Wednesday, 15 October 2025 at 14:00-15:00 in room SOC-356 / MS Teams

A presentation by João Almeida, PhD (Assistant Professor at the University of Maia, Portugal).

📝The entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) approach has gained traction in regional development scholarship as a framework for understanding the interplay of actors, institutions, and resources that foster entrepreneurship. Yet, most studies remain focused mostly on urban territories and on output metrics, such as startup rates or investment attraction (Alvedalen & Boschma, 2017; Wurth et al., 2021), while under-examining the broader development outcomes that EEs may generate.

This urban-centric and output-driven bias is particularly problematic in peripheral or structurally disadvantaged regions, such as rural areas, where entrepreneurial activity is often shaped by different constraints, logics, and goals (Almeida & Daniel, 2025; Roundy, 2017). This paper responds directly to these concerns by investigating how EEs contribute to sustainable local development in Portugal’s rural regions, and under what conditions this contribution materialises.

This article builds on a context-sensitive conceptual framework specifically developed for low-density territories (Almeida & Daniel, 2025) and employs a mixed-methods design integrating national-level statistical mapping with in-depth qualitative case analysis in two rural municipalities classified within the High Entr. Activity / High Outcome. This paper challenges urban-centric models and highlights the importance of place-based, multi-scalar policy frameworks capable of recognising and supporting diverse ecosystem pathways in structurally constrained regions.

João Almeida holds a PhD in Business & Economics from the University of Aveiro (Portugal). His main research interests are entrepreneurial ecosystems, entrepreneurship education, social innovation, and rural and regional development. He is also an assistant professor at the University of Maia and a trainer in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation. As a social entrepreneur, he is the co-founder and coordinator of Rural Move - a national network to promote repopulation and investment in Portuguese rural areas.

Some references to his research:
Almeida, J., & Daniel, A. (2025). Addressing the Distinctive Features of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Low-Density Territories. Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy.  https://doi.org/10.1108/JEPP-07-2023-0069
Almeida, J., & Daniel, A. (2025). Measuring Local Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Insights from Portuguese Sub-Regions. Portuguese Review of Regional Studies. (70): 53–72. https://doi.org/10.59072/rper.vi70.683
Almeida, J., & Daniel, A. (2023). Local governance of evolutionary entrepreneurial ecosystems: A case study in a low-density territory. Local Economy, 38(8), 735-754. https://doi.org/10.1177/02690942241278637
Almeida, J. & Ana Dias Daniel. (2022). “Post-Pandemic Opportunities for Low-Density Territories: Insights and Implications from Portuguese Case Studies.” European Planning Studies, May, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2022.2074785
Almeida, J., Daniel, A. D. & Figueiredo, C. (2019). The future of Management Education: The role of entrepreneurship education and Junior Enterprises. The International Journal of Management Education. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2019.100318

The seminar is in English. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee

Open Seminars