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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2011‒07‒21
eight papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Matteo Lucchese (Università di Urbino "Carlo Bo") |
| Abstract: | The model and the empirical test developed in this paper address the determinants of structural change for six major European economies from 1995 to 2007. The performances of sectors are explained by the unfolding of uneven technological opportunities and different conditions of demand. Building on the literature on structural change and on previous studies on the link between sectoral patterns of innovation and economic performance of sectors, a set of tests is developed on a panel of 21 manufacturing sectors and 17 services, merging three different sources of data. The results show the importance of breaking up the innovative efforts of sectors and the role of demand in shaping their trajectories of development. |
| Keywords: | Structural change, Demand, Innovation, Industry-level analysis. |
| JEL: | O10 O33 O41 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:urb:wpaper:11_09&r=sbm |
| By: | Francesco Bogliacino (European Commission); Matteo Lucchese (Università di Urbino "Carlo Bo"); Mario Pianta (Department of Economics, Society & Politics, Università di Urbino "Carlo Bo") |
| Abstract: | The patterns and mechanisms of job creation in business services are investigated in this article by considering the role of innovation, demand, wages and the composition of employment by professional groups. A model is developed and an empirical test is carried out with parallel analyses on a group of selected business services, on other services and on manufacturing sectors,considering six major European countries over the period 1996-2007. Within technological activities a distinction is made between those supporting either technological competitiveness, or cost competitiveness. Demand variables allow identifying the special role of intermediate demand. Job creation in business services appears to be driven by efforts to expand technological competitiveness and by the fast growing intermediate demand coming from other industries; conversely, process innovation leads to job losses and wage growth has a negative effect that is lower that in other industries. Business services show an increasingly polarised employment structure. |
| Keywords: | Business Services, Innovation, Employment. |
| JEL: | J20 J23 O30 O33 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:urb:wpaper:11_07&r=sbm |
| By: | Rune Dahl Fitjar (IRIS - International Research Institute of Stavanger); Andrés Rodríguez-Pose (IMDEA Social Sciences) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the sources of firm product and process innovation in Norway. It uses a purpose-built survey of 1604 firms in the five largest Norwegian city-regions to test, by means of a logit regression analysis, Jensen et al.'s (2007) contention that firm innovation is both the result of 'science, technology and innovation' (STI) and 'doing, using and interacting' (DUI) modes of firm learning. The paper classifies different types of firm interaction into STI-mode interaction (with consultants, universities, and research centres) and DUI-mode interaction, distinguishing between DUI interaction within the supply-chain (i.e. with suppliers and customers) or not (with competitors). It further controls for the geographical locations of partners. The analysis demonstrates that engagement with external agents is an important source of firm innovation and that both STI and DUI-modes of interaction matter. However, it also shows that DUI modes of interaction outside the supply chain tend to be irrelevant for innovation, with frequent exchanges with competitors having a detrimental effect on a firm's propensity to innovate. Collaboration with extra-regional agents is much more conducive to innovation than collaboration with local partners, especially within the DUI mode.This paper examines the sources of firm product and process innovation in Norway. It uses a purpose-built survey of 1604 firms in the five largest Norwegian city-regions to test, by means of a logit regression analysis, Jensen et al.'s (2007) contention that firm innovation is both the result of 'science, technology and innovation' (STI) and 'doing, using and interacting' (DUI) modes of firm learning. The paper classifies different types of firm interaction into STI-mode interaction (with consultants, universities, and research centres) and DUI-mode interaction, distinguishing between DUI interaction within the supply-chain (i.e. with suppliers and customers) or not (with competitors). It further controls for the geographical locations of partners. The analysis demonstrates that engagement with external agents is an important source of firm innovation and that both STI and DUI-modes of interaction matter. However, it also shows that DUI modes of interaction outside the supply chain tend to be irrelevant for innovation, with frequent exchanges with competitors having a detrimental effect on a firm's propensity to innovate. Collaboration with extra-regional agents is much more conducive to innovation than collaboration with local partners, especially within the DUI mode. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; firms; suppliers; customers; competitors; universities; STI; DUI; R&D; geography; Norway |
| Date: | 2011–07–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imd:wpaper:wp2011-12&r=sbm |
| By: | Kronenberg, Kristin |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes determinants of business relocation and identifies regional characteristics which attract relocating firms. Results indicate that the relocation decisions of firms are sector-dependent, and the migratory behavior of firms in knowledge-intensive sectors notably differs from that in less knowledge-intensive sectors. Generally, its age and size keep a firm from relocating, whereas firms paying high average salaries have a higher probability to move out of their present location. Relocating firms are generally attracted by densely populated municipalities with high wage levels, and predominantly service firms are drawn to municipalities which are specialized in the firm’s own sector and appeal to individuals, while they avoid moving to municipalities in which only few sectors are present. Sector-specific wages may either attract, or deter firms, suggesting that this variable may capture both the cost and the quality of the locally available workforce. |
| Keywords: | firm relocation; mobility; location choices; nested logit |
| JEL: | R30 R11 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:32147&r=sbm |
| By: | Maria Plotnikova (Department of Economics, University of Reading); Nigel Wadeson; Brian Ashcroft (Department of Economics, University of Strathclyde) |
| Abstract: | Firm formation has been advocated by policy-makers and examined by researchers as a vehicle for job creation and economic development. Both industrial structures and the firm formation rates of individual industries vary regionally. For instance, Ashcroft et al (1991) showed that firm formation rates vary significantly between U.K. counties. While shift-share analysis has been used as a decomposition technique (Dunn, 1960) to account for these differences, a shortcoming is that the regional shift is affected by the level of regional employment in a given industry. Also, firm formation rates in each industry are likely to be partly determined by the industrial structure of a region. This paper extends the shift-share methodology developed by Johnson (1983) to incorporate a cluster analysis of the industrial structure of regional employment in order to further separate regional and sectoral components of firm formation in British counties in the1980s and 1990s. Firm formation is measured using VAT registration rates. |
| Date: | 2010–08–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rdg:emxxdp:em-dp2010-06&r=sbm |
| By: | Andrzej P. Dabkowski |
| Abstract: | Endogenous growth theory assigns an important role for entrepreneurship in the process of economic development. This paper sets to formally test the impact of entrepreneurship on economic growth. Entrepreneurship is represented by a number of proxy variables, whereas Total Factor Productivity is used as a measure of economic growth. Panel data of 26 European countries repeatedly sampled over a period of 11 years is used to estimate a Random Effects model. This study finds that entrepreneurship contributes to growth moderately. It is not, nonetheless, a dominant force shaping changes in TFP growth rates. Business Birth Rate, Self-employment Rate, Business Investment and Labour Productivity Growth were all found to be highly significant. The article concludes that more encompassing measure of entrepreneurship needs to be developed, one that would reflect the complexity of the notion. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, total factor productivity, economic growth, the EU |
| JEL: | O11 O30 O47 O52 L26 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sec:cnstan:0427&r=sbm |
| By: | Christine Greenhalgh (Oxford University); Mark Rogers (Oxford University); Philipp Schautschick (University of Munich) |
| Abstract: | A common assumption in innovation policy circles is that creative and inventive firms will help to sustain employment and wages in high wage countries. The view is that firms in high cost production locations that do not innovate are faced with loss of market share from import competition, so jobs move to producers in developing countries with lower labour costs. Domestic firms are encouraged to innovate, and to obtain intellectual property assets to protect their innovations, so that they can sustain local employment and pay high wages. Policies to subsidise R&D and to encourage intellectual property protection are partly justified on these grounds. Nevertheless the available evidence concerning the employment and wage benefits of such activity is rather sparse. In this paper we first survey some existing literature on innovation and jobs. We outline arguments for using both patents and trade marks as indicators of innovation. We then construct a large sample of UK firms observed from 2000 to 2006, matching records of patents and trade marks to company data. We begin by estimating a cross section employment growth equation for 2003-2006 to discover if there is any impact of stocks of trade marks acquired in 2000-2003. We then explore in more detail the impact of recent trade mark and patenting activity on the level of employment and the average rate of pay in these firms. We do this using the data as a six year panel, estimating both an employment function and a relative earnings equation at the firm level. Our aim throughout is to identify and calibrate the assumed positive effects that underpin modern innovation policy. |
| Keywords: | patents, trademarks, innovation, labot costs, wages, firms |
| JEL: | D21 E22 H32 K13 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:indrel:1319&r=sbm |
| By: | Mehdi Mohammadi Poorangi; Dr. Edward Wong Sek Khin (Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya) |
| Abstract: | In the third millennium, competition has become tough and unpredictable and all organizational regardless of their size and scope of operation are facing fierce competitive challenges. In management, one of the most reliable ways to cope with these challenges quickly and effectively is strategic alliance or partnership. Consequently, strategic alliance has attracted lots of attention from the researchers and managers over past years. Technically, strategic alliance is a systematic approach to share the resources, acquire more capabilities, and finally create cooperative and competitive advantages. This study addressed the concept of strategic alliance amongst Malaysian SMEs in different industries and tried to create a regulatory framework for the SME strategic alliance in Malaysia from a holistic view based on the statements of the sampled SMEs’ executives. The findings of the study showed that in conducting a strategic partnership program the first step must be selecting a potential partner and this process requires a full understanding of partners across two dimensions: 1. Resources and capabilities, and 2. Cost and risks. In addition, strategic alliance can shape domestically as well as internationally and also in the form of a network of multiple alliances and the tendency of an enterprise in forming such partnership programs indicate the attitude of executives toward the alliance. Finally, it also has been found that learning and sharing knowledge resources is a critical factor in success of any strategic alliance |
| Keywords: | strategic alliance, Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), resource based view (RBV) |
| JEL: | M00 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cms:1icm11:2011-034_250&r=sbm |