Another study on the effects of industrial policy in Portugal (Mateus et al, 1995)
mentioned that, according to a threefold classification of the restructuring potential of
industrial projects supported by CSF I (offensive, modernising, defensive), although
defensive projects were largely dominant in number, the largest amount of investment
was associated with offensive projects (40% versus 35%). They conclude that the
portuguese integration in the European Union put a pressure on the dynamic
restructuring of industries which is still at an initial stage (cf. Mateus et al, 1995:209).
At the same time, a thorough study about portuguese manufacturing SME reached to
conclusions consistent with those summarised above about the Norte-Litoral
entrepreneurial model (cf. Simôes, 1995:73): ‘“...there is a strong correspondence
between the type of competitive strategy pursued and the attitude of the firm to
innovation: cost strategies dominate in passive firms, while differentiation strategies
are typical of actively innovating firms.”
By 1996 Portugal established a specific program addressed to SME, as proposed by the
SME Community Initiative (SME-CI) (Official Journal n° C 180 of 1.7.94), in order to
stimulate firms with less than 250 workers to adopt strategies based on competitive
dynamic factors such as technological and organisation innovations, information and
communication technologies, management reorganisation, new marketing strategies,
quality management, design, business network projects, internationalisation and
training. The SME-CI asked firms to situate the proposed investment project in a (more
or less) stated strategy and introduced a clear discrimination as far financial support was
concerned: high percentage grants over dynamic competitive factors; interest grants in
credit over infrastructure and operations investment. The main objective of this different
treatment was to give a hard push to differentiation strategies of firms and new forms of
building up competitive advantages all over the value chain (not only in operations
activities) and to networking in industrial chains. Besides this ‘competitiveness
measure’, SME-CI also had a specific ‘measure for technological competence
acquisition’ (R&D projects involving partnership with national system innovation).
These brief notes about portuguese SME entrepreneurial model set the stage for our
research questions:
• What kind of strategies SME-CI projects of Norte-Litoral reveals? Is there a path of
change in line with new trends in competitive environment?
• What are the profiles of investment that underpin these strategies? Is there a recognisable
move towards offensive strategies associated with radical innovations?
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