Business and local development: training as a basic factor to guide the entrepreneur

Objeto: El presente artículo es un recorrido que se inicia con el repaso de las principales teorías del desarrollo local para adentrarse en el emprendedor y en el fomento de la cultura emprendedora en ámbitos rurales como medio de impulso del progreso local. También, estudiaremos la influencia de factores personales del emprendedor (experiencia, situación,…) en la constitución de empresas y cómo afecta el nivel formativo (en sentido amplio) en el desarrollo económico y del espíritu emprendedor a través de variables latentes, que se traduce en creación de nuevas empresas. Diseño/metodología: La investigación parte de un análisis y recopilación de la literatura existente en desarrollo local para pasar a un estudio transversal mediante procedimiento de encuesta directa. Para el tratamiento de la información obtenida se ha utilizado el análisis de clases latentes. Resultados: Del análisis de los datos se desprenden dos conclusiones principales: que la formación de partida y continua, la situación personal y el propio entorno, se configuran de una manera directa en el espíritu emprendedor y que programas de desarrollo permiten realizar diseños con garantías de éxito. De estas conclusiones emanan cinco reflexiones. Limitaciones: Encontramos una delimitación geográfica al haber sido entrevistadas empresas de la comunidad andaluza, aunque presumimos que, al centrarnos en localidades de baja densidad de población, son perfectamente extrapolables a otras zonas. Implicaciones prácticas: El estudio es de utilidad a los agentes sociales encargados del diseño de programas de capacitación empresarial y de la organización y control de herramientas potenciadoras de cultura emprendedora en entornos rurales. Implicaciones sociales: Fomento de empresas en entornos rurales que permiten disminuir la despoblación de los pueblos y mitigar la concentración humana en grandes urbes. Asimismo, a través del crecimiento económico de estos lugares, se mejora la calidad de vida de la zona. Valor añadido: El trabajo de investigación tiene como valor añadido el contribuir a asentar la figura del emprendedor en el desarrollo local así como priorizar la formación como clave en el mismo.Purpose: The present article is a report that begins with a review of the main local development theories in order to go into the entrepreneur and entrepreneurial promotion in rural areas as a local progress boost. Also, we study the influence of the entrepreneur personal factors (experience, location…) in companies setting-up, and how the education level (in a broadly definition) affects economic development through a latent variable that we call “entrepreneurial spirit” and results in business creation. Design/methodology/approach: The research starts from an analysis and collection of existing literature on local development to move to a cross-sectional study using a direct survey. To treat the information gained it was used the latent class analysis. Findings and Originality/value: The data analysis suggest two main conclusions: The starting and continuous training, the personal situation and the environment, are configured in a straightforward way in the entrepreneur spirit and what development programs allow designs with guaranteed success. From these conclusions emanates five reflections. Research limitations/implications: We found geographical bounds when we interviewed Andalusians companies, although we assume by focusing on low population density locations, this is not a problem to transfer the study to other areas. Practical implications: The study is useful to social agents responsible for design of corporate training programs, organization and control of enhancing entrepreneurial tools in rural areas. Social implications: Promoting enterprises in rural areas that allow depopulation and reduce the concentration in large cities. Also, through economic growth in these locations, it improved the quality of life in the area. Originality/value: The research aims to contribute the establishment of the entrepreneurial figure in the local development as well as prioritize training as a key of that fact.Peer Reviewe

Auxiliary Companies of the Horticultural Sector as a Competitiveness Element: The Case of Almeria (Spain)

The horticultural model of Almeria (Spain) based on the operation of greenhouses is an international reference and has been considered as an economic miracle. Alongside this agricultural development has been the deployment of the diverse productive activity of auxiliary companies. The objective of this article is to understand how these companies operate and analyze their factors of competitiveness, competing needs, and future competitive improvements, taking as reference four of the most important subsectors (machinery, greenhouse infrastructure, plastics, and seeds). The Delphi method was used and through a panel of experts the conditioning factors of each of the variables to be analyzed (factors, needs, and competitiveness improvements) was chosen. Of the 120 companies that were sent questionnaires, 72 participated. The sectors that make up the auxiliary companies are heterogeneous and therefore the results obtained have differed among them. The synergies between the greenhouse crops and the auxiliary companies are an example of diversification of productive activity that can be extrapolated to other production areas worldwide. The future of the auxiliary companies is linked to that of the intensive agriculture and the key variables must be underscored by competitiveness and sustainability

Ibero-American Research on Local Development. An Analysis of Its Evolution and New Trends

Local development is a subject that arouses significant interest in the international scientific community in general, and in the Ibero-American one, in particular. The process of globalization has transformed the management of local development, altering the role that is played by local and regional entities, and it is the object of an important follow-up and analysis by academia. This research uses a bibliometric methodology and a fractional counting method, reviewing the 738 articles from the Scopus database in order to understand the state of Ibero-American research on local development, and analyze the scientific literature on the topic. The results show a significant increase in the number of publications in the 21st century, with Spain and Brazil leading the way. In addition, this research provides interesting results regarding the most influential authors on this topic, the most relevant journals, and the most important institutions and funding organizations. There are several areas of knowledge involved since local development is a transversal field, such as Social Science, environment, business, economics, and agriculture. A deep analysis of authors’ keywords identified new trends, linking local development with tourism, education, geotourism, climate change, local sustainable development, social innovation, and creativity, which provides academia with potential new lines of research

Explicative Factors Driving the Tomato Consumption in the Mediterranean Basin: A Panel Data Approach

This chapter studies the consumer behavior of the tomato market in six Mediterranean countries, four of them belong to the European Union, EU—Spain, France, Italy, and Portugal, one to North Africa—Morocco, a highly competitive market with a major trade agreement with the EU since 2004, and another in Asia—Turkey. The main objective of the chapter is to analyze which are the most important explanatory factors, of a series of 13, that explain tomato consumption in the Mediterranean Basin. These factors, which are assumed as significant, are analyzed with an approach that uses panel data (fixed effects) models, a type of models that has clear advantages over the traditional methodologies. The results show significant differences between countries, that there are empirical evidence between consumption of tomatoes and price, imports and exports, production, growth area, technological developments and euro-dollar exchange rate; some importance lies on the EU-Morocco trade agreement; less empirical evidence was found between consumption and the exchange rates of the Turkish and Morocco currencies (Turkish pound and the Morocco dirham)

International Trade and Sustainability: Bibliometric and Cluster Analysis

This article studies the scientific research literature that focuses on the terms related to international trade and sustainability. For this, a bibliometric analysis using the Web of Science database and a cluster analysis on the results obtained carried out. With regard to the results, it can be pointed out that, despite being closely linked, the terms have opposing characteristics and are included in a wide variety of research trends such as those related to agriculture, industry or carbon footprint. This article is of special importance for researchers who want to have a holistic view of international trade and sustainability by identifying its main indicators in the scientific literature

A Study of eHealth from the Perspective of Social Sciences

The field of social sciences has become increasingly important in eHealth. Patients currently engage more proactively with health services. This means that eHealth is linked to many different areas of Social Sciences. The main purpose of this research is to analyze the state-of-the-art research on eHealth from the perspective of social sciences. To this end, a bibliometric analysis was conducted using the Web of Science database. The main findings show the evolution of publications, the most influential countries, the most relevant journals and papers, and the importance of the different areas of knowledge. Although there are some studies on eHealth within social sciences, most of them focus on very specific aspects and do not develop a holistic analysis. Thus, this paper contributes to academia by analyzing the state-of-the-art of research, as well as identifying the most relevant trends and proposing future lines of research such as the potential of eHealth as a professional training instrument, development of predictive models in eHealth, analysis of the eHealth technology acceptance model (TAM), efficient integration of eHealth within public systems, efficient budget management, or improvement in the quality of service for patients

The Embeddedness of Social Sciences and Economics in Research on Resources

Sustainability, local development, and ecology are keywords that cover a wide range of research fields in both experimental and social sciences. The transversal nature of this knowledge area creates synergies but also divergences, making a continuous review of the existing literature necessary in order to facilitate research. There has been an increasing number of articles that have analyzed trends in the literature and the state-of-the-art in many subjects. In this Special Issue of Resources, the most prestigious researchers analyzed the past and future of Social Sciences in Resources from an economic, social, and environmental perspectiv

Rural Development from a Gender Perspective: The Case of Women Farmers in Southern Spain

This article analyses the contribution to local development by women workers in the fruit- and vegetable-handling sector in Almería (Spain) over the last five years (2015–2019). It is a continuation of research carried out during the period 2000–2014. Using data collected through surveys and focus groups, the aim is to ascertain if the results obtained in this analysis meet the condition of sustainability, i.e., whether the improvement in working women’s quality of life has been maintained over time, and whether these beneficial effects have multiplied. The results show that women workers in the fruit- and vegetable-handling sector are satisfied with their jobs and with the company they are working for. The existence of fixed-discontinuous employment contracts facilitates greater flexibility for women in terms of balancing work and family life. This main contribution of this study lies in extrapolating the sustainability of a local development model in regard to other initiatives that aim to increase women’s empowerment in the labour market

A Look at the Past, Present and Future Research Trends of Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture

Technification in agriculture has resulted in the inclusion of more efficient companies that have evolved into a more complex sector focused on production and quality. Artificial intelligence, one of the relevant areas of technology, is transforming the agriculture sector by reducing the consumption and use of resources. This research uses a bibliometric methodology and a fractional counting method of clustering to analyze the scientific literature on the topic, reviewing 2629 related documents recorded on the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The study found significant results regarding the most relevant and prolific authors (Hoogenboom), supporting research organizations (National Natural Science Foundation of China) and countries (U.S., China, India, or Iran). The identification of leaders in this field gives researchers new possibilities for new lines of research based on previous studies. An in-depth examination of authors’ keywords identified different clusters and trends linking Artificial Intelligence and green economy, sustainable development, climate change, and the environment

Local Development and Gentrification Resulting from the Rehabilitation of Singular Buildings: Analysis of Neural Networks

The recovery of a built heritage and specifically of singular buildings is a key aspect of local development. The aim of this study was to understand the influence of these regenerations on their environment by transforming adjacent businesses and initiating parallel processes of gentrification and local development. The renewed attraction of these new businesses to the area can result in increased employment and production. The methodology used was based on self-organizing maps of neural networks with matrix architecture and competitive learning. Through the analysis of neural networks, we were able to identify common relationships and behaviors in commercial properties which are adjacent to singular buildings and that share common patterns and characteristics or attributes. The singular buildings analyzed are located along the Spanish Mediterranean coast in the cities of Almería, Barcelona, and Valencia. The results obtained were based on the following hypotheses: occupancy model and the classification based on total occupancy, total variation in occupancy, and the most common types of usage of a given ground floor commercial property. Among the conclusions, we highlight the existence of commercial premises that display anti-cyclical economic behavior and the presence of commercial premises considered to be “unfortunate” or with low potential