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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2019‒03‒04
fifteen papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | TEKAM OUMBE, Honoré; Pilag Kakeu, Charles Bertin |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this article is to analyze innovation capacity and describe innovation trends in agro-food SMEs in Cameroon. The data analysis based on a subsample of 96 agro-food companies located in the cities of Douala, Yaoundé and Bafoussam. The descriptive analyzes reveal an innovation trend of agribusiness SMEs oriented towards adaptive innovations, as opposed to radical innovations. They are also more engaged in commercial and organizational innovations. In terms of the characteristics of innovation, the results of logistic regression reveal a wide range of external and internal factors influencing the direction of innovation. These factors are R&D activity, size, the role of competition and the geographical location of companies. |
| Keywords: | SME, innovation, agribusiness, entrepreneurship. |
| JEL: | L26 O32 O38 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:92377&r=all |
| By: | Gupta, Bishnupriya (University of Warwick); Mookherjee, Dilip (Boston University); Munshi, Kaivan (University of Cambridge); Sanclemente, Mario (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | We argue that community networks played an important role in the emergence of Indian entrepreneurship in the early stages of the cotton textile and jute textile industries in the late 19th and early 20th century respectively, overcoming the lack of market institutions and government support. From business registers, we construct a yearly panel dataset of entrepreneurs in these two industries. We find no evidence that entry is affected by prior trading experience or price shocks in the corresponding upstream sector. Firm directors exhibited a high degree of clustering of entrepreneurs by community. The dynamics of entry is consistent with a model of network-based dynamics |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1189&r=all |
| By: | TEKAM OUMBE, Honoré; PILAG KAKEU, Charles Bertin; Miamo Wendji, Clovis |
| Abstract: | The aim of this article is to analyze the influence of the quality of human capital on the innovation capacity of SMEs. The empirical analysis consisted of constructing a human capital indicator based on the main correspondence factor analysis. The data analysis based on a sample of 512 SMEs located in the cities of Douala, Yaoundé and Bafoussam. The results of the logistic regression show that SMEs that employ highly educated managers are more likely to innovate. However, this assumption nuanced with respect to product innovations. On the other hand, the training of managers on the job does not influence their ability to innovate. These results question the relevance of current policies for the creation and development of SMEs and suggest the importance of placing a particular emphasis on the quality of human capital as a vector of innovation. They also challenge public decision-makers on the need to initiate training programs and upgrade the skills of SME managers on new managerial practices. |
| Keywords: | innovation, quality of human capital, SMEs, training, technological skills |
| JEL: | L26 O34 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:92380&r=all |
| By: | Kim, Jungsuk (Sogang University); Park , Jungsoo (Sogang University) |
| Abstract: | We examine the importance of total factor productivity (TFP) growth in middle-income countries based on cross-country panel data for the period 1975–2014. We find that TFP growth contributed significantly to a country’s upward transition from middle-income to high-income country group. The TFP growth model reveals that the catch-up effect, human capital, smaller population, weak currency, and research and development (R&D) growth are significant sources of TFP growth. We do not find a systematic difference in the TFP growth models for middle-income countries. In analyzing the role of factors influencing TFP growth at different income stages, strengthening innovative activities and building innovative capacities are important in overcoming the challenges that middle-income countries face when transitioning to the high-income group. Governments of upper-middle-income countries need to initiate reform to motivate innovation by optimizing national R&D systems, and redesigning the educational system to target promoting innovation. |
| Keywords: | economic growth; human capital; middle-income countries; research and development; total factor productivity |
| JEL: | O47 O57 |
| Date: | 2017–11–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbewp:0527&r=all |
| By: | Hickfang, Michael; Holder, Ulrike |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether and how founder-CEOs' risk incentives (VEGA) are related to firm innovation. We exploit a change in the accounting treatment of stock-based compensation under FAS 123R in 2005 to show a relationship between founders' risk-taking incentive and innovation. Using a sample of 226 firm-year observations between 2002 and 2008, we first show that stock options are incentives that encourage founder-CEOs to engage in risk-taking behaviour and that these were significantly reduced as a result of FAS 123R. Secondly, we find that innovation activities of the observed firms are significantly declining due to the reduction of the option compensation and the associated reduction in VEGA of founder-CEOs. Finally, our difference-in-differences approach provides strong evidence that there is a relationship between CEOs risk-taking and innovation output. Our results imply that even in founder-led firms it is important to incentivise founders' risk-taking behaviour in order that firms continue to innovate and remain competitive. |
| JEL: | G30 G32 G38 D80 O31 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:umiodp:122018&r=all |
| By: | Sylvain Celle (CLERSE - Centre Lillois d’Études et de Recherches Sociologiques et Économiques - UMR 8019 - Université de Lille - ULCO - Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Keywords: | Picardie,économie sociale et solidaire,innovation sociale |
| Date: | 2017–04–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02019560&r=all |
| By: | Yanagisako, Sylvia |
| Abstract: | Evidence from around the globe shows that family firms are enduring, resilient forms of profit-seeking and not an archaic, transient form that will inevitably disappear. Social science research has tended to characterize the family values of these firms as producing "efficiency distortions" that adversely affect their financial performance. The author suggests an alternative heuristic approach of treating family firms as kinship enterprises that endure beyond the life of the firm. This approach enables us to understand how the timing of decisions about capital accumulation, expansion and diversification, as well as managerial organization, are shaped by kinship sentiments and intergenerational commitments without setting up an opposition between economic and kinship goals. |
| Keywords: | family firms,kinship,Italian firms,Italian-Chinese joint enterprises |
| JEL: | A13 D22 D91 L21 Z13 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201912&r=all |
| By: | Lauriane Dewulf; Michele Cincera |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is twofold. First, it provides further knowledge about profitability of industry scientific publications as it is not clear yet whether industry scientific publications are profitable to firms. Second, it considers the central role of academic partners in the profitability of firms’ scientific publications as previous empirical studies do not consider such role. To investigate the subject, we perform several regressions with firms profits as dependent variable. The results provide evidence that the publication of scientific articles is not a profitable activity. Collaborations with academic institutions are the real basis of profitable results; the production of scientific publications is only one of the consequences of these collaborations. This study also shows that not all collaborations are profitable, only collaborations in high-tech sectors that lead to high-quality publications lead to larger profits. Indeed, in their quest for survival and profitability, companies competing in high-tech sectors often need the help of academic partners to exploit scientific knowledge. On average, a rise of about 8% in successful collaborations (leading to high-quality publications) raises the profit of high-tech firms by about 1%. |
| Keywords: | Industry-academic collaborations, scientific publications, industrial science, firms’ profit |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ict:wpaper:2013/284013&r=all |
| By: | Prüfer, Jens (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research); Prüfer, Patricia (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | The recent rise of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) is changing markets, politics, organizations, and societies. It also affects the domain of research. Supported by new statistical methods that rely on computational power and computer science --- data science methods --- we are now able to analyze data sets that can be huge, multidimensional, unstructured, and are diversely sourced. In this paper, we describe the most prominent data science methods suitable for entrepreneurship research and provide links to literature and Internet resources for self-starters. We survey how data science methods have been applied in the entrepreneurship research literature. As a showcase of data science techniques, based on a dataset of 95% of all job vacancies in the Netherlands over a 6-year period with 7.7 million data points, we provide an original analysis of the demand dynamics for entrepreneurial skills in the Netherlands. We show which entrepreneurial skills are particularly important for which type of profession. Moreover, we find that demand for both entrepreneurial and digital skills has increased for managerial positions, but not for others. We also find that entrepreneurial skills were significantly more demanded than digital skills over the entire period 2012-2017 and that the absolute importance of entrepreneurial skills has even increased more than digital skills for managers, despite the impact of datafication on the labor market. We conclude that further studies of entrepreneurial skills in the general population --- outside the domain of entrepreneurs --- is a rewarding subject for future research. |
| Keywords: | data science; machine learning; entrepreneurship; entrepreneurial skills; big data; artificial intelligence |
| JEL: | L26 C50 C87 O32 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiucen:83a4ca9e-c0cd-4786-ac8c-923b9317f0aa&r=all |
| By: | Toshihiro Okubo (Faculty of Economics, Keio University); Eiichi Tomiura (Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University) |
| Abstract: | The international trade literature confirms that the average productivity of exporters is higher than that of non-exporters, while economic geography studies establish that urban firms tend to be more productive than rural ones. By introducing region-specific transportation costs in a Melitz-type heterogeneous firm trade model, the theory predicts that the minimum threshold productivity level for export is higher but that for survival by serving the local market is lower in the periphery region than in the core. Using Japanese plant-level panel data, we find evidence supporting the theoretical prediction that exporters in the peripheral regions, especially those distant from the core, have large productivity premiums. |
| Keywords: | Productivity, transportation costs |
| JEL: | F1 R12 L25 |
| Date: | 2019–01–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:keo:dpaper:2019-002&r=all |
| By: | Wen-Jung Liang; Chao-Cheng Mai; Jacques-François Thisse; Ping Wang |
| Abstract: | Science parks play a growing in knowledge-based economies by accommodating high-tech firms and providing an environment that fosters location-dependent knowledge spillovers and promote R&D investments by firms. Yet, not much is known about the economic conditions under which such entities may form in equilibrium without government interventions. This paper develops a spatial equilibrium model with a competitive final sector and a monopolistic competitive intermediate sector, which allows us to determine necessary and sufficient conditions for a science park to emerge as an equilibrium outcome. We show that strong localized knowledge spillovers, high startup costs, skilled labor abundance, or low commuting costs make intermediate firms more likely to cluster and a science park more likely to form. We also show that the productivity of the final sector is highest when intermediate firms cluster. As the decay penalty, firms' startup and workers' commuting costs become lower, science parks will eventually be fragmented. |
| JEL: | D51 L22 O33 R13 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25595&r=all |
| By: | Khanal, Aditya; Tegegne, Fisseha; Li, Lan; Goetz, Stephen; Han, Yicheol; Tubene, Stephen; Wetherill, Andy |
| Keywords: | Agricultural Finance, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Farm Management |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea19:284295&r=all |
| By: | Cohen, Shani; Gandal, Neil |
| Abstract: | A large literature has used patent data to measure knowledge spillovers across inventions but has not explicitly considered the collaboration networks formed by inventors as a mechanism for shaping these knowledge flows. Using a recently developed methodology, we examine the incidence and nature of knowledge flows mediated by the collaboration networks of inventors. We apply this methodology to three sectors in which programming skills are vital: (i) Information and Communication Technology/Information Security (ICT/IS) (ii) Financial Technology (Fin-Tech,) and (iii) Medical Technology (Med-Tech.) These are all areas of innovation in which Israel should have a comparative advantage. We find the following: (I) the quality of the Israeli ICT/information security inventions is systematically linked to the structure of the collaborative network. In particular, we find positive and significant direct and indirect knowledge spillovers. (II) We find no evidence of such spillovers in either Fin-Tech or Med-Tech. |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13467&r=all |
| By: | Farboodi, Maryam; Mihet, Roxana; Philippon, Thomas; Veldkamp, Laura |
| Abstract: | We study a model where firms accumulate data as a valuable intangible asset. Data accumulation affects firms' dynamics. It increases the skewness of the firm size distribution as large firms generate more data and invest more in active experimentation. On the other hand, small data-savvy firms can overtake more traditional incumbents, provided they can finance their initial money-losing growth. Our model can be used to estimate the market and social value of data. |
| Keywords: | Big Data; firm size |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13489&r=all |
| By: | Borowiecki, Karol Jan (Department of Business and Economics) |
| Abstract: | This research illuminates the historical development of creative activity in the United States. Census data is used to identify creative occupations (i.e., artists, musicians, authors, actors) and data on prominent creatives, as listed in a comprehensive biographical compendium. The analysis first sheds light on the socio-economic background of creative people and how it has changed since 1850. The results indicate that the proportion of female creatives is relatively high, time constraints can be a hindrance for taking up a creative occupation, racial inequality is present and tends to change only slowly, and education plays a significant role for taking up a creative occupation. Second, the study systematically documents and quantifies the geography of creative clusters in the United States and explains how these have evolved over time and across creative domains. Third, it investigates the importance of outstanding talent in a discipline for the local growth of an artistic cluster. |
| Keywords: | Creativity; artists; geographic clustering; agglomeration economies; urban history |
| JEL: | N33 R10 Z11 |
| Date: | 2019–02–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sdueko:2019_003&r=all |