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This thesis examines the extent to which the Flexible Specialisation model of Industrial organisation constitutes a v Iab Ie and app IIcab Ie strategy for sma II sea Ie manufactur Ing firms In Greece. This Involves: 1. The evaluation of the Flexible Specialisation paradigm as a response and as a way out of the crisis. 2. The analysis of the development trajectory of small scale Industry In Greece. 3. The Identification of the current characteristics of sma II manufacturing firms In Greece, their strengths and their weaknesses. 4. The evaluation of the future prospects of smal I scale Industry In the light of the Flexible Specialisation strategy. The first part of the thesis (chapters 1, 2 and 3) deals wit h the Que st Ion 0f res truc turi ngin v Iew 0f the cri sis and exam Ines a Iternat Ive ways of organ Ising product Ion. It looks more closely to the Flexible Specialisation In the light of academic experimentation with new concepts, ranging from post- Fordlsm to Flexible Accumulation. It evaluates the strengths and the weaknesses of the Flexible Specialisation model, and considers Its merits against previous sma II scale Industry theorisations. The second part of the thesis (chapters 4,5 and 6) exam Ines the po IIt Ica I economy of Industry In Greece In order to unravel the economic, soclo-polltlcal and Institutional factors account Ing for the emergence, conso IIdat Ion and perSistence of small firms as a considerable part of the Greek manufacturing structure. The third part of the thesis (chapters 7, 8 and 9) Is based on evidence from fieldwork material on three manufacturing branches (metalworking-engineering, clothing and plastic products) and brings out similarities and differences of alternative responses to the economic recession. It examines the extent to which flexible specialisation principles have been Introduced by some sma II firms In the sectors under consideration. Finally, the fourth part (chapters 10 and 11) brings together the main themes developed In the course of the thesis In order to explore the scope and deslrabl Ilty of pol Icy InterventIon In the dIrectIon of Inducing a flexIble specialIsatIon restructuring pattern. The major conclusions of the thesIs are summarIsed In the fInal chapter.

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The integrative chapter of this thesis explains how the nominated papers, when combined, meet the University of Exeter’s assessment criteria for the award of PhD by Publication. It argues that a coherent contribution to knowledge emerges from the three strands of research discussed, namely: (i) examinations of research and innovation policy, notably via the work of tourism academics and the knowledge exchange practices of practitioners; (ii) investigations into the practices of small businesses in tourism, particularly in relation to their articulation with public policy at a local level; (iii) an assessment of the professionalization of tourism, via the conceptual lens of corporate professionalization. Collectively, these publications explain important aspects of business, notably small business, dynamics in tourism; my contribution has been to provide new conceptualisations of tourism organisations and explanations for their behaviour that advance existing academic accounts. The theoretical contributions made offer public policy-makers greater scope for developing interventions to more effectively influence business behaviour than at present. The chapter also reviews, briefly, the range of methods of enquiry used in my research and my philosophical position in relation to knowledge construction. Finally, the limitations of my work and my current research agenda are discussed.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This thesis aims at analysing some aspects of Venture Capital (VC) and high-tech entrepreneurship. The focus is both at the macroeconomic level, comparing venture capital from an international point of view and Technology-Based Small Firms (TBSF) at company and founder’s level in Belgium. The approach is mainly empirical. This work is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on venture capital. First of all, we test the impact of VC on productivity. We then identify the determinants of VC and we test their impact on the relative level of VC for a panel of countries. The second part concerns the technology-based small firms in Belgium. The objective is twofold. It first aims at creating a database on Belgian TBSF to better understand the importance of entrepreneurship. In order to do this, a national survey was developed and the statistical results were analysed. Secondly, it provides an analysis of the role of universities in the employment performance of TBSF. A broad summary of each chapter is presented below. PART 1: VENTURE CAPITAL The Economic Impact of Venture Capital The objective of this chapter is to perform an evaluation of the macroeconomic impact of venture capital. The main assumption is that VC can be considered as being similar in several respects to business R&D performed by large firms. We test whether VC contributes to economic growth through two main channels. The first one is innovation, characterized by the introduction of new products, processes or services on the market. The second one is the development of an absorptive capacity. These hypotheses are tested quantitatively with a production function model for a panel data set of 16 OECD countries from 1990 to 2001. The results show that the accumulation of VC is a significant factor contributing directly to Multi-Factor Productivity (MFP) growth. The social rate of return to VC is significantly higher than the social rate of return to business or public R&D. VC has also an indirect impact on MFP in the sense that it improves the output elasticity of R&D. An increased VC intensity makes it easier to absorb the knowledge generated by universities and firms, and therefore improves aggregate economic performance. Technological Opportunity, Entrepreneurial Environment and Venture Capital Development The objective of this chapter is to identify the main determinants of venture capital. We develop a theoretical model where three main types of factors affect the demand and supply of VC: macroeconomic conditions, technological opportunity, and the entrepreneurial environment. The model is evaluated with a panel dataset of 16 OECD countries over the period 1990-2000. The estimates show that VC intensity is pro-cyclical - it reacts positively and significantly to GDP growth. Interest rates affect the VC intensity mainly because the entrepreneurs create a demand for this type of funding. Indicators of technological opportunity such as the stock of knowledge and the number of triadic patents affect positively and significantly the relative level of VC. Labour market rigidities reduce the impact of the GDP growth rate and of the stock of knowledge, whereas a minimum level of entrepreneurship is required in order to have a positive effect of the available stock of knowledge on VC intensity. PART 2: TECHNOLOGY-BASED SMALL FIRMS Survey in Belgium The first purpose of this chapter is to present the existing literature on the performance of companies. In order to get a quantitative insight into the entrepreneurial growth process, an original survey of TBSF in Belgium was launched in 2002. The second purpose is to describe the methodology of our national TBSF survey. This survey has two main merits. The first one lies in the quality of the information. Indeed, most of national and international surveys have been developed at firm-level. There exist only a few surveys at founder-level. In the TBSF database, information both at firm and at entrepreneur-level will be found. The second merit is about the subject covered. TBSF survey tackles the financing of firms (availability of public funds, role of venture capitalists, availability of business angels,…), the framework conditions (e.g. the quality and availability of infrastructures and communication channels, the level of academic and public research, the patenting process,…) and, finally, the socio-cultural factors associated with the entrepreneurs and their environment (e.g. level of education, their parents’education, gender,…). Statistical Evidence The main characteristics of companies in our sample are that employment and profits net of taxation do not follow the same trend. Indeed, employment may decrease while results after taxes may stay constant. Only a few companies enjoy a growth in both employment and results after taxes between 1998 and 2003. On the financing front, our findings suggest that internal finance in the form of personal funds, as well as the funds of family and friends are the primary source of capital to start-up a high-tech company in Belgium. Entrepreneurs rely on their own personal savings in 84 percent of the cases. Commercial bank loans are the secondary source of finance. This part of external financing (debt-finance) exceeds the combined angel funds and venture capital funds (equity-finance). On the entrepreneur front, the preliminary results show that 80 percent of entrepreneurs in this study have a university degree while 42 percent hold postgraduate degrees (i.e. master’s, and doctorate). In term of research activities, 88 percent of the entrepreneurs holding a Ph.D. or a post-doctorate collaborate with Belgian higher education institutes. Moreover, more than 90 percent of these entrepreneurs are working in a university spin-off. The Contribution of Universities to Employment Growth The objective of this chapter is to test whether universities play a role amongst the determinants of employment growth in Belgian TBSF. The empirical model is based on our original survey of 87 Belgian TBSF. The results suggest that both academic spin-offs and TBSF created on the basis of an idea originating from business R&D activities are associated with an above than average growth in employees. As most ‘high-tech’ entrepreneurs are at least graduated from universities, there is no significant impact of the level of education. Nevertheless, these results must be taken with caution, as they are highly sensitive to the presence of outliers. Young high-tech firms are by definition highly volatile, and might be therefore difficult to understand. CONCLUSION In this last chapter, recommendations for policy-makers are drawn from the results of the thesis. The possible interventions of governments are classified according to whether they influence the demand or the supply of entrepreneurship and/or VC. We present some possible actions such as direct intervention in the VC funds, interventions of public sector through labour market rigidities, pension system, patent and research policy, level of entrepreneurial activities, bankruptcy legislation, entrepreneurial education, development of university spin-offs, and creation of a national database of TBSF.

This study investigates the growth and non-growth of small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) over the long-term. A multiple case study methodology was used to examine the growth paths of eight SMEs over a period of fourteen years. Four firms represented manufacturing and four, the professional and business services industry. The firms were paired according to similar sectors and contrasting growth paths. Longitudinal employment data illustrated the firms’ growth paths, and the primary method of data collection was semi-structured interviews of the firms’ owner-managers. The research incorporated extensive literature, including traditional research approaches and life cycle models and emergent literature on organisational learning and growth paths. The growth and non-growth firms were found to be distinct from each other, regardless of industry. The growth firms’ owner-managers had strong growth ambitions and actively sought the recognition and challenges that arise from the operation of multiple growth businesses. The non-growth owner-managers had passive growth ambitions and focused on maintaining their accustomed lifestyle. These differences were also illustrated in the firms’ approaches to networking, internationalisation and technological advancement. The growth firm owner-managers were all portfolio entrepreneurs and had strong professional networks, which they considered were strategically vital. In contrast, the non-growth owner-managers were novice entrepreneurs and were nonchalant towards networking. Innovation and flexibility were identified as important characteristics in the long-term performance of the firms. Findings also indicated that owner-managers’ perceptions of their external business environment determined the influence it had on the business. Individual and collective learning processes underpin these findings in determining long-term growth performance of the firms. The strong interrelationships between owner-managers, learning processes, and longitudinal growth paths suggest areas of future research.

The importance of small firms in a country’s development cannot be over-emphasized. In particular, it is important for them to grow in order to sustain their contributions to a country’s economy. Studies have shown how firms achieve growth using the traditional model of decision making (causation) in which planning, market research and forecasting are used to gain relevant information about the firm’s market/industry. This planning enables the firms to compete favourably with other existing firms in the market. Effectuation as an alternative theory involves decision-making processes under conditions of uncertainty where there is no adequate knowledge of the market due to its latent and emerging nature. Effectuation has been used to examine various concepts in entrepreneurship, but there has been no real effort to apply it to the growth of small knowledge-intensive firms (SKIFs). This study, based on in-depth interviews with six SKIFs, highlights how effectuation can be applied to the growth of SKIFs and it examines how the four underlying principles of contingencies, affordable loss, strategic relationships and adaptation contribute to SKIF growth. In addition, elements of causation are also shown to be relevant, leading to the conclusion that the two models can be used jointly to achieve growth of SKIFs.