Innovating in the local systems of small medium sized enterprises: the experience of Tuscany

Innovation policies addressed to SMEs in Tuscany (and in Italy as well) have given, so far, a very limited contribution to improving the SMEs performance in terms of competitiveness and technological enhancement. The interpretation the paper attempts to demonstrate is that innovation policies have been designed for a ‘generic’ SME, in a frame of traditional sectors, within administrative areas, whereas successful SMEs are not merely operating in a given sector or area; they are agglomerated in peculiar Spatial Systems of Small Enterprises (SESS). The productive, spacial, social models of functioning of a typical SESS are described in order to:

(i) identify the local mechanism of interdependencies (between firms, labour force and local government), which generates relevant flows of external economies;

(ii) prove that innovation policies have neglected the vital characteristic of the SMEs (their agglomertion in SESSs).

Finally, a new innovation policy for SMEs designed by the Regional Government of Tuscany is presented.     

Small Entrepreneurs and Shifting Identities: The Case of Tourism in Puerto Plata (Northern Dominican Republic)

This article focuses on the way small entrepreneurs in the tourism industry of the Puerto Plata region try to cope with contextual changes caused by the development of (mass) tourism. These entrepreneurs struggle with all sorts of problems, mainly resulting from the dominance of the large, multinational, all-inclusive resorts in the tourism industry. With the introduction of these large resorts in the early 1980s, the local entrepreneurs were hoping to obtain a substantial part of the income-growth derived from this new industry. As a result many locals shifted from their previous jobs to professions in the tourism industry. Nearly 30 years later, most of them are disappointed with the results, but because of the region's dependence on tourism they feel they have no way out. The Puerto Plata case is used to further explore the impact of tourism on the culture and identity of the small entrepreneurs.     

Visitation of tourism attractions and tourist expenditure patterns ‐ repeat versus first‐time visitors

Marketing wisdom suggests that it is less expensive to reattract previous customers than to acquire new ones. Yet, few tourism destinations are actively trying to understand their current visitors in order to more effectively market to them. The present study analyzes international repeat and first‐time visitors to Rotorua, New Zealand, in order to gain insights into their respective visitation patterns of tourist attractions in the area, as well as their trip and expenditure patterns. The results of this study indicate that there are significant differences with regards to trip characteristics, and it offers a few insightful differences with respect to the attractions frequented.     

The Limits of the “Progressive” Institutional Change: Migration and Remittances Experiences

Abstract:

The financial and business expansion towards both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border, what could be called the financial diaspora that accompanies Mexican´s migration to the United States and U.S. Corporations to Mexico, has been a process full of nuances and components with different characteristics. Beyond the governments and their migratory and investment policies, the characteristics of the different migrant groups and corporations, the cultural gaps, and the “progressive” institutional changes are subject to a dynamic of survival-assimilation-earnings. Even when powerful trials of organization are observed, a strong and imminent current of regressive institutional change (Veblen) has been gaining space. This article is circumscribed to analyze some key aspects of the financial behavior Mexican migrants to the United States, who have become entrepreneurs, have had. Their enormous limitations of financing are exposed, including the different stages to access credit to the businesses of residents in Mexico and to Mexican businesspeople abroad. The article contends the transformation in financing on both sides of the border has been decisive.     

Regional integration,international liberalisation and the dynamics of industrial agglomeration

This paper presents a 3-region footloose-entrepreneur new economic geography model. Two symmetric regions are part of an economically integrated area (the Union), while the third region represents an outside trade partner. We explore how the spatial allocation of industrial production and employment within the Union is affected by changes in two aspects of trade liberalisation, regional integration and globalisation, conditional to the skill endowment and the market size of the outside region. Our main contribution pertains to the analysis of the local and global dynamics of the specified factor mobility process. We show that significant parameter ranges exist for which an asymmetric distribution of economic activities is one of the possible long-run outcomes which may allow a smooth transition to agglomeration (in contrast to the NEG typical catastrophic scenario). In addition, we show that multistability is pervasive and that some attractors are Milnor attractors. Both results reinforce the NEG narrative on the importance of initial conditions for the long-run location of industrial activity.     

Entrepreneurs and the Ordering of Institutional Reform: Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Russia and Ukraine Compared

We use survey data to examine new firms in Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Russia and Ukraine. By measures of job growth, security of property, and market development, our countries fall into two groups: an advanced group including Poland, Romania and Slovakia, with Slovakia falling somewhat behind the other two; and a backward group of Russia and Ukraine. Macroeconomic stability is not sufficient for private-sector growth. A lack of bank finance does not seem to prevent private-sector growth. More inhibiting than inadequate finance are insecure property rights.     

Spectator communities and entrepreneurial districts

Attempts are made to structure the principles of the new volatile economy. Industrial districts in Italy and the Japanese model are seen as restricting cases, and Denmark’s open economy and SMEs are discussed. Spectator communities are offered as an analytical tool to understand why entrepreneurial activity is so unevenly distributed even in a small institutionally coherent society such as the Danish. Spectator communities may also be an object for political regulation to improve entrepreneurial activity in deindustrializing regions.     

我国民营企业家成长心态与生态探析

随着民营经济在我国经济社会发展中的地位不断提升，民营企业家的成长也日益受到社会的关注。民营企业家的心态与其所处的生态环境息息相关，他们在追求自我实现的同时，也受到生态系统、特别是政府环境的巨大影响。本文对当前我国民营企业家的成长心态以及所处的生态环境做了较深入的分析。     

浅谈建设高素质的旅游企业家队伍

加入世界贸易组织对中国旅游业将产生积极而又深远的影响：外资的更多进入，竞争的加剧、服务水平的提升，旅游者享更多的好处．．．等等，但最根本的变化则是ＷＴＯ要求其进入的成员必须手持市场经济的入场券，这就要求中国旅游业必须通过基于市场的一系列变革来铸造自己的核心竞争能力。     

Social ties and venture creation by returnee entrepreneurs

Recent years have witnessed the return of individuals of Indian or Chinese origin from developed markets to their home countries to start new ventures. Returnee Entrepreneurs (REs) facilitate both direct technology transfer and indirect technology spillovers to local firms, thus contributing to the technological development of emerging economies. Much previous work is based on the integration of ethnic entrepreneurs in their host countries or business activities of transnational entrepreneurs that traverse their host and home countries. This study explores the role of social ties in venture creation by REs. Based on twenty case studies in India, the findings show that (1) local ties are indispensable for venture creation, and (2) the heterogeneity in the way REs leverage social ties across the host and home countries is contingent on the location of their intention to start up and generation of idea for their venture. The implications of these findings are discussed.