ICS Working Paper Nº1/2018

ICS W O R K I N G P A P E R S 2018 16 Figure 4 - Regional CBI Geographical Clusters 2.3 Who is driving CBIs in Portugal? In terms of longevity it is difficult to outline a clear picture: there seems to be a low survival rate after the first years of existence and most of the CBIs still seem to be in a development phase (cf. Marques Balsa et al., 2016; Baumgarten, 2017). We have no means to determine whether this implies CBIs’ “false start” that fails to transform into a proper initiative, if they simply take a long time to set up, or if they are transforming or even travelling across space or institutional settings. This fact is particularly relevant when we take into consideration the overall recent appearance and growth of the CBI phenomenon. In fact, the majority of these initiatives exist since 3 to 5 years, whilst only 25% exist since more than 7 years (cf. Marques Balsa et al., 2016:35). It is therefore relevant to take a closer look into the actors driving the creation and management of Portuguese CBIs. CATALISE informs us that more than half the CBIs are founded by multiple persons — while it is left unclear how many people this actually involves—, the average of people taking part in their activities is around 1500 per year. Nevertheless, a critical scrutiny reveals a median of 108 and a mode of