
How Did you learn about congress: Thomas Panagopoulos, tpanago@ualg.pt
IP ADDRESS: 193.136.225.22
