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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2015‒10‒10
twelve papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Erind Hoti (European University of Tirana); Gentian Hoxhalli (European University of Tirana) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses at small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which are facing growing competition. Technological innovation and the increasing role of knowledge exploitation in the enterprise, provide an important source of innovation and competitive advantage. Technological innovation is being perceived to a greater extent as a continuous, collaborative, multi-actor process requiring new collaboration-supporting technologies and focusing on knowledge and social dynamics perspectives. This paper tries to determine if any relationships do exist between measures for adapting technological innovation in SMEs and whether these are caused by a technology-push or demand-pull. It also aims at verifying if activities related to knowledge management in the enterprise lead to planned or incidental innovations. In doing so we get insights on how different activities could affect technological innovation and it contributes to the small business management literature by adding to the body of knowledge on technological innovation adaption and utilization in SMEs. The empirical investigation is carried out in an emerging market nation such as Albania |
| Keywords: | SMEs, technology innovation, knowledge management, emerging market economy |
| JEL: | O30 M20 O32 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:2805365&r=all |
| By: | Erind Hoti (European University of Tirana); Gentian Hoxhalli (European University of Tirana) |
| Abstract: | This paper scrutinizes the ground rules for designing collaborative processes by focusing on inter-organizational collaboration and considering collaboration as a process for improving the competitiveness of small and medium sized firms (SMEs). In a need to be more competitive and facing an ever more knowledge-based environment, SMEs must collaborate in order to stay competitive and easily adjust to new situations. Collaboration in itself is perceived as a dynamic process taking place among various actors who come together to jointly achieve a beneficial outcome. This paper provides an overview of the evidence on common motives and inhibiting factors for collaboration among SMEs based on a review of the evidence. |
| Keywords: | Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), inter-organizational collaboration, collaborative processes, cooperation |
| JEL: | A10 L21 L29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:2805364&r=all |
| By: | Christopher Goetz; Henry Hyatt; Erika McEntarfer; Kristin Sandusky |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we highlight the potential for linked employer-employee data to be used in entrepreneurship research, describing new data on business start-ups, their founders and early employees, and providing examples of how they can be used in entrepreneurship research. Linked employer-employee data provides a unique perspective on new business creation by combining information on the business, workforce, and individual. By combining data on both workers and firms, linked data can investigate many questions that owner-level or firm-level data cannot easily answer alone - such as composition of the workforce at start-ups and their role in explaining business dynamics, the flow of workers across new and established firms, and the employment paths of the business owners themselves. |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:15-29&r=all |
| By: | Jean Bonnet (CREM UMR-CNRS 6211, UFR SEGGAT, Université de Caen Normandie, France) |
| Abstract: | In France the Technology Transfer Offices, within universities and more generally in higher education institutions, have developed over the past fifteen years, both in terms of the funding and affected human resources. Academic spin-offs are however few and create few jobs (PHILIPART, 2012). In the US the results are much more convincing, SIEGEL (2013). Few French academic staff value their academic work (or even think to do so) by creating companies or more generally by economic exploitation including through patents or partnerships with existing companies (EMIN, 2003). And when they do spin-offs, business does not necessarily know an important development in the image of Anglo-Saxon "gazelles" (BONNET, LE PAPE, NELSON, 2015). Also few students are also considering the option of creating their own business even though the numbers are improving thanks to the development of entrepreneurship training (BOISSIN, CHOLLET, EMIN, 2009). This study aims to highlight the characteristics of the intention of the creation of academic spin-offs by staff and doctoral students of Lower-Normandy colleges. |
| Keywords: | Economic Valuation of Research, Academic Staff, Professional Values, Dissatisfactions, Incentives |
| JEL: | L26 M12 M13 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tut:cremwp:201512&r=all |
| By: | Ţoniş BuceaManea, Rocsana; Catană, Mădălin Gabriel; Tonoiu, Sergiu |
| Abstract: | The SMEs represent an important factor of growth in both developed and developing countries, into which, however, they face different obstacles in the process of innovation. This paper analyses how open communication and collaboration can help SMEs in their struggle for sustainable innovation and profitable market competition. Based on a literature review, a number of obstacles that SMEs have to overcome in their current activity and possible support to be competitive are revealed. The main benefits and particularities of implementing open innovation in SMEs are presented. The necessity of a supportive business environment for SMEs is demonstrated. An outline of an improved model for SMEs is presented. Introduction |
| Keywords: | open innovation, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), network business environment, technological infrastructure, legal framework, model of innovation for SMEs. |
| JEL: | M15 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:67060&r=all |
| By: | Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Sanandaji, Tino (Institute for Economic and Business History Research (EHFF)) |
| Abstract: | In some classes of models, taxes at the owner level are “neutral” and have no effect on firm activity. However, this tax neutrality is sensitive to assumptions and no longer holds in more complex models. We review recent research that incorporates greater complexity in studying the link between taxes and business activity – particularly entrepreneurship. Dividend taxes on owners of large firms affect firm activity in models that include agency conflicts between owners and managers. Similarly, after incorporating entrepreneurs’ occupational choice into the model, taxes are no longer neutral. By forsaking lucrative alternative careers, skilled entrepreneurs tend to have high opportunity costs, which make the choice of attempting to start a business of first order importance. Moreover, in models where it is assumed that capital flows across borders without cost, taxes on domestic business owners do not alter business activity because foreign capital seamlessly compensates for tax-induced declines in investments. This theoretical notion is contradicted by the strong “home bias” observed in business ownership, in particular for small firms and startups without easy access to international capital markets. Recent empirical work has emphasized that taxes have heterogeneous effects on mature firms, entrepreneurial startups, and owner-managed small firms. Lowering dividend taxes on firms with dispersed ownership has been shown to shift capital from mature firms into rapidly growing firms. Moreover, capital gains taxation tends to reduce the number of innovative startups and diminish venture capital activity, while high owner-level taxes encourage small business activity and non-entrepreneurial self-employment because such firms have more opportunities to avoid or evade taxes. To obtain efficient incentives in entrepreneurial startups, contractual terms are required that ex ante guarantee that all providers of critical inputs, especially equity constrained entrepreneurs, are entitled to a share of the resulting capital value firm. Unless properly designed, owner-level taxes prevent such ex ante contracting and thus lower the likelihood of eventual success. |
| Keywords: | Business taxation; Capital income taxation; Corporate governance; Entrepreneurship; Institutions; Tax policy |
| JEL: | H25 H26 H32 L26 |
| Date: | 2015–10–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1086&r=all |
| By: | Barra, Cristian; Zotti, Roberto |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the regional innovation system (RIS) efficiency, and its determinants, in Italy through a Stochastic Frontier Analysis and using the concept of a knowledge production function. The contribution of universities’, private and public sectors’ resources devoted to research and development (R&D), in generating innovation, has been examined, as well as the impact of several exogenous environmental variables on RIS efficiency. The empirical findings suggest the importance of R&D investments taking place in the universities and in the private sector, which benefit the most to regional innovation activities; labour market and industries’ characteristics are found to have an important role on RIS efficiency. |
| Keywords: | Regional innovation system, Technical efficiency. Knowledge production function |
| JEL: | C14 C67 O31 |
| Date: | 2015–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:67067&r=all |
| By: | Valentina Peruzzi (Universit… Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Scienze economiche e sociali) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the conclusion reached by previous studies (Andres, 2011; Pindado et al., 2011) about the benecial effect of family control on investment-cash flow sensitivity may be extended to the category of small and medium-sized enterprises. Small unlisted firms are more likely to face financing constraints than their listed counterparts: they face more asymmetric information problems and strictly adhere to the pecking order theory, therefore strongly preferring internal capital to external debt and equity issues. Family control, in this context, may further exacerbate the relevance of internal generated cash flow for investment purposes by amplifying agency conflicts between (i) controlling and minority shareholders, and (ii) owners and external investors. Moreover, due to families' desire to pass a financially stable company onto future generations, family businesses may be less willing to rely on too much external debt and capital. Both this facts may be further exacerbated by highly concentrated ownership structure and family management. Hence, I test the following hypotheses: (H1) Family ownership increases investment-cash flow sensitivity in SMEs; (H2) The higher investment-cash flow sensitivity of family businesses, as compared to non-family ones, is mainly due to the presence of family CEOs and concentrated ownership; (H3) Investment-cash flow sensitivity is a good proxy for SMEs financing constraints. By employing panel data methodology and estimating the empirical model through the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), I strongly confirm all these hypotheses. |
| Keywords: | Family firms, financing constraints, investment policy, investment-cash flow sensitivity |
| JEL: | G31 G32 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wmofir:112&r=all |
| By: | Asheim, Björn (CIRCLE, Lund University; UiS Business School/Centre for Innovation Research, University of Stavanger; BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo); Grillitsch, Markus (CIRCLE, Lund University); Trippl , Michaela (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | Since its development in the 1990s, the Regional Innovation Systems (RIS) approach has attracted considerable attention from economic geographers, innovation scholars and policy makers. The RIS approach figures prominently in the scientific discourse about the uneven geography of innovation and the factors that shape the knowledge generation and innovation capacities of regions. The aim of this paper is to reflect about the emergence of the RIS approach, the current debate as well as future challenges. This reflection paper is guided by four overarching research questions: What are the origins and theoretical foundations of this approach? What has the RIS approach contributed to innovation studies and economic geography? What are the implications for innovation policy? And what are the recent lines of research and key research challenges in the future? We argue that the contributions of the RIS approach have been substantial. Still the approach has often been applied in a rather static way, more as a heuristic than a coherent theory. The key challenges for current and future research therefore are to move towards a more theory-based, dynamic perspective on RIS, dealing with new path development and the transformation of RIS. |
| Keywords: | regional innovation system; regional innovation policy; regional industrial change; transformation of innovation systems; research challenges |
| JEL: | O30 O38 P48 R10 R58 |
| Date: | 2015–10–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2015_036&r=all |
| By: | S0-Jin Lim (Korea Institute of Intellectual Property) |
| Abstract: | As the ratio of intangible assets in firm’s market value is increasing, the business strategy on knowledge assets including intellectual property rights is becoming the key factor determining firm’s performance and survival. This study empirically examines the impacts of IPR on the firm survival using 619,314 firm-year observations of South Korean manufacturing firms in 2000-2012, based on the assumption that those effects depend on the types, quantity, attributes of IPR and the growth stage and industries of a firm. We find that one unit increase of patent stock, design and trademark in firms could reduce the hazard ratio by 0.9%, 10.3% and 13.6% respectively. As to the attributes of patents, one unit increase of the numbers of claims, IPC classification and the ratio of joint applied patent could reduce the hazard ratio by 0.4%, 2.1%, and 5.3% respectively. And, in regard to the discriminative effects of those variables according to the growth stage of a business, the positive effect of the quantity of patent stock is decreasing and that of patent’s quality is increasing as a firm grows. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual Property Right, Firm Survival, Cox proportional hazard model, growth stage |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:2804273&r=all |
| By: | MIHO TAKIZAWA |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this study is to measure the effect of intangibles on the growth of developed countries, particularly, at firm level. This paper analyzes the role â€intangibles†play in firms' growth and performance, in addition to the production factors of labor and tangible capital, using their financial data in the U.S. and Japan. And this study attempts to analyze whether companies accumulating intangible assets respond better to shocks (for example, financial crises) than those without intangible capital. We could see that intangibles were important sources of productivity growth at the micro level in the U.S. Those results were not obtained in Japan. The cross term between intangibles and tangibles was positive and significant in both the U.S. and Japan. This suggests that if a firm invests more not only in intangibles but also in tangibles, the firm can enjoy a high productivity growth. Finally, this paper analyzed whether companies that had invested in intangibles responded better to shocks than those without intangible capital. The results showed that the firms with greater intangible capital managed to overcome the crisis in the U.S. |
| Keywords: | Intangible assets, productivity |
| JEL: | J24 O40 |
| Date: | 2015–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pia:papers:00010/2015&r=all |
| By: | Kamil Dobeš (Tomas Bata University in Zlín); Zuzana Virglerová (Tomas Bata University in Zlín) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this article is to analyse the business environment for SMEs in the Czech Republic and the impact of selected factors on the attitude of the business environment of surveyed entrepreneurs. The results from the research conducted at Tomas Bata University in Zlín in 2015 were used. The research involved a survey of the business environment in the Czech Republic. This article uses the questions regarding the attitude to the business environment in terms of company size and sector in which the firms are located. It was found that the business environment is relatively consistent in most of the aspects in terms of company size. In terms of each sector of the economy already showed significant differences. Especially in evaluating the state's role in creating a favourable business environment can be found significantly different attitudes across different sectors. |
| Keywords: | business environment, small and medium-sized enterprises, research |
| JEL: | G21 L26 M21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:2805178&r=all |