Abstract
The onset of the global crisis has emphasised the persistence of substantial differences in development and social progress within the euro area. The specific case of countries located in the southern periphery region has come to the centre stage, due to the harsh economic conditions that all these countries have experienced in the recent past. In the aftermath of the American subprime creditbubble, these countries’ high indebtedness raised doubts as to their ability to sustain publicfinances, with the financial crisis developing and gaining momentum due to the fragilities presentedin the economy. To varying degrees of severity, all of these economies have since been forced to introduce strong fiscal tightening pogrammes in order to achieve fiscal consolidation, which have translated into recession and rising unemployment. This book undertakes a comprehensive analysis of the causes of the crisis in southern European countries, showing that the ‘Achilles heel’ of these economies is rooted in the dismal evolution of productivity and in a specialisation pattern excessively based on the so-called ‘traditional’, low and low-medium tech industries, which yield low margins, declining export shares and, ultimately, withering international competitiveness. Such evidence suggests that the southern European periphery industrial growth model has reached itslimits, demanding a multidimensional policy approach capable of overcoming the magnitude and complexity of the present crisis. Without denying the need to adjust public and private balance sheets, it is argued that finding a sustainable path out of the present problems requires addressing the challenges of productivity growth and competitiveness in the long term. © 2014 selection and editorial material, Aurora A.C. Teixeira, Ester G. Silva and Ricardo Paes Mamede; individual chapters, the contributors

Abstract
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the aftermath of business failure (BF) by addressing: how the individual progressed and developed new ventures, how individuals changed business behaviors and practices in light of a failure, and what was the effect of previous failure on the individual's decisions to embark on subsequent ventures. Design/methodology/approach - The authors resort to qualitative methods to understand the aftermath of BF from a retrospective point of a successful entrepreneur. Specifically, the authors undertook semi-structured interviews to six entrepreneurs, three from the north of Europe and three from the south and use interpretative phenomenological analysis. Findings - The authors found that previous failure impacted individuals strongly, being shaped by the individual's experience and age, and their perception of blame for the failure. An array of moderator costs was identified, ranging from antecedents to institutions that were present in the individual's lives. The outcomes are directly relatable to the failed experience by the individual. The authors also found that the failure had a significant effect on the individual's career path. Originality/value - While predicting the failure of healthy firms or the discovery of the main determinants that lead to such an event have received increasingly more attention in the last two decades, the focus on the consequences of BF is still lagging behind. The present study fills this gap by analyzing the aftermath of BF.

Abstract
Population ageing and its influence on the economic growth has long been the focus of major concern. Using bibliometric techniques we found that: (1) although ageing has increasingly attracted more researchers within economics literature, the relative weight of ageing and economic growth related papers does not evidence a clear positive trend; (2) recent studies reveal the willingness of researchers to evaluate less immediate mechanisms relating ageing and economic growth; (3) the increase in the use of empirical methods reflects a trend to test economic phenomena with real-world data against the theory; (4) very few studies focus on developing and less developed countries.

Abstract
There has been a considerable increase in the literature devoted to innovation in the past few decades. This research area is characterized by prolific interdisciplinary connections and no single domain is able to embrace all aspects of science, technology and innovation. By analyzing nearly 60,000 references included in the 1442 articles published between 1974 and 2007 in the area's seed journal, Research Policy (RP), we have uncovered the following patterns: (1) the most important sources of knowledge are associated with core economics (mostly mainstream) and management sources, even though the importance of innovation-related sources has been rising; (2) the degree of autonomy of science, technology and innovation research is still weak, revealing its incipience and lack of a unified theoretical framework; (3) the most influential authors and studies follow heterodox approaches, namely the evolutionary approach (e.g. Richard R. Nelson) and the European approach to innovation (e.g. Keith Pavitt and Chris Freeman), although it is rather surprising that one of the most widely recognized founding fathers of innovation-related studies, Joseph Schumpeter, is absent from the top-10 cited authors list; and (4) the ranking of the most influential studies highlights the relevance of the evolutionary paradigm, with its focus on the capabilities and routines of firms, and the policy-driven nature of topics, evidencing the pervasiveness of the literature on the National System of Innovation.

Abstract
Empirical studies are scarce on the usefulness of state trade missions as a way to promote the internationalization of firms. The results of applying an econometric model - involving 136 participations in twelve state trade missions that occurred between 2005 and 2008 - indicate that a company's size, foreign capital, export intensity, innovation intensity and experience in the market visited are relevant variables in an assessment of the results of state trade missions. Investment in the simple organization of trade state missions is not enough. It is necessary to select the most competent companies and to add more structured programmes to the organization of a mission in order to create and improve firms' competences.

Abstract
The literature on the National Systems of Innovation (NSI) is a relatively new field of research that has spread remarkably in the past 20 years. This article offers a complementary, quantitative description of the state-of-the-art of the literature based on bibliometric methods, by explicitly addressing the roots, evolution and influence of NSI literature. The exercise shows that over time the rate of published articles was quite irregular and that contributions on NSI have not (yet) converged to an integrated analytical framework. Although historically detailed descriptions on NSI showed a noticeable increase in the more recent period (20062010) analyses using more formal and diversified quantitative methodologies for assessing the performance of NSI remained lacking, reflecting its persisting methodological weaknesses. The roots of the NSI literature can be found at the core of innovation studies by certain well-known scholars in the area of economics of innovation and science policy research. Even though publications on NSI are falling in relative importance and are highly concentrated on a small set of countries (United Kingdom, Denmark, and the United States), their influence is global. They are cited by authors affiliated in organisations around the world, notably in Latin America and Asia. Such an influence goes far beyond the area of innovation studies and has resonated in fields such as economic geography, environmental studies, international business and managerial sciences. This demonstrates that the NSI literature is not self-referential.