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on Entrepreneurship |
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Issue of 2014‒04‒18
nine papers chosen by Marcus Dejardin University of Namur and Universite' Catholique de Louvain |
| By: | Frank Neffke; Matté Hartog; Ron Boschma; Martin Henning |
| Abstract: | Who introduces structural change in regional economies: Entrepreneurs or existing firms? And do local or non-local firms and entrepreneurs create most novelty in a region? Using matched employer-employee data for the whole Swedish workforce, we determine how unrelated and therefore how novel the activities of different establishments are to a region’s industry mix. Up- and downsizing establishments cause large shifts in the local industry structure, but these shifts only occasionally require an expansion of local capabilities because the new activities are often related to existing local activities. Indeed, these incumbents tend to align their production with the local economy, deepening the region’s specialization. In contrast, structural change mostly originates via new establishments, especially those with non-local roots. Moreover, although entrepreneurs start businesses more often in activities unrelated to the existing regional economy, new establishments founded by existing firms survive in such activities more often, inducing longer-lasting changes in the region. |
| Keywords: | Structural change, entrepreneurship, diversification, relatedness, regions, resource-based view |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1410&r=ent |
| By: | Michael Fritsch (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena); Ronney Aamoucke (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the role played by different fields of academic knowledge and various types of higher education institutions in the emergence of innovative start-ups in a region. We show that education and research in the applied and natural sciences have the strongest effect on the emergence of new businesses in innovative industries. Distinguishing between different indicators for these types of knowledge, the strongest effects are found for the number of professors, followed by the number of students and the amount of external funds attracted. This discovery clearly indicates that it is more the size of the regional knowledge stock than the number of students that is most important for the emergence of innovative stat-ups. |
| Keywords: | New business formation, innovative start-ups, universities, regional knowledge |
| JEL: | L26 L60 L80 O18 R12 R30 |
| Date: | 2014–04–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2014-013&r=ent |
| By: | McKenzie, David (World Bank); Woodruff, Christopher (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | Business training programs are a popular policy option to try to improve the performance of enterprises around the world. The last few years have seen rapid growth in the number of evaluations of these programs in developing countries. We undertake a critical review of these studies with the goal of synthesizing the emerging lessons and understanding the limitations of the existing research and the areas in which more work is needed. We find that there is substantial heterogeneity in the length, content, and types of firms participating in the training programs evaluated. Many evaluations suffer from low statistical power, measure impacts only within a year of training, and experience problems with survey attrition and measurement of firm profits and revenues. Over these short time horizons, there are relatively modest impacts of training on survivorship of existing firms, but stronger evidence that training programs help prospective owners launch new businesses more quickly. Most studies find that existing firm owners implement some of the practices taught in training, but the magnitudes of these improvements in practices are often relatively modest. Few studies find significant impacts on profits or sales, although a couple of the studies with more statistical power have done so. Some studies have also found benefits to microfinance organizations of offering training. To date there is little evidence to help guide policymakers as to whether any impacts found come from trained firms competing away sales from other businesses versus through productivity improvements, and little evidence to guide the development of the provision of training at market prices. We conclude by summarizing some directions and key questions for future studies. |
| Keywords: | Business training; Consulting; Randomized experiments; Firm Productivity. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:116&r=ent |
| By: | Corradi, A.A. |
| Abstract: | Firm dynamics are commonly explained through learning processes by evolutionary economics and resource-based theories of the firm. The literature, however, also highlights the methodological difficulty to unpack learning. With the support of cognitive-behavioural theories of learning and the use of a multi-method approach, this study investigates the evolution of business start- ups and interactions between markets, institutions and learning strategies. In retrospective interviews, entrepreneurs-founders of 43 Brazilian start-ups reconstructed the storyline of the first three to five years of their firms, focussing on critical learning episodes. Analyses of the narratives resulted in 207 critical learning episodes, based on the analytical framework, empirical content, expert evaluation and the literature. These episodes were clustered in five categories. Quantitative descriptive analysis showed the cross-cutting dynamics of these episodes. Then, relationships between episodes were investigated through grounded theory principles. Results showed that the key linking factor between episodes is the resource-base of each episode, which generated five typical pathways. The final step identified the properties of these pathways. It is argued that the iteration between qualitative and quantitative methods was crucial to unpack the relationships described. This study provides a viable methodology and a comprehensive framework to investigate the evolution of business start-ups, contributing to the literature on organizational learning, entrepreneurship, and theory of the firm. |
| Keywords: | mixed methods, resource-based theory of the firm, evolution of business start-ups, theory building |
| Date: | 2014–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ems:euriss:51040&r=ent |
| By: | Vladi Finotto (Dept. of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venice); Anna Moretti (Dept. of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venice) |
| Abstract: | Literature in strategy and entrepreneurship resorted to the concept of imprinting to explain the resilience of firms' traits. Nonetheless, it assumed such a process is at work rather than indulging in its explanation. This article advances a conceptual framework based on an original definition of the imprints and on a dynamic view of the mechanisms pinpointing the replication, substitution, and re-negotiation of imprints in time. In particular, we identify entrepreneursÕ cognitive frames as what gets stamped on organizations. Moreover, we build a conceptual model based on resource mobilization, emphasizing the role of agency and politics in entrepreneurial imprinting. |
| Keywords: | Imprinting, cognitive frame, dynamic, agency |
| JEL: | L26 D21 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vnm:wpdman:78&r=ent |
| By: | Cécile Carpentier; Jean-Marc Suret |
| Abstract: | We analyze exit-related perceptions of the members of a large, well-structured Canadian angel group. Because they invest in high tech deals larger than CAN$1.2 million, together with venture capitalists and a matching fund, these angels should consider the initial public offering (IPO) as a possible exit mode. However, they show a strong preference for the trade sale. This preference is consistent with the economies of scope hypothesis: getting big fast has become more important because large firms can fully and rapidly exploit innovations, resulting in more small firm acquisitions. Securities regulation is also perceived as a major impediment to exiting onto the stock market. Both reasons explain why IPOs are not considered an exit mode. Reluctance to exit through an IPO increases with angels’ experience. Our observations have implications for entrepreneurs, business angels and policy makers Nous analysons les perspectives selon lesquelles des anges membres d’un groupe structurés d’anges canadiens envisagent la disposition de leurs placements. Ces anges investissent des montants de l’ordre de 1,2 millions de dollar dans des entreprises technologiques et l’émission initiale est, de ce fait, une option de sortie envisageable. Toutefois, les anges énoncent une préférence marquée pour la cession en bloc de leurs actions à des acquéreurs stratégiques. Cette préférence est cohérente avec l’hypothèse des économies d’échelles : pour les entreprises innovantes, il est essentiel d’acquérir rapidement une taille suffisante à l’exploitation rapide des innovations, et l’acquisition par un joueur important du domaine est un moyen plus efficace d’acquérir cette taille que l’émission initiale. Toutefois, la réglementation des valeurs mobilières est également perçue comme un obstacle majeur aux émissions initiales |
| Keywords: | business angel, exit, entrepreneurial venture, securities regulation, |
| JEL: | L26 M13 D81 G24 |
| Date: | 2014–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2014s-21&r=ent |
| By: | Jean Cartelier |
| Abstract: | The purpose of the paper is to offer a logical genesis of the differenciation of agents in two classes: capitalist entrepreneurs and wage-earners. The model presented here does not follow the Classical (or Marxian) tradition (where the two opposed classes are the straight consequence of the concentration of the means of production in the hands of a limited fraction of people). It does not follow mainstream economists either (no difference according to general competitive equilibrium or a difference taken as given in labour economics in general). Models belonging to those traditions fail to reproduce a major stylised fact: wage-earners cannot be distinguished from entrepreneurs when they are in the market for commodities but they radically differ in the'market for labour'or in production (wage-earners do not produce for their own account but for that of entrepreneurs who get pro ts, not wages). Modern tentatives to deal with the differenciation of agents (Matsuyama for instance) explain it by a progrssive differenciation of the level of wealth up to a threshold which makes some agents able to accumulate and others not. We propose a different view based on the process of issuance of money. If a fraction of agents have not a direct access to that process they cannot act in the market for their own account. The alternatives they have are limited to autarky or to work for the account of those who have additional alternatives due to their direct access to money (to be independent producers or entrepreneurs hiring wage-earners). The model makes explicit the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of an E-equilibrium in which co-exist heterogeneous agents (entrepreneurs and wage-earners) starting from a population homogeneous except for bank rationing. These reasonable conditions are: an efficient monetary system, a sufficient gap between productivity of production in mass compared to other types and a possibility to induce wage-earners to work signifi cantly more than they would as free producers. A non-Marxian notion of exploitation is suggested to conclude. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurs, wage-earners. |
| JEL: | A10 B50 J01 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2014-19&r=ent |
| By: | Sophie Vallet; Salma Fattoum; Khaled Guesmi |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to understand and analyze the evolutions of the spin-off process in French large companies based on its practice in ten of them. Through this work, we propose a first modelling of this practice. Spin-off is for us a multiform phenomenon which relates to three types of firm policies: sustainable development and corporate social responsibility, wage policy and innovation policy. |
| Keywords: | Spin-offs,corporate social responsibility,local economic development,entrepreneurship. |
| Date: | 2014–04–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2014-205&r=ent |
| By: | Dominique BONET FERNANDEZ; Marie-José SCOTTO; Bruno FISCHER |
| Abstract: | L’entrepreneuriat féminin, en tant que gisement de croissance et d’emploi suscite l’intérêt des instances politiques, économiques et académiques (de Bruin et al. 2007 ; Bel, 2009 ; Chabaud et Lebègue, 2013 ; Hugues et al. 2012). Dans ce contexte particulièrement porteur, notre recherche a comme objectif d’identifier les motivations principales des femmes à entreprendre en France. A partir d’une enquête en ligne actuellement en cours auprès des réseaux féminins français d’entrepreneures, nous présentons nos premiers résultats fondés sur 87 questionnaires. Nous appuyant sur la typologie de Kirkwood (2009), l’hypothèse que nous testons concerne la nature des facteurs de motivation, pull ou push. Il apparaît que les facteurs pull (motivations d’indépendance et économique) sont prédominants. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneuriat féminin, motivations, facteurs push et pull |
| Date: | 2014–04–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2014-211&r=ent |