The innovation system vs. cluster process: common contributive elements towards regional development

Recent approaches to the study of innovations enhance some similar aspects of the innovation process in knowledge-based economies: (i) the systemic and interrelated nature of innovation and (ii) its geographic and inter-economic activities density of networking. One perspective is linked to the innovation systems approach at the national, regional and local level. What we know so far is that the most specialized forms of knowledge are becoming a short lived resource, in face of the (increasingly) fast changes that are occurring in the global economy; it’s the ability to learn permanently and to adapt to this fast changing scenario that determines the innovative performance of firms, regions and countries. Another approach is to be found in the research on cluster development, where proximity and interrelated technical/technological linkage are the main features to take under consideration. Although these two approaches operate at slightly different spatial scale of analysis, they both allow the identification of a set of key factors that contribute to understand the way in which institutions and actors, considering the innovation system or the cluster process, participate in the innovation atmosphere and in the economic growth. Nevertheless, both approaches show the same limitation: they tend to focalise into the descriptive and analytical level, disregarding the explanatory level. Local and regional authorities are, mainly, interested in the process of cluster intensification in the local and regional economies context. This feature stress out one other controversy level: are the “hard” location factors (the concrete tangible location factors) more important than the “soft” location factors (qualitative, intangible factors) or vice-versa? This paper aims to explore the current knowledge about this process and to open some fields of future research.

Gestão técnica de edifícios com KNX

A eficiencia energetica dos edificios e cada vez mais uma das prioridades nas agendas dos gestores comercias dos edifícios e proprietarios. Em parte deve-se ao processo de certificacao energetica dos edificios, que entrou em vigor em 2007, atraves dos Decretos de Lei 78/2006, 79/2006 e 80/2006. A solucao passa agora pela poupanca continua de energia atraves de uma eficiente Gestao Tecnica de Edificios

Política de inovação : filiação histórica e relação com as políticas de desenvolvimento territorial

Nesta comunicação pretendemos realizar uma abordagem sobre a evolução das políticas consagradas ao fomento da inovação, enquadrando-as historicamente no contexto de uma progressiva maturação e transformação quer das políticas científicas, quer das políticas tecnológicas precedentes. O nosso quadro argumentativo vai no sentido de sustentar que a actual política de inovação se projecta numa cada vez mais importante dimensão regional e, convergentemente, a moderna política regional envolve, também, vectores associados ao fomento das dinâmicas de inovação, de tal modo que, no plano operacional, e mesmo ao nível do respectivo enquadramento conceptual, existe uma clara tendência de aproximação e, até, por vezes, de fusão, entre estas duas políticas de animação económica que valorizam, sobretudo, o chamado software do desenvolvimento

Poliempreende : inovação e empreendedorismo ao serviço da comunidade

Até há cerca de duas décadas um vocábulo praticamente inexistente no quotidiano português, o empreendedorismo, penetrou as agendas políticas, empresariais, mediáticas e mesmo académicas aos mais diversos níveis. Tornou-se quase uma panaceia, uma cura para todos os males. Não existe debate onde não seja aventado quase como mezinha para resolver os problemas estruturais de desenvolvimento, os agentes empresariais usam-no profusamente e os políticos parecem adotá-lo como emblema dos seus discursos e dos seus programas eleitorais. O interesse pelo empreendedorismo conheceu uma verdadeira explosão nos últimos anos

Dinâmicas territoriais de inovação : o caso do sector têxtil-confecções no Arco Urbano do Centro Interior

O presente artigo analisa as dimensões territoriais dos processos de inovação no quadro do sector têxtil-confecções do Arco Urbano do Centro Interior. A primeira parte do artigo sustenta que o papel dos mecanismos territoriais de aprendizagem é de importância estratégica na promoção do potencial regional de inovação. As investigação no âmbito das políticas regionais contemporâneas permitem argumentar que a competitividade empresarial e territorial de longo-prazo tem menos a ver com a tradicional optimização na alocação dos factores e a eficiência de custos, e mais com o alargamento da respectiva base cognitiva. Os resultados empíricos são demonstrativos da incipiente base interactiva entre os actores que corporizam o sistema regional de inovação, uma situação que se traduz na debilidade dos laços de territorialização das dinâmicas de inovação prevalecentes nas empresas têxteis e de confecções inquiridas. Os empresários confundem estratégias de modernização com estratégias de inovação e, neste quadro, o perfil inovador prevalecente é de padrão imitativo, incremental e estimulado exogenamente

Dos modelos de desenvolvimento local aos projectos de animação cultural : conceitos, dimensões e desafios

Entender os processos de desenvolvimento local implica identificar a diversidade de situações e potencialidades que se podem associar às iniciativas de raiz local. Nesse sentido, serão analisados os modelos territorialista e funcionalista de desenvolvimento local, tipificando as diferentes dimensões que caracterizam cada um desses paradigmas de desenvolvimento territorial e apontando as relações existentes com os modelos de intervenção cultural. Argumenta-se, seguidamente, que os projectos de animação cultural devem revestir um claro figurino territorialista, ou endógeno, porque só assim poderão constituir-se como verdadeiros instrumentos de valorização dos activos locais e de qualificação das comunidades. Nesse sentido, na perspectiva de animação cultural, o modelo de intervenção cultural de cidadania filia claramente, como se argumenta, na abordagem territorialista de desenvolvimento local e regional. Finalmente, serão apontados alguns desafios críticos a que um projecto de animação cultural precisa responder, bem como as principais características que lhe devem transmitir forma e conteúdo

Mind the gap: smart cities as entrepreneurial ecosystems?

The concept of the smart city gained increasing expression and has become an intensely discussed field in the recent past among, either the research community, either the political stakeholders. In this paper, the importance of deepening the understanding about smart cities entrepreneurial ecosystems is explored. This involves working on existing knowledge about smart cities but extending its application to entrepreneurship and innovation. This paper aims, first, to contribute to shed light on the meaning of the word smart in the context of urban developmentthrough an approach based on an in-depth literature review of pertinent studies and then, to establish the links with the determinants of entrepreneurship that can help guide more effective urban development policies. Furthermore, the paper underlines the critical importance of being innovative and entrepreneurial in the approach for smart cities, aiming to deepen and improve policy-making on the subject of promoting entrepreneurial mindsets and contexts, speculating on some principles and guidelines that may help fertilize urban dynamics and build smarter cities. The entrepreneurial ecosystem concept has potentialities that may enable smart cities to adopt more profound and structural broad spectrum strategies to respond to competitiveness urban challenges.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Building entrepreneurial ecosystems: the case of Coimbra

The purpose of this paper is three-fold. The first objective is to contextualize and clarify the concepts of regional innovation systems and entrepreneurship, addressing their differences and complementarities and suggesting an analytical filter to enhance their understanding. The second aim is to question and analyse the challenges this renewed approach brings to the domain of territorial policy, namely, the role it may bring to local and regional development strategies, opening up the way for a set of public policy interventions on the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation promotion. Finally, the paper presents and analyses the example of Coimbra, a medium-sized city in Portugal, underlining both the role of academia and the Instituto Pedro Nunes-Incubator have had on these domains.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Building regional innovation systems in peripheral regions: lessons from the Região Centro, Portugal

Innovation has moved to the foreground in regional policy in the three last decades. Public policies have been shaped by “best practice models” derived from hightech urban-metropolitan areas and successful territories. Nevertheless, lessons learned from these examples are rarely transferable elsewhere. The regional innovation systems in peripheral regions, and the likelihood of their acting as instruments for territorial competitiveness, have seldom been the subjects of discussion. The main objective of the article is precisely to take Região Centro, in Portugal, as an example to enrich this analysis. The first part of this article examines the concept of regional innovation systems against the background of modern theories of innovation and regional policies, now that longterm regional competitiveness and sustainability has less to do with cost-efficiency and more to do with the ability of firms and institutions to innovate, or, in broader terms, to upgrade their knowledge base. The paper will then proceed with an outline of the Portuguese innovation system and an overview of the regional innovative performance, as well as a description of the institutional and economic fabric that supports it, including an analysis of its functionality and dynamic, taking Região Centro as a case study. A particular focus will be put upon the drivers of regional innovation. Finally, the author will focus some specificities that need to be addressed in the redesign of public interventions in order to improve regional competitiveness and sustainability, leaving new insights about possible policy interventions in peripheral regions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Smart cities reconsidered: the entrepreneurial challenge

The concept of the smart city acquired increasing expression and has become a strongly discussed field in the recent past among, either the research community, either the political stakeholders. Studying and intervening on the urban dynamics requires a shift from focusing on forms of knowledge and innovation outputs towards focusing on learning and innovation dynamics, exploring the diverse dimensions of knowledge building and promoting social capital. This paper aims, first, to contribute to clarify the meaning of the word 'smart' in the context of urban development through an approach based on an in-depth literature review of pertinent studies and then, to establish the links with the dimensions of entrepreneurship that can help guide more effective urban development and planning policies, illustrating with the Smart Coimbra initiative. Besides the paper aims to inform and improve policy-making on the subject of promoting entrepreneurial mindsets and contexts, speculating on some principles and guidelines that may help fertilise urban dynamics and build smarter and more entrepreneurial cities.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio