Analysis of Regional Innovation Performance in Portugal - Results from an External Logistic Biplot Method

Portuguese strategic choices regarding innovation and R&D policy have, over the past two decades, produced various positive achievements, in which the regions of Lisbon and Algarve have taken the lead, and are the only ones in the country to converge towards the European average growth rate. Regarding the other Portuguese regions – despite significant national growth rates in the 1990s as well as a successful attempt to cope with the EMU –, these are lagging behind the EU average with respect to gross production, investment or employment generation. Meanwhile, one of the greatest public policy efforts was to diffuse much of the European funds across the entrepreneurial sector. After a long pathway, it is now timely to evaluate the firms‟ contribution to national and regional growth, their obstacles and impacts. For the purpose of this paper, innovation is used here as a major contributor to the policy evaluation process referred to above. Our investigation aims to explain the present performance of Portuguese firms located throughout the country and to explore those innovation determinants that have a region-specific connotation. To provide a thorough investigation, our analysis defines, on a regional basis, a set of firms‟ behavioural patterns regarding innovation. In our modelling, we employ a new methodology, viz. the External Logistic Biplot method, which is applied to an extensive sample of innovative institutions in Portugal. Variables such as „Promoting knowledge‟, „Management skills‟, „Promoting R&D‟, „Knowledge transfer‟, „Promoting partnership & cooperation‟, and „Orientation of public measures‟ have been identified as crucial determinants in earlier studies and are now used to describe regional institutional profiles. Such profiles exhibit a great variety in the way they combine these determinants to promote regional innovation. The creation of a gradient of capacity to dynamically innovate associated with each firm makes it possible to analyse the innovation gradient of each region in Portugal. Our paper presents and systematically investigates these findings and then reaches some policy conclusions.PTDC/CS-GEO/102961/200

Modelling innovation support systems for regional development - analysis of cluster structures in innovation in Portugal

The present article offers a concise theoretical conceptualization and operational analysis of the contribution of innovation to regional development. The latter concepts are closely related to geographical proximity, knowledge diffusion and filters and clustering. Institutional innovation profiles and regional patterns of innovation are two mutually linked, novel conceptual elements in this article. Next to a theoretical framing, the article employs the regional innovation systems concept as a vehicle to analyse institutional innovation profiles. Our case study addresses three Portuguese regions and their institutions, included in a web-based inventory of innovation agencies which offered the foundation for an extensive database. This data-set was analysed by means of a recently developed principal coordinates analysis followed by a Logistic Biplot approach (leading to a Voronoi mapping) to design a systemic typology of innovation structures where each institution is individually represented. There appears to be a significant difference in the regional innovation patterns resulting from the diverse institutional innovation profiles concerned. These profiles appear to be region specific. Our conclusion highlights the main advantages in the use of the method used for policy-makers and business companies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Urban heritage endangerment at the interface of future cities and past heritage: A spatial vulnerability assessment

Uncontrolled urban growth has been an increasing concern in many regions throughout the world. Generated by a natural tendency of population growth in relation to unsustainable land use, city sprawl has led to complex spatial developments that are creating both benefits to, and challenges for decision makers. A major problem inherent in the uncontrolled growth of cities is the threat to the fragile cultural and ecological heritage, which may escalate to permanent and irreversible damage as a result of factors such as environmental depletion and landscape decay. Using modern geosciences and spatial information technologies as predictive tools to analyse and forecast urban growth, a regional spatial decision system may be useful in order to provide seemly and timely information on the risk of overburdening the carrying capacity regarding the historico-cultural heritage at local and regional levels.The present paper develops a predictive toolkit for urban heritage in relation to urban cultural endangerment. This common problem is shared through many regions of the world and is increasingly jeopardizing fragile archaeological landscape due to urban pressure. In this sense, and to forecast an example of this common pressure, the Algarve is exemplified as a laboratory for testing this novel methodology, relying on a combined analysis of urban growth potential and threats to the abundant presence of archaeological heritage in the area. Our appro ach supports the paradigm of city growth in the context of a common agenda emerging from the Valetta Treaty, in which preserving the archaeological heritage is recognized as a key element for sustainable development. The study provides novel empirical results from the above mentioned modelling approach, with important lessons for the developing world. This paper proposes as such, an integrative spatial analysis methodology on the issue of historico-cultural endangerment, which is a new approach to comparative spatial analysis for decision making on urban heritage endangerment at the regional scale. Later, the discussion extends to a more conceptual level of urban planning by considering the questions: Is urban sprawl influencing the way we perceive cities? If so, are there positive advantages in the paradigm of urban growth and urban sprawl which might help us to protect past heritage while ensuring sustainable and modern cities? © 2011 Elsevier Ltd