Inter-industry differences in local banks' effect on new firm formation : A regional study of entrepreneurship in Sweden

Formation of new firms is important, since new firms create jobs and economic growth. When entrepreneurs lack the financial resources which are needed to start a firm, they often turn to banks to borrow money. Previous research has shown that relationships between banks and new business borrowers most often are local and that the dependence on banks differs across industries. In light of this, the purpose of this paper is to investigate if local access to banks has a stronger relationship with the rate of new firm formation in some industries than in others. Based on cross-sectional data on all Swedish municipalities in 2009, a series of OLS regressions are estimated to test if variables used to describe the bank market in a municipality are related with the new firm formation rate, both in total and in different industry categories. The results show that the number of bank branches per capita is positively related with the total new firm formation rate. In regards to the inter-industry differences, the findings indicate that local access to banks is more important for new firm formation in some industries than in others. 

Pesquisa-Ação-Formação Inter e Transdisciplinar com Pessoas Envolvidas com a Questão do Morador de Rua

Este artigo apresenta reflexões teórico-metodológicas sobre processo de investigação de pós-doutorado que objetivava basicamente construir - na ação - estratégia de "psico-sócio-formação" de pessoas envolvidas com a questão do morador de rua; criar e aplicar um recurso metodológico operacional denominado "conto de encontro transformador". Do ponto de vista teórico, sob perspectivas inter e transdisciplinares de produção do conhecimento, essa "pesquisa-ação-formação" baseou-se no encontro dialógico entre os conhecimentos sobre "encontro transformador", "resiliência" e "ágape" e construtos teóricos da área da Educação, com ênfase no processo de autoformação. O projeto contou com vinte participantes: moradores de rua; trabalhadores de instituições de apoio a moradores de rua; técnicos das Secretarias de Assistência Social da Prefeitura de São Paulo e/ou da Secretaria da Saúde; e provenientes da Universidade de São Paulo e de outras Universidades do Brasil, França e Canadá.

When Corporate Governance crosses the firm borders: family firms in local productive systems

The family involvement in firms is observable is most economies around the world, although there are significant differences among these countries, not only regarding its predominance in these economies, but also in what refers to the levels of involvement of the family in business. This research aims at understanding the family-based firms’ management when compared to non family based, with particular regards to the forms of corporate governance. This analysis is based on case studies and on secondary data found in the literature to support the findings from the empirical research. The data was collected via face to face in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs from the furniture and the events organisation industries (where the family is predominantly present in the furniture but not on the events organisation industry) and with industry and regional business associations. The case studies used in this research allowed the comparison between the Portuguese firms when the family plays an important role in business and those in which the family is absent. It has been found that there are important differences in businesses in countries/industries/local productive systems in which the family is seen as a dominant institution in the society (where businesses are based on strong ties; there is a harmonious relationship between the family members; and the family is accepted locally and dominates the firm organization) and on situations in which the family plays a more marginal role in the society. In fact, the family brings special characteristics to the business, in terms of management, corporate governance, inter and intra firm relationships and succession. Our findings confirm other empirical studies’ results found in the literature. Thus, this article provides a discussion on the factors that play a role in the form of corporate governance structure in family firms highlighting the pros and cons of organising the firm around the family.

Enabling inter-domain transactions in bridge-based hybrid wired/wireless PROFIBUS networks

The marriage of emerging information technologies with control technologies is a major driving force that, in the context of the factory-floor, is creating an enormous eagerness for extending the capabilities of currently available fieldbus networks to cover functionalities not considered up to a recent past. Providing wireless capabilities to such type of communication networks is a big share of that effort. The RFieldbus European project is just one example, where PROFIBUS was provided with suitable extensions for implementing hybrid wired/wireless communication systems. In RFieldbus, interoperability between wired and wireless components is achieved by the use specific intermediate networking systems operating as repeaters, thus creating a single logical ring (SLR) network. The main advantage of the SLR approach is that the effort for protocol extensions is not significant. However, a multiple logical ring (MLR) approach provides traffic and error isolation between different network segments. This concept was introduced in, where an approach for a bridge-based architecture was briefly outlined. This paper will focus on the details of the inter-Domain Protocol (IDP), which is responsible for handling transactions between different network domains (wired or wireless) running the PROFIBUS protocol.

Profibus protocol extensions for enabling inter-cell mobility in bridge-based hybrid wired/wireless networks

Future industrial control/multimedia applications will increasingly impose or benefit from wireless and mobile communications. Therefore, there is an enormous eagerness for extending currently available industrial communications networks with wireless and mobility capabilities. The RFieldbus European project is just one example, where a PROFIBUS-based hybrid (wired/wireless) architecture was specified and implemented. In the RFieldbus architecture, interoperability between wired and wireless components is achieved by the use specific intermediate networking systems operating at the physical layer level, i.e. operating as repeaters. Instead, in this paper we will focus on a bridge-based approach, which presents several advantages. This concept was introduced in (Ferreira, et al., 2002), where a bridge-based approach was briefly outlined. Then, a specific Inter-Domain Protocol (IDP) was proposed to handle the Inter-Domain transactions in such a bridge-based approach (Ferreira, et al., 2003a). The major contribution of this paper is in extending these previous works by describing the protocol extensions to support inter-cell mobility in such a bridge-based hybrid wired/wireless PROFIBUS networks.

Kiddo project

Trabalho de natureza profissional para a atribuição do Título de Especialista do Instituto Politécnico do Porto, na área de Design, defendido a 23-03-2015.

Platform for Smart Car to Car Content Delivery: Results of CISTER Research Centre within CarCoDe project

Poster presented in Redes de Veiculos nas sociedades do futuro (RVSF 2015). 3, Jun, 2015. Castelo Branco, Portugal.

Multipath inter-domain policy routing

Dissertação submetida para a obtenção do grau de Doutor em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores

The determinants of variation in firm leverage across European countries

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Institutions and firm formation: An empirical analysis of Portuguese municipalities

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Economics from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

The impact of sizeof the firm and exchange rate in the export propensity of domestic and foreign owned firms in a developing country: A study of the Brazilian exporters

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Bank-firm relationships and financial crisis

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Corporate social responsibility levels and firm performance: Evidence from countries in crisis

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

The crisis and the firm: The case of h3

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

The graduate: Spillovers from the entry of the first worker with a college degree in a firm

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Double Degree in Economics from NOVA School of Business and Economics and Maastricht School of Business and Economics