Regional Science Inquiry

Maria Isabel BARREIRO RIBEIRO

Bragança Polytechnic Institute, Bragança
Centre for Transdisciplinary Development Studies, Vila Real
Research Unit for Inland Development, Guarda
Portugal
xilote@ipb.pt

António José GONÇALVES FERNANDES (corresponding author)

Bragança Polytechnic Institute , Bragança
Centre for Transdisciplinary Development Studies, Vila Real
Portugal
toze@ipb.pt

Francisco José Lopes de SOUSA DINIZ

University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real
Centre for Transdisciplinary Development Studies, Vila Real
Portugal
fdiniz@utad.pt

Corresponding author address:
Instituto Politécnico de Bragança
Escola Superior Agrária
Campus de Santa Apolónia
5300-855 Bragança, Portugal

Tlm. +351 965057246
Tel. +351 273303280
Fax +351 273325405

Abstract

This study looked into the entrepreneurial ability of the students of a public university in Bragança (Portugal) to identify differentiation factors of their entrepreneurial potential. A quantitative, transversal, and observational analysis was conducted involving 598 student participants. Data gathering took place between November and December 2012 and used the Entrepreneurial Potential Indicator questionnaire. The respondents were mostly female (61.0%), between 18 and 21 years old (53.8%), corresponding to an average of 22.6 years of age (±4.59), studied under an ordinary regime (82.6%), were from the northern region (83.9%), lived in an urban centre (53.8%) and attended the first study cycle (92.8%) of two scientific areas, namely Education Sciences (28.4%) and Technology and Management (28.4%). Over half of the respondents showed entrepreneurial skills (72.4%). Of all the human capital factors considered, the attendance regime was the only one which had no influence on the entrepreneurial potential. In fact, all the others, namely the course’s scientific area and the study cycle have proven to be relevant for reinforcing or developing the students’ entrepreneurial skills. None of the socio-demographic factors that were taken into consideration had any influence on entrepreneurial potential differentiation. Binary logistic regression (logit model) revealed a cause and effect relationship between all the characteristics and the entrepreneurial tendency.

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Anne MARGARIAN

Thünen-Institute of Rural Studies, Bundesallee 50. 38116 Braunschweig, Germany
anne.margarian@ti.bund.de

Abstract

For the impartial observer of German regions, differences in regional industry structures and prosperity are quite obvious. On the one side, there are regions characterised by different industries, firm structures and labour qualification profiles. On the other side, some of these regions are prosperous, dynamic and growing in terms of inhabitants, labor force and income while others obviously suffer from high unemployment, low tax base and an unsatisfactory income situation. The analysis presented in this paper relates the regional industry structure to the socio-economic fundamentals that describe the regions’ productivity, its income distribution and its population dynamics. The statistical model is based on the approach of  moderated mediation. It is thereby able to show that the estimated relations are conditional on the degree of regions’ centrality respectively remoteness. Moreover, the analysis distinguishes direct and indirect relations and therefore allows for an identification of the multiple dimensions of the potential effects of local industry structures in cultural, productivity and distributive terms.

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Lamara HADJOU

University of Thessaly, Polytechnic School, Department of Planning and Regional Development, Pedion Areos, 38334 Volos and University Blaise Pascal (CERAMAC), Maison des Sciences de l’Homme – 4, rue Ledru 63057 Clermont-Ferrand,
lhadjou@yahoo.fr

Marie Noëlle DUQUENNE

University of Thessaly, Polytechnic School, Department of Planning and Regional Development, Pedion Areos, 38334 Volos
mdyken@prd.uth.gr

Abstract

Rural areas so-called ‘fragile’ have rarely been object of theoretical and methodological approach, aiming at delimiting the concept of fragility and at specifying his components. As well as there is no theoretical approach to define these milieus, there is no either general agreement on the notion of fragile space. Numerous are the authors who use this notion without specifying contents, or defining its outlines. Arise then the question to know, what is really meant by this concept. This is the first task of this article which seeks to trace the history of the concept and its use by authors. If the concept of fragility seems to have obvious filiations with the concepts of periphery, marginal and underprivileged space, we propose to show that this concept refers to a more complex reality and in any case, a fact.

Assuming that the fragility is not a state but indeed a process, the question is then, in on one hand, to specify-it through its multiple constituents and on the other hand to translate these last ones on a set of appropriate and quantifiable indicators.

By taking as study area, the northern region of Greece which has recently benefited from a great highway infrastructure (Via Egnatia), we propose using the methods of multicriteria analysis, to highlight the types and degrees of fragility of the subregional areas of northern Greece. The use of factor analysis methods and classification confer us the possibility to make a typology of these areas well beyond traditional approaches of disadvantaged areas, marginal or peripheral.

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