|
on Entrepreneurship |
| By: | Torben Klarl |
| Abstract: | A large and still growing body of literature suggests that entrepreneurship is of exceptional importance in explaining regional specific efficiencies of knowledge spillovers. Although quantifying the impact of entrepreneurial activity for economic growth is an interesting issue -- particularly at the regional level -- a consice formulation within a theoretical growth model is missing. This paper in general tries to uncover the link between own- and neighbour-related regional entrepreneurial activity in innovation and regional growth within a spatial semi-endogenous growth model in the spirit of Jones (1995) reflecting recent empirical findings on entrepreneurial activity for economic growth. The paper makes the following points: firstly, the degree of tacit knowledge spillover within the R\&D-sector is positively related to own and neigbhour-related entrepreneurial activity and secondly, for a given entrepreneur's willingness to invest in R\&D-projects the degree of tacit knowledge spillover is higher with stronger institutions. The paper derives an explicit solution for the transitional as well as for the balanced growth path level of entrepreneurs' innovative activities. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p278&r=ent |
| By: | Katharina Pijnenburg; Konstantin A. Kholodilin |
| Abstract: | We use a neoclassical production function to analyze the effects of knowledge spillovers via entrepreneurship on economic performance of 337 German districts. To take the spatial dependence structure of the data into account, we estimate a spatial Durbin model. We highlight the importance of the choice of the appropriate weight matrix. We find positive knowledge spillover effects via entrepreneurship within a certain region. Between regions, entrepreneurship as a vehicle by which knowledge spills over and contributes to economic performance depends largely on the choice of the weight matrix. We see this as evidence for regionally bounded knowledge spillover effects via entrepreneurship. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p58&r=ent |
| By: | Florian Noseleit |
| Abstract: | The ability to adjust to structural change is vital to economic development, and entries can be active participants in this process. This paper aims to shed some light on the relation between entrepreneurship and growth by arguing that entrepreneurial activity relates to growth via reallocation of factors across sectors. While the importance of entrepreneurship for the reallocation of factors is widely acknowledged, and economic growth may be accelerated by structural change, there is to date no empirical evidence as to the quantitative importance of this link. This study fills that gap. The historical framework is the accelerated economic transformation that occurred in industrialized countries during the mid 1970s, resulting in an increasing need to adjust. Based on German data from 1975 to 2002, evidence is presented that sectoral reallocations are an important means for transforming entrepreneurial activity into growth. To proxy changes in the local sectoral structure induced by entries, a set of similarity measures is introduced that quantifies the impact of new business formation on sectoral reallocations of local economic activity. These measures have in common that they measure the concordance of new entries’ sector affiliations with that of existing businesses or those that exit. Next, these measures are used to analyze the relationship between structural change induced by entrepreneurial activity and economic development. The empirical findings suggest that structural change induced by newly founded businesses is positively related to local growth, revealing one element of the complex relation between entrepreneurship and growth. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p427&r=ent |
| By: | Hans Westlund; Amy Olsson |
| Abstract: | The current empirical entrepreneurship literature mainly shows a positive correlation between entrepreneurship (measured as the number of startups) and economic growth. However, the mechanisms by which entrepreneurship exerts its positive influence are not obvious. The net result of startups on employment or GDP can be negative, at least in the short run, since efficient, new companies may lead to closures of less efficient ones. Based on an assumption that economic entrepreneurship in the form of startups creates unobserved supply side effects on the firm level (Fritsch & Mueller 2004) and entrepreneurial social capital on community level (Westlund & Bolton 2003) this paper studies the connections between startups and local development at the municipal level in Sweden between 2000 and 2008. We use a unique database including not only total startups, but data on startups divided in six branches to study the impact of entrepreneurship on population and employment growth. Analyses are performed on all municipalities as well as by municipality type and by growth rate. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p327&r=ent |
| By: | Andrew Ross |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the spatial variation of new entrepreneurial activity across 32 Scottish regions for the period 1998-2007. Entrepreneurship is widely recognised as a key determinant of economic growth, regional prosperity and sustainable development. Using data from the Value Added Tax (VAT) register, this paper estimates spatial variation in new entrepreneurial activity using a panel data model. Results show that there is considerable variation in entrepreneurship across Scottish regions and that this variation may be explained by demand and supply factors, policy and cultural factors and agglomeration benefits. Given that Scotland has recently suffered from low levels of entrepreneurship compared with other parts of the UK and similar sized smaller countries, this paper provides relevant and timely findings, as Scotland attempts to recover from the recent recession. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p848&r=ent |
| By: | Andres Jung; Cecilia Plottier |
| Abstract: | It is widely acknowledged that young ventures and fast growing firms have a strong impact on economic growth and employment creation. It is not only entrepreneurial dynamics associated to entry and exit of new ventures, but also the ability of firms to survive and grow, that is important for economic development. Fast growing firms (not necessarily new), are the most dynamic agents in the economy and play a key role in job creation. Despite the economic impact of fast growing ventures, knowledge about the factors driving their growth path is unclear. A better understanding about how these factors work is important for developing countries, particularly for Latin American economies. Our study intends to contribute to entrepreneurship literature in two ways: a) integrating firm level factors associated to growth, with the local or sectorial environment within which those firms operate, in a small Latin American economy (Uruguay); b) framing that analysis within the context of a regional trade block (Mercosur). Entrepreneurship literature about these issues is scarce for developing economies, and our conjecture is that factors associated to micro and meso level of analysis, in this regional context, matter for how firms overcome the growth barriers they face. In our study, we analyze how firm and context level factors interact so as to explain employment growth of a sample of Uruguayan SMEs, during 2003-2007, period of strong economic expansion that followed a deep recession. Uruguay is a small and relatively open economy, located between Argentina and Brazil, partners in a regional trade agreement (Mercosur). We intend also to analyze how being part of this trade block has influence on firm growth. Preliminary results show, as expected, that small, young and internationalized firms tend to grow faster. Also, that regional and sectorial characteristics influence the ability of SMEs to surmount barriers to growth. Finally, some characteristics of the integration of the regional trade block into the world economy seem to be relevant to explain firm growth in Uruguay. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p1502&r=ent |
| By: | José L. González-PernÃa; Iñaki Peña-Legazkue |
| Abstract: | Although export-oriented new ventures and the field of international entrepreneurship have received considerable attention by scholars during the last decade (Oviatt and McDougla, 2005), their potential economic impact has not been sufficiently analyzed yet. To the best of our knowledge, no studies on this issue have been carried out at regional level. Despite the increasing impact of globalization, regions have emerged as the essential and active unit of economic development process (Scott and Stopper, 2003). Regions are influential environments fostering entrepreneurship (Feldman, 2000). This is especially true for knowledge-based entrepreneurship since proximity to knowledge sources matters in order to discover opportunities and exploit them (Audretsch, 1998). Moreover, regions differ culturally and economically, and such differences encourage or discourage people to venture in entrepreneurial activity. We analyze the impact of export-oriented entrepreneurship on regional growth using data provided by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor project and the Spanish Institute of Statistics, for 17 NUTS-2 Spanish regions over a period of six years. After controlling for catching-up effects (van Stel et al., 2005), as well as, other drivers of economic growth (e.g. change in technology capability and human capital), we found evidence that those regions with a higher percentage of adult population involved in export-oriented entrepreneurship experience a higher GDP growth. This relationship is greater as the level of foreign customers served by the entrepreneurial initiatives is substantially higher (i.e., at least 1%, 25% or 75% of customers located abroad). These results support those found at national level by Hessels and van Stel (2009). However, our paper adds to the extant literature on entrepreneurship by analyzing the role of entrepreneurial activity with different levels of export intensity on regional growth under a longitudinal context. Policy implications derived from these results suggest that trade policies for export promotion among new ventures should be carried out at regional level. Otherwise, exporting new ventures may concentrate only on certain regions, which would help to increase differences on growth within a nation. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p1526&r=ent |
| By: | Robert Gold; Oliver Falck; Stephan Heblich |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we assess educational factors which might have an impact on entrepreneurship. We analyze influences on the entrepreneurial intentions of German university students and find that pre-university education significantly affects their desire to become an entrepreneur. Using the recent German history of separation and reunification as quasi-natural experiment, we focus on the early formation of entrepreneurial endowments during adolescence and investigate whether pre-university education affects university students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Particularly, we analyze the impact of socialization and schooling under the socialist regime of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) which might hamper entrepreneurship. Our results show that socialist education has a negative effect on the entrepreneurial intentions of students in reunified Germany who were brought up in the GDR. When analyzing the subsample of East German students who were partly educated in the FRG after reunification in 1990, we find that some years of education in the liberal market system increase the entrepreneurial intentions of students born in the GDR. We focus on university students, since universities are seen as potential “breeding ground†for innovative entrepreneurship as described by Schumpeter (1912). Here we assume according to Falck et al. (2009) that entrepreneurial intentions are a good predictor for future entrepreneurship. We use data from a regularly repeated survey among university students in Germany. Our analysis rests on the three waves conducted after reunification at 23 universities, in (the former socialist) East as well as in West Germany. Generally, German students have significantly lower entrepreneurial intentions when they were educated in the GDR. We further restrict our sample to mobile students at West German universities and still find a negative effect of socialist education. This effect is also robust to the inclusion of a rich set of control variables concerning the students’ family background, job experience as well as further measures for their educational training. Overall, being educated in the socialist GDR decreases the likelihood of having entrepreneurial intentions between around 4 and 7 percentage points Thus our findings suggest that adolescents’ education might act as effective measure to stimulate entrepreneurship. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p999&r=ent |
| By: | Leyden, Dennis P. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics); Link, Albert N. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Perception and action describe the entrepreneur as a dynamic figure in economic activity. It follows then that entrepreneurship entails a process that begins with perception and is completed with action. When it comes to places—meaning physical localities—rarely is it the case that the perception of opportunity and the ability to act on that perception are embodied in a single individual. This paper illustrates the strategic management of one place in particular, Research Triangle Park in central North Carolina. This history of Research Triangle Park suggests and that the early perception for the park, and the action to see it from “seed to harvest,” were the result of many individuals each exhibiting their own entrepreneurial ability. Thus, we introduce the notion of collective entrepreneurship, and we suggest that it might be a critical ingredient to a recipe for the successful strategic management of places. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; Strategic management; Research park |
| JEL: | L26 R10 |
| Date: | 2011–11–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2011_018&r=ent |
| By: | Veronique Schutjens; Florian Langstraat; Sierdjan Koster; Peter Vaessen |
| Abstract: | In economic geography literature the attention for spin‐off entrepreneurship has been steadily growing. Its main driver is that spin-off firms are said to have intrinsic advantages over other start-ups because of their embedded link to a parent company. Through this embedded link spin-off firms have a relatively ‘easy’ access to resources for production which has several interesting implications on both the firm and the regional level. At the firm level, spin-off firms seem to outperform other entrants on at least some aspects of success including employment growth and survival chances. At the regional level, they may play a key role in the development of clusters. Despite the increasing number of studies addressing the effects of spin-off processes, important issues remain unresolved. Most importantly, there is still work to be done in identifying what it is that spin-off entrepreneurs take with them from their previous employer and how this affects their innovative behavior, business strategies and performance; and ultimately their alleged contribution to regional economic development. This has been acknowledged before: “… we know little about how conversion [between knowledge and technology commercialization] actually occurs, even though knowledge conversion is at the core of what spin‐offs do…†(Zahra et al., 2007: 570). Based on a review of recent spin-off studies, this paper draws on key inheritance mechanisms in an attempt to develop a new conceptualization of explanations of spin-off effects. Following Koster (2006), initially a distinction will be made between direct resource transfers between parent and spin‐off (providing accommodation or guaranteed turnover) and indirect transfers (spin‐off entrepreneurs capitalizing on previously gained skills). We explore the concept of indirect transfers further in differentiating between personal skills of spin-off entrepreneurs gained while working in the parent organization on the one hand, and the inheritance of specific features of the parental organization, in particular its organizational characteristics and strategies. This closely fits in with the evolutionary economics vocabulary, especially with Nelson and Winters’ (1982) famous DNA metaphor: the knowledge and routines of firms (their ‘DNA’) are partially inherited by their spin‐offs (Boschma et al., 2002). |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p1476&r=ent |
| By: | Reuschke, Darja (University of St. Andrews); van Ham, Maarten (Delft University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | Based on the notion that entrepreneurship is a 'local event', the literature argues that self-employed workers and entrepreneurs are 'rooted' in place. This paper tests the 'residential rootedness'-hypothesis of self-employment by examining for Germany and the UK whether the self-employed are less likely to move or migrate than employees. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP) and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and accounting for transitions in employment status we found little evidence that the self-employed in Germany and the UK are more rooted in place than employees. Firstly, the self-employed are not less likely to move or migrate over the period 2001–08. Secondly, those who are currently self-employed are also not more likely to have remained in the same place over a period of three years (2008–06 and 2005–03) as compared to those who are currently employed. Thirdly, those who are continuously self-employed are not less likely to have moved or migrated over a 3-period than those in continuous paid employment. Fourthly, in contrast to the prevalent 'residential rootedness'-hypothesis in economic geography and regional studies, we found that the entry into and the exit from self-employment are associated with internal migration. |
| Keywords: | self-employment, migration, residential mobility, rootedness hypothesis, UK, Germany |
| JEL: | J61 J62 L26 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6062&r=ent |
| By: | Link, Albert N. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics); Scott, John T. (Dartmouth College) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impacts of the U.S. publicly-funded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program’s funding on the overall employment growth of SBIR-award recipient firms. This paper is motivated by the U.S. Congress’ continued emphasis of employment growth during its deliberations on the reauthorization of the SBIR program. We set forth a model of employment growth; the model offers a framework through which we can compare the firm’s actual level of employment after receipt of an SBIR award and completion of the research project to the level of employment predicted by the firm’s characteristics prior to the award. Using data collected by the National Research Council within the National Academies, we estimate our model, and we conclude that, on average, the overall employment effects associated with the SBIR program are large absolutely and relative to dollars of funding, but these effects are, in general, not statistically significant. |
| Keywords: | Employment growth; Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Technology; Small business |
| JEL: | J48 L26 O31 O38 |
| Date: | 2011–10–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2011_017&r=ent |
| By: | Hannu Tervo; Hannu Niittykangas |
| Abstract: | Workforce is aging in most developed countries, but still needed in productive work. Entrepreneurship at older ages is an option for many aging individuals. As existing and future generations are healthier and more able to work than previous generations, working careers can, and also have been extended. Various reasons such as age, health, gender and education, family status, accumulated savings and organizational factors can affect the choice between full-time work, bridge employment and retirement. But bridge employment as well as career choices may also be affected by many environmental factors. Regions with strong traditions of entrepreneurship may be more favourable to bridge employment in the form of self-employment than other regions. On the other hand, demand conditions may also account for possibilities to bridge employment. Regions with a low level of demand may not be favourable to self-employment at older ages. While some studies have focused on transitions into self-employment among older workers, the question of the motives and background still need clarification. This paper analyzes those who start a business at older ages in different regions in Finland. Who are they, and what is their background? What is the effect of human and financial capital on self-employment decisions? What is the role of previous experience in entrepreneurship - are those without experience from entrepreneurship different from those who have it? Is self-employment at older ages a real alternative only for serial and habitual entrepreneurs? In the analysis, we utilize a large longitudinal micro data to examine transfers of workers and those out of employment aged 55-74 into self-employment in Finland in 1998-2004. The data set represents a 7 percent sample of all Finns in 2001 of whom we have a lot of register-based and other data even from the year 1970 onward. Note: An alternative choice was : theme N: enterpreuneurship, networks and innovation |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p764&r=ent |
| By: | Justyna Anders |
| Abstract: | The scope of the paper is to examine relationship between quality of administrative environment for business and propensity to become entrepreneur. Two different approaches to business activity are taken into account: opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2004). The analysis refers to period 2004-2009 and takes into account data for member states of the EU against the background of other selected economies: BRIC, Japan and the USA. The study is carried out to determine whether effects of regulation on GDP differences between developed and underdeveloped nations (Djankov et.al., 2006) can also be attributed to direct measures of entrepreneurship and can be also grasped also in a relatively homogenous sample of the EU members. Data sources comprise selected results of Doing Business study (start up procedures, regulation of ongoing activities, labour market regulation, registering property, closing a business) by World Bank and Study on Entrepreneurship in Europe by Gallup for the European Commission. Single-linkage clustering will serve as a basis for identification of homogenous groups of courtiers. The results will be then analysed in view of potential factors that differentiate the clusters i.e. legal origins, administrative culture, social capital, human capital and access to finance. The studies on regulation and start ups, research on barriers for entrepreneurship in Europe, studies of social institutions and their impact on economic development will be taken into account as a theoretical background. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p1006&r=ent |
| By: | Marioara Iordan; Mihaela-Nona Chilian |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurship is crucial for the economic development of a region. Using entropy, cluster and shift-share analysis techniques, the authors present a detailed picture of the entrepreneurial milieu of the Sud Muntenia region of Romania, pointing both towards the presence of an overall development process, and also to inter-county and intra-county sectoral imbalances, evolutionary discrepancies and lack of adequate use of territorial resources. Policy recommendations are proposed to address the future challenges for the balanced development of the Sud Muntenia region of Romania. Keywords: entrepreneurship, territorial development, regional business demography, sectoral structure, regional policy JEL Classification: O18, R11, R12, R30 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p831&r=ent |
| By: | Ricardo Monge-González; Juan A. Rodríguez-Alvarez; John Hewitt; Jeffrey Orozco; Keynor Ruiz |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the degree to which innovation by Costa Rican manufacturing firms creates or displaces employment, how different innovation strategies affect employment, and how these effects vary by firm size and type of employment demand characteristics (skills and gender). In particular the research focuses on the differential effects of product and process innovations on employment growth. Particular attention is paid to identifying innovation impacts on employment generation by SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology :: Research & Development, Labor :: Workforce & Employment, Private Sector :: SME, Science & Technology :: New Technologies, Innovation, employment, skills, genders, SMEs, Costa Rica |
| JEL: | O31 O38 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:54278&r=ent |
| By: | Vitanova Ivana (COACTIS - Université Lumière - Lyon II : EA4161 - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Etienne) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of entrepreneurial optimism on the renegotiation procedure outcome in the case of financially distressed companies. We model a three actor renegotiation procedure whit a realistic bank, an optimistic entrepreneur and a trade supplier (who is an optimistic entrepreneur himself). We show that optimism enables a renegotiation procedure even when immediate liquidation is socially optimal. We also show that realistic actors (banks) can exploit the divergence in beliefs with optimistic entrepreneurs in order to obtain premature repayment, while optimistic trade suppliers support the company since they believe that the project has great chances to succeed. Hence, we explain by this idea some empirical evidence over private renegotiation results and player's behavior. |
| Keywords: | optimism, debt renegotiation |
| Date: | 2011–05–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00591059&r=ent |
| By: | Cardoso, Cristiane (University of Algarve) |
| Abstract: | In a globalized and increasingly competitive market, the organization of micro and small enterprises in network structures warrants the survival and competitiveness of companies and consequent development of the regions where they act. The “Empreender Project” has been a key factor for the recent develop the enterpreneurial network in Santa Catarina State, Brazil. This articles searches for the followed mechanisms and instruments for cooperation in the particular case study of AETUR. |
| Keywords: | networks; enterprises; SME; entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | L26 |
| Date: | 2011–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:cieodp:2011_004&r=ent |
| By: | Michael Wyrwich |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates regional sources of entrepreneurial opportunities of knowledge-intensive start-up activity. Thereby it is investigated whether it makes a difference if the knowledge-intensive sector is a newly emerging industry compared to the case where its location across space could develop already over a long period of time. The analysis is on knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in East and West Germany in the 1990s. At the time of German re-unification in 1990s in the former socialist East Germany no KIBS sector existed in contrast to West Germany. The findings indicate that being new to the region makes a difference. Note: My other choice was to submit this paper for an R-Session. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p1711&r=ent |
| By: | Federico Pablo-Marti; Antonio GarcÃa-Tabuenca; José Luis Crespo-Espert |
| Abstract: | The participation of women in entrepreneurial activity forty years ago was virtually an exception. However, nowadays this is an important economic and social phenomenon, with an outstanding impact on the dynamics of both advanced and emerging economies. This is significant not only from a quantitative viewpoint. The fact that female personal features, motives and managerial methods differ from those of men gives a new and interesting perspective –which is still subject to debate- to the analysis regarding training and consolidation of enterprises. Gender-related differences can be the vehicle to introduce innovative aspects that could be influential in the uncertain and changing economic environment after the current crises, particularly in those fields where business output is related to the quality of life. Adopting a previous regional model as a basis of study, we analyse in this work the characteristics that differentiate entrepreneurial women in Spain on the grounds of data collected from an own drafted survey regarding the entrepreneurial activity (607 complete questionnaires) carried out in 2009. The results obtained indicate the coexistence of two different types of entrepreneurial women. The first group gathers those women whose enterprises show, generally speaking, a similar sectoral distribution to that of the whole productive fabric, although with a slight tendency to be more present in services activities. Their characteristics and attitudes are, in general, quite similar to those registered among entrepreneurial men and many of these women come from entrepreneurial families. The second group is mainly made up of entrepreneurial women –frequently with family burdens and low qualified- devoted to services, particularly personal services and retail trade. Technological and managerial characteristics of companies managed by the entrepreneurial women belonging to this group differ substantially from the average of the economy, with a much more traditional and less innovative profile. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p1130&r=ent |
| By: | Seker, Murat |
| Abstract: | The regulatory environment in a country can affect firm performance. This study investigates the impact of a particular regulation, namely license requirements for certain firm activities, on the innovation performance of Indian firms. First it presents a model of firm and industry evolution that explains the dynamics of multi-product firms. Then, using a firm level panel data set, it shows that removal of license requirements led to roughly 5 percentage points faster innovation rates where innovation is measured as introduction of new product varieties that had not existed in the market. The results are robust to inclusion of controls for the other policy reforms that occurred during the period of licensing reform. |
| Keywords: | E-Business,Labor Policies,Microfinance,Markets and Market Access,Knowledge for Development |
| Date: | 2011–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5876&r=ent |
| By: | Petri Ruuskanen; Tomi Kankainen |
| Abstract: | During the last decade, there has been wide agreement on the importance of dynamic capabilities on economic performance of firms. Simultaneously an increasing literature suggests that economic dynamics is embedded in social relations and social institutions. In this article, the determinants of dynamic capabilities of small manufacturing Finnish firms will be explored. Specifically we focus on the importance of social capital for firm dynamics. According to analysis, the most important antecedents of dynamic capabilities of firms are its strategy and social capital. Social capital as wide and active participation in network cooperation correlates statistically significantly with the firm dynamics. Social capital increases firm dynamics by enhancing communication and knowledge spillovers in corporate networks. Active networkers gain important information from their bridging and linking ties, such as other firms and public institutions. According to the analysis, the increase of trust in business relations does not correlate with the dynamic capabilities. Instead trust acts as a trigger factor when firms consider their network activities. Keywords: social capital, networks, trust, dynamic capabilities, small and medium sized enterprises |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p806&r=ent |
| By: | Sophie Brana (Larefi - Laboratoire d'analyse et de recherche en économie et finance internationales - Université Montesquieu - Bordeaux IV : EA2954); Yves Jégourel (Larefi - Laboratoire d'analyse et de recherche en économie et finance internationales - Université Montesquieu - Bordeaux IV : EA2954) |
| Abstract: | French but also European economies are driven by micro, small and medium enterprises. However, evidence shows that micro-enterprises, representing 99 per cent of all newly created businesses, suffer from a lack of external resources, especially those created by socially excluded persons. Traditional commercial banks are indeed often reluctant to satisfy the demand for credit by poor people who cannot guarantee financial collateral and stable revenues. Microfinance institutions (MFIs), dedicated to persons partially or totally excluded from the banking sector, have therefore developed special lending scheme such as progressive lending or group lending and hence demonstrated that poor people could surprisingly be creditworthy. Although many studies do exist on developing countries' MFIs, few have been done to evaluate the social performance of microfinance programmes in industrialized countries. Considering this, we have developed in this paper an in-depth analysis of French institutions of microfinance and an econometric analysis on the personal and social characteristics of their clients, as a measure of MFIs social performance. We demonstrate that two types of microfinance client may be identified: the first type, mainly unemployed, uses microcredit as additional financing resources to complete a relatively important business plan, whereas the second type, mainly monthly guaranteed benefit income recipients totally excluded from the banking system, more vulnerable, uses microcredit as the only external financial resource available to start up a professional activity.. One of our key results is that being either poor, socially excluded or deprived from banking resources is not a sine qua non condition for accessing microfinance services. We also underline that the probability of default is much higher in the first group of borrowers and is positively |
| Keywords: | Microfinance, banking, poverty, self-employment |
| Date: | 2011–09–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00637689&r=ent |