Or bottom–up development theories. The fundamental characteristics of such theories are that both are founded on resources – human and physical – of the territory and that they privilege small scale interventions by promoters that may (or may not) be in the territory. In this context, “the fundamental question for regional development is no longer the region’s capacity to attract new projects, to become the region’s capacity to generate the conditions for the transformation of their productive structures”.
Published in Chapter:
Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Low-Density Regions: Business Incubation Practices in Alentejo
Maria da Conceição Rego (Universidade de Évora, Portugal), Maria Raquel Lucas (Universidade de Évora, Portugal), Carlos Vieira (Universidade de Évora, Portugal), and Isabel Vieira (Universidade de Évora, Portugal)
Copyright: © 2018
|Pages: 30
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-3525-6.ch003
Abstract
Low density regions face many development challenges. In the Alentejo region of Portugal, and in many other Southern European regions, such challenges have been intensified by the cumulative effects of the financial and economic crises, and the subsequent austerity. In such context, and to promote region catching up and sustainable development, a number of policies designed to promote local entrepreneurial ecosystems have been reinforced. In this study, we focus on one of these policies' instruments – business incubation - and on the region of Alentejo, and describe five incubators implemented by a local regional development association (ADRAL), some municipalities, a national association of young entrepreneurs (ANJE), and a local association of entrepreneurs (NERE). We assess the incubators' distinctive characteristics and those of some incubated projects, aiming at identifying the specificities of this approach and its success determinants.