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on Entrepreneurship |
| By: | E. IZQUIERDO; D. BUYENS |
| Abstract: | This paper reports on educational issues of an entrepreneurship course, supported by a constructivist perspective. The study discusses the relevance of constructivism in entrepreneurship education. As a way of assessing this issue, a pre-test-post-test multiple-group quasi-experimental design was performed with the data collected during an academic term. Data were collected by using three instruments to examine the students’ entrepreneurial competencies and self-efficacy levels; two of them were newly developed. Results indicate that an action-oriented instructional approach, fitting into the constructivist view, has a positive impact on the development of entrepreneurial competencies in undergraduate students. Furthermore, the findings reveal that students self-assessed higher on their entrepreneurial self-efficacy after the course completion. Discussion of the findings and implications for future research are presented. |
| Keywords: | Constructivist Perspective, Entrepreneurship, Competencies, Self-efficacy. |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:08/506&r=ent |
| By: | Audretsch, David B; Tamvada, Jagannadha Pawan |
| Abstract: | A growing body of literature shows that geographic location plays an important role in influencing economic phenomena. Despite the renewed interest in economic geography, the existing literature on the firm size distribution (FSD) has ignored the impact of geographic location. A wave of recent studies has examined the determinants and evolution of FSD (Cabral and Mata, 2003; Angelini and Generale 2008, AER) and a component of this literature has focused on the size of the new firm start-ups. However, while the impact of firm-specific and industry-specific characteristics on size of new firms has been analyzed, the role of geographic location has been largely neglected. Using Bayesian semi-parametric geoadditive models, we estimate geographic location as a micro-determinant of firm start-up size. The estimations based on a comprehensive database of firm start-ups in India suggest that the size distribution of new firms exhibits distinct regional patterns, even after controlling for firm and industry characteristics. These residual spatial patterns are found to be attributable, to some extent, to the level of economic and financial development in the regions. |
| Keywords: | Bayesian Methods; Developing Countries; Firm Size Distribution; Geoadditive Models; Geography; Start-Up Size |
| JEL: | L11 L60 R12 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6846&r=ent |
| By: | E. VAN DE VELDE; B. CLARYSSE; M. WRIGHT |
| Abstract: | Innovative start-ups, including spin-offs from universities and companies, play a vital role in the development and growth of emerging, high-technology industries. Research attention has traditionally focused on the links between demographic, educational, psychological and financial influences on start-up activity and growth. The extent to which the characteristics of technology inherited from the parent, important for spin-offs, helps explain post start-up performance has been neglected. We analyse the scope and newness of the endowed technology as a predictor of post-spin-off growth for corporate and university spin-offs. Using a novel, hand-collected dataset, 48 corporate and 73 university spin-offs were identified, comprising the whole population of such spin-offs in Flanders over the period 1991-2002. We find that corporate spin-offs seem to benefit from a narrow scope of technology and a high level of newness of technology, while university spin-offs benefit from a broad scope of technology and a lower level of newness of technology. We conclude that the same choice of technology endowments may have a different impact on the spin-offs’ growth, since spin-offs start with different knowledge inheritance. |
| Keywords: | technology endowment, corporate spin-offs, university spin-offs |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:08/513&r=ent |
| By: | Colantone, I.; Coucke, K.; Sleuwaegen, L. (Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School) |
| Abstract: | The effects of increasing import competition on output displacement and exit of heterogeneousdomestic firms are investigated within the context of an oligopolistic rivalry model.The displacement effect is found to be stronger for large "output flexible" firms, while small"cost flexible" ones are less affected by increasing import pressure. Extending the model to allow for product heterogeneity between domestic and foreign firms, we also find that product differentiation lowers the displacement effect. The theoretical findings are supported at the empirical level by the analysis of firm exit dynamics for 12 manufacturing sectors in 8 European countries, from 1997 to 2003. In particular, we find that the exit of large firms is sensitive to the shock of increasing import penetration from low-wage countries. Small firms in the same industries are instead only affected by marginal trade integration with respect to neighbouring EU countries and other relatively wealthy trading partners. Hence this paper shows, for the first time, that firms of different size might be affected differently by diverse sources of import competition. Implications on firms’ strategic planning and public policy are discussed. |
| Keywords: | oligopolistic competition, low-wage country import competition, firm exit |
| JEL: | F12 F14 L11 L25 L60 |
| Date: | 2008–06–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vlg:vlgwps:2008-06&r=ent |
| By: | Eric Bond; James R. Tybout; Hâle Utar |
| Abstract: | Relative to their counterparts in high-income regions, entrepreneurs in developing countries face less efficient financial markets, more volatile macroeconomic conditions, and higher entry costs. This paper develops a dynamic empirical model that links these features of the business environment to firm ownership patterns, firm size distributions, productivity distributions, borrowing patterns, and cross-household savings behavior. Applied to panel data on Colombian apparel producers, the model yields econometric estimates of a credit market imperfection index, the sunk costs of creating a new business, and various other parameters. It also provides a basis for several counterfactual experiments. These show, inter alia, that an efficient credit market would improve the weighted-average efficiency of producers by about 5 percent, partly by allowing the most productive producers to expand and partly by reducing the incentives for inefficient firms to remain in the market. The gains from better intermediation accrue mainly during periods of macro volatility, and mainly to households with modest wealth but high entrepreneurial ability. |
| JEL: | D24 L26 O16 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14116&r=ent |
| By: | Yongjin, Park |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how bank competition affects the amount of credit provided to small businesses using both the loan turndown rate and the size of granted loans and L/Cs. Using 2003 National Survey of Small Business Finance data, we show that commercial banking in concentrated banking markets are more likely to reject loan applications. Moreover, the size of granted loans is found to be significantly smaller in concentrated markets. Finally, we show that the total limit of L/Cs that a firm has is also significantly smaller for firms in concentrated banking markets. Our finding challenges a notion that credit market competition may be inimical to the formation of mutually beneficial relationships between firms and specific creditors. We do not find any evidence that bank concentration is instrumental in building relationship banking and our results suggest the opposite. |
| Keywords: | Bank Competition; Credit Availability; Small Business; Relationship Banking |
| JEL: | G28 G21 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:9266&r=ent |
| By: | Santiago Carbó Valverde; Francisco Rodríguez-Fernández; Gregory F. Udell |
| Abstract: | SME investment opportunities depend on the level of financing constraints that firms face. Earlier research has mainly focused on the controversial argument that cash flow-investment correlations increase with the level of these constraints. We focus on bank loans rather than cash flow. Our results show that investment is sensitive to bank loans for unconstrained firms but not for constrained firms, and trade credit predicts investment, but only for constrained firms. We also find that unconstrained firms use bank loans to finance trade credit provided to other firms. Our results illustrate alternative mechanisms that firms employ both as borrowers and lenders. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-08-04&r=ent |
| By: | B. LEYMAN; K. SCHOORS; P. COUSSEMENT |
| Abstract: | We analyze the debt dynamics of corporations that reorganize under Belgian court-supervised restructuring, using a unique sample of small corporations. Small firms systematically accumulate unsecured trade credit and unpaid taxes and social contributions in the running up to bankruptcy-reorganization. First, small firms accumulate overdue taxes and social contributions, pushing the government administration in the unintended role of lender of last resort during the pre-bankruptcy period. Second, we find that the pecking order theory and specific trade credit theories predict the levels of trade credit accumulated during the pre-bankruptcy period very well. Our findings suggest that pre-bankruptcy dynamics strongly affect the debt structure at the moment of initiation of the procedure and in this way the ultimate outcome of the restructuring process. |
| Keywords: | court-supervised reorganization; bankruptcy; pecking order theory |
| JEL: | G33 G38 K20 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:08/507&r=ent |
| By: | Thierry BURGER-HELMCHEN; Claude GUITTARD |
| Abstract: | Knowledge based-entrepreneurial firms struggle to survive because they must be simultaneously entrepreneurial on several dimensions. Can those firms rely on users to achieve sufficient efficiency in some entrepreneurial dimensions? To answer this question we drew on the entrepreneurial theories of the firm and on the users/innovator literature. In this work we present the plural entrepreneurship framework and then with a longitudinal case study of a mobile phone video-game firm which relies on users to improve their games we show that the user can significantly enhance the efficiency of the innovation of the firm. We also show that the other important dimensions of the firm behavior (organization, business model) can be significantly improved by the implication of users. |
| Keywords: | Plural entrepreneurship; management of innovation; Video-game case study. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2008-14&r=ent |