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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2011‒02‒19
nine papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Marco Capasso; Elena Cefis; Koen Frenken |
| Abstract: | We compare the industrial dynamics in the core, semi-periphery and periphery in The Netherlands in terms of firm entry-exit, size, growth and sectoral location patterns. The contribution of our work is to provide the first comprehensive study on spatial differentiation in industrial dynamics for all firm sizes and all sectors, including services. We find that at the aggregate level the spatial pattern of industrial dynamics is consistent with the spatial product lifecycle thesis: entry and exit rates are highest in the core and lowest in the periphery, while the share of persistently growing firms is higher in the periphery than in the core. Disaggregating the analysis to the sectoral level following the Pavitt-Miozzo-Soete taxonomy, findings are less robust. Finally, sectoral location patterns are largely consistent with the spatial product lifecycle model: Fordist sectors are over-represented in the periphery, while sectors associated with the ICT paradigm are over-represented in the core, with the notable exception of science-based manufacturing. |
| Keywords: | Entry, exit, spatial product lifecycle, Fordist paradigm, ICT paradigm |
| JEL: | L25 L26 L60 L80 O18 O33 R10 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:1021&r=sbm |
| By: | Marco Capasso; Elena Cefis; Sandro Sapio |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a general framework to account for the divergent results in the empirical literature on the relation between firm sizes and growth rates, and on many results on growth autocorrelation. In particular, we provide an explanation for why traces of the LPE sometimes occur in conditional mean (i.e. OLS) autoregressions of firm size or firm growth, and in conditional median (i.e. least absolute deviation) autoregressions, but never in high or low quantile autoregressions. Based on an original empirical analysis of the population of manufacturing firms in the Netherlands between 1994 and 2004, we find that there is no peculiar role played by the median of the growth distribution, which is approximately equal to zero independent of firm size. In economic terms, this is equivalent to saying that most of the phenomena of interest for industrial dynamics can be studied without reference to the behaviour of the median firm, and many `average' relations retrieved in the literature, starting from the negative relation between average size and average growth, are driven by the few dynamic firms in the sample rather than the many stable ones. Moreover, we observe the tent shape of the empirical firm growth rate distribution and confirm the skewness-size and the variance-size relations. The identified quantile regression patterns - autoregressive coefficients above 1 for fast decliners, and below 1 for fast growers - can be obtained by assuming negative variance-size scaling and Laplace growth rate distributions, and are robust to a mild positive relationship between skewness and size. A relationship between quantile regression patterns and previous findings is therefore uncovered. |
| Keywords: | Firm growth; Law of Proportionate Effect; quantile regression; heterogeneity; variance-size scaling. |
| JEL: | L11 L25 L60 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:1022&r=sbm |
| By: | Dirk Engel (University of Applied Science Stralsund; RWI); Timo Mitze (RWI; Ruhr University Bochum); Roberto Patuelli (University of Lugano; The Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis (RCEA)); Janina Reinkowski (ifo Munich) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we evaluate the R&D enhancing effects of two large public grant schemes aiming at encouraging the performance of firms organized in clusters. These are Germany's well known BioRegio and BioProfile contests for which we compare the research performance of winning regions in contrast with non-winning and non-participating comparison regions. We apply Difference-in-Difference estimation techniques in a generalized linear model framework, which allows to control for different initial regional conditions in the biotechnology related R&D activity. Our econometric findings support the view that winners generally outperform non-winning participants during the treatment period, thus indicating that exclusive funding as well as the stimulating effect of being a "winner" seems to work in the short-term. In contrast, no indirect impacts stemming from a potential mobilizing effect of the contest approaches have been detected. Also, we find only limited evidence for long-term effects of public R&D grants in the post-treatment period. The results of our analysis remain stable if we additionally augment the model to account for the particular role of spatial dependence in the R&D outcome variables. |
| Keywords: | Biotechnology; R&D Policies; Cluster; Diff-in-Diff Estimation |
| JEL: | O38 R38 C23 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rim:rimwps:15_11&r=sbm |
| By: | Florin Paun (Laboratoire de recherche sur l'Industrie et l'Innovation - Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale); Nick Von Tunzelmann (SPRU - University of Sussex); Philippe Richard (Chercheur Indépendant - Aucune) |
| Abstract: | The technology transfer process between a public laboratory and a company has been the subject of many publications and has been widely discussed in economic theory. This paper highlights several newly identified asymmetries occurring between the different agents taking part in the process, dealing specifically with the aerospace and defense sectors in France. These specificities concern the characteristics, capabilities and competencies (the ‘capacities') of French SMEs and public research laboratories. The theoretical corpus of the article draws partly upon the analyses of ‘dynamic and interactive capabilities' (and competencies), and for the rest upon empirical sources, being based on the recent experience of one of the most dynamic Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) in France: the case of ONERA (the National Office for Aerospace Studies and Research) and its dyadic relations with the SMEs. In such a cooperative, interactive innovation process, we will argue that certain collaborative tools or practices emerge, aimed at reducing information asymmetries or acting as compensation mechanisms for other types of asymmetries between the partners at a microeconomic level; especially in France where there is a gap between the public R&D laboratories and the SMEs in terms of Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs). Some of these compensation mechanisms, particularly those related to the knowledge economy, could be adapted and reshaped for agents engaged in R&D and innovation in various other sectors, perhaps inducing positive amplification effects on innovation behavior, and thereby on economic growth at the macroeconomic level within the “national innovation system”. This research work initiated by the author further to his economic research works on “innovation actors' asymmetries” (Paun, F., 2009) and “hybridizing tendency of the innovation approaches” (Paun, F., 2010) is based on the empirical study about eighty SMEs partners of ONERA coordinated by Florin Paun as Deputy Director in charge with Industrial Innovation at ONERA in order to better understand the barriers perceived inside this relationship and with the aim to envisage systemic solutions for accelerating innovation. A specific questionnaire has been developed by Florin Paun and more then forty interviews have been thus conducted with scientists and industrial representatives involved in direct collaborations linked to technology or knowledge transfer. |
| Keywords: | French SMEs, technology transfer, information asymmetries, dynamic capabilities, innovation systems |
| Date: | 2010–10–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00560536&r=sbm |
| By: | Katharina Pijnenburg; Konstantin A. Kholodilin |
| Abstract: | We use a neoclassical production function to analyze the effects of knowledge spillovers via entrepreneurship on economic performance of 337 German districts. To take the spatial dependence structure of the data into account, we estimate a spatial Durbin model. We highlight the importance of the choice of the appropriate weight matrix. We find positive knowledge spillover effects via entrepreneurship within a certain region. Between regions, entrepreneurship as a vehicle by which knowledge spills over and contributes to economic performance depends largely on the choice of the weight matrix. We see this as evidence for regionally bounded knowledge spillover effects via entrepreneurship. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship capital, regional output, spatial weight matrix |
| JEL: | C21 M13 R11 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1103&r=sbm |
| By: | Marco Capasso; Elena Cefis |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the effects of the existence of natural and/or exogenously imposed thresholds in firm size distributions, on estimations of the relation between firm size and variance in firm growth rates. We explain why the results in the literature on this relationship are not consistent. We argue that a natural threshold (0 number of employees or 0 total sales) and/or the existence of truncating thresholds in the dataset, can lead to upwardly biased estimations of the relation. We show the potential impact of the bias on simulated data, suggest a methodology to improve these estimations, and present an empirical analysis based on a comprehensive dataset of Dutch manufacturing and service firms. The only stable relation between firm size and growth rate variance is negative regardless of how we define the measure of firm growth. |
| Keywords: | firm growth, growth rates variance; truncation; thresholds |
| JEL: | L25 C21 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:1023&r=sbm |
| By: | Annalisa Ferrando (European Central Bank, DG-Economics, Kaiserstrasse 29, D-60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.); Nicolas Griesshaber (Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences (BGSS), Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany.) |
| Abstract: | In this study we investigate the determinants of financing obstacles using survey data on a sample of around 5000 firms from the euro area countries. This completely new survey – started at the end of 2009 - gives us the opportunity to test whether firm characteristics such as size, age, economic branch, financial autonomy and ownership are valid predictors of financing obstacles also during the recent financial crisis. Our results show that only age and ownership are robust explanatory variables for firms’ perceived financing obstacles while mixed results are found for size and economic branches. JEL Classification: E22, G30, G10, O16, K40. |
| Keywords: | Financial Crisis, Financing Constraints, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Survey Data. |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20111293&r=sbm |
| By: | Vladimír Benáček (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic); Eva Michalíková (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic) |
| Abstract: | The paper quantifies the role of factors associated with the growth (or decline) of micro and small businesses in European economies. The growth is related to employment and value added in enterprises as well as to ten institutional variables. We test the data for consistency of behavioural patterns in various countries and gradually remove outlying observations, quite a unique a pproach in the panel data analysis, that can lead to erroneous conclusions when using the classical estimators. In the first part of this paper we outline a highly robust method of estimation based on fixed effects and least trimmed squares (LTS). In its second part we apply this method on the panel data of 28 countries in 2002-2008 testing for the hypothesis that micro and small businesses in Europe use different strategies for their growth. We run a series of econometric tests where we regress employment and total net production in micro and small businesses on three economic factors: gross capital returns, labour cost gaps in small relative to large enterprises and the GDP per capita. In addition, we also test the role of 10 institutional factors in the growth of familty businesses. |
| Keywords: | Family business, robust estimator, LTS, fixed effects |
| JEL: | C01 C23 C51 C82 F21 F40 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fau:wpaper:wp2011_06&r=sbm |
| By: | Vincenzo Denicol (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research); Luigi A. Franzoni (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development ResearchInstitute of Economic Growth) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the conditions for the desirability of exclusive intellectual property rights for innovators as opposed to weak rights allowing for some degree of imitation and ex-post competition. The comparison between the two alternatives reduces to a specific "ratio test," which suggests that strong exclusive IP rights are preferable when competition from potential imitators is weak, the innovation attracts large R&D investments, and research spill-overs are small. |
| Keywords: | Kaplow test, research spill-overs, patents and trade secrets, independent invention defense, mandatory licensing |
| JEL: | K21 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ind:igiwpp:2011-002&r=sbm |