Targeting unemployment through entrepreneurship based on a social responsible behavior strategy

: the Portuguese case study

Abstract

This study explores an innovative and integrated approach to solve the unemployment problem in Portugal through a social responsible behavior based-strategy. Human, intellectual and financial resources are presented as tools to efficiently engage such citizens in entrepreneurial activities in order to increase labor market productivity and promote the country’s economic growth (Bosma , Stam , & Schutjens, Creative Destruction and Regional Competitiveness, 2006).After a careful literature review and analysis of the insights collected from the thorough research on unemployment and entrepreneurship, specifically regarding human and financing capital, a framework based on the social service innovation concept is presented.The proposed set of solutions to reduce unemployment in Portugal were obtained by conducting a survey targeting unemployed Portuguese citizens, addressing their needs and expectations regarding training programs, and a status quo analysis of crowdfunding, together with the (historical) statistical results concerning the Portuguese labor market and its impact in the entrepreneurial sector.The dissertation findings are expected to be a useful contribution to the entrepreneurship literature, shedding some light into the main dimensions to be analyzed when defining an implementation strategy through a social responsible behavior, based on training and financing possibilities, and proposing a set of relevant guidelines to design operations in order to achieve its major goal.

Date of Award	2012
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Susana Frazão Ferreira Fernandes Pinheiro (Supervisor)