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on Entrepreneurship |
| By: | J. Augusto Felicio (School of Economics and Management (ISEG), Technical University of Lisbon); Eduardo Couto (School of Economics and Management (ISEG), Technical University of Lisbon); Jorge Caiado (CEMAPRE, School of Economics and Management (ISEG), Technical University of Lisbon) |
| Abstract: | This study explores the interconnection between human factors and social factors and analyses the relations influenced by the specific activity and age of firms. A statistical approach is implemented which applies factor analysis techniques, based on a sample of small and medium sized firms from four sectors of activity which are between four and fifteen years old, and are split into three time periods. It is found that there are interconnected groups of human capital and social capital factors, although a sizeable proportion of the literature conceptually separates these factors and deals with them individually. It is also ascertained that this relationship is influenced by the field of activity and the age of the firms. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, Factor analysis, Human capital, Management, Social capital |
| JEL: | M10 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cma:wpaper:0905&r=ent |
| By: | Gavin C Reid; Zhibin Xu |
| Abstract: | This paper reports on one of the first empirical attempts to investigate small firm growth and survival, and their determinants, in the Peoples’ Republic of China. The work is based on field work evidence gathered from a sample of 83 Chinese private firms (mainly SMEs) collected initially by face-to-face interviews, and subsequently by follow-up telephone interviews a year later. We extend the models of Gibrat (1931) and Jovanovic (1982), which traditionally focus on size and age alone (e.g. Brock and Evans, 1986), to a ‘comprehensive’ growth model with two types of additional explanatory variables: firm-specific (e.g. business planning); and environmental (e.g. choice of location). We estimate two econometric models: a ‘basic’ age-size-growth model; and a ‘comprehensive’ growth model, using Heckman’s two-step regression procedure. Estimation is by log-linear regression on cross-section data, with corrections for sample selection bias and heteroskedasticity. Our results refute a pure Gibrat model (but support a more general variant) and support the learning model, as regards the consequences of size and age for growth; and our extension to a comprehensive model highlights the importance of location choice and customer orientation for the growth of Chinese private firms. In the latter model, growth is explained by variables like planning, R&D orientation, market competition, elasticity of demand etc. as well as by control variables. Our work on small firm growth achieves two things. First, it upholds the validity of ‘basic’ size-age-growth models, and successfully applies them to the Chinese economy. Second, it extends the compass of such models to a ‘comprehensive’ growth model incorporating firm-specific and environmental variables. |
| Keywords: | Chinese private firms, models of small firm growth, choice of location, customer orientation |
| JEL: | D21 M13 L25 L26 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:san:crieff:0913&r=ent |
| By: | Robert M. Feinberg |
| Abstract: | In our increasingly globalized economy, the growth and profit prospects of domestic firms, especially small firms, seem clearly impacted by competitive pressures from foreign firms. This article analyzes annual data for 1989-1998 for 140 3-digit SIC manufacturing industries and for 1998-2004 for 86 4-digit NAICS industries on establishment -- plant-level -- births by small firms in several size categories. The major finding is that international pressures, in the form of import share weighted exchange rate appreciation, seem to lead to reduced rates of smallest-firm entry in manufacturing, though the magnitudes of these effects are smaller than sometimes discussed (and there is the suggestion that dollar appreciation may actually benefit small firm entry through access to cheaper inputs where the final product import threat is weak). |
| Keywords: | small firms, entry, foreign competition, exchange rates |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amu:wpaper:2009-04&r=ent |