nep-ent New Economics Papers
on Entrepreneurship
Issue of 2016‒06‒14
six papers chosen by
Marcus Dejardin
Université de Namur

  1. Green startups and local knowledge bases: Newborn suppliers of energy-related technologies in Italian Provinces By Colombelli, Alessandra; Quatraro, Francesco
  2. Entrepreneurship Capital and Regional Productivity Revisited By Massón-Guerra, José Luis; Ortín-Ángel, Pedro
  3. When arm’s length is too far. Relationship banking over the business cycle By Beck, Thorsten; Degryse, Hans; De Haas, Ralph; van Horen, Neeltje
  4. Bank ownership structure, SME lending and local credit markets By Hasan, Iftekhar; Jackowicz, Krzysztof; Kowalewski, Oskar; Kozlowski, Lukasz
  5. Microcredit in Industrialized Countries: Unexpected Consequences of Regulatory Loan Ceilings By Anastasia Cozarenco; Ariane Szafarz
  6. Regional importance of Mittelstand firms and innovation performance By Berlemann, Michael; Jahn, Vera

  1. By: Colombelli, Alessandra; Quatraro, Francesco (University of Turin)
    Abstract: There is wide consensus about the importance of green technologies for achieving superior economic and environmental performances. The literature on their determinants has neglected the creation of green start-ups as a channel to bring about green technologies in the market. Drawing upon the knowledge spillovers theory of entrepreneurship, we test the relevance of local knowledge stocks, distinguishing between clean and dirty stocks, for the creation of green start-ups. Moreover, the effects of the technological composition of local stocks is investigated, by focusing on technological variety, both related and unrelated, as well as on coherence. Consistently with recent literature, green start-ups are associated to higher levels of variety, pointing to the relevance of diverse and heterogeneous knowledge sources, but in related and complementary technological fields.
    Date: 2016–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:201606&r=ent
  2. By: Massón-Guerra, José Luis; Ortín-Ángel, Pedro
    Abstract: Entrepreneurship capital has been considered in the literature to be a public good, so it will positively affect the total factor productivity of the firms in a certain region. There is evidence confirming a positive relationship between entrepreneurship capital measures and regional production. This paper argues that this evidence could also be explained by the presence of decreasing returns to scale in firms’ production technology. So previous evidence may be mixing both effects: returns to scale and public goods. This paper provides a simple methodological benchmark for distinguishing between and measuring both effects. The analysis conducted using a sample of 52 Spanish provinces for eleven years confirms the presence of decreasing returns to scale. In our data, previous interpretations of the evidence overestimate the effect of regional entrepreneurship capital as a public good on the economy.
    Keywords: Entrepreneurship Capital, Regional Productivity, Scale Economies.
    JEL: L26 O4 O40 R11
    Date: 2016–04–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:71587&r=ent
  3. By: Beck, Thorsten; Degryse, Hans; De Haas, Ralph; van Horen, Neeltje
    Abstract: Using a novel way to identify relationship and transaction banks, we study how banks’ lending techniques affect funding to SMEs over the business cycle. For 21 countries we link the lending techniques that banks use in the direct vicinity of firms to these firms’ credit constraints at two contrasting points of the business cycle. We show that relationship lending alleviates credit constraints during a cyclical downturn but not during a boom period. The positive impact of relationship lending in an economic downturn is strongest for smaller and more opaque firms and in regions where the downturn is more severe.
    JEL: F36 G21 L26 O12 O16
    Date: 2014–07–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bof:bofitp:2014_014&r=ent
  4. By: Hasan, Iftekhar; Jackowicz, Krzysztof; Kowalewski, Oskar; Kozlowski, Lukasz
    Abstract: In this paper, by employing a novel approach, we study the relationship between bank type and small-business lending in a post-transition country. Using a unique dataset on bank branches and firm-level data, we find that local cooperative banks lend more to small businesses than do large domestic banks and foreign-owned banks, even when controlling for the financial situation of the cooperative banks. Additionally, our results suggest that cooperative banks provide loans to small businesses at lower costs than foreign-owned banks or large domestic banks. Finally, we show that small and medium-sized firms perform better in counties with a large number of cooperative banks than in counties dominated by foreign-owned banks or large domestic banks. Our results are important from a policy perspective, as they show that foreign bank entry and industry consolidation may raise valid concerns for small firms in developing countries. Keywords: small-business lending, cooperative banks, foreign banks, post-transition countries
    JEL: G21 G28
    Date: 2014–09–22
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bof:bofrdp:2014_022&r=ent
  5. By: Anastasia Cozarenco; Ariane Szafarz
    Abstract: Subsidized microfinance institutions (MFIs) provide affordable credit to small entrepreneurs. Many industrialized countries regulate MFIs. But in a market with accessible small business financing, regulatory loan ceilings can jeopardize the supply of microcredit to the most disadvantaged people. This is because small entrepreneurs in need of above-ceiling credit have the option to combine a ceiling-high microcredit with a supplementary loan from a regular bank. By reducing information asymmetry, this type of co-financing may prompt MFIs to divert credit away from entrepreneurs seeking below-ceiling loans. This study uses hand-collected data from a French MFI to test, and partly confirm, this theory.
    Keywords: Microcredit; microfinance; regulation; loan ceiling; self-employment; entrepreneurs
    JEL: G21 L51 G28 O52 L31 I38 C25 M13
    Date: 2016–04–29
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/229550&r=ent
  6. By: Berlemann, Michael; Jahn, Vera
    Abstract: Despite of the deeply rooted belief of politicians from all over the world in the important role of Mittelstand firms, there has been surprisingly little empirical research on this issue, yet. This article contributes to the literature by studying whether the relative regional importance of Mittelstand firms has an effect on regional innovation performance. Using a cross section of German NUTS-3-regions, a significantly positive relation between the relative importance of owner-managed SMEs and patent applications is identified. This finding is highly robust when controlling for spatial correlations as they often occur in highly disaggregated regional analyses.
    Keywords: Innovation,Mittelstand firms,Owner-management,SMEs,Germany
    JEL: O31 C21 D23
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vswi15:140884&r=ent

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