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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2009‒08‒08
twelve papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Gabriele Pellegrino (Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza and Milano); Mariacristina Piva (Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza and Milano); Marco Vivarelli (Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza and Milano; IZA, Bonn; Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena) |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the determinants of product innovation in young innovative companies (YICs) by looking at in-house and external R&D and at the acquisition of external technology in embodied and disembodied components. These input-output relationships are tested on a sample of innovative Italian firms. A sample-selection approach is applied. Results show that in-house R&D is linked to the propensity to introduce product innovation both in mature firms and YICs; however, innovation intensity in the YICs is mainly dependent on embodied technical change from external sources, while -in contrast with the incumbent firms- in-house R&D does not play a significant role. |
| Keywords: | R&D, product innovation, embodied technical change, CIS 3, sample selection. |
| JEL: | O31 |
| Date: | 2009–08–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2009-055&r=sbm |
| By: | Michael Fritsch (Friedrich Schiller University, School of Economics and Business Administration); Stefan Krabel (Max Planck Institute of Economics, Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy Group, Jena) |
| Abstract: | In this study we investigate the factors that shape the attitudes of scientists toward starting their own business or working in a private sector firm. The analysis is based on data collected from scientists working in the German Max Planck Society, a research institution devoted to basic science. We find that the scientists' evaluations of the attractiveness of working in a private sector firm or of starting their own business differ considerably according to their academic discipline and the perceived commercial potential of their research. The ability to take risks, prior work experience in private firms, and personal experience with industry cooperation lead to a positive attitude towards switching to private sector employment or entrepreneurship. Strong willingness to freely distribute research findings are related to a low appeal of private sector work. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge transfer, science, entrepreneurship, innovation, commercialization |
| JEL: | O31 O33 L26 L32 |
| Date: | 2009–08–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2009-063&r=sbm |
| By: | Andreas Koch; Jochen Spaeth |
| Abstract: | The present contribution addresses the question whether and how qualitative aspects of employment---like weekly hours of work, wages or qualification---differ between new and established firms. Although a wide strand of literature in entrepreneurship research analyses the employment effects of start-ups vs. incumbent firms, our knowledge about differences in these qualitative aspects of employment is rather poor. Labour market research, on the other hand, has been thoroughly accounting for the consequences of technological and organisational change on the characteristics and turnover of jobs, but it rarely has been attempting to consider the relevance of firm entry. Based on the Establishment History Panel, a plant-level dataset constructed from employment information and comprising nearly the entire German economy, we find significant differences between new and incumbent firms with respect to employment quality. Surprisingly, the difference regarding the share of high-qualified labour is---though highly significant---not as high as commonly expected. |
| Keywords: | Start-ups, Employment, Quality of Employment, Germany, Entrepreneurship, Qualification, Wages, Part-Time, Marginal Employment |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J82 M13 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iaw:iawdip:50&r=sbm |
| By: | Shishir Saxena |
| Abstract: | This paper finds that technology stocks and spillovers, have significantly affected the output of Indian manufacturing firms, over the period 1994 to 2006. The technology of a firm is measured, as embodied in its recent stock of plant & machinery, as well as generated through its own R&D. Moreover, investments in both these types of capital by a firm, also generate learning and level of development effects, for all other firms in that industry. |
| Keywords: | Indian manufacturing, equipment, R&D, spillovers |
| JEL: | L6 E22 D24 D62 O30 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2007-27&r=sbm |
| By: | Jaakko Simonen; Philip McCann |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the role played by the sectoral and geographical mobility of labour in the promotion of industrial innovations. Knowledge can be transferred between firms by inter-firm interactions and interfirm cooperation. In addition, knowledge can also be transferred between firms by labour mobility. In order to examine these issues we employ a unique innovation dataset from Finland which combines firm specific information about the innovation performance of the firms along with their individual characteristics, as well as firm specific information regarding the sectoral and geographical origins of their recent labour acquisitions. Analyzing this data allows us to identify the different roles which the geography of knowledge spillovers and exchanges and the geography of labour markets play in the innovation process. |
| Keywords: | innovation; labour; mobility; R&D; cooperation |
| JEL: | O31 J60 R30 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2007-29&r=sbm |
| By: | Uwe Cantner (Friedrich-Schiller-University, School of Economics and Business Administration, Jena); Andreas Meder (Thuringian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Erfurt) |
| Abstract: | The literature on "Innovation Systems" is divided into several directories. Dif- ferences occur through the definition of the system's borders. This paper intro- duces a methodology how to differentiate between regional and technological effects of cooperative innovation activities and analyzes furthermore how dif- ferent dimensions of regional knowledge affect the regional effects on coopera- tive innovation activities. We find evidence that the related variety of knowl- edge available within a region and its combination with a proxy of the amount of knowledge foster regional effects of cooperative innovation activities. Addi- tionally, we find that the development of German regions fits with the sugges- tions of the Regional Innovation System (RIS) approach. |
| Keywords: | regional development, regional effects of cooperative behavior, knowledge, related variety of knowledge |
| JEL: | C30 L14 O32 |
| Date: | 2009–08–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2009-064&r=sbm |
| By: | Erik Stam |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurship is a fundamental driver of economic evolution. It is also a distinctly spatially uneven process, and thus an important explanation of the uneven economic development of regions and nations. Not surprisingly, entrepreneurship is a key element of evolutionary economics (Schumpeter 1934; Witt 1998; Grebel et al. 2003; Metcalfe 2004; Grebel 2007) and has been recognized as an important element in explaining (regional) economic development (Acs and Armington 2004; Audretsch et al. 2006; Fritsch 2008). This means that the explanation of regional variations in entrepreneurship has also become an important issue. Even more so because there are pronounced differences within and between nations in rates of entrepreneurship and in their determinants (Bosma and Schutjens 2008), and these differences tend to be persistent over time, reflecting path dependence in industry structure (Brenner and Fornahl 2008), institutions (Casper 2007) and culture (Saxenian 1994) that vary widely across regions and countries, but are relatively inert over time. Introducing entrepreneurship into evolutionary economic geography means that the traditional focus on firms is complemented with a focus on individuals. This paper is an inquiry into the role of entrepreneurship in evolutionary economic geography. The focus is on how and why entrepreneurship is a distinctly spatially uneven process. We will start with a discussion on the role of entrepreneurship in the theory of economic evolution. Next, we will review the empirical literature on the geography of entrepreneurship. The paper concludes with a discussion of a future agenda for the study of entrepreneurship within evolutionary economic geography. |
| Keywords: | Length 23 pages |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:evopap:2009-07&r=sbm |
| By: | Utz Weitzel (Utrecht University); Diemo Urbig (Max Planck Institute of Economics); Sameeksha Desai (University of Missouri Kansas City); Zoltan Acs (George Mason University); Mark Sanders (Utrecht University) |
| Abstract: | Talent allocation models assume that entrepreneurial talent is selfish and thus allocates into unproductive or even destructive activities if these offer the highest private returns. This paper experimentally analyzes other-regarding preferences of entrepreneurial talent. We find that making a distinction between creative talent and business talent explains systematic differences in other-regarding behavior. Generally, business talent is less willing, and creative talent more willing, to forego private payoffs to avoid losses to others. A moderator analysis reveals that uncreative business talent is significantly less other-regarding than creative business talent, a finding applicable to both certain and risky payoffs with and without negative externalities. The paper makes a contribution to entrepreneurship research by qualifying the implications of talent allocation models and discovering the importance of distinguishing between the two types of entrepreneurial talent. We also add to the field of experimental economics by advancing research on social preferences under risk and with negative externalities. |
| Keywords: | Social preference, entrepreneurship, experiment |
| JEL: | C91 D62 D64 L26 |
| Date: | 2009–08–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2009-066&r=sbm |
| By: | Holger Graf (Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Economics Department); Jens J. Krüger (Darmstadt University of Technology, Department of Law and Economics) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of actors' positions within regional innovator networks on their innovative performance. The networks of four selected regions are based on information on patent applicants and inventors. Count data regressions show positive effects on innovation of both the total number of relations and of access to a larger knowledge base. However, when looking at innovators that are characterised by multiple internal and external contacts, our results suggest that these gatekeepers are not able to reap all the benefits associated with their brokering position. This implies that gatekeepers provide some sort of public good to the innovation system. |
| Keywords: | Innovator networks, Gatekeeper, Zero Inflated Generalised Poisson |
| JEL: | O31 Z13 R11 |
| Date: | 2009–08–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2009-058&r=sbm |
| By: | Md. Rabiul Islam |
| Abstract: | In the line of Schumpeterian fully endogenous growth theory, this study attempts to investigate whether differences in research intensity as well as absorptive capacity help to explain cross-country differences in productivity growth in a panel of 55 sample countries including 23 OECD and 32 developing economies over the period 1970 to 2004. Using several indicators of innovative activity and product variety empirical results from system GMM estimator confirm that research intensity has significant positive effect on productivity growth in both the OECD and developing countries. TFP growth is also found to be enhanced by the distance to technology frontier in both the group of countries. R&D based absorptive capacity seems to have significant positive impact on productivity growth in both the groups though strong in OECD countries. Human capital based technology transfer is found significant and robust in both the OECD and developing countries. Absorptive capacity appears to be sensitive to the model specification and measurement of innovative activity as well as product variety. |
| Keywords: | Schumpeterian growth theory, R&D intensity, TFP growth, technology transfer, human capital, absorptive capacity, system GMM, OECD, developing countries |
| JEL: | O10 O30 O47 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2009-13&r=sbm |
| By: | Wenli Cheng |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a simple general equilibrium model of financial intermediation, entrepreneurship and economic growth. In this model, the role of financial intermediation is to pool savings and to lend the pooled funds to an entrepreneur, who in turn invests the funds in a new production technology. The adoption of the new production technology improves individual real income. Thus financial intermediation promotes economic growth through affecting individuals’ saving behaviour and enabling the adoption of a new production technology. |
| Keywords: | financial intermediation, entrepreneurship, economic growth |
| JEL: | G21 D90 O40 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2007-18&r=sbm |
| By: | David M. Hart (School of Public Policy, George Mason University); Zoltan J. Acs (School of Public Policy, George Mason University and Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena); Spencer Tracy (Corporate Research Board) |
| Abstract: | In this study, we quantify the role of foreign-born founders in high-tech entrepreneurship in a nationally representative sample of rapidly growing "high-impact" companies. This class of companies drives job creation and aggregate growth in the U.S. We find that, while most previous studies have overstated this role, it is nonetheless very important. For instance, about 16% of the companies in our sample had at least one foreign-born person among their founding teams, and these high-tech companies display better performance in some respects than high-tech companies in our sample whose founders were all native-born. We also provide a profile of high-tech immigrant entrepreneurs. The vast majority are strongly rooted in the U.S., highlighting the need to build a coherent pathway to permanent status for highly-skilled immigrants. |
| Keywords: | Immigrant entrepreneurs, High Tech, High Impact Firms, Entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | L26 O3 F2 |
| Date: | 2009–08–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2009-061&r=sbm |