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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2010‒10‒23
nine papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Conlé, Marcus; Taube, Markus |
| Abstract: | Focussing on China's health biotech clusters the study explores the anatomy of interaction in as well as between various clusters. While the literature has identified the existence of a dense network of durable interactions among firms and between firms and academia at a particular location as one of the most important prerequisites for well-performing clusters, we show that network ties extending beyond regional boundaries are equally valuable for the innovative capacity of China's biotech firms. Analysing the demographic process of cluster emergence we show that there exist different types of biotech clusters in China, which are closely linked and exchange knowledge and technology amongst each other. It appears as if further analysis of these cross-cluster links may provide important insights of how learning and innovation works in China's health biotech industry. Although China's science parks and industrial bases may on an individual basis appear to be badly structured, the organization of China's health biotech industry turns out to be substantially enhanced once these external linkages are taken into consideration. -- |
| Keywords: | China,health biotechnology,cluster,entrepreneurship,localization |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:udedao:842010&r=sbm |
| By: | Link, Albert (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics); Scott, John (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates employment growth in small firms funded by the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Using data collected by the National Research Council for each of five federal agencies, our analysis shows that on average over two-fifths of all projects retained 0 employees after completion and over one-third retained only 1 or 2 employees. Thus, on average, the direct impact of SBIR funded projects on employment is small, especially when compared to the mean number of employees in the firms. However, there are substantial cross-project differences in the number of retained employees that are explained by differences in the firms and their SBIR projects. We find across funding agencies that projects with intellectual property—patents, copyrights, trademarks, or publications—retained more employees after completion of the project. Also, we find that the public funding of research by the SBIR program is more likely to stimulate employment when the government created a market for the products, processes, or services developed by the research projects. |
| Keywords: | small business research; employment growth; entrepreneurship; intellectual property |
| JEL: | J48 L53 O38 |
| Date: | 2010–10–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2010_008&r=sbm |
| By: | Sabrina Di Addario (Bank of Italy); Daniela Vuri (University of Rome Tor Vergata) |
| Abstract: | We analyse empirically the effects of urbanization on Italian college graduates' work possibilities as entrepreneurs three years after graduation. We find that doubling the population density of the province of work reduces the chances of being an entrepreneur by 2-3 percentage points. This result holds after controlling for regional fixed effects and is robust to instrumenting urbanization. Provincial competition, urban amenities and disamenities, cost of labour, earning differentials between employees and self-employed workers, unemployment rates and value added per capita account for more than half of the negative urbanization penalty. Our result cannot be explained by the presence of negative differentials in returns to entrepreneurship between the most and the least densely populated areas either. In fact, as long as they succeed in entering the most densely populated markets, young entrepreneurs are able to reap the benefits of urbanization externalities: doubling the population density of the province of work increases entrepreneurs' net monthly earnings by 2-3 per cent. |
| Keywords: | Labour market transitions, urbanization |
| JEL: | R12 J24 J21 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_775_10&r=sbm |
| By: | Wei Heyuan (Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto); Aurora A.C. Teixeira (CEF.UP, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto; INESC Porto; OBEGEF) |
| Abstract: | The impact of human capital on foreign direct investment (FDI) has been assessed in an essentially descriptive manner. In general, most quantitative studies focus on the macroeconomic level, that is, the level of countries. Microeconomic studies, with firms as the unit of analysis, are scarce internationally and even more so in the case of China. Based on a survey performed on several innovative firms in China, this study assesses the importance of human capital in attracting FDI to China, and estimates is corresponding impact. This impact is analyzed based not only on the direct, but also the indirect effects of human capital, through the firms’ Research and Development (R&D) efforts and contacts with universities. Using a sample of 77 firms, and considering two proxies for human capital (general and specific), we concluded that even though human capital does not constitute a direct factor in attracting FDI to China, it is a positive indirect factor by way of R&D efforts. We have also established that knowledge infrastructures (universities) and physical infrastructures (transport network) comprise important factors to attract FDI. |
| Keywords: | Foreign Direct Investment (FDI); Human Capital; Research and Development (R&D); China |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:388&r=sbm |
| By: | David B. Audretsch; Werner Bönte; Stefan Krabel |
| Abstract: | As public research institutions are increasingly pressured to transfer research results to industry, evaluation of their performance is not only based on their scientific output but also on their commercialization success. Although it is well known that research cooperation activities are an important channel of knowledge transfer, the knowledge about factors driving research cooperation is limited. This paper explicitly focuses on scientist perspective and investigates the relevance of academic values and perceived costs and benefits of cooperation for a scientist's decision to cooperate with private firms. Our analysis is based on two survey waves performed with scientists in the Max Planck Society in Germany which is a publicly funded research organization focusing on basic research. Our empirical results suggest that open science identity is an important determinant of scientist fundamental decision to cooperate with private firms at all. The decision to keep on cooperating with private firms is directly influenced by cost sharing incentives and by firms' confidentiality requirements. Besides these direct effects, our results suggest that perceived reputational reward, monetary benefits, and time costs associated with cooperation influence cooperation behavior indirectly through their impact on the attractiveness of cooperation. The latter is a strong and robust predictor of cooperation behavior. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:10-27&r=sbm |
| By: | Mercedes Delgado; Michael Porter; Scott Stern |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the role of regional cluster composition in the economic performance of industries, clusters and regions. On the one hand, diminishing returns to specialization in a location can result in a convergence effect: the growth rate of an industry within a region may be declining in the level of activity of that industry. At the same time, positive spillovers across complementary economic activities provide an impetus for agglomeration: the growth rate of an industry within a region may be increasing in the size and strength (i.e., relative presence) of related economic sectors. Building on Porter (1998, 2003), we develop a systematic empirical framework to identify the role of regional clusters – groups of closely related and complementary industries operating within a particular region in regional economic performance. We exploit newly available data from the US Cluster Mapping Project to disentangle the impact of convergence at the region-industry level from agglomeration within clusters. We find that, after controlling for the impact of convergence at the narrowest unit of analysis, there is significant evidence for cluster-driven agglomeration. Industries participating in a strong cluster register higher employment growth as well as higher growth of wages, number of establishments, and patenting. Industry and cluster level growth also increases with the strength of related clusters in the region and with the strength of similar clusters in adjacent regions. Importantly, we find evidence that new industries emerge where there is a strong cluster environment. Our analysis also suggests that the presence of strong clusters in a region enhances growth opportunities in other industries and clusters. Overall, these findings highlight the important role of cluster-based agglomeration in regional economic performance. |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:10-34&r=sbm |
| By: | Camacho, Andriana; Rodriguez, Catherine |
| Abstract: | This paper uses two unique panel data sets to study the causal effect that armed conflict has over entrepreneurial activity in Colombia. Using a fixed effect estimation methodology at the plant level and controlling for the possible endogeneity of armed conflict through the use of instrumental variables, we find that a one standard deviation in the number of guerrilla and paramilitary attacks in a municipality increases the probability of firm exit in 8.1 percentage points. This effect is stronger for smaller plants and has a differential impact with respect to firms’ age. |
| Keywords: | conflict, firm exit, entrepreneurship, Colombia |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2010-94&r=sbm |
| By: | Gustavo Crespi; Pluvia Zuniga |
| Abstract: | This study examines the determinants of technological innovation and its impact on firm labor productivity across six Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, and Uruguay) using micro data from innovation surveys. In line with the literature, in all countries firms that invest in knowledge are more able to introduce new technological advances, and those that innovate have greater labor productivity than those that do not. Yet firm-level determinants of innovation investment are much more heterogeneous than in OECD countries. Cooperation, foreign ownership, and exporting increase the propensity to invest in innovation activities and encourage innovation investment in only half of the countries studied. Scientific and market sources of information have little or no impact on firm innovation efforts, which illustrates the weak linkages that characterize national innovation systems in those countries. The results in terms of productivity, however, highlight the importance of innovation in enabling firms to improve economic performance and catch up. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Productivity, Developing countries, Latin America, Innovation surveys |
| JEL: | O12 O14 O31 O33 O40 |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:wpaper:4690&r=sbm |
| By: | Okamuro, Hiroyuki; Van Stel, André; Verheul, Ingrid |
| Abstract: | Globalization and an increasing importance of knowledge in the production process cause many developed countries to move from a more ‘managed’ to a more ‘entrepreneurial’ economy in recent decades. In the former type of economy, large and incumbent firms play a dominant role, exploiting economies of scale in a relatively certain economic environment. In the latter type, small and new firms play an increasingly important role, introducing new products and services in highly uncertain economic environments while quickly adapting to rapidly changing consumer preferences. The speed of adjustment in this transition process from a managed to an entrepreneurial economy varies by country. In this paper we investigate the differences between a more ‘managed’ economy, Japan, characterized by relatively low levels of entrepreneurial activity, and a more ‘entrepreneurial’ economy, the Netherlands. Building on earlier work by Hartog et al. (2010), who explain cross-country differences in three measures of entrepreneurial activity using five broad groups of explanatory variables, we apply a decomposition analysis to better understand the differences in entrepreneurial activity between Japan and the Netherlands. We find that, in spite of higher levels of entrepreneurial activity in the Netherlands, the institutional framework in the Netherlands is considerably less favourable to entrepreneurship, compared to Japan. On the other hand, cultural differences between the Netherlands and Japan explain a substantial part of the difference in entrepreneurship rates between the two countries. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, cross-country comparison, Japan, the Netherlands, United States |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:ccesdp:36&r=sbm |