Let's define the situation: the influence between Arroyo's study and Bento's thesis is conditional, not a simple causal link.
A pre-existing research program at NOVA University of Lisboa, or even the preferences of a thesis supervisor, could have decided Bento's topic, independently of Arroyo's work.
We need to engage in a more nuanced evaluation of academic motivations.
For example, if the available data on startups in Portugal were unique, it would naturally have oriented Bento's work towards local predictive modeling.