provided by Research Papers in Economics
40th Congress of the European Regional Science Association
Barcelona 29th August - 1st September 2000
SME’s SUPPORT and REGIONAL POLICY in EU
The Norte-Litoral Portuguese Experience
Leonor Vasconcelos Ferreira
Faculdade de Economia do Porto
Portugal
Abstract
During the last decade the productive structure of Norte-Litoral area of Portugal, where small
firms have a predominant role, has been object of new and profound research.
At our understanding, the use of a systemic approach, the study of self-organising systems,
which stresses the importance of interactions, both inside the system and with broader systems,
can bring new insights to industrial and regional analysis and policies.
Within this theoretical framework, our study starts with a critical review of the literatures on
firms and territories, and proceeds with the evaluation of the strategic behaviour of SME in
Norte-Litoral. Using data on SME Community Initiative and statistic models, we study
emergent strategies of investment projects effectively supported. The results of our study stress
the strategic relevance of a specifically regional co-ordination of policies (industrial, R&D,
training), both for Norte-Litoral and national level.