The Influence of Institutional Environment on Environmental Practices and Its Impact on Regional Development

This chapter studied the institutional influence associated to environmental practices in hotels. The aim was to interpret whether it was the normative, coercive or mimetic pressures (Institutional pressures) that influenced the three, four and five star hotels in north of Portugal and Galicia (a gender perspective). In order to accomplish these objectives, the author used an investigation model that connects institutional context pressures with environmental practices and environmental practices with legitimacy. To study used the Institutional Theory as theoretical reference.

Factors Affecting Internationalization Degree of Higher Education Institutions in Portugal and Spain

The aim of this study is to evaluate the degree of internationalization of Iberian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the factors that influence their internationalization process. The study begins with the contextualization of the HEI internationalization process through a brief historical synthesis and the establishment of the levels of analysis of this process, to focus, in more detail, the organizational level. To this end, it is supported in an organization dimensions model to define the components of the internationalization process and the data collection by questionnaire. The results were processed for each of its components, and the degree of internationalization was obtained by calculating the mean values of the components total. The study concludes that the Iberian HEIs have an interesting level of internationalization, which is higher for institutions with more than 5.000 students, with simultaneous focus on teaching and research, conferring the master's and doctor's degrees.

Perceptions of Extremaduran Firms Towards Innovation

Innovation is an important source of economic growth and a key to the competitiveness of firms, which are the main agents of innovation systems. The main objective of this chapter is to analyse, in a deep sense, the perceptions of Extremaduran towards innovation and their relation with the financial public support received and the main public actions that firms demand in order to reduce such obstacles differentiating by manufacturing firms and Knowledge Intensive Business Sector (KIBS). To do this, we analyse specific questions of an ad hoc survey focused on issues not covered by other Spanish or international surveys about innovation. Data were collected in 2013 from a representative sample of manufacturing and KIBS companies in Extremadura. Among different sectors, certain differences were observed in the perceived obstacles and public actions sought by companies that can be considered to carry out modifications in current innovation policies, especially on a regional scale.

Social Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

Entrepreneurial ecosystems and social entrepreneurship are receiving increasing attention for their ability to foster economic and social development. This study adopts the entrepreneurial ecosystem approach to analyse the extent to which the perceived favourability of external environment promotes or deters the launch of new ventures by social entrepreneurs. The research was based on a survey that collected data through a questionnaire emailed to Portuguese social entrepreneurship ventures. The results show that a favourable entrepreneurial ecosystem has low importance in the decision to develop new social ventures. This result is particularly consistent in more innovative social ventures. This conclusion supports the idea that many social ventures are not based on social innovation, but derive from a traditional approach to social problems. Therefore, the development of new innovative social ventures has to be supported by institutional stakeholders in order to support social entrepreneurs, regardless of the level of favourability of the entrepreneurial context.

Social Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Sustainability

This chapter provides a summarized and objective review over the relationships among innovation, social innovation, entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, new business models (NBM), value proposition and sustainability (economic, social, ecological, and psychological). A study has been done in Porto region through interviews with 13 social innovators and entrepreneurs to evaluate those relationships. The conceptual base for the analysis presented in this chapter is tetrad-value theory. It has been concluded that market-oriented social innovation has a crucial role in the social entrepreneurship development. Moreover, these NBM should be adjusted to population needs towards societal well-being, by combining creation of shared value, co-creation of value, and multiple value creation. Thus, a transformational value proposition contributes to economic, social, ecological, and psychological sustainability, and consequently to human, social and territorial development.

Internationalization in Business-to-Business Markets

The internationalization of firms is a growing important phenomenon in the Economy. Thus, to face the new competitive challenges of globalized markets, industrial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to implement new organizational approaches to take on new challenges in international markets. Based on a case study, this chapter reviews the literature on internationalization theories. Drawing on the network-based approach and on the resource-based view of the firm, we examine how collaborative new product development processes played a fundamental role in the internationalization process of a SME using a relationship-based perspective. The featured case concerns to a successful ex-small technical textile firm that leveraged its competitive strategy, climbed up the value chain, and extended its international activities following a technology-based path.

Internationalization, Financial Performance, and Organizational Challenges

One of the main characteristics of current business environment is related to internationalization of companies and economies, where competitors from different countries with diverse cultures and production factors, easily clash for a position of supremacy in the markets. Thus, internationalization turned the management of organizations in a more complex act, increasing opportunities but also the risks of the business. As such, this paper aims to reflect on the main issues associated with companies' internationalization and the impact on their management process, in particular on financial performance and in organizational changes. In addition, we intend to conduct a case study of a Portuguese company of information technology industry that through its internationalization strategy, managed in less than a decade, to increment the turnover from 10 million to 60 million euros, becoming one of the largest Portuguese groups in the sector and a worldwide success.

National Culture, Societal Values, and Type of Economy

We analyze the relationship between cultural values, societal values and the type of the economy with necessity-driven, opportunity-driven and improvement-driven entrepreneurship. We take into account GEM's data from 56 countries. These reports are also used to characterize the three types of entrepreneurship, the societal values and the type of economy. We approach national culture through the five dimensions of Hofstede's work on cultural values using the Values Survey Module 2013 (based on Hofstede's work). Cultural values marginally explain necessity-driven and opportunity-driven entrepreneurship. In turn, societal values only explain improvement-driven entrepreneurship. Finally, the type of economy is important in explaining necessity-driven and opportunity-driven entrepreneurship, however it is of no added value in explaining improvement-driven opportunity. One needs to be cautious when drawing general conclusions as we believe that societal values are failing to capture differences among the types of entrepreneurship analyzed.

Improvement in Higher Education

Given the current context of globalization, institutions of higher education must implement the strategy of university social responsibility in order to be more competitive. The attention paid to relevant agents of interest becomes of utmost importance since this strategy highlights the links that universities and companies can generate. Although the first alliances in corporate social responsibility in Spain were terminated between companies and entities of the third sector, later, this kind of collaboration was established by universities. This has included the creation of academic chairs in corporate or university social responsibility. Their fundamental purpose is to promote socially responsible behaviors through training and initiatives, including a series of projects that can lead to clear improvements in higher education. Universities are nourished by their contacts with companies and other institutions and the financial support that this collaboration entails, while companies benefit from universities' contribution of knowledge that can be shared with society at large.

Decision Making in Rural Tourism Management

Decision making is an important role performed by managers. This chapter will analyze the importance of information systems (IS) on the decision-making process at rural organizations in Portugal's Algarve region. Managers' perceptions were analyzed and compared with the decision-making process model proposed in this chapter, which was based on the models of Simon (1977) and Mintzberg, Raisinghani, and Theorêt (1976). This chapter will discuss the capacity of rural tourism organizations to solve problems, as well as review the time needed to solve problems through the use of IS. This chapter will conclude that IS in the organizational decision-making process is positively related to the identification of the decision-making problem and time needed to solve the problems. This investigation will allow other sectors the opportunity to discuss decision process models based on technology, information capability, and organizational competitiveness.