Abstract
Innovation plays a very important role in businesses competitiveness. As Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) stem for more than 95 % of the industrial fabric in the developed world, the improvement of the industrial production or the provision of a service are key to increase their productivity and competitiveness. The Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) is a Japanese process-based innovative methodology that involves the separation and conversion of internal setup operations into external ones. The SMED makes it possible for firms to reduce their lead times and to eliminate wastefulness during changeover activities. Although organizational innovation is a very important tool, it plays a silent role in productivity improvement, as it is less tangible than product or process innovation. Moreover, studies about SMED implementation and how teams have managed to achieve their results are still very limited among SMEs. The main objective of this chapter is to provide the results of seven projects involving business-university partnerships addressing this understudied topic: SMED implementation and organizational innovation in SMEs. The main finding of this study is that all firms managed to improve their setup times, although the results vary extensively. From the organizational innovation point of view, only one firm failed to intertwine the initiation and the implementation stages. Although all firms have initiation-implementation routines, there are clear differences among them. As a result, although it is possible to claim that all SMEs analyzed are ambidextrous organizations, their initiation-implementation routines, deserve deeper comprehension. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014. All rights are reserved.

Abstract
With the global population crossing the 7 billion mark, the world is too crowded. The race for survival is not limited to food, water, shelter, and other basic needs; it also includes fierce competition in all industrial sectors across the world. These days, there are basically two patterns of uncontrolled industrial growth across the world. The first one is meant to fulfill the domestic demands and the common needs of the people. The second one is to exploit the present world situation to maximize profits. Of course, this is a race for supremacy that pushes nations to compete in all possible means to achieve the most from their resources.

Abstract
This article presents an integrated vision of the context of the residential real estate market in Portugal. It analyses the evolution of several macroeconomic indicators during the last decade. The article is complemented with the analysis of the house prices, where an evaluation of average prices of apartments in Portugal according to different typologies and regions have been done. Regarding the market environment, several indicators are assessed, such as the evolution of interest rates, the evolution of households' credit, the consumption and construction confidence indexes and the evolution of foreign direct investment in housing. The conclusion is that after a booming period, the future of the real estate market is somehow worrying.

Abstract
This paper analyzes the scientific literature produced recently about new product development (NPD) in order to identify and classify the major fields of knowledge, possible connections, as well as the nature of articles and analytics tools used. A review of the literature was implemented on 461 articles focused on NPD, published in three leading journals between 2000 and 2010. It was possible to create 13 main categories, in which innovation, research and development, NPD products and processes and NPD teams stand out. Results conclude that NPD is multifaceted, includes multiple concepts and interrelated categories. Moreover, future studies need to complement qualitative with quantitative research and to analyze how small and large firms differ.

Abstract
This paper estimates the relationships between bidding quantities, marginal cost and market power measures in the Spanish wholesale electricity market for two different regulatory periods: 2002-2005 and 2006-2007. Using panel econometric techniques we find differences in the impacts on bidding strategies for both periods. Hence, the marginal cost and the market power measures affect bid and net quantities. The market power measures also suggest that the coefficient is consistently positive and highly significant for both periods. Moreover, the market power and marginal costs have mixed effects according to the models proposed for both periods. In addition, our results point to the effectiveness of the different effects of mitigating the market power in the Spanish electricity market. For the 2006-2007 period, the proposed causal relationships are partially validated by the cointegration results, which assumes there is a significant causality between the Lerner Index and the marginal cost. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Abstract
In the present study the strategies of innovation, risk and proactiveness in micro and small businesses comparing their results between family and non- family firms were studied. Although it is common to find in the literature a trend of better performance of family businesses, this work is counteracted this trend. Not to the particular performance level, but the strategies presented, whose adoption leads to better performance. The study was carried out in the Vale do Sousa region and industrial and construction companies were considered. In terms of results, the sample allows us to conclude by 47 % of family businesses. Comparing the family business groups and unfamiliar, it was found that there were no differences in terms of innovation strategies and risks, however, the non- family businesses have become more proactive. In line with these results also found that it is not possible to distinguish between family and non- family firms in terms of entrepreneurship.