Montijo’s transformation has been visible in the last eight years and that can be perceived through developed partnership between Setúbal Polytechnic Business School team, and the Montijo City Council, with regard to the updating of the Strategic Plan for the Development of Tourism in Montijo municipality.
Despite the economic and financial crisis that has overwhelmed the country in recent years, many new projects have emerged in the county, notably in terms of housing, catering and infrastructure. The new Lisbon airport project, in the county, has also contributed to increase regional investment attractiveness.
However, the health crisis that plagued the world and especially Portugal in early 2020, raised several concerns about the entrepreneurial activity of this municipality, which led to this chapter.
Thus, this study has as main objective to broadcast the entrepreneurial activity that enhances tourism in Montijo municipality before the health crisis of Covid19 and to present a reflection on the future of this activity in the Post-Covid19.
Theoretical Framework - Entrepreneurship: the Silent Revolution
The existing literature on the creation of new businesses (Memili et al. 2015; Morris et al. 2015) proposes that entrepreneurship, or the process of identifying and exploiting opportunities, contributes to nations’ economic growth. In fact, several authors justify the entrepreneurship relevance in recent years by today’s economy growing dynamism and evolution (Audretsch et al. 2015; Acs et al.2012; Memili et al. 2015).
Timmons, in 1990, already stated that entrepreneurship in the 21st century would be a silent revolution, but more remarkable than the industrial revolution of the 20th century. In fact, and according to Schwab (2016), a new era of radical changes in industrial production and advances in robotics, nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technologies and artificial intelligence, has enabled development in the most diverse sectors. From the financial sector to health or tourism, among many other. Industry 4.0 has contributed to the emergence of new forms of mobility, marketing, communication and, consequently, new business models.
This quick change in industry has been further pressured by the health crisis caused by Covid19, forcing entrepreneurs to rapidly adapt to new working forms and business models.
In fact, this deep revolution, which affects current and future generations, has transformed economic, political, social, and environmental systems and seems to have reinforced the importance of the interaction of various stakeholders in systems that enhance entrepreneurial activity, by linking different actors and providing their collective development in the value creation chain.
The concept of entrepreneurial activity enhanced by a set of interconnected elements forming an active system, which allows greater dynamics and stimulus to companies’ creation is not new (Neck et al., 2004; Cohen, 2006; Isenberg, 2011; Nadrodkiewicz, 2014, Costa et al. 2018), but the existence of these entrepreneurial systems remains relevant and very present in the literature.
According to Costa et al. (2018) it is possible to find in the literature several definitions related to entrepreneurial system. A few authors organized these definitions by distinguishing them between specific (Neck et al., 2004; West & Bamford, 2005; Cohen, 2006) and holistic (Isenberg, 2011; Autio et al., 2014).
Isenberg's perspective also remains very current (2011), emphasizing the need for the functioning of this holistic system, but proposing a range of actions, namely: adequacy to local conditions, private sector private sector, high potential projects’ support, development of an entrepreneurial, proactive, and resilient culture, promotion of companies’ concentration and interconnection, partners’ specialization, and creation of an appropriate legal and regulatory framework.
In this sense, the work developed on updating the Strategic Plan for the Development of Tourism in Montijo municipality aimed at defining various actions to strengthen economic activity, by relating different points of view and different stakeholders competences, all coordinated with the territory historical, cultural and natural heritage, thus contributing to a more favorable regional entrepreneurial system, in a way that enhances the region singularities and the emergence of projects with greater business success potential.