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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2009‒12‒05
eight papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Polder, Michael; Leeuwen, George van; Mohnen, Pierre; Raymond, Wladimir |
| Abstract: | Many empirical studies have confirmed the positive impact of innovation on productivity at the firm level. The focus tends to be either on R&D driven techno-logical innovation on the one hand, or on organisational changes complemented by ICT on the other. To investigate the effect of different types of innovations on produc-tivity, we propose a model with two innovation input equations (R&D and ICT) that feed into a knowledge production function consisting of a system of three innovation output equations (product innovation, process innovation and organisational innova-tion), which ultimately feeds into a productivity equation. We find that ICT is an im-portant driver of innovation in both manufacturing and services. Doing more R&D has a positive effect on product innovation in manufacturing. Organisational innova-tion has the strongest productivity effects. We only find positive effects of product and process innovation when combined with an organisational innovation. |
| Keywords: | technological innovation; non-technological innovation; ICT; R&D; productivity; trivariate probit; CDM model; |
| JEL: | O30 D24 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18893&r=sbm |
| By: | László Halpern; Balázs Muraközy |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the relationship between innovation and firm performance by using Community Innovation Survey data for Hungary. It exploits the possibility of linking the innovation data to ownership and disaggregated trade data. Innovative firms are more productive, more likely to trade and export into more countries. Foreign firms are more likely to innovate compared to similar domestic firms, but the amount of R&D is a weaker predictor of the innovative output of foreign firms. |
| Date: | 2009–12–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfg:cfigwp:10&r=sbm |
| By: | Polder, Michael; Veldhuizen, Erik; Bergen, Dirk van den; Pijll, Eugène van der |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates competition in the Dutch manufacturing sector. We look at various indicators that have been used throughout the literature and relate these to productivity growth. Moreover, where possible, the indicators and productivity growth are calculated at both the firm and industry level. This enables us to investigate differences in competition and in its relation with productivity for both aggregation levels. Our results indicate that contemporaneous competition is associated with lower productivity, while lagged competition is positively associated with productivity. This finding is consistent between micro and macro, and robust over the various indicators and industries. The results are consistent with the idea that firms first experience negative effects of changes in competition and need time to adjust, while in the period after adjustment productivity rises again. |
| Keywords: | competition; productivity change; growth accounts; Production Statistics; micro-macro |
| JEL: | O47 D24 D4 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18898&r=sbm |
| By: | Bratti , Massimiliano; Felice, Giulia |
| Abstract: | Past research showed that exporters perform better than non-exporters in several domains, micro-level empirical evidence on the innovation-enhancing effect of export is, however, very scant. In this paper, we analyze the relationship between a firm's export status and its product innovation activity by using a rich firm-level survey on Italian manufacturing. First, we find that the positive effect of exporting on product innovativeness is robust to controlling for many sources of firm's observable heterogeneity and to allowing export activity to be endogenous. Second, we report evidence that the effect of exporting on product innovation is likely to be demand-driven, that is to originate from the interaction between domestic firms and foreign customers. |
| Keywords: | Exporting; Firms; Italy; Manufacturing; Product Innovation |
| JEL: | F1 O31 |
| Date: | 2009–11–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18915&r=sbm |
| By: | Gavin C Reid; Zhibin Xu |
| Abstract: | This paper reports on one of the first empirical attempts to investigate small firm growth and survival, and their determinants, in the Peoples’ Republic of China. The work is based on field work evidence gathered from a sample of 83 Chinese private firms (mainly SMEs) collected initially by face-to-face interviews, and subsequently by follow-up telephone interviews a year later. We extend the models of Gibrat (1931) and Jovanovic (1982), which traditionally focus on size and age alone (e.g. Brock and Evans, 1986), to a ‘comprehensive’ growth model with two types of additional explanatory variables: firm-specific (e.g. business planning); and environmental (e.g. choice of location). We estimate two econometric models: a ‘basic’ age-size-growth model; and a ‘comprehensive’ growth model, using Heckman’s two-step regression procedure. Estimation is by log-linear regression on cross-section data, with corrections for sample selection bias and heteroskedasticity. Our results refute a pure Gibrat model (but support a more general variant) and support the learning model, as regards the consequences of size and age for growth; and our extension to a comprehensive model highlights the importance of location choice and customer orientation for the growth of Chinese private firms. In the latter model, growth is explained by variables like planning, R&D orientation, market competition, elasticity of demand etc. as well as by control variables. Our work on small firm growth achieves two things. First, it upholds the validity of ‘basic’ size-age-growth models, and successfully applies them to the Chinese economy. Second, it extends the compass of such models to a ‘comprehensive’ growth model incorporating firm-specific and environmental variables. |
| Keywords: | Chinese private firms, models of small firm growth, choice of location, customer orientation |
| JEL: | D21 M13 L25 L26 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:san:crieff:0913&r=sbm |
| By: | J. Augusto Felicio (School of Economics and Management (ISEG), Technical University of Lisbon); Eduardo Couto (School of Economics and Management (ISEG), Technical University of Lisbon); Jorge Caiado (CEMAPRE, School of Economics and Management (ISEG), Technical University of Lisbon) |
| Abstract: | This study explores the interconnection between human factors and social factors and analyses the relations influenced by the specific activity and age of firms. A statistical approach is implemented which applies factor analysis techniques, based on a sample of small and medium sized firms from four sectors of activity which are between four and fifteen years old, and are split into three time periods. It is found that there are interconnected groups of human capital and social capital factors, although a sizeable proportion of the literature conceptually separates these factors and deals with them individually. It is also ascertained that this relationship is influenced by the field of activity and the age of the firms. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, Factor analysis, Human capital, Management, Social capital |
| JEL: | M10 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cma:wpaper:0905&r=sbm |
| By: | Robert M. Feinberg |
| Abstract: | In our increasingly globalized economy, the growth and profit prospects of domestic firms, especially small firms, seem clearly impacted by competitive pressures from foreign firms. This article analyzes annual data for 1989-1998 for 140 3-digit SIC manufacturing industries and for 1998-2004 for 86 4-digit NAICS industries on establishment -- plant-level -- births by small firms in several size categories. The major finding is that international pressures, in the form of import share weighted exchange rate appreciation, seem to lead to reduced rates of smallest-firm entry in manufacturing, though the magnitudes of these effects are smaller than sometimes discussed (and there is the suggestion that dollar appreciation may actually benefit small firm entry through access to cheaper inputs where the final product import threat is weak). |
| Keywords: | small firms, entry, foreign competition, exchange rates |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amu:wpaper:2009-04&r=sbm |
| By: | Robert Stehrer (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Neil Foster (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Jesus Crespo-Cuaresma |
| Abstract: | We analyse the robustness of potential determinants of the differences in the long-run growth rate of GDP per capita across EU regions using quantile regression. We propose using Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) methods on the class of quantile regression models in order to assess the set of relevant covariates in cross-regional growth regressions allowing for different effects across quantiles of the growth variable. The results indicate that the set of robust growth determinants differs across quantiles. The set of robust variables includes skill endowment and initial GDP per capita when not and physical investment when taking country fixed effects into account. However, even when a variable is found to be robust across quantiles the estimated impact on growth of that variable is often found to differ across the quantiles. |
| Keywords: | economic growth, Bayesian Model Averaging, quantile regressions, International Trade and Competitiveness, Services |
| JEL: | C11 C21 R11 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:wpaper:54&r=sbm |