nep-sbm New Economics Papers
on Small Business Management
Issue of 2014‒11‒17
five papers chosen by
João Carlos Correia Leitão
Universidade da Beira Interior

  1. “Does absorptive capacity determine collaborative research returns to innovation? A geographical dimension” By Erika Raquel Badillo; Rosina Moreno
  2. The Greener the Better: Job Creation and Environmentally- Friendly Technological Change By Luisa Gagliardi; Giovanni Marin; Caterina Miriello
  3. Acquisitions of Start-ups by Incumbent Businesses A market selection process of “high-quality” entrants? By Andersson, Martin; Xiao, Jing
  4. Technology and employment:The job creation effect of business R&D By Francesco Bogliacino; Mariacristina Piva
  5. Industrial Agglomeration and Spatial Persistence: Entry, Growth, and Exit of Software Publishers By Deltas, George; De Silva, Dakshina G.; McComb, Robert P.

  1. By: Erika Raquel Badillo (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona); Rosina Moreno (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona)
    Abstract: This paper aims to estimate the impact of research collaboration with partners in different geographical areas on innovative performance. By using the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel, this study provides evidence that the benefits of research collaboration differ across different dimensions of the geography. We find that the impact of extra-European cooperation on innovation performance is larger than that of national and European cooperation, indicating that firms tend to benefit more from interaction with international partners as a way to access new technologies or specialized and novel knowledge that they are unable to find locally. We also find evidence of the positive role played by absorptive capacity, concluding that it implies a higher premium on the innovation returns to cooperation in the international case and mainly in the European one.
    Keywords: Innovation cooperation; Technological partners; Geographical location; Performance; Absorptive Capacity; Spanish firms JEL classification: L25; O31; O33; R1
    Date: 2014–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:201428&r=sbm
  2. By: Luisa Gagliardi; Giovanni Marin; Caterina Miriello
    Abstract: This paper investigates the link between environment related innovation and job creation at firm level. Employing Italian data on 4,507 manufacturing firms, matched with patent records for the period 2001-2008, we test whether “green” innovation, measured using the number of environment related patents, has a positive effect on long run employment growth that is specific with respect to non environmental innovation. Results show a strong positive impact of “green” innovation on long run job creation, substantially bigger than the effect of other innovations. Our findings are robust to a number of additional tests including controls for cost differential between generic and “green” innovation and endogeneity.
    Keywords: Technological Change, Eco-Innovation, Employment
    JEL: O33 Q55 J21
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcu:iefewp:iefewp60&r=sbm
  3. By: Andersson, Martin (CIRCLE, Lund University and Department of Industrial Economics, Blekinge Institute of Technology); Xiao, Jing (CIRCLE and Department of Economic History, Lund University)
    Abstract: We analyze the frequency and nature by which new firms are acquired by established businesses. Acquisitions are often considered to reflect a technology transfer process and to also constitute one way in which a “symbiosis” between new technology-based firms (NTBFs) and established businesses is realized. Using a micro-level dataset for Sweden in which we follow new entrants up to 18 years after entry, we show that acquisitions of recent start-ups are rare and restricted to a small group of entrants with defining characteristics. Estimates from competing risks models show that acquired start-ups, in particular by multinational enterprises (MNEs), stand out from entrants that either remain independent or exit by being much more likely to be spin-offs operating in high-tech sectors, having strong technological competence, and having weak internal financial resources. Our overall findings support the argument that acquisitions primarily concern NTBFs in market contexts where entry costs are large, access to finance is important and incumbents have high market power.
    Keywords: acquisitions; post-entry performance; market selection; start-ups; new technology-based firms (NTBFs); innovation; competing-risk model; Sweden
    JEL: G34 L22 L26 O32 O33
    Date: 2014–10–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2014_019&r=sbm
  4. By: Francesco Bogliacino (Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz, Bogotá - Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá); Mariacristina Piva (DISCE, Università Cattolica; DISCE, Università Cattolica)
    Abstract: After discussing theory regarding the consequences of technological change on employment, our aim is to test the possible job creation effect of business R&D expenditures, using a unique longitudinal database covering 677 European firms (1990-2008). The main outcome from the dynamic LSDVC (Least Squared Dummy Variable Corrected) estimate is the labour-friendly nature of companies’ R&D, the coefficient of which turns out to be statistically significant. However, the positive impact of R&D on employment is only detectable in services and high-tech manufacturing. This is something that should be borne in mind by European policy makers having employment as one of their aims.
    Keywords: Innovation, Employment, Manufacturing, Services, LSDVC
    JEL: O33
    Date: 2014–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie5:ispe0069&r=sbm
  5. By: Deltas, George; De Silva, Dakshina G.; McComb, Robert P.
    Abstract: We use geocoded administrative data from Texas on all business establishments to estimate the effects of localization economies on the spatial persistence of industrial employment for the software industry. We decompose this persistence into components arising from entry rates, firm growth, and exit rates. Unlike previous research that has used geographies based on county and MSA divisions, this analysis takes place at a very high level of spatial resolution in which the industrial composition is identified within areas as small as one mile in radius. The choice of the software industry allows us to isolate the effects arising from human capital spillovers and the effects arising from the labor pool channel from other sources of agglomeration economies. Moreover, the decomposition of the employment persistence in entry, growth and exit, and the high level of spatial resolution allow us to distinguish between these two effects and has a number of other advantages. The results suggest that a location, defined as a 1-mile radium circle, with an initial concentration of software industry employment, retains a disproportionate number of software industry employees 6 years later. Software industry employment in the surrounding area has a small and often insignificant effect, i.e., any agglomeration effects dissipate rapidly over space. The results are not driven by higher growth rates of software establishments in high concentration locations or by differences in the survival probabilities. Rather, they are fully accounted for by two factors: (i) the retention of jobs lost by an establishment in a location by other establishments in that same location and (ii) an increased propensity of software establishments to enter in or near locations with prior software establishment presence. The entry effect diminishes sharply beyond one mile. These findings are mostly consistent with labor channel effects, including the possibility of spin-offs locating near existing firms, but disembodied human capital spillovers might also be present to some extent.
    Keywords: Agglomeration economies, labor pools, knowledge spillovers, firm growth
    JEL: R12
    Date: 2014–09–22
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:58751&r=sbm

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