Business growth and development trajectories in lagging and remote areas of Southern Europe

The resurgence of many lagging, mountainous or peripheral areas of the European Union may be attributed to the significant regional exports by firms located there. A survey in four mountainous areas of Southern Europe revealed that nearly one-third of surveyed businesses spanning the whole range of economic activities and industries sell more than 50 percent of their value of production outside the geographical boundaries of the local area. Strategic entrepreneurship creates two broad sets of ‘windows of entrepreneurial-locational opportunity’ and firms from different industries of the manufacturing sector together with firms from the services or the hospitality industries may utilize the same common stock of resources and develop the same conventions irrespective of the industry they operate in. As such, local clusters should not be defined in terms of industries and/or sectors but in terms of common strategic entrepreneurial actions that can mix industries under common opportunities (entrepreneurship) and advantages (strategies). These firms are the mountain gazelles as they present very high growth rates and serve as paradigms and a source for innovative thought by other local entrepreneurs.