Governance and the determinants of local economic development in Raia Central Ibérica

The dynamics of territorial governance configure a virtual geographic space and promote synergies and competitiveness. The ability to decide, adjust and regulate the territory depends of competent and efficient governance systems. These systems have an important role in the territorial innovation process all the way to the definition of projects, to regional politics and also in the regulation and organization of local activities. Thus, the aim of this paper is to present the results of an empirical research of the companies of the Raia Central Ibérica Region, which is located in the border area of Central Portugal/Spain. The research assesses entrepreneur satisfaction with respect to the sub-regions governance systems and their impact in the local dynamics of innovation and in the local economic development. The paper examines the imbalances in the satisfaction of governance systems in the sub-regions of Raia Central Ibérica. Based on an empirical study, the imbalances could be broadly attributed to differences in their most important problems, to the lack of common identity, to the lack of government/public intervention, but also to the lack of cooperation and to innovation.