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on Entrepreneurship |
| By: | Durufle, Gilles; Hellmann, Thomas F; Wilson, Karen |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the challenge of entrepreneurial companies to go beyond the start-up phase and grow into large successful companies. We examine the long-term financing of these so-called scale-up companies, focusing on the US, Europe and Canada. The paper first provides a conceptual framework for understanding the challenges of financing scale-ups. It then shows some data about the various aspects of financing scale-ups in the US, Europe and Canada. Finally the paper raises the question of long-term public policies for supporting the creation of a better scale-up environment. |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12004&r=ent |
| By: | Bernhardt, Arielle; Field, Erica; Pande, Rohini; Rigol, Natalia |
| Abstract: | Several field experiments find positive returns to grants for male and not female micro-entrepreneurs. But, these analyses largely overlook that male and female micro-entrepreneurs often belong to the same household. Using data from randomized trials in India, Sri Lanka and Ghana, we show that the gender gap in microenterprise performance is not due to a gap in aptitude. Instead, low average returns of female-run enterprises are observed because women's capital is invested into their husbands' enterprises rather than their own. When women are the sole household enterprise operator, capital shocks lead to large increases in profits. Household-level income gains are equivalent regardless of the grant or loan recipient's gender. |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11981&r=ent |
| By: | Farah Said; Mahreen Mahmud; Giovanna d’Adda; Azam Chaudhry |
| Abstract: | We investigate the role of social and intra-household norms in women’s decision to hide money from their male household members through artefactual field experiments with microfinance clients receiving start-up loans and training as part of a RCT in Pakistan. We find that hiding is positively correlated with women’s sense of entitlement over their own earnings and with their male household members’ lack of respect over their earned property, and negatively correlated with their agency within the household. Finally, we find that this agency can be influenced by experiences outside the household, namely agency is positively impacted by being treated within the RCT. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2017-07&r=ent |
| By: | Habermann, Harald |
| Abstract: | The present article links business takeovers to the literature on serial autocorrelation of growth rates. The aim of the study is to identify the effects of successions on the performance of small German firms by analysing the growth pathways over a period of eight years after business takeover. Using panel data from 1,872 firms, the present article shows that for the first two years after a business takeover, small firms are subject to negative serial correlation of growth rates regarding employment. The analysis underlines the importance of longitudinal data to provide evidence on changes in the behaviour of a firm following a business takeover. |
| Keywords: | business takeovers,successions,autocorrelation,panel data,small firms |
| JEL: | L25 M13 M21 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifmwps:0117&r=ent |
| By: | Mulalo Mamburu |
| Abstract: | Traditionally, much of the research on economic growth drivers has been focused on small and medium enterprises. In recent years the academic focus on small businesses has shifted to a particular group of firms that are interesting from an economic growth and policy development perspective, namely high-growth firms. While the standard definition that is recommended by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is widely accepted, various scholars have used different definitions concentrating on different variables such as turnover or employment growth. Using new South African firm-level data, the study hypothesizes that the identification of high-growth firms is highly sensitive to the measure of firm growth, such that different firm growth measures will return samples of firms with significantly different demographic characteristics. These differences will then have an impact on the findings of analyses based on these growth measures. They will also have implications for public policy recommendations that seek to encourage the emergence of high-growth firms. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2017-107&r=ent |
| By: | Preeya Mohan; Eric Strobl; Patrick Watson |
| Abstract: | In-firm training is a crucial innovative activity in modern knowledge-based economies which face increasing global competition and rapidly changing technology. Nevertheless, there are few studies which look at in-firm training in the Caribbean. This study uses the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) 2010 and Compete Caribbean's Productivity Technology Innovation Survey (PROTEqIN) 2014 to provide empirical evidence on in-firm training in the region. The results suggest that there is a relatively low incidence of training in the region, although there are significant differences across countries and this may be because of heterogeneities in public support and barriers to in-firm training. Also, various firm characteristics affect in-firm training, including size, ownership, whether the firm exports, whether the firm is part of a larger organization, innovative activity and workforce structure and educational level. Lastly, the findings suggest that in-firm training in the region may play a relatively small role and may not even matter for innovation and productivity. |
| Keywords: | Job Training Programs, Productivity Growth, Wage Growth, Exporting Firm, Labor Force, Firm innovation, Labor markets, Educational Level, New Technologies, Firm performance, Determinants of Innovation, Knowledge creation, on-the-job training, workforce, wages |
| JEL: | M53 J24 D22 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:98136&r=ent |
| By: | Bryson, Alex (University College London); White, Michael (Policy Studies Institute) |
| Abstract: | A long-running debate in the small firms' literature questions the value of formal 'human resource management' (HRM) practices which have been linked to high performance in larger firms. We contribute to this literature by exploiting linked employer-employee surveys for 2004 and 2011. Using employees' intrinsic job satisfaction and organizational commitment as measures of motivation we find the returns to small firm investments in HRM are u-shaped. Small firms benefit from intrinsically motivating work situations in the absence of HRM practices, find this advantage disturbed when formal HRM practices are initially introduced, but can restore positive motivation when they invest intensively in HRM practices in a way that characterizes 'high performance work systems' (HWPS) and 'strategic human resource management' (SHRM). Although the HPWS effect on employee motivation is modified somewhat by the recessionary transition, it remains rather robust and continues to have positive promise for small firms. |
| Keywords: | small firms, human resource management, high performance work system, workplace motivation, intrinsic job satisfaction, organizational commitment |
| JEL: | L23 M50 M54 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10737&r=ent |