This paper summarizes 15 years of empirical research at various spatial levels on social capital and economic performance. On the firm level, results are unambiguous: there is strong evidence of the impact of social capital on firms' performance. However, the results become less clear for spatial units with a large number of anonymous actors. The contradictory results of studies on national and regional levels can be explained in part by insufficient measures of the main component parts of social capital: social networks and the norms and values distributed among them. To develop measures for values like creativity, entrepreneurship and tolerance, and to find better measures for social networks, are the main challenges to future research.

Social Capital and Economic Performance: A Meta-analysis of 65 Studies

Growing intensity of university-industry ties has generated an intense debate about the changing norms and practices of academic scientific work. This study challenges the protagonists’ views on the emergence of a dominant market ethos in academic science and growing influence of the ‘new school’ entrepreneurial scientists. It argues that academic scientists are active agents seeking to shape the relationships between science and business, and shows continued diversity in their work orientations. Drawing on neo-institutional theory and the notion of ‘boundary work’, the study examines how scientists seek to protect and negotiate their positions, and also make sense of their professional role identities. It identifies four different orientations, the ‘traditional’ and ‘entrepreneurial’, with two hybrid types in between. The hybrids are the dominant category and are particularly adept at exploiting the ambiguities of ‘boundary work’ between academia and industry. The study is based on 36 interviews and a survey sample of 734 academic scientists from five UK research universities.

From ‘ivory tower traditionalists’ to ‘entrepreneurial scientists’? academic scientists in fuzzy university-industry boundaries

Liquidity providers often learn information about an asset from prices of other assets. We show that this generates a self-reinforcing positive relationship between price informativeness and liquidity. This relationship causes liquidity spillovers and is a source of fragility: a small drop in the liquidity of one asset can, through a feedback loop, result in a very large drop in market liquidity and price informativeness (a liquidity crash). This feedback loop provides a new explanation for comovements in liquidity and liquidity dry-ups. It also generates multiple equilibria.

Illiquidity Contagion and Liquidity Crashes

Prevention of falls in the elderly

Empirical research on the consequences of the use of the balanced scorecard (BSC) has mostly been conducted in large firms. Previous findings are not easily applied to the small business literature, and assumptions about the benefits of BSC for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are not based on quantitative empirical evidence. We investigated the effects of SME’s use of BSC in terms of financial performance and innovation outcomes. Our arguments are based on the efficiency gains and potential flexibility losses associated with formalizing managerial practices in SMEs. We propose that the developmental stage of the firm may influence this trade-off. Based on a survey of 201 SMEs in Spain, we found that firms using BSC for feedforward control obtained better financial performance and presented higher levels of exploitative innovation. We also found that the positive effect of BSC on perceived and attained financial performance is stronger in more established SMEs.

Balanced Scorecard in SMEs: Effects on Innovation and Financial Performance

The present research aims to compare the entrepreneurial intention of university students before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. For this purpose, some dimensions were analyzed, such as the availability of this target audience to undertake an activity at their own risk, the preference for a future while employed by others, their perception of the values that society places on entrepreneurship, and the entrepreneurial abilities/skillsets. A comparative study of a quantitative nature was used, associating two samples composed of students of higher education in Portugal, the data were obtained before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis of the results permits us to conclude: (1) in the circumstances of macroeconomic changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, entrepreneurial activity does not decrease; (2) respondents are less interested in being employed by others and more attracted to being entrepreneurs; (3) there is a growing concordance with the values that society places on entrepreneurship; and (4) there is now a greater aptitude for entrepreneurial activity. The present research is original, as it compares data obtained in different contexts of economic and social stability. It contributes to theory and practice, in the sense that it points to conclusions in the opposite direction of other studies carried out in situations of disasters of another nature, and can serve as a reference for the development of strategies to promote entrepreneurship, within higher education institutions and official entities to publicize and promote new public policies.

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Entrepreneurial Intention before and during COVID-19—A Case Study on Portuguese University Students

RESUMO O objectivo deste estudo foi comparar o equilíbrio, a mobilidade funcional e a proporção de sujeitos em categorias de risco de queda em função do desempenho nos testes de aptidão funcional, entre idosos treinados e não treinados. Adicionalmente, procurou-se determinar o risco de queda (odds ratio) em função de os idosos praticarem ou não exercício. 144 idosos institucionalizados foram divididos em dois grupos: o grupo de exercício (n=65, 76.7±8.1 anos de idade) composto pelos idosos que reportaram praticar exercício físico estruturado supervisionado nos 12 meses anteriores ao início do estudo (sessões com 60 minutos de duração, pelo menos 3 vezes por semana); o grupo que não praticou exercício (n=79, 78.9±8.4 anos de idade). As sessões eram compostas por exercícios dirigidos para o desenvolvimento da aptidão cardiorespiratória, do equilíbrio, da coordenação, da força muscular e da flexibilidade. Para avaliação do equilíbrio recorreu-se ao Functional Reach Test (FRT) e para a mobilidade funcional ao Timed Up & Go Test (TUG). Idosos treinados (i) apresentam melhor performance no teste de equilíbrio (19.3±9.6 vs. 14.6±5.3cm; p<0.001) e mobilidade funcional (13.0±4.2 vs. 17.6±7.5s; p<0.001), (ii) têm menor probabilidade de estarem em risco elevado de queda, expresso pelos valores do FRT (odds ratio, 0.21, 95% IC 0.0680.629, p=0.006), e (iii) de apresentarem risco de queda nos próximos 5 anos, expresso pelos valores do TUG (odds ratio, 0.27, 95% IC 0.126-0.582, p=0.001). Em conclusão, idosos treinados apresentam melhor mobilidade funcional e equilíbrio com consequente diminuição do risco de queda do que idosos não treinados.

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Impacto da prática regular de exercício físico no equilíbrio, mobilidade funcional e risco de queda em idosos institucionalizados

This research aims to detect the factors that best explain the performance of regional innovation in the European Union (EU), in the year 2019, and compare the obtained results with the factors used to elucidate the performance of regional innovation in the EU during the year 2016. This comparison allowed us to identify the variations that have occurred during these 3 years. The methodology used is quantitative and served to identify the factors that clarify the performance of regional innovation in the EU in 2019. The data collected was treated in the econometric software Eviews10. Estimations used a multiple linear regression method. The attained results show that with the implementation of the Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialization (RIS3), the Leader and Strong Regions benefited from its implementation. On the other hand, Moderate and Modest Regions failed to improve their innovative performance with the implementation of RIS3. On the practical contributions, it provides suggestions to the actors of the triple helix (Academy–Government–Industry) to improve the performance of innovation. Furthermore, it contributes to the theory by updating the knowledge of the existing literature with new dimensions from the 2019 RIS database. This research is original as it allows to appraise the evolution of the open innovative performance of the regions, by using comparative data from 2019 and 2016.

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The Role of Open Innovation, and the Performance of European Union Regions

The theory of economic growth covers institutional market and company internal factors that explain the disparities in well-being among countries, in a given period. It also questions welfare growth dynamics that leads to convergence or divergence of per capita wealth levels. (Solow, 1956-1957; Grilliches, 1979; Romer, 1986, 1990; Lucas, 1988; Barro, 1999; Barro e Sala-i-Martin, 1991 e 1992; Rebelo, 1991, Mankiw, Romer e Weil, 1992). The economic study of entrepreneurship is concerned with identifying factors that influence the dynamics of business creation and the consequences of these dynamics on economic growth. (Acs e Armington, 2006; Audretsch e Keilbach, 2004; Audretsch, Keilbach, Lehmann, 2006; Carree e Thurik, 2006; Van Stel, 2006). There are several studies that establish a direct relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth. Other empirical works address an indirect relationship through the establishment of an interaction between entrepreneurship and employment rate growth. With a similar approach to other works that relate entrepreneurial activity (Petrakis, 2004; Audretsch and Keilbach 2004; Wong, Ho e Autio, 2005; Acs e Varga, 2005; Stam, Suddle, Hessels e Van Stel, 2006; Van Stel, Storey e Thurik, 2009; Barros e Pereira 2008; Salas y SAinchez-Asin, 2008) this paper analyzes the effect of entrepreneurship on growth on Spanish and Portuguese regions

Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth in Spanish and Portuguese Regions

This research aims to study the determinants of entrepreneurial intention in academia and compare the outcomes from two different moments, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, a quantitative methodology was used, whereby a questionnaire was given to higher education students in these two chronological moments. From the obtained results, it was possible to ascertain that, given the motivational dimension, the attitude towards behavior and perceived behavioral control are having a positive impact on entrepreneurial intentions during the pandemic and that subjective norms have a negative impact on entrepreneurial intentions. This relationship of influences is unchanged, either before or during the pandemic. Regarding the environmental dimension, both of the variables under analysis are having a negative impact on entrepreneurial intention during the pandemic period, which corresponds to an aggravation or loss of positive influences when compared to the context before the pandemic, and the next assessment had a positive impact on entrepreneurial intentions. On the theoretical contributions, the findings are very important, as they strengthen the literature on entrepreneurial intentions, and in specific contexts of social and economic instability. As for practical contributions, this research suggests actions to agents with an important intervention role in the community, one of these agents is Higher Education Institutions, which play a determining role by creating a positive environment to support their students’ entrepreneurial intent. This research is original, as far as we are informed, and it is the first to study entrepreneurial intention in academia during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Portuguese context. Moreover, we suggest that the obtained results should be succeeded by further studies to confirm the evolutionary trends now identified on the subject under analysis.

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Sofia Gomes

Papers

Entrepreneurial Intention before and during COVID-19—A Case Study on Portuguese University Students

Impacto da prática regular de exercício físico no equilíbrio, mobilidade funcional e risco de queda em idosos institucionalizados

The Role of Open Innovation, and the Performance of European Union Regions

Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth in Spanish and Portuguese Regions

Opening the “Black Box” of University Entrepreneurial Intention in the Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic