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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2017‒09‒17
fifteen papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Sara Amoroso (European Commission - JRC); Alex Coad (CENTRUM Católica Graduate Business School, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Perú); Nicola Grassano (European Commission – JRC) |
| Abstract: | Recent empirical studies have investigated the territorial impact of Europe’s research policies, in particular the contribution of the European Framework Programmes to the integration of a European Research Area. This paper deepens the analysis on the integration and participation of peripheral regions, by focusing on the differences in intensity and determinants of inter-regional collaborations across three groups of collaborations. We consider collaborations among more developed regions, between more and less developed regions, and among less developed regions. Building on the recent spatial interaction literature, this paper investigates the effects of physical, institutional, social and technological proximity on the intensity of inter-regional research collaboration across heterogeneous European regions. We find that the impact of disparities in human capital and technological proximity on regional R&D cooperation is relevant and differs across subgroups of collaborations. Moreover, despite the efforts of integrating marginal actors, peripheral regions have lower rates of collaborations. |
| Keywords: | European Research Area, spatial interaction modelling, R&D collaboration, regional integration |
| JEL: | O38 L14 F15 R15 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:jrc107546&r=sbm |
| By: | Christian Fons-Rosen; Sebnem Kalemli- Özcan; Bent E. Sørensen; Carolina Villegas-Sanchez; Vadym Volosovych |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on total factor productivity (TFP) of domestic firms using a new, representativ firm-level data set spanning six countries. A novel finding is that firm-level spillovers from foreign firms to domestic companies can be significantly positive, non-existent, or even negative, depending on which sectors receive FDI. When foreign firms produce in the same narrow sector as domestic firms, the latter are negatively affected by increasing competition and positively a ected by knowledge spillovers. We find that the positive spillovers dominate if foreign firms enter sectors where firms are "technologically close," controlling for the endogeneity of their entry decision into such sectors. Positive technology spillovers also affect firms in other sectors, if those sectors are technologically close to the sectors receiving FDI. Increasing FDI in sectors that are technologically close to other sectors boosts TFP of domestic firms by twice as much as increasing FDI by the same amount across all sectors. |
| Keywords: | Multinationals, competition, technology, selection, FDI, TFP. |
| JEL: | E32 F15 F36 O16 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1580&r=sbm |
| By: | Emmanuele Bobbio (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | Italy's growth performance has been lacklustre in the last two decades. The economy has low R&D intensity; firms are smaller and less likely to grow or exit than firms in other advanced countries; the shadow economy is large. I show how these features arise simultaneously in a Schumpeterian growth model with heterogeneous firms where the tax auditing probability increases with firm size. Tax evasion confers a cost advantage over competitors. In equilibrium, small firms invest less in innovation because growing entails a (shadow) cost of fiscal regularization. Unfair competition forces other firms to lower the mark-up they charge for their new products, reducing the incentive to innovate. Market selection is hampered, further lowering the aggregate growth rate along the extensive margin. I calibrate the model on Italian firm-level data for the period 1995-2006 and find that enforcing taxes would have increased the long-run growth rate from 0.9% to 1.1%. The market share of high type firms would have been 8 percentage points higher and average firm size 25% higher. Also, I find that lowering the tax burden can have a significant impact on growth when the shadow economy is large, while the effect is negligible when taxes are enforced. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed017:683&r=sbm |
| By: | Jérémie Faham (ESTIA Recherche - Ecole Supérieure des Technologies Industrielles Avancées (ESTIA), IMS - Laboratoire de l'intégration, du matériau au système - Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 - Institut Polytechnique de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Maxime Daniel (ESTIA Recherche - Ecole Supérieure des Technologies Industrielles Avancées (ESTIA), LaBRI - Laboratoire Bordelais de Recherche en Informatique - Université Bordeaux Segalen - Bordeaux 2 - Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 - École Nationale Supérieure d'Électronique, Informatique et Radiocommunications de Bordeaux (ENSEIRB) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Jérémy Legardeur (ESTIA Recherche - Ecole Supérieure des Technologies Industrielles Avancées (ESTIA), IMS - Laboratoire de l'intégration, du matériau au système - Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 - Institut Polytechnique de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | One of the objectives of the European Commission for 2014-2020 is to establish " Research and Innovation Strategies for the Smart Specialization " (RIS3). The originality of RIS3 is the " bottom-up " identification of regional priorities especially through the " Entrepreneurial Discovery " (ED) process. The Collaborative Business Models (CBM) approach has probably a role to play within this process as a suitable strategic tool to set up regional " value networks ". However, the preparatory stage of CBM and especially the identification and the matching processes among potential RE partners is often not addressed. This work is based on the need to support the discovering and the matching processes between " regional entrepreneurs " (companies, research , consulting, association, public authorities…) in order to improve the efficacy of CBM and RIS3. In this paper, we propose a review of the state of the art concerning the different dimensions linked to the matching processes. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurs,Profile Comprehension,Matching,RIS3,Entrepreneurial Discovery,Collaborative Business Models |
| Date: | 2016–09–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01332621&r=sbm |
| By: | Christian Fons-Rosen; Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan; Bent E. Sørensen; Carolina Villegas-Sánchez; Vadym Volosovych |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on total factor productivity (TFP) of domestic firms using a new, representative firm-level data set spanning six countries. A novel finding is that firm-level spillovers from foreign firms to domestic companies can be significantly positive, non-existent, or even negative, depending on which sectors receive FDI. When foreign firms produce in the same narrow sector as domestic firms, the latter are negatively affected by increasing competition and positively affected by knowledge spillovers. We find that the positive spillovers dominate if foreign firms enter sectors where firms are “technologically close,” controlling for the endogeneity of their entry decision into such sectors. Positive technology spillovers also affect firms in other sectors, if those sectors are technologically close to the sectors receiving FDI. Increasing FDI in sectors that are technologically close to other sectors boosts TFP of domestic firms by twice as much as increasing FDI by the same amount across all sectors. |
| Keywords: | multinationals, competition, technology, selection, FDI, TFP |
| JEL: | E32 F15 F36 O16 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:986&r=sbm |
| By: | Wolf-Hendrik Uhlbach; Pierre-Alexandre Balland; Thomas Scherngell |
| Abstract: | It is widely acknowledged that new technological specializations of regions are to a large extent driven by the recombination of existing knowledge and capabilities. Since this process is path-dependant and self-reinforcing, it can easily lead to technological lock-ins. A key issue is therefore to evaluate whether public policy can impact technological trajectories of regions and how it can be more effective. To address this issue, we analyze quantitatively and systematically the relation between R&D subsidies and new technological specializations of European regions from 1999 to 2010. R&D subsidies are identified by using the EU Framework Pro- grammes (FP) from the EUPRO database, and matched with patent documents from the OECD-REGPAT database. Using a fixed-effects linear probability model, our results indicate that FP participations have a positive but relatively small effect on the development of new specializations of regions, and that it can compensate for a lack of local related capabilities. We also find evidence that R&D subsidies have the highest impact if the level of relatedness with the new technology is neither too low (policy can not build a cathedral in the desert) nor too high (if all the capabilities are already present there is no need for policy). |
| Keywords: | Regional Diversification, Technological Change, R&D subsidies, EU Framework Programmes |
| JEL: | O31 O33 O38 O52 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1722&r=sbm |
| By: | Branstetter, Lee; Gandal, Neil; Kunievsky, Nadav |
| Abstract: | A large and growing literature has used patent and patent citation data to measure knowledge spillovers across inventions and organizations, but relatively few papers in this literature have explicitly considered the collaboration networks formed by inventors as a mechanism for shaping and transmitting these knowledge flows. This paper utilizes an approach developed by Fershtman and Gandal (FG 2011) (and applied to Open Source Software) to examine the incidence and nature of knowledge flows mediated by the collaboration networks of inventors active in the information security industry. This is an industry in which a number of nations outside the United States, including Israel, have emerged as important centers of innovation. Israeli prominence in this sector is often attributed, in part, to a dense network of personal collections and collaborations that has its genesis in elite intelligence units in the Israeli Defense Forces, through which many Israeli information security inventors and entrepreneurs receive their first exposure to this domain. Using data from U.S. PTO patent grants in information security, we find that the quality of Israeli information security inventions is systematically linked to the structure of the collaborative network generated by Israeli inventors in this sector. Using the FG (2011) model, this suggests that there are knowledge spillovers from the network. In some other nations, invention quality is less closely linked to the collaboration networks of inventors. This research highlights the importance of direct interaction among inventors as a conduit for flows of frontier scientific knowledge. |
| Keywords: | Information Security; Knowledge Spillovers; patents |
| JEL: | O31 O33 O57 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12268&r=sbm |
| By: | Olga Kokshagina (CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris - PSL - PSL Research University - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Sophie Hooge (CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris - PSL - PSL Research University - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Emilie Canet (MLab - DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris-Dauphine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | How to shape successful ventures; ensure that an entrepreneur’s journey will lead to create viable businesses over time? It is argued that organizations are built on habits and routines in place that are defined as dispositions to follow certain behavioral tendencies motivated by appropriate contexts and environments (Abell et al., 2007; Becker, 2012; Cohen, 2012; Nelson & Sidney, 1982). Prior work stressed that the individual identity, founders’ habits influence the emergence of organizational routines. Bryant (2014) argues that founders can better manage the initial imprinting process thus enhancing a venture’s capacity to adapt. Besides the founders’ identity and their imprinting memories, ventures’ identity is influenced by its corresponding ecosystem. For instance, to promote and ensure firms’ creation, local ecosystems create incubators, co-working spaces oriented to support the entrepreneurship activities. The principal objective is to help premature companies to grow and become independent, strengthen their offer, help them launching their business. For instance, in Europe, the incubation and mentoring offer drastically increased over the last years aiming to produce successful firms that will leave the incubator financially viable and independent. How do start-ups make use of these structures to actually build their identity, shape their routines? With this purpose our research seeks to understand which role the corresponding ecosystems play on the start up’s collective identity creation, definition of its routines and whether and how the ecosystem along with founders ‘strengthen’ ventures identity. |
| Keywords: | Firm's identity, routines, start-up, entrepreneurship, innovation |
| Date: | 2016–07–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01408731&r=sbm |
| By: | Anna Gerke (Audencia Recherche - Audencia Business School); Yan Dalla Pria (CeRSM - Centre de Recherche sur le Sport et le Mouvement - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre) |
| Abstract: | Cluster theory is a well‐established field of research (Greve, 2009; Martin & Sunley, 2003; Porter, 1998, 2008) and has been an enduring element in national economic policies around the globe (Benner, 2012; Ketels, 2015). Also the sport sector has seen political and economic initiatives for cluster development on national and international level (EU4SportsClusters, 2015; EuroSIMA, 2015; Sporaltec, 2016). Shilbury (2000), pioneer in this topic, emphasises that in Australia sport clusters are potentially a new form of the sport delivery system in response to environmental changes, e.g., reduced state subsidies for sport. Until today sport clusters have been viewed as one conceptual category. However, this paper suggests a dual typology of sport clusters depending on the level of heterogeneity of cluster members and the type of interorganizational linkages. This study compares two clusters from the sailing industry to two clusters from the surfing industry. The use of a multiple case study with pairs of similar case studies permits theory development through literal and theoretical replication. Similar results amongst similar cases strengthen theory through literal replication. Differing results across different pairs of cases deepen theory (Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña, 2014; Yin, 2009). This qualitative research uses interviews (n=117) and observations (n=17) as the primary data sources, and organizational information (n=47) and archival data (n=27) as secondary data sources. The results reveal two diametrically opposed models for clusters in the sport industry in terms of socio‐economic proximity (i.e., social proximity affecting economic proximity and vice versa (Gerke, Desbordes, & Dickson, 2015)). These two models represent the fundamental logic of community and society (Dalla Pria & Vicente, 2006; Storper, 2005). The logic of a society like cluster is founded in the paradigm of proximity because of complementarity. The two sailing clusters rely on the logic of society because the boat‐building projects are complex and require a variety of specialised skills that are supplied by small‐and medium‐sized cluster members. The creation of a formal cluster governing body accompanies an existing collective logic between much diversified and specialised local actors. The logic of a community like cluster is founded in the paradigm of cognitive proximity. The two surfing clusters rely on the logic of community because cluster members have similar business models, competencies, and value creation processes. There are few buyer‐ supplier relationships and firms tend to be direct competitors, thus interorganisational linkages tend to be competitive in nature. |
| Keywords: | sport cluster, interorganisational linkages, socio-economic proximity |
| Date: | 2016–11–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01491163&r=sbm |
| By: | Laurent Dupont (ERPI - Equipe de Recherche sur les Processus Innovatifs - UL - Université de Lorraine); Alex Gabriel (ERPI - Equipe de Recherche sur les Processus Innovatifs - UL - Université de Lorraine); Mauricio Camargo (ERPI - Equipe de Recherche sur les Processus Innovatifs - UL - Université de Lorraine); Claudine Guidat (ERPI - Equipe de Recherche sur les Processus Innovatifs - UL - Université de Lorraine) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a case study on emerging challenges within collaborative innovation projects engaging open communities. Innovation driven by open communities has proven to have a significant potential, in particular for open source software. However, tools and methodologies enabling the supervision of collaborative innovation involving open communities, in the perspective of creating open hardware to solve societal issues, remains at the early stages. This paper seeks to pinpoint the potentialities and challenges of such projects toward defining methods to better support a multi-stakeholders open source collaboration context. The experimental field of this research concerns the smart electricity distribution, and more precisely a public driven project of the diffusion of smart-meters in France and their appropriation by open source communities, with the involvement of the university and a public industrial company. The project seeks to study how these communities of users develop in a collaborative manner, new products and services using the smart-meter as a support technology. The first results show that the open community makes natural connection on specific environments such as Smart buildings to materialize usages of smart meters. |
| Keywords: | open hardware, collaborative innovation,community of practice, project management, user-driven innovation, co-creation |
| Date: | 2017–06–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01582548&r=sbm |
| By: | Dia, Ibrahima; Bonnet, Jean; Abdesselam, Rafik |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to understand the determinants of women's entrepreneurship in the informal sector in Dakar (Senegal). It aims mainly at a better knowledge of women's involvement in economic activities through the informal sector. The paper does this in three ways: first, by defining the informal sector and the female entrepreneur through a literature review; second, by adapting theoretical models in entrepreneurship to the Senegalese informal sector and by defining the concept of entrepreneurial culture ; third, by making a discriminating factorial analysis and a barycentric analysis, based on primary data collected from 153 women in Dakar, to describe a woman’s belonging to a category of creation: creation in the formal or large informal sector, creation in the small informal sector and non-creation. The results show that the woman entrepreneurial activity from one sector to another depends on her human, social and cultural capital and confirm the importance of social capital in the female entrepreneurship of the developing countries where the informal sector is highly developed. |
| Keywords: | female entrepreneurship, informal sector, intentional models, barycentric regression, Dakar. |
| JEL: | E26 L26 M13 M14 |
| Date: | 2017–03–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:81293&r=sbm |
| By: | Helen Micheaux (CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris - PSL - PSL Research University - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Franck Aggeri (CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris - PSL - PSL Research University - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Le modèle économique dominant est une économie linéaire fondée sur la consommation de ressources non renouvelables et la mise en décharge des produits en fin de vie. Face aux impasses de ce modèle linéaire, un modèle alternatif a été proposé : l'économie circulaire, fondée sur un principe de bouclage des flux de matière et d'énergie. On observe depuis le milieu des années 2000, diverses expérimentations d'innovation de business models circulaires (BMC) visant à explorer le potentiel de création de valeur associé à ce modèle. Toutefois, ces initiatives restent relativement isolées. De ce fait, se pose la question du passage d'expérimentations locales à un système soutenable sur le plan économique et environnemental. Dans cette optique, cette communication analyse, au travers du concept de business model, les conditions de développement des BMC émergents dans la filière des équipements électriques et électroniques. Ainsi, nous identifions le déficit d'actions collectives qui constituent des freins à la capitalisation des expériences et à leur intégration dans des filières. Pour surmonter ces obstacles, nous mettons en évidence que la structuration d'actions collectives et l'intervention publique sont nécessaires, et proposons des pistes d'actions envisageables. |
| Keywords: | Business model circulaire,Innovation environnementale,DEEE |
| Date: | 2016–09–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01368036&r=sbm |
| By: | Ariu, Andrea; Biewen, Elena; Blank, Sven; Gaulier, Guillaume; González, María Jesus; Meinen, Philipp; Mirza, Daniel; Martín, Cesar; Tello, Patry |
| Abstract: | This paper uses detailed micro data on service exports at the firm-destination-service level to analyse the role of firm heterogeneity in shaping aggregate service exports in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain from 2003 to 2007. We decompose the level and the growth of aggregate service exports into different trade margins paying special attention to firm heterogeneity within countries. We find that the weak export growth of France is at least partly due to poor performance by small exporters. By contrast, small exporters are the most dynamic contributors to the aggregate exports of Belgium, Germany and Spain. Our results highlight the importance of firm heterogeneity in understanding aggregate export growth. JEL Classification: F14 |
| Keywords: | cross-country micro data study, firm heterogeneity, service exports |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20172097&r=sbm |
| By: | F.C. Stam |
| Abstract: | How can entrepreneurial ecosystems and productive entrepreneurship can be traced empirically and how is entrepreneurship related to entrepreneurial ecosystems. The analyses in this chapter show the value of taking a systems view on the context of entrepreneurship. We measure entrepreneurial ecosystem elements and use these to compose an entrepreneurial ecosystem index. Next, we measure the output of entrepreneurial ecosystems with different indicators of high-growth firms. We use the 12 provinces of the Netherlands as a test case for measuring the entrepreneurial ecosystem elements, composing an entrepreneurial ecosystem index and relate this to entrepreneurial outputs. The prevalence of high-growth firms relates to the overall value of the entrepreneurial ecosystem index, but not to individual elements of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The model fit increases once we introduce a multiplicative index and a non-linear model. By measuring entrepreneurial ecosystems and their outputs in this way we move from the ecosystem metaphor to a complex system model of the entrepreneurial economy. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurial ecosystem, complex systems, entrepreneurial ecosystem index, entrepreneurship, regional development |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:1711&r=sbm |
| By: | Kathleen Randerson (Rn'B Lab - Research Center of Audencia - Centrale Nantes - Audencia Business School) |
| Abstract: | The focus of this paper is on firm-level entrepreneurial behaviours and the processes that lead to them, known as Entrepreneurial Orientation. Despite the popularity of this construct, we argue that extant EO research suffers from major limitations linked to definitional inconsistencies and measurement issues. We present five distinct conceptualizations of EO in order to frame further research in the positivist mode. Moreover, we show that to gain a holistic and robust understanding of firm-level entrepreneurship, works from other research traditions and philosophies of science are needed. In this respect, the European research tradition and its wide variety of fields of research and research methods can offer a contextualized view of firm-level entrepreneurial behaviours and processes. Works embedded in the social constructionist philosophy of science might also offer an understanding of how, when, and why actors of different levels act do so and the likely outcomes of these actions as well as the interplay and divergence among these actors and levels. Works embedded in the pragmatic approach, illustrated by effectuation, could also contribute to a holistic understanding of the phenomenon. Finally, we call for researchers to be attentive to the need to align their conceptualizations, research methods and philosophies of science. |
| Keywords: | Corporate entrepreneurship, Firm-level entrepreneurial behaviour, Entrepreneurial Orientation, Critique, European research tradition, Constructionism, Pragmatism |
| Date: | 2016–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01392200&r=sbm |