Determinants of entrepreneurship in SMEs in the defense sector

• Author(s): Almeida, H. ; Briones, A. J. ; Fernandes, Silvia Brito
• Date: 2012
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/1926
• Origin: Sapientia - Universidade do Algarve
• Subject(s): Cooperation; Creativity; Entrepreneurship
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

All over the world, the small and medium enterprises are more and more organized in consortia, cooperation networks, joint-ventures and strategical alliances allowing not only the reduction of uncertainty and turbulence of the markets but also the gathering of advantages which may make them more competitive. It is worth considering that the results of these relationships are affected by determinant factors which may inhibit or facilitate the entrepreneurship. Our aim is to evaluate the relationship between some of those determinants, association, inter-company cooperation, innovation in the methods of work and creativity—about the entrepreneurship in 236 small and medium enterprises of the national defence. One of the questions initially posed is if there is a significant relation between corporation, innovative methods of work, creativity and entrepreneurship; The second question is being creativity an attribute of the entrepreneur, can it have a mediator effect between innovative methods of work and entrepreneurship. A factorial exploratory analysis was made in main components (varimax rotation) and multiple linear regression. The results show the direct relationship of the evaluated determinants and entrepreneurship and, the partial mediator effect of the creativity between the innovation in the methods of work and entrepreneurship. These enterprises may expect to develop new methods of work as a high differential component concerning the competition and the more efficient use of knowledge and of the skills of the people who make part of the work team in order to increase their competitiveness.