Best Practice Inventory and Benchmarking Study

This study, which was supported by Ruris, was carried out under the "Economia Ativa no Douro Verde" project and its purpose is to promote a culture of entrepreneurship and organisational capacity building, thereby strengthening the skills of the various players involved in stimulating business activity, encouraging the creation of new companies, contributing to the acceleration of existing ones and adding value to farming activities and local produce.

Ruris carried out a study cataloguing the best practices adopted by a range of organisations which, by their example, generate momentum favourable to entrepreneurial activity, drawing attention on the one hand to the main obstacles to getting a business off the ground and, on the other, offering the opportunity to see other examples first hand which, through their different approaches — particularly in implementing innovative sales and market-entry techniques — are success stories.

Ruris carried out the following actions for this study:

• Identification of partners and destinations to visit under the four benchmarking activities provided for in the project:
  • definition of the national and international destinations;
  • three national benchmarking activities;
  • one international benchmarking activity.
• Definition of the study's objectives and methodology;
• Documentary research and literature review;
• Identification and selection of good practice;
• Analysis of success factors and obstacles;
• Characterisation of the case studies;
• Planning of the technical visits;
• Preparation of the study;
• Review and validation.