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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2009‒11‒07
eight papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Erkko Autio |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT : This paper looks at how well Finland performs in high growth entrepreneurship and uses data from the Global Entrepreneurship monitor to benchmark Finland against other European countries. It is found that Finland’s prevalence rate of high growth entrepreneurial activity lags significantly behind most of its European and all of its Scandinavian peers. That this weak performance in high-growth entrepreneurship goes hand in hand with Finland being a world leader in per capita investment in R&D may be described as a paradox. The reasons underlying the underperformance of Finland remain however unclear. At this point, explanations should be sought in culture, industrial traditions and systemic experience in high growth entrepreneurship. |
| JEL: | D21 L25 M13 O12 O40 |
| Date: | 2009–10–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1197&r=sbm |
| By: | Edward Glaeser; William Kerr; Giacomo Ponzetto |
| Abstract: | Employment growth is strongly predicted by smaller average establishment size, both across cities and across industries within cities, but there is little consensus on why this relationship exists. Traditional economic explanations emphasize factors that reduce entry costs or raise entrepreneurial returns, thereby increasing net returns and attracting entrepreneurs. A second class of theories hypothesizes that some places are endowed with a greater supply of entrepreneurship. Evidence on sales per worker does not support the higher returns for entrepreneurship rationale. Our evidence suggests that entrepreneurship is higher when fixed costs are lower and when there are more entrepreneurial people. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, Industrial Organization, Chinitz, Agglomeration, Clusters, Cities |
| JEL: | J2 L0 L1 L2 L6 O3 R2 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:09-36&r=sbm |
| By: | Ana Pérez-Luño (Department of Business Administration, Universidad Pablo de Olavide); Carmen Cabello Medina (Department of Business Administration, Universidad Pablo de Olavide); Antonio Carmona Lavado (Department of Business Administration, Universidad Pablo de Olavide); Gloria Cuevas Rodríguez (Department of Business Administration, Universidad Pablo de Olavide) |
| Abstract: | This research analyzes the effects of interorganizational links on innovation using a comprehensive framework that integrates three research streams: social capital, knowledge based view and innovation. Using data from 143 R&D and/or marketing departments of innovative manufacturing and service companies, our results show that while knowledge complexity, per se, exerts a clear influence on the degree of innovations radicalness, the effect of knowledge tacitness appears only when it is combined with social capital. Similarly, the mere existence of strong cooperation agreements (relational social capital) does not guarantee more radical innovations. It is only when this social capital is combined with tacit knowledge that it really produces more innovative products. We also find that such radical products have an important impact on firm performance. |
| Keywords: | : Innovation; radicalness; social capital; knowledge complexity; knowledge tacitness; firm performance |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pab:wpbsad:09.04&r=sbm |
| By: | Panagiotis Liargovas; Konstantinos Skandalis |
| Abstract: | This paper uses firm level panel data to investigate empirically the effects of leverage and other key variables on the financial performance of firms in the Greek economy during the period 1997-2004; a period combining some years before and after the advent of the Economic Monetary Union (EMU). The study examines the effect of leverage in combination with other strategic determinants on firm financial performance in the case of industrial firms, which have to survive in the environment of eurozone and the market of 300 million consumers. Results show that leverage in parallel with export activity, location and investments significantly affect firm performance in a relatively small market which inevitably suffers from the sharpen competitive pressures taking place throughout Europe. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uop:wpaper:00040&r=sbm |
| By: | Irene Daskalopoulou; Panagiotis Liargovas |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the effect of the spatial context upon entrepreneurship in Greek regions. Cross-sectional data referring to 4,151 births at NUTS III level (prefecture) are used for firm births in four industries. Results indicate that the spatial context of entrepreneurship affects different industries in different ways. Localization economies are the primary factor affecting the location of manufacturing and tourism births. Births in services and commerce seem to be the outcome of urbanization economies rather than the result of intra-industry concentration. Manufacturing and services are positively affected by state financial incentives promoting births at certain locations. Nonetheless, in the case of manufacturing, the effectiveness of such incentives is questioned by the presence of negative localization effects. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uop:wpaper:00039&r=sbm |
| By: | Ibarrarán, Pablo (Inter-American Development Bank); Maffioli, Alessandro (Inter-American Development Bank); Stucchi, Rodolfo (Inter-American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | Very little is known about the effectiveness of SME policies, and a careful look at the structure, mechanisms and incentives provided by these policies suggest caution in their implementation and, most importantly, the need to carefully and closely monitor their results. This paper relies on the microeconometric analysis of a homogeneous dataset of sixteen Latin American and Caribbean countries to analyze the magnitude and determinants of the productivity gap between large and SME firms and to simulate of the impact on productivity of various policy scenarios. |
| Keywords: | SMEs, SME policy, productivity, Latin America |
| JEL: | D24 L53 L60 O38 O54 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4486&r=sbm |
| By: | Natário, Maria Manuela |
| Abstract: | The innovation is the main locomotive of the economic growth and competitiveness. The understanding about innovation process has updated in last decades. The innovation concept not only includes the innovation, but also increases innovation, that can be operated in products but also in the production process, that can be in the conception of the product but also at the level of the market and even at the organizational level. The interactive models of innovation process are put upon linear models and are related with the context, environmental territory. The innovation as a system of innovation became fundamental to competitiveness. Based on these observations, this work intends to analyze the processes and innovation factors, but also enhancing the importance of innovation in system and discussing the main factors which stimulate innovation. The analysis happens on 5 NUTS III at the border of Portugal and Spain. We used the clusters analysis to verify how the companies are positioned in relation to the innovation activities. We intend to characterize the factors and processes of innovation, which distinguish the company’s groupings. The results appear to reveal the existence of three groups of companies and the distinction factors are linked to: general characteristics of companies and its director; initial objectives and innovate sources; cooperation relationships; financial support and obstacles to innovate. |
| Keywords: | Process of Innovation; Regional Innovation Systems; Innovation. |
| JEL: | R58 O31 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18302&r=sbm |
| By: | Federica Rossi; Margherita Russo; Stefania Sardo; Josh Whitford |
| Abstract: | The linear model of innovation has been superseded by a variety of theoretical models that view the innovation process as systemic, complex, multi-level, multi-temporal, involving a plurality of heterogeneous economic agents. Accordingly, the emphasis of the policy discourse has shifted over time. It has gone from a focus on direct public funding of basic research as an engine of innovation, to the creation of markets for knowledge goods, to, eventually, the acknowledgement that knowledge transfer very often requires direct interactions among innovating actors. In most cases, these interventions attempt to facilitate the match between “demand” and “supply” of the knowledge needed to innovate. A complexity perspective calls for a different framing, one focused on the fostering of process characterized by multiple agency levels, multiple temporal scales, ontological uncertainty and emergent outcomes. The article explores what it means to design interventions in support of innovation processes inspired by a complex systems perspective. It does so by analyzing two different examples of coordinated interventions: an innovative public policy funding networks of innovating firms, and a private initiative supporting innovation in the mechanical engineering industry thanks to the set up of a technology broker. Relying on two unique datasets recording the interactions of the various organizations involved in these interventions, the article combines social network analysis and qualitative research in order to investigate the dynamics of the networks and the roles and actions of specific actors in fostering innovation processes. Building upon this comparative analysis, some general implications for the design of coordinated interventions supporting innovation in a complexity perspective are derived. |
| Keywords: | Innovation policy; local development policies; regional development policies; evaluation management |
| JEL: | D78 O31 O32 O38 R58 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:depeco:0619&r=sbm |