Interregional Integration of Entrepreneurial Activity in Spain

• Date: 01 March 2016
• Author: José Manuel Saiz‐Álvarez,Alicia Coduras,Carlos Cuervo‐Arango
• Published date: 01 March 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jsc.2056

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Strat. Change 25: 205–220 (2016)

Published online in Wiley Online Library

(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2056

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Strategic Change: Briengs in Entrepreneurial Finance

Strategic Change

DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2056

Interregional Integration of Entrepreneurial

Activity in Spain1

Alicia Coduras

Department of Business Management and Administration, Nebrija University, Madrid, Spain

Carlos Cuervo‐Arango

Department of Business Management and Administration, Nebrija University, Madrid, Spain

José Manuel Saiz‐Álvarez

Department of Business Management and Administration, Nebrija University, Madrid, Spain

The spatial conguration of entrepreneurship in Spain is heterogeneous and quality

entrepreneurship is generated in ‘creative’ regions characterized by high levels of

human capital, internationalization, and exposure to enhanced managerial practices.

Interest in the evolution of territorial disparities and the development of theories

on the subject of spatial economy continues to grow. Two main issues arise: rst,

the problem of dierential economic growth and its causes (Romer, 1986); then,

the importance of regional planning policies for sustainable development or urban

growth (Lu et al., 2013). Research on regional dierences within countries has

traditionally focused on the use of economic and socio‐demographic indicators,

such as the gross domestic product (GDP) (Barro and Redlick, 1991; Raymond

and García, 1994; Salas, 1999), the gross value added (GVA) (Peña, 2008),

employment rates, growth rates, investment income redistribution (spillover

eect) (Bosch and Espasa, 1999), schooling (De la Fuente and Vives, 1995), old

age (Kibele and Janssen, 2013), migration, gender (Branden, 2013), and nancial

impact (Elhorst et al., 2013). Economic geography posits that the geographic

allocation of talent across territories impacts the conguration within them of the

high‐tech industrial fabric (Florida, 2002; Florida and Gates, 2001), excluding

the study of entrepreneurial activity. On the contrary, in our paper we study

entrepreneurial activity in association with spatial economy.

Although aligned with the classical economic notion in support of the eco-

nomic convergence of territories, economic development and regional disparities

of decentralized units are mostly focused on agriculture and they have not yet

received adequate treatment and interpretation (Birthal et al., 2011; Cai et al.,

1 JEL classication codes: L26, R12.

Along with public policy,

entrepreneurship contributes to

harmonize the development of

territories by enhancing

interregional integration of the

economic activity of SMEs.

Developed regions attract human

capital, which is detrimental to

territorial convergence. Therefore,

policies seeking to narrow

interregional gaps should address

this and give less developed

regions the tools necessary to

retain their human capital.

206 Alicia Coduras, Carlos Cuervo-Arango, and José Manuel Saiz-Álvarez

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Strategic Change

DOI: 10.1002/jsc

2002). For instance, the persistence of big regional dis-

parities seems to urge the need to speed up economic

growth, while diminishing divergences among regions

(López‐Bazo and Motellón, 2013). However, actual

research tends to show that this classical approach is not

valid for all cases (Márquez et al., 2011). In this regard,

our research contributes to this debate by showing that

entrepreneurship and its sector distribution are critical to

develop new and more realistic ideas about regional

disparities.

Regional integration can be dened as the formation

of a political, economic, social, and cultural block, made

up of minor units adjoining each other, to achieve strength

in terms of competition, operational performance, coop-

eration, and solidarity, while minimizing risks and setting

shared goals. However, the question arises: What kind of

integration is interesting within a country? Could it be

possible to harmonize convergence of the GDP respecting

the idiosyncrasies of the territories making up a country

as an integrated economic unit, respecting in particular

the nature of certain spaces of activity? For instance, it is

frequently claimed that European integration has not yet

reached the shores of entrepreneurial activity. us, dif-

ferent national entrepreneurship markets remain relatively

isolated from one another, general eorts toward Euro-

pean integration notwithstanding.

It is true that common regulation and the power of

the incentives oered by central governments provide

strong pressure toward unication and common attitudes

within national frontiers. However, if the situation is con-

sidered from a more industrial point of view, in terms of

the real interconnectedness of the business activity of par-

ticipants, the nal picture that emerges could hold strik-

ing surprises.

Interregional integration is traditionally considered a

provider of a very good framework to promote growth

and increase sustainable human development. Entrepre-

neurship is becoming a crucial element to achieve these

objectives. Along with public policy, entrepreneurship

contributes to a harmonious development of the territory,

especially when binding occurs between universities and

enterprises, especially small and medium enterprises

(SMEs). A more harmonized economic development of

the territory leads to the creation of stable jobs and wealth,

as well as causing a decrease in migratory ows toward the

poles of development, as has been a constant feature in

the second half of the twentieth century in Spain

(Raymond and García, 1994).

However, the study of entrepreneurial activity and

territorial convergence from the point of view of spatial

theory is very scarce, and little knowledge has been devel-

oped on the role of entrepreneurial activity as an element

of regional integration. us, the aim of this paper is to

contribute to develop knowledge in this eld, opening a

research line focused on answering the following general

research questions: To what extent is the entrepreneurial

activity within a country a homogeneous space of activity,

or rather an aggregation of disconnected clusters? Which

factors determine the territorial structure of the entrepre-

neurial activity within a country? Also, and going one step

further, we would like to introduce another related

research question: What kind of interregional integration

is desirable for entrepreneurial activity?

Conceptual framework and research hypotheses

e vast majority of the components of the classical eco-

nomic theory were constructed without taking into con-

sideration geographical or space variables. e general

focus was placed on the market, the mobility of factors of

production, human capital composition (Manca, 2012),

and the goods and services produced (Becker et al., 1990),

regardless of geographical considerations. is conceptu-

alization makes it dicult to foresee economic move-

ments, or economic links among actors, which in turn

result in a concentration of wealth in specic areas covered

by a similar development. Recently, geographical consid-

erations have gradually been included in the sphere of

economic planning (Boschma et al., 2012; De Dominicis

et al., 2013; Krugman, 1991, 1998).