Competitive Inteligence 2.0: Organization, Innovation and Territory

Chapter 16

Government Strategies of Territorial Intelligence 2.0: Support to SMEs-TPE ¹

16.1. Introduction

Public policies reflect different development models adopted by states. Under the influence of economists such as Douglass North (1990–1994)¹, Amartya Sen (1997, 1999, 2000)², and Joseph Stiglitz (2002)³, the theme “inequality”, previously a concern in social policy, is fully incorporated into economic strategies.

Based on this orientation, nations in their development efforts seek to eliminate or at least alleviate social inequalities. It is believed that poverty leads to reduced freedom, since it prevents the ability to act (to perform a function, work, or undertake and conduct business). Reducing poverty, therefore, means giving positive freedom to individuals and institutions. What becomes really important is their capacity of “doing and being”. Positive freedom means allowing individuals and institutions to operate in the society, since it becomes part of and, at the same time, an instrument of development; their instrumental role extends beyond economic production since it leads to social development (Sen: 1997, 1999, 2000).

Such an orientation has an influence on the global public policy. We will consider, in particular, the establishment of information and business telecenters⁴ (the TIN network in Brazil) for micro and small enterprises (MSEs).

The idea of information and business telecenters was adequate to the Brazilian reality. In fact, our data show that the ...