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on Entrepreneurship |
| By: | Sharma, Gautam (CIRCLE, Lund University); Haldar, Stuti (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | Makerspaces and fabrication laboratories (fablabs) have received extensive attention recently due to their potential to drive innovation and entrepreneurship. These spaces provide access to high-tech tools to the people and encourage community building and collaborations around technology-oriented projects. This paper analyzes the existing research on the innovation dynamics within these spaces. Seventy peer-reviewed studies were selected and thematically analyzed from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. The results are analyzed and presented as descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. We found nine significant themes from the extant literature: 1) Collaborations, learning and sharing practices in makerspaces; 2) Motivations and spatial environment affecting makerspace innovations; 3) Physical Resources, experimentations, and knowledge dimension of makerspaces; 4) Diversity and inclusion aspects of makerspaces; 5) Social and economic impact of innovation in makerspaces; 6) Regional innovation policies and maker cultures; 7) Maker movement in different regions; 8) Maker movement and the city culture; and 9) Academic makerspaces and innovation. The paper contributes to the broader literature on innovation dynamics within informal spaces like makerspaces and fablabs. |
| Keywords: | makerspaces; fabrication laboratories; fab labs; creative open spaces; innovation; systematic literature review; thematic analysis |
| JEL: | O30 O32 |
| Date: | 2023–10–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2023_010&r=ent |
| By: | Vojtech Bartos; Silvia Castro; Kristina Czura; Timm Opitz |
| Abstract: | We analyze gender discrimination in entrepreneurship finance. Access to finance is crucial for entrepreneurial success, yet constraints for women are particularly pronounced. We structurally unpack whether loan officers evaluate business ideas and implementation constraints differently for male and female entrepreneurs, both as individual entrepreneurs or in entrepreneurial teams. In a lab-in-the-field experiment with Ugandan loan officers, we document gender discrimination of individual female entrepreneurs, but no gender bias in the evaluation of entrepreneurial teams. Our results suggest that the observed bias is not driven by animus against female entrepreneurs but rather by differential beliefs about women’s entrepreneurial ability or implementation constraints in running a business. Policies aimed at team creation for start-up enterprises may have an additional benefit of equalizing access to finance and ultimately stimulating growth. |
| Keywords: | access to finance, gender bias, entrepreneurship, lab-in-the-field |
| JEL: | C93 G21 J16 L25 L26 O16 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10719&r=ent |
| By: | Grace C. Liu (Research to Empower, USA); Willem Spanjers (Kingston University, UK; ICEA; Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis) |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the unexplained phenomenon of gender differences in entrepreneurial decision-making, particularly in business sectors involving innovation and risk. Although the topics of risk attitudes and uncertainty have been studied comprehensively from a gender perspective, research that combines different forms of uncertainty and links them with women’s entrepreneurial decision-making has not been done to the best of our knowledge. This paper provides a theoretical framework involving models on risk, ambiguity, perceptions of risk as in cumulative prospect theory, and asymmetric information. It unifies and connects these models through specific assumptions on utility functions in the presence of uncertainty and uses bias discount factors to denote how strongly biases devalue outcomes. Conclusions from the models indicate that a range of external factors—such as race and access to education and social networks—may interact with the internal behavioral biases of an entrepreneur, such as overconfidence, risk appetite, altruism, and trust in others. By detailing and analyzing theoretical gender-type differences and their effects on entrepreneurial decision-making, we find that traditional one-dimensional gender policies are not sufficient to address complex gender issues. Rather, we suggest a more multi-dimensional and holistic policy approach that combines traditional gender policies and policies for long-term sustainability, encouraging firms to be more socially and environmentally conscious, and demanding less “greedy works” as Nobel laureate Professor Goldin also argued. It aims to create a new business eco-system that is more feminine-friendly and balanced, considering gender-type differences and incentive biases to address the current worldwide gender disparities in entrepreneurship. |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rim:rimwps:23-15&r=ent |
| By: | Bettina Bruggemann; Zachary L. Mahone |
| Abstract: | We investigate rates of return to business wealth and total net worth along the wealth distribution in a quantitative model of occupational choice and housing. While it has long been established that these models are very successful at replicating wealth inequality, we show that they also produce endogenous rates of return to private equity and total net worth that share important properties with their empirical counterparts. Rates of return to entrepreneurial wealth are heterogeneous, persistent, negatively correlated with net worth, and very dependent on household type. Rates of return to total net worth exhibit similar scale dependence as the data but are positively correlated with net worth. |
| Keywords: | Wealth Inequality; Returns to Wealth; Entrepreneurship; Housing; Type and Scale Dependence |
| JEL: | E21 G11 D14 D15 D31 |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:deptwp:2023-03&r=ent |
| By: | Roberto Alvarez; Miguel A. Gonzalez |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we explore the relevance of obstacles to green innovation in Chilean firms. We analyze differences in green innovation across firm size and industries and we explore which barriers have a greater impact on green innovators. We find that these innovators, in general, do face higher obstacles to innovation than similar but non-green firms. We conclude that, after controlling for other firm characteristics, the most relevant obstacles for green innovators are those associated with financial and knowledge aspects. This finding is relevant for the implementation of public policies aimed at enhancing green innovation in Chile. |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udc:wpaper:wp550&r=ent |
| By: | Kristina McElheran; J. Frank Li; Erik Brynjolfsson; Zachary Kroff; Emin Dinlersoz; Lucia S. Foster; Nikolas Zolas |
| Abstract: | We study the early adoption and diffusion of five AI-related technologies (automated-guided vehicles, machine learning, machine vision, natural language processing, and voice recognition) as documented in the 2018 Annual Business Survey of 850, 000 firms across the United States. We find that fewer than 6% of firms used any of the AI-related technologies we measure, though most very large firms reported at least some AI use. Weighted by employment, average adoption was just over 18%. AI use in production, while varying considerably by industry, nevertheless was found in every sector of the economy and clustered with emerging technologies such as cloud computing and robotics. Among dynamic young firms, AI use was highest alongside more-educated, more-experienced, and younger owners, including owners motivated by bringing new ideas to market or helping the community. AI adoption was also more common alongside indicators of high-growth entrepreneurship, including venture capital funding, recent product and process innovation, and growth-oriented business strategies. Early adoption was far from evenly distributed: a handful of “superstar” cities and emerging hubs led startups’ adoption of AI. These patterns of early AI use foreshadow economic and social impacts far beyond this limited initial diffusion, with the possibility of a growing “AI divide” if early patterns persist. |
| JEL: | M15 O3 |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31788&r=ent |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Produced as part of the OECD Global Action “Promoting Social and Solidarity Economy Ecosystems” funded by the European Union, it explores the potential of procurement from the social and solidarity economy in creating social dividends, takes stock of global trends in social procurement among both public and private buyers, identifies challenges in access to markets for social and solidarity economy entities, and finally, provides concrete recommendations for policy makers on how to overcome them. |
| Keywords: | cooperative, local development, non profit, private procurement, public procurement, social and solidarity economy, social economy, social enterprise, social entrepreneurship, social innovation, social procurement |
| JEL: | H57 L31 L33 M14 |
| Date: | 2023–11–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:cfeaaa:2023/19-en&r=ent |