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Building institutional capacity: from pervasive individualism to sustained coordination in small firm sectors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ana Maria Evans
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Abstract

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The small-business sector faces a persistent dilemma: small firms often lack the human skills and financial resources to modernize and compete. How, then, can small firms overcome collective action problems to forge sector-wide modernization? This paper examines the political dynamics and the process of institutional change that underpin successful industrial upgrading through a comparative, longitudinal analysis of two policy experiments aiming at the modernization of small firm sectors in Portugal. Relying on comparative-historical analysis and process tracing, this study shows that successful industrial upgrading relies on intense and sustained political action, led by strong and stable interest leadership, in the pursuit of well-defined developmental benchmarks, and relying on the implementation of political, organizational and financial strategy according to a specific logic and sequence.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business and Politics , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , August 2013 , pp. 163 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © V.K. Aggarwal 2013 and published under exclusive license to Cambridge University Press 

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