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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2016‒08‒21
eighteen papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Zoltan J. Acs; Thomas Åstebro; David B. Audretsch; David T. Robinson |
| Abstract: | We debate the motivation for and effectiveness of public policies to encourage individuals to become entrepreneurs. Reviewing established evidence we find that most Western world policies do not greatly reduce or solve any market failures but instead waste taxpayers’ money, encourage those already intent on becoming entrepreneurs, and mostly generate one-employee businesses with low-growth intentions and a lack of interest in innovating. Most policy initiatives that would have the effect of promoting valuable entrepreneurship would not be recognizable as such, because they would primarily address other market failures: A central-payer health care would remove healthcare-related distortions affecting employment choices; greater STEM education would produce more engineers of which some start valuable new firms; and labor market reform to encourage hiring immigrants in jobs they have been educated for would reduce inefficient allocation of talent to entrepreneurship. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; Public policy; Social welfare |
| JEL: | J50 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:67382&r=sbm |
| By: | Steven N. Kaplan; Josh Lerner |
| Abstract: | This paper describes the available data and research on venture capital investments and performance. We comment on the challenges inherent in those data and research as well as possible opportunities to do better. |
| JEL: | G24 L26 |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22500&r=sbm |
| By: | Age Mariussen (University of Vaasa); Ruslan Rakhmatullin (European Commission - JRC); Lina Stanionyte (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | S3 begins within a region/country by exploiting place-based expertise and industrial skills within the regional innovation eco-system. The paper refers to emerging research which indicates that some regions suffer from insufficient innovation eco-system complexity, followed by sub-optimal innovation performances and path lock-in. This indicates that regional innovation eco-systems could be further strengthened through transnational learning and collaboration. Several major forms of collaboration are identified. The paper suggests that macro-regional and trans-European smart specialisation strategies could be based on multi-level approaches to experimentally extend and strengthen regional innovation eco-systems. In order to achieve robust and long-lasting outcomes, these experiments could apply some existing S3 tools. Here, an important issue is the transition from temporary programmes, projects and networks to new institutional frameworks for co-evolution and collaboration between smart specialised regions. The next important step is to exploit the European diversity identified through regional RIS3 strategies. The long-term challenge is the strengthening of emergent European and macro-regional systems of innovation, and thus supporting the regions. |
| Keywords: | policy analysis; R & D; research; collaboration; policy; innovation; ecosystem |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc102623&r=sbm |
| By: | Lago-Peñas, Santiago; Sanchez-Fernandez, Patricio |
| Abstract: | This document continues the Ardan Indicator Survey started in 2012. This study is included in the Economic and Competitiveness Report prepared by the Service for Advanced Studies Consortium of "Zona Franca de Vigo". The main objective of this document is to identify the best companies in the opening process to foreign markets. To do this we proceed to the design and subsequent implementation of the so called "Ardan internationalized company indicator". |
| Keywords: | internacionalization, companies, indicator, international. |
| JEL: | F13 F69 M16 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:72889&r=sbm |
| By: | Kelle, Markus |
| Abstract: | I use German administrative data for 2001-2010 to analyse the impact of urbanization and firm characteristics on wage growth of workers. I find a statistically highly significant higher within-job wage growth rate for workers in counties with a higher population density. This provides evidence that workers' productivity growth is higher in denser regions, which could be explained by faster learning or human capital accumulation of workers. However, this effect turns insignificant once I account for the number of employees of the workers' firms, the share of highly educated workers in the firm and wagelevel firm fixed effects. This indicates that such a learning effect may occur rather within firms than between workers in a region. Beyond this, the paper presents evidence that workers in denser areas also benefit more from job changes within counties. One reason for that is that workers in denser regions match more often with high-wage firms. Furthermore, I find evidence that also the efficiency of the worker-firm matches is higher in denser areas. |
| Abstract: | Ich verwende deutsche administrative Arbeitsmarktdaten für die Jahre 2001 bis 2010, um den Einfluss von Urbanisierung und Firmeneigenschaften auf das Lohnwachstum von Arbeitern zu analysieren. Hierbei identifiziere ich ein signifikant höheres Lohnwachstum innerhalb des gleichen Jobs für Arbeiter in Regionen mit einer höheren Bevölkerungsdichte. Dies stellt Evidenz dafür dar, dass das Produktivitätswachstum für Arbeiter in dichter besiedelten Gebieten höher ist, was durch ein schnelleres Lernen oder Akkumulieren von Humankapital erklärt werden kann. Jedoch wird dieser Effekt insignifikant, wenn ich die Anzahl der Arbeitnehmer pro Firma, den Anteil der Arbeiter mit hohem Bildungsgrad in der Firma und "Fixed Effects" für das Lohnniveau der Firma berücksichtige. Dies deutet daraufhin, dass ein solcher Lerneffekt eher innerhalb von Firmen auftritt anstatt zwischen Arbeitern innerhalb einer Region. Darüber hinaus zeigt das Papier Evidenz dafür, dass Arbeiter in dichter besiedelten Gebieten ebenso mehr von Jobwechseln innerhalb eines Kreises profitieren. Ein Grund hierfür ist, dass Arbeiter in urbaneren Regionen häufiger zu Hochlohnfirmen wechseln. Des Weiteren finde ich Evidenz dafür, dass die Effizienz der Arbeiter-Firma-Paare in dichter besiedelten Gebieten höher ist. |
| Keywords: | wage growth,learning,urbanization,firm characteristics |
| JEL: | R11 R23 J24 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:631&r=sbm |
| By: | Ingrid Majerová (Departament of Economics and Public Administration, School of Business Administration, Silesian University); Jan Nevima (Departament of Economics and Public Administration, School of Business Administration, Silesian University) |
| Abstract: | Human Development Index measures the level of human development not only by GDP per capita, but also trough the indicators of education and healthy life. The differences in the level of human development are observed not only at the national level, they are also measured at the regional level of countries. The aim of this article is, with the quantification of regional human development, to describe the potential for human development using cluster analysis at the regional level. The 46 regions of the Visegrad Group Plus countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and Slovenia) at NUTS II level were selected for this purpose. The research was made in the period from 2004 to 2013. In the selection of indicators, the same approaches as by the HDI were adopted, however the components of each dimension were modified. Life expectancy at birth (dimension of health), tertiary educated people and lifelong learning (dimension of education) and GDP per capita in PPS (dimension of living standards) have been chosen as indicators of human development. These components were than used in a hierarchy cluster analysis in the Ward method. Three clusters were created with different levels of potential. Initially, a research hypothesis that there was a dynamization of human development processes in most regions has been set. This hypothesis was not confirmed and it was found that a vast majority of the regions have not changed their positions in the cluster in the monitored period. |
| Keywords: | cluster analysis, GDP per capita, human development, life expectancy at birth, lifelong education, NUTS II regions, tertiary education, Visegrad Group Plus. |
| JEL: | O15 I31 |
| Date: | 2016–07–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:opa:wpaper:0031&r=sbm |
| By: | Fulvio Castellacci (TIK Centre, University of Oslo); Christine Mee Lie (TIK Centre, University of Oslo) |
| Abstract: | The paper presents a new taxonomy of green innovators. We make use of firm-level data from the Korea Innovation Survey to investigate different types of eco-innovations, how these relate to each other, and what the main drivers and determinants are. Our empirical methodology is based on a combination of factor, cluster and multinomial logit analysis. The taxonomy points out four groups of green innovators: (1) CO2-reducing; (2) waste-reducing; (3) recycling innovators; (4) pollution-reducing. We also find that R&D policies are more relevant factors enhancing innovations in waste-reducing firms, whereas environmental taxes and regulations are more important drivers of technological change for pollution-reducing companies. |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tik:inowpp:20160808&r=sbm |
| By: | Chen, Yongmin; Pan, Shiyuan; Zhang, Tianle |
| Abstract: | We present a model of cumulative innovation where firms can conduct R&D in both a safe and a risky direction. Innovations in the risky direction produce quality improvements with higher expected sizes and variances. As patentability standards rise, an innovation in the risky direction is less likely to receive a patent that replaces the current technology, which decreases the static incentive for new entrants to conduct risky R&D, but increases their dynamic incentive because of the longer duration---and hence higher reward---for incumbency. These, together with a strategic substitution and a market structure effect, result in an inverted-U shape in the risky direction but a U shape in the safe direction for the relationship between R&D intensity and patentability standards. There exists a patentability standard that induces the efficient innovation direction, whereas R&D is biased towards (against) the risky direction under lower (higher) standards. The optimal patentability standard may distort the R&D direction to increase the industry innovation rate that is socially deficient. |
| Keywords: | cumulative innovation, patentability standards, R&D intensity, R&D direction, rate of innovation, innovation direction |
| JEL: | L1 O3 |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:73180&r=sbm |
| By: | Santos, Antonio Bob; Mendonca, Sandro |
| Abstract: | In this research paper we intend to find out whether open innovation approach may be a valid approach to the definition of innovation policy. To that, we use a method applied in various fields of study, including public policy and open innovation studies: the Delphi method. After the introduction (Section 1), we describe the Delphi method (Section 2) and the methodology used in this research (Section 3). The results of the application of the Delphi method are presented in Section 4, where we identify public policy priorities in an open innovation perspective. Then, we propose measures of public policy through which these priorities could be achieved (Section 5). Section 6 presents the main findings, concluding that the approach of open innovation may be considered for prioritization of innovation policy and policy measures. |
| Keywords: | open innovation, innovation policy, public policy, Delphi |
| JEL: | O25 O32 O38 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:73007&r=sbm |
| By: | Lojak, Benjamin |
| Abstract: | Recent evidence on the development of corporate debt suggests that firms' leverage ratios increased enormously during the past few decades. Taking into account firms financing concerns, the present work provides a dynamic disequilibrium model that is able to generate cyclical patterns of various key economic variables. One of the main features of the model is that a dynamic law governing the evolution of investor sentiment determines firms' investment through their sales expectations according to recurrent and endogenously determined waves of optimism and pessimism. The model further incorporates commercial banks providing loans to firms with the respective lending rate exhibiting a mark-up that changes endogenously with the evolution of the firms' indebtedness. It is shown that the model generates sentiment-driven business cycle fluctuations for two economic environments that exist contemporaneously: a "normal-" and "high-indebted" regime. |
| Keywords: | Minsky Cycles,De-Leveraging,Paradox of Debt,Financial Accelerator,Business Sentiment,Kaleckian Model,Disequilibrium Model |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:bamber:112&r=sbm |
| By: | Ahmed Fayez Abdelgouad (Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany) |
| Abstract: | The World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys (WES( for the manufacturing firms in Egypt are used to study the characteristics of exporting firms and the determinants of the exporting behavior in the Egyptian manufacturing sector in general and to investigate the link between the exporting activities and the workforce skills-intensity in the Egyptian manufacturing sector in specific. Several methods to estimate the probability and intensity of exporting are presented. The main findings indicate that firms in the manufacturing sector in Egypt which their workforce are characterized by higher levels of skills-intensity are more likely to export compared to other firms with lower levels of skills-intensity. Firms that hire female workers are more likely to export than other firms which do not employ women. Furthermore, firms that are larger in their size, have R&D departments, and owned by foreigners are more likely to export than others and have statistically significant effects on export intensity as well. The results suggest also that firms that are larger in their size are more likely to start to export than others. |
| Keywords: | Exporting, Workforce skills, World Bank Enterprise Surveys, Egypt, Manufacturing |
| JEL: | J24 F14 F16 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lue:wpaper:358&r=sbm |
| By: | Wagner, Joachim |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the literature by using newly released comprehensive transaction level data on all exports and imports to document facts about the amount of intra-good trade – the simultaneous export and import of identical goods by one firm - in Germany. Combined data for trade transactions and for characteristics of a representative large sample of trading firms are then used to report differences between firms that export and import different goods only (inter-good traders) and firms that engage in the simultaneous export and import of identical goods (intra-good traders). We find that the share of intra-good trade in total trade was some 17 percent in Germany in 2012. Intra-good trade matters. This share differs widely between broadly defined groups of goods and between industries. Controlling for detailed industry affiliation intra-good traders differ significantly from inter-good traders – they are larger, more human capital intensive, more productive, have a higher R&D intensity, and are more profitable. The data, however, are not rich enough to reveal the direction of causality between intra-good trade and firm performance and to investigate empirically the reasons why some firms engage in intra-good trade. |
| Keywords: | Intra-product trade, two-way trade, imports, exports, Germany |
| JEL: | F14 |
| Date: | 2016–08–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:72964&r=sbm |
| By: | Rinaldo Evangelista (University of Camerino); Valentina Meliciani (University of LLUIS Carli); Antonio Vezzani (European Commission – JRC) |
| Abstract: | This study analyses the major patterns and trends in the spatial distribution of technological capacities in the EU area over the 1996-2011 period, adopting a regional perspective. More specifically, the study aims at: a) assessing the level of technological polarization in the EU area and its dynamics; b) highlighting major changes in the patterns of technological specialization of EU regions; c) identifying the technological trajectories that have been more effective, that is able to sustain long-term economic growth and facilitate catching-up processes of EU laggard regions. |
| Keywords: | technological specialization, technical change, regions, innovation |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc102435&r=sbm |
| By: | Trinh, Long Q. (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the bidirectional causality between innovation and internationalization in the context of developing countries. Using a dynamic bivariate probit model and adopting a broad definition of internationalization, this paper analyzes these issues using a panel dataset of small and medium-sized enterprises in Viet Nam. The results show a high persistence in process and product innovations and internationalization decisions. Furthermore, we find that, for non-micro firms, past internationalization has a positive effect on process innovation, but past process innovation does not have a significant effect on the internationalization decision. For this group of firms, we also find signs of cross-dependence between process innovation and the internationalization decision. Our results, however, do not show dynamic interdependence between internationalization and product innovation. |
| Keywords: | SME internationalization and innovation; process innovation; cross-dependence; product innovation |
| JEL: | L20 L25 O31 |
| Date: | 2016–08–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0580&r=sbm |
| By: | Ignacio L. De León; José Fernández Donoso (School of Business and Economics, Universidad del Desarrollo) |
| Abstract: | This document analyzes the perception of small innovative enterprises (SIE) in Latin America towards the effectiveness of the legal protection of intellectual property rights (IPR). To analyze the costs of using IPR, we surveyed 352 SIEs from Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru. We found evidence of SIEs not knowing how the IP system works, and most of them considering that knowing how it works is not important for business performance. We find strong differences between countries in the need to hire legal services to apply for IPR. We also fin differences in the perception of the IP system efficiency, and the evaluations are not related to the country´s IPR enforcement (Park 2008). We also find differences in the perception of disadvantage to protect their IPR if imitated by a big firm. This difference is related to the country´s IPR enforcement |
| Keywords: | Intellectual property rights, intellectual capital, Innovation, Latin America, Small business, Entrepreneurship |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dsr:wpaper:37&r=sbm |
| By: | Asheim, Bjørn (University of Stavanger); Grillitsch, Markus (CIRCLE, Lund University); Trippl, Michaela (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | This book chapter provides conceptual and empirical foundations for smart specialisation, a policy approach of far-reaching importance in the European context. We interpret the very notion as “diversified” specialisation into areas of existing or potential competitive advantage, which differentiates a region/nation from others. “Smart” relates to the identification of these areas through a process of entrepreneurial discovery, in which all actors are mobilized to be able to discover domains for securing existing and future competitiveness. Competitive advantage through smart specialization can be promoted in all types of industries but based on the industry specific modes of innovation and knowledge bases, which is illustrated through case studies in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Depending on the preconditions, we find that variegated strategies of smart specialisation are pursued, including building the absorptive capacity of DUI based firms by increasing their research based competence (introducing analytical knowledge), combining unrelated knowledge bases to move into new related and unrelated industries, combining related knowledge bases to move into unrelated industries, and moving into high-value added niches by introducing symbolic knowledge in traditional sectors. |
| Keywords: | Smart specialisation; policy; innovation; economic diversification; entrepreneurial discovery; knowledge bases; new path development; competitive advantage; regions |
| JEL: | O18 O30 O38 P48 R10 R58 |
| Date: | 2016–08–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2016_023&r=sbm |
| By: | Wang, Xu; Zhang, Xiaobo; Xie, Zhuan; Huang, Yiping |
| Abstract: | Although both infrastructure and innovation play an important role in fostering a country’s economic growth, discussion in the literature about how the two are connected is limited. This paper examines the impact of road density on firm innovation in China using a matched patent database at the firm level and road information at the city level. Regional variation in the difficulty of constructing roads is used as an instrumental variable to address the potential endogeneity problem of the road variable. The empirical results show that a 10 percent improvement in road density increases the average number of approved patents per firm by 0.71 percent. Road development spurs innovation by enlarging market size and facilitating knowledge spillover. |
| Keywords: | CHINA, EAST ASIA, ASIA, infrastructure, innovation, transportation, technology transfer, knowledge diffusion, O31 Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives, O33 Technological Change: Choices and Consequences, Diffusion Processes, R11 Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes, R40 Transportation Economics: General, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1542&r=sbm |
| By: | Daniel Rais |
| Abstract: | SECO Working Paper No. 10/2016 by Stephan Kyburz and Huong Quynh Nguyen |
| Date: | 2016–08–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wti:papers:1001&r=sbm |