Entrepreneurship and Finance: Role of Public Administration in Portugal and the European Union

Abstract

This essay approaches the topic of the entrepreneurship and in particular the relationship between the entrepreneurship and the financial support coming from the Structural Funds of the European Union (EU) and from the Portuguese Public Administration.
In general terms, this essay intends to study the phenomenon of the entrepreneurship and the main barriers to its development, namely the features/skills/profile of the entrepreneur, the motivations and the incentives, and barriers to entry, including access to finance. In reality, we will seek to identify how financing measures influence the creation of enterprises and the development of new projects/products as a mean of sustainability in the central region of the country.
In this context, we will start this essay by referring to the overall theoretical background regarding the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurship as a strategy for a sustainable development. Next, and after dealing with the funding issue, we will finally develop and provide the results of an empirical study, where entrepreneurs settled in the Aveiro region were interviewed. The results available of the “case study” have lead to the conclusion that there are signs that show a relationship between an axis of scientific character and an axis of empirical character. The results achieved in the course of this essay also show that, although the barriers to entry, such as lack of funding of the entrepreneurship are clearly obstacles complex/hard to overcome, the financing resources are indeed available. Therefore, what is actually important is to adjust the funding measure to the financing need concerned. We believe that a good project will always be eligible for financial support.