The objective of this paper is to refine the model developed by Pages et al. (2003) by incorporating public policies not included in the original version, through the classification of public policy programs aimed at entrepreneurship and small businesses in the State of Goiás and the identification of the stage of economic development on which these programs focus. The research adopted a qualitative approach, leveraging documentary research on the websites of six departments of the Goiás State government to collect data. The actions in question were subjected to a content analysis and organized according to the corresponding stage of economic development. It was found that most State’s public policies are concentrated in the second and third waves of economic development. Initiatives aimed at promoting self-employment have been identified within, with a particular focus on specific groups, such as rural producers and family farmers, which were not considered in the initial theoretical model. The findings are pertinent because comprehending the path of public policies supportive of entrepreneurship and small businesses is a pivotal exercise in reflecting on regional development, thereby contributing to the enhancement and maturation of the proposal for future programs.
Tourism has continued to expand even as middle-class households across major economies confront job losses, persistent inflation, and stagnant real wages. This viewpoint article argues that this pattern is best understood not as an anomaly but as an instance of resilience, a concept long used in tourism studies to describe a system’s capacity to absorb disturbance and continue functioning. Drawing on the tourism resilience literature alongside evidence on household trading-down behaviour, the growth of low-cost carriers, and behavioural drivers such as mental accounting and the enduring preference for experiences over possessions, the article traces how demand-side adaptation, rather than an absence of financial strain, explains today’s travel boom. It also considers the post-pandemic recalibration of travel priorities and the growing role of instalment-based financing in sustaining bookings. For local economies, this resilience offers a genuine opportunity to anchor tourism-linked employment and small business activity, but only if destinations build their own adaptive capacity around value-conscious, shorter, and more flexible travel formats rather than assuming demand will remain resilient indefinitely. The article closes with implications for local economic policy and planning.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are central to local and regional economies but often face persistent challenges of growth and resilience under resource constraints. This paper examines how SMEs develop strategic capacity through hybrid capability systems, combinations of formal structures and informal practices across planning, innovation, human resources, and external engagement. Drawing on a diagnostic framework and comparative case studies of four UK-based SMEs, the study shows how diagnostic tools surface capability strengths and gaps in real time, enabling reflective learning for owner-managers and tailored support from business intermediaries. Findings reveal that hybridity is not a transitional stage toward large-firm formalisation but a durable and adaptive organisational mode that supports strategic coherence under uncertainty. The results highlight the need for SME policy frameworks that recognise hybridity as a legitimate growth path, embedding diagnostic tools and network-based interventions into local and regional support provision. The study contributes both practically, by offering actionable guidance for SME leaders and policymakers, and theoretically, by extending strategy-as-practice and dynamic capabilities perspectives to account for the micro-foundations of capability-building in small firms.
This article examines whether the metropolitan municipality reform introduced under Law No. 6360 produced a fiscal effect on real per capita local government expenditures in the Aegean Region of Türkiye. The analysis uses a province-level panel for 2006–2024 and compares Aydın, Denizli, Manisa, and Muğla, which gained metropolitan status, with İzmir, Uşak, Afyonkarahisar, and Kütahya, whose status did not change. The empirical design combines a static Difference-in-Differences model, a TWFE event-study, Callaway and Sant'Anna Difference-in-Differences (CSDID) estimates, placebo tests, leave-one-province-out robustness checks, a 2014-exclusion sensitivity check, and wild cluster bootstrap inference. The results do not point to a persistent or statistically significant expenditure effect in the treated provinces relative to the control group. The negative estimate observed around 2014 in the CSDID results is interpreted cautiously as a transition-year disturbance linked to administrative adjustment, competence transfer, and expenditure classification, rather than as evidence of lasting fiscal restructuring. The article contributes to the literature by treating metropolitanization simultaneously as a territorial rescaling process and as an empirically testable fiscal intervention. The evidence suggests that a change in administrative status can reorganize territorial governance without altering local expenditure behavior when it does not come with fiscal autonomy, stronger own-source revenue capacity, and downward accountability.
This paper examines how spatial inequalities are associated with processes of social exclusion in a peripheral rural and mountainous region of Greece, focusing on the Municipality of Myki in the Regional Unit of Xanthi. It explores how geographical remoteness, limited accessibility and weak local economic structures are associated with unequal access to education and employment. The analysis draws on data from the 2021 Population and Housing Census and applies a comparative framework across local, regional and national levels to identify persistent territorial disparities. The findings indicate that the limited diversification and low absorptive capacity of the local labour market are associated with restricted employment opportunities and weaker local development. Educational outcomes also reflect territorial constraints, highlighting the close relationship between place, human capital and labour-market participation. Gender differences further illustrate the association between socio-spatial disadvantage and opportunities for economic and social inclusion. Rather than viewing peripheral regions as internally homogeneous, the study demonstrates the importance of local-scale analysis for understanding territorial inequalities. It argues that more effective place-based development strategies should integrate improvements in accessibility, education, labour-market opportunities and local economic diversification to promote more inclusive and territorially balanced development.
