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on Entrepreneurship |
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Issue of 2014‒06‒14
nine papers chosen by Marcus Dejardin University of Namur and Universite' Catholique de Louvain |
| By: | Rosendahl Huber, Laura (University of Amsterdam); Sloof, Randolph (University of Amsterdam); van Praag, Mirjam (Copenhagen Business School) |
| Abstract: | Previous empirical studies have shown that solo entrepreneurs benefit from having balanced skills: Jacks-of-All-Trades (JATs) are better entrepreneurs than specialists are. Nowadays however, the majority of entrepreneurs start up and run ventures together in teams. In this paper we test whether the effect of more balanced skills is also positive in a team of entrepreneurs. We also explore whether (a lack of) individual balanced skills can be substituted by combining the skills of various specialists within one team. Our field experiment studies teams of children participating in an entrepreneurship education program. Based on pupils' precisely measured level of verbal and mathematical ability, we exogenously compose 179 teams separated into four different types: JAT teams, math-specialist teams, verbal-specialist teams and mixed specialist teams. Our results show that balanced skills are beneficial to team performance, and that it is hard to substitute individual balanced skills by combining different specialists within one team. |
| Keywords: | skill balance, team diversity, team performance, entrepreneurship, field experiment |
| JEL: | C93 D83 J24 L25 L26 M13 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8237&r=ent |
| By: | Raskov, Danila; Kufenko, Vadim |
| Abstract: | The early accumulation of capital and the pioneering of capitalist enterprise have been undertaken in many countries by heterodox religious communities. The role of the Old Believers (further OB) in the early development of Russian industry and trade was noted by many economic historians (Blackwell, 1965; Gerschenkron, 1970; Beliajeff, 1979; Stadnikov, 2002; Kerov, 2004; Raskov, 2012); however, empirical and statistical research on the topic is still scarce. Therefore one of our goals is to analyze the role of the OB entrepreneurship in a dynamic dimension using statistical data. Taking advantage of official censuses of 1850, 1857 and, what is more important, 15 archive sources for confessional data for 1808 - 1905 and 7 industrial reports, we analyze the role of the OB firms in the Moscow textile industry for the period of 1832 - 1890. We find that the share of the OB firms in turnover and employment was over-proportionate prior to 1879, which hints at a higher propensity to entrepreneurship. The turnover per worker of the OB firms was significantly higher only in the wool sub-sector. Additionally, the OB firms tended to employ more labor. We capture the continuous process of the rise and fall of the OB entrepreneurship, especially in cotton-paper and wool weaving sub-sectors. Bearing in mind cyclical waves of repressions against the OB, we can state, that the performance of their firms was impressing. We discuss the Weber thesis and the Petty-Gerschenkron argument, and state that various factors contributed to their success: working ethics and minority status; social capital, networking and access to interest free financing; own informal institutions and reputation mechanisms; human capital and literacy. -- |
| Keywords: | economic history of Russia,the Old Believers,religious minority,minority entrepreneurship,textile industry |
| JEL: | N33 N83 J15 L26 Z10 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hohpro:402014&r=ent |
| By: | Wintjes R.J.M.; Douglas D.; Fairburn J.; Hollanders H.J.G.M.; Pugh G. (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | Innovation support measures in the EU are mostly designed to support product innovation in RD intensive sectors. To increase the still considerable contribution to regional employment and competitiveness from SMEs in traditional manufacturing industries a broader innovation policy mix is more appropriate. This paper draws data from a survey of more than 300 SMEs from seven regions within the European Union, as well as case studies, to address the question How can innovation policy interventions be improved to support SMEs in traditional manufacturing industries more effectively We claim that innovation support should be sensitive to the way SMEs in traditional manufacturing sectors innovate and grow. We find that product innovation and support used for product innovation is less likely to generate growth, than support used for process innovation. Also support used for marketing innovations and organizational innovations are of particular importance - together with internationalization, design and cooperation. The increasingly selective application procedures applied are not the most efficient to generate impact, since those who are supported and those who are supported more frequently, are the ones who are most likely to take the same innovative steps anyhow, irrespective of policy support.Keywords Innovation, SMEs, traditional sectors, low-tech, policy evaluation, manufacturing, process innovation |
| Keywords: | Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Industry Studies: Manufacturing: General; Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology; Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives; Management of Technological Innovation and R&D; Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes; Technological Change: Government Policy; |
| JEL: | O38 O33 D83 L60 O14 O31 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2014032&r=ent |
| By: | Chiara Criscuolo; Peter N. Gal; Carlo Menon |
| Abstract: | Motivated by the on-going interest of policy makers in the sources of job creation, this paper presents results from a new OECD project on the dynamics of employment (DynEmp) based on an innovative methodology using firm-level data (i.e. national business registers or similar sources). It demonstrates that among small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), young firms play a central role in creating jobs, whereas old SMEs tend to destroy jobs. This pattern holds robustly across 17 OECD countries and Brazil, extending recent evidence found in the United States. The paper also shows that young firms are always net job creators throughout the business cycle, even during the financial crisis. During the crisis, entry and post-entry growth by young firms were affected most heavily, although downsizing by old firms was responsible for most job losses. The results also highlight large cross-country differences in the growth potential of young firms, pointing to the role played by national policies in enabling successful firms to create jobs. |
| Keywords: | Business dynamics, employment growth, small businesses, business demography, startups, great recession, job creation and destruction |
| JEL: | D22 L26 E24 L25 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1274&r=ent |
| By: | Zuzana Brixiova; Mthuli Ncube; Zorobabel Bicaba |
| Abstract: | The shortages of entrepreneurial skills have lowered search effectiveness of potential young entrepreneurs and the rate of youth start-ups. Our paper contributes to closing a gap in the entrepreneurship and development literature with a model of costly firm creation and skill differences between young and adult entrepreneurs. The model shows that for young entrepreneurs facing high costs of searching for business opportunities, support for training is more effective in stimulating productive start-ups than subsidies. The case for interventions targeted at youth rises in societies with high costs of youth unemployment. We test the role of skills and training for productive youth entrepreneurship on data from a recent survey of entrepreneurs in Swaziland. |
| Keywords: | youth entrepreneurship, model of skills and structural transformation, policies, Africa |
| JEL: | J11 J08 L26 O11 |
| Date: | 2014–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wdi:papers:2014-1077&r=ent |
| By: | Thomas Gries (University of Paderborn); Ha van Dung (University of Paderborn) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate the impacts of the institutional environment and the entrepreneur’s education on firm growth in Vietnam. Using a firm-level dataset, we obtain a balanced panel data from 2006 to 2009 for 37,788 registered enterprises from a unique data set. We analyze the effects of the institutional factors on the growth of firms using the system GMM analysis. We find that in accordance to recent theoretical literature, higher level of institutional factors such as business support service, land access, time costs, and informal charges will promote firm growth in both employment and capital. Furthermore the impacts of institutional factors are more significant in capital growth of firms. In addition to the insight, we look at the impacts of entrepreneur’s education on firm growth. We use the fixed effects estimation method and obtain the results supporting the hypothesis that higher level of entrepreneur’s education will associate with a higher growth of firms. |
| Keywords: | firm growth, institutional factors, human capital, entrepreneurship, capital structure. |
| JEL: | O12 O16 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pdn:ciepap:83&r=ent |
| By: | Leland D. Crane |
| Abstract: | I study the relationship between firm growth and the characteristics of newly hired workers. Using Census microdata I obtain a novel empirical result: when a given firm grows faster it hires workers with higher past wages. These results suggest that productive, fast-growing firms tend to hire more productive workers, a form of positive assortative matching. This contrasts with prior research that has found negligible or negative sorting between workers and firms. I present evidence that this difference arises because previous studies have focused on cross-sectional comparisons across firms and industries, while my results condition on firm characteristics (e.g. size, industry, or firm fixed effects). Motivated by the empirical findings I develop a search model with heterogeneous workers and firms. The model is the first to study worker-firm sorting in an environment with worker heterogeneity, firm productivity shocks, multi-worker firms, and search frictions. Despite this richness the model is tractable, allowing me to characterize assortative matching, compositional dynamics and other properties analytically. I show that the model reproduces the positive firm growth-quality of hires correlation when worker and firm types are strong complements in production (i.e. the production function is strictly log-supermodular). |
| Keywords: | Assortative Matching, Firm Growth, Wages, Unemployment, Vacancies, Search Theory, Microdata |
| JEL: | E24 J31 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:14-25&r=ent |
| By: | Westerberg, Hans Seerar (Ratio institute) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyze whether a firm’s return to its R&D stock is affected by seller-buyer interactions. We suggest that firms that are in close contact with their customers will be relatively more sensitive to their customers’ needs, and therefore adjust their R&D activities accordingly. This, in turn, will boost sales and increase the return to R&D. To the extent that seller-buyer interactions are costly, large and productive firms will have an advantage in overcoming such costs. We test these hypotheses using a fixed effects quantile regression framework. Results suggest that large firms active in industries characterized by frequent seller-buyer interactions have a higher return to R&D than other firms. |
| Keywords: | firm behavior; firm performance; production and organizations; firm size; diversification and scope |
| JEL: | D22 D29 L25 O32 |
| Date: | 2014–06–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0231&r=ent |
| By: | Olivier Coussi (CEREGE - CEntre de REcherche en GEstion - Université de Poitiers : EA1722 - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Poitiers); Anne Krupicka (CEREGE - CEntre de REcherche en GEstion - Université de Poitiers : EA1722 - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Poitiers) |
| Abstract: | Nous étudions les facteurs qui ont favorisé la création d'un dispositif sociotechnique d'accompagnement de l'innovation au sein des PME d'une région française. Nous examinons les conditions qui ont permis l'émergence d'une telle démarche entrepreneuriale au sein d'une CCI Territoriale, et plus particulièrement les proximités de ressources qui ont façonné le réseau d'acteurs de ce dispositif institutionnel. Celui-ci a été initié par un porteur externe qui, soutenu et contraint par un ensemble de facteurs, a construit un réseau sociotechnique pour l'accompagnement des projets d'innovation associant un étudiant, un chercheur et la PME. |
| Keywords: | accompagnement de l'innovation des PME ; entreprenariat en secteur public ; théorie de la traduction ; proximités de ressources |
| Date: | 2014–05–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00997850&r=ent |