The role of smes for development: a literature review "regions and fiscal federalism"

The role played by SMEs in any society is undoubtedly important, for instance, in Portugal around 98% of the industrial fabric is composed by SMEs. Nowadays, entrepreneurship and firm creation is mostly related to small and micro firms, which lead us to look at them as an important development agent in any society. Most of times, firms are seen as a black box on what concerns to development however the measures taken by them, entrepreneurial strategies, and entrepreneurship actions, have influence in the development theatre. At the same, not only the SMEs as a group of firms (industrial sector) must be taken into consideration, but also many factors inside the firm, such as the quality of management, human resources, or innovation factors. This work intends to present the state-of-art on the subjects relating SMEs and development, trying to find out how the SMEs are related to development, which factors are taken into consideration when the role of these firms are analysed, for instance, innovation factors, human resources, or the firm revenues. It is widely accepted that SMEs are an important development agent, but sometimes they are analysed not like an agent by themselves, but as a group of firms creating (the group) another agent. This group might be a cluster, an industrial district or a filière, however it is important to look to the firm by itself. The entrepreneur might take individual actions different from those followed by the group. So the small or micro firm also has an important role for development, the main idea for this work is to find out some important initial literature on SMEs and development, trying to get a perception of the role played, not only on what concerns to enterprises creation, but also on the strategies adopted by these type of enterprises to overcome the bottleneck of regional development. Keywords: Development, SMEs, Entrepreneurship

MANAGERS AND MANAGEMENT ON INDUSTRY AND CONSTRUCTION BUSINESSES IN THE REGION OF VALE DO SOUSA

This article goal is to analyse firms and manages behaviour on a Portuguese region on construction and industry businesses. The results are based on 251 questionnaires. Usually managers present a low level of school education (changing recently). On what regards management issues it was realized that the main reason for business choice is the past experience of firm owners, and they started their businesses at their own homes (embeddedness?). The strategies followed by these firms reveal a risk adversity attitude and a lack of cooperation, considering their neighbours competitors instead of potential business partners. As a general conclusion it can be realized that in general these firms are not fostering local development.

Os Gestores, as empresas, e as estratégias empreendedoras: O caso das empresas industriais e da construção na região do Vale do Sousa

In the present paper, entrepreneurship strategies and its relations with managers and management are analysed in order to evaluate who are the real entrepreneurs. This study was done in a region of northern Portugal (Vale do Sousa) and focus on Industrial and Construction sectors. The region is composed of six concelhos in some of which it is possible to identify some industrial districts. In order to get a valid sample, a group of 251 firms were analysed. The results present a high level of risk aversion and some findings that go with literature on innovation, such as higher levels of education lead to more innovative managers, or young managers are more innovative. It was concluded, that those managers that were able to search and explore opportunities in the past, present better levels of entrepreneurship in their firms

Entrepreneurship and local sustainability : is there any relation? A case study in the region Vale do Sousa

Is there a relation between entrepreneurship/intrapreneurship and local sustainability? The studied region (Vale do Sousa North of Portugal) presents very low levels of entrepreneurship but the results for local sustainability are very interesting. Results are based on a questionnaire presented to 251 firms. Most firms (59%) present a low level of entrepreneurship, the same percentage present a good level of sustainability and 37% a very good level. This means that firms might be more concerned with local sustainability than firm sustainability. On entrepreneurships analyses proactively got an average result of 3,49, innovation 1,27 and risk propensity 1,06, (1 to 5 linker scale). These results lead to an inexistent relation between entrepreneurship and local sustainability.peer-reviewe

Social Engineering: The Art of Attacks

The correct management of information systems security is often over looked in technological measures and management efforts, and although there are now many tools to address security threats, the human aspect has been neglected. This paper discusses the human factors that could potentially lead to in trusions with social engineering. Social engineering is a method used by hackers to obtain access to systems by manipulating flaws in behavior known as mental preconceptions. Social engineering is a risk to security information and must be considered just as important as in technological areas. In this paper we also aprproach social engineering, taking an introductory brief in its history, what is psychological manipulation and human weaknesses, what are the social engineering attacks, how they use authority and fear establishment, it is also approached how a social engineering attack is executed, providing value monetizing the scam, and identity exploration.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Planning, Cooperation and Competition: A case study in industry and construction in a Portuguese Region

In the present paper we analyzed the behavior of firms in the construction and manufacturing sectors, located in the region of Vale do Sousa, in the north of Portugal. From the literature, even existing some disagreements, it is possible to conclude that planning is crucial for firms survival and growth. Cooperation is another aspect that the literature presents as an important factor for firms sustainability. It also plays a major role in competition, since firms are adopting coopetition strategies. By studying a sample of 251 firms, it was possible to realize, that the majority started their business without a formal planning, and they keep going without using it. In cooperation aspects, there is a lack of cooperation. It was possible to verify, that existing cooperation has some evidence but at a vertical level. These vertical relations were also identified in stakeholder’s involvement

Entrepreneurship Strategies in Family and Non-family Businesses

The goal of the present paper is to analyse the classic entrepreneurship strategies (Innovation, Risk and Proactivity) in small and medium-sized businesses. However as presented in the title, the study will go further by comparing the results of those strategies in familiar and nonfamiliar businesses. This study was carried on in construction and industry sectors, in the region of Vale do Sousa, in the north of Portugal. In order to classify businesses as familiar or non-familiar types two criterion were adopted: (1) Management Control, (2) Family Employability. On the opposite to some studies that present a larger percentage of familiar businesses in national and European entrepreneurial fabric, the criterion used leaded to a larger number of non-familiar businesses (53%). The results showed that in general SMEs in this region are not following entrepreneurship strategies. Analysing the entire sample without a separation of businesses by nature (familiar/non-familiar) only proactivity showed to be more present in the managerial decisions. There is a lack of innovation and risk culture. Comparing the groups only on proactivity tests was possible to verify some differences. It was concluded that non-familiar businesses are more proactive than familiar ones. Between those groups there are no statistical differences on the means of the variables innovation and risk. At the same time some tests were conducted to test the differences on the variable entrepreneurship. The results were similar to innovation and risk strategies: There are no significant differences on entrepreneurship between these groups of businesses

THE ROLE OF FIRMS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP ON LOCAL DEVELOPMENT

The present paper considers and analyzes the role of management and entrepreneurship on the firm and region sustainability. This relation was explored in terms of managers’ behaviour related to three aspects of sustainable development, namely, economic, social and environmental.Through a questionnaire survey of 251 micro, small and medium firms in Vale do Sousa region located in the Northern Portugal, it was discovered that, contrary to what most of literature presents, managers are putting in first place the environmental aspect of sustainability, followed by the social aspect, and the economic as the last one. These results lead to a characterization of firms as being sustainable, but with a risk-averse and non innovative behaviour on the part of the firms’ management.small firms, entrepreneurship, sustainability

Prazer de mexer, de criar, de imaginar, de partilhar... Prazer de fazer : um estudo sobre a utilização educativa da câmara de vídeo no 1º ciclo do ensino básico

Citação bibliográfica: Ferraz, Nelson & SILVA, Bento (2003). Prazer de mexer, de criar, de imaginar, de partilhar... Prazer de fazer: um estudo sobre a utilização educativa da câmara de vídeo no 1º ciclo do ensino básico. In Paulo Dias & Varela de Freitas (orgs.), Actas do III Congresso Internacional de Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação na Educação, Challenges 2003. Braga: Centro de Competência da Universidade do Minho, pp. 359-368. (ISBN: 972-8746-13-X)Os autores consideram que a Educação para os Média é cada vez mais importante nos tempos da Sociedade da Informação, implicando o desenvolvimento de uma compreensão crítica dos média, o desenvolvimento da capacidade de análise e reflexão, a compreensão dos seus conteúdos, a compreensão dos processos implicados na recepção e na produção. Entendem que esta formação deve decorrer ao longo da vida de um indivíduo, começando, desde logo, nos seus primeiros anos, pois a criança é uma ávida consumidora dos média, nomeadamente da televisão e jogos vídeo/multimédia. Elegendo a tecnologia vídeo como uma das formas de abordagem desta temática, os autores descrevem e apresentam os resultados de uma investigação-acção sobre a utilização da câmara vídeo pelos alunos do 1º ciclo do Ensino Básico. Os resultados permitiram constatar que, aliando a aprendizagem ao lúdico, é possível produzir-se aprendizagem cognitiva e sócio-afectiva, isto é, aprende-se não só a ler, a escrever, a pesquisar, mas também a interagir, a comunicar e a fazer um uso crítico dos média

Do "small is beautiful" ao "small is unsustainable"

O presente artigo debruça-se sobre a realidade das actividades económicas de pequena escala em Portugal. as discussões políticas mais recentes têm vindo a colocar “em cima da mesa”, cada vez com maior insistência, a problemática das pequenas e médias empresas. No entanto, como não se ultrapassam as abordagens generalistas, a especificidade das unidades económicas de pequena escala não emerge, sendo por essa via invisibilizada ao nível do pensamento e da acção. Ao longo das próximas páginas serão abordadas as dificuldades enfrentadas por estes microempreendedores, obrigados a respeitar quadros normativos e procedimentos funcionais estipulados para regular a competitividade internacional, mesmo que o seu campo de acção sejam os mercados de proximidade. São os reflexos de um país com “sede” de internacionalização, preocupado com as exportações e o investimento estrangeiro, mas que ao mesmo tempo cilindra as pequenas unidades produtivas nacionais que garantem emprego e produção de riqueza, conduzindo o país a uma dinâmica de empobrecimento