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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2010‒03‒28
eight papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Okamuro, Hiroyuki; Kato, Masatoshi; Honjo, Yuji |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the determinants of R&D cooperation in Japanese hightech start-ups. Using a sample from an original survey conducted in 2008, we examine the effects of founder-, firm-, and industry-specific characteristics on R&D cooperation by the type of partners. Our findings indicate that founder-specific characteristics, such as educational background, academic affiliation, and prior innovation output, are fairly important in determining R&D cooperation with universities and public research institutes. We also provide evidence that founders' work experience and prior innovation output have positive and significant effects on R&D cooperation with business partners. With respect to firm-specific characteristics, it is found that firms investing more in R&D tend to engage in R&D cooperation, regardless of the type of partners. Furthermore, it is found that independent firms are less likely to cooperate on R&D with universities and public research institutes, than subsidiaries and affiliated firms. |
| Keywords: | Start-up, R&D cooperation, Founder, University, Business partner |
| JEL: | L14 M13 O32 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hitcei:2009-07&r=sbm |
| By: | Pablo D'Este; Surya Mahdi; Andy Neely |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at improving our understanding of the attributes of academic researchers that influence the capacity to identify and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities. We investigate a number of factors highlighted in the literature as influencing the entrepreneurial activities undertaken by academics. Our results show that identification and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities are shaped by different factors. While identification of commercial opportunities is driven by prior entrepreneurial experience and the excellence of the academic work, exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities is driven by the extent of previous collaboration with industry partners, cognitive integration and prior entrepreneurial experience. |
| Keywords: | Academic entrepreneurship; Opportunity identification; Opportunity exploitation; Spin-offs; Patenting; University-business collaboration |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:10-05&r=sbm |
| By: | VAN BEVEREN, Ilke (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, LICOS and Lessuis, Antwerpen, Belgium); VANDENBUSSCHE, Hylke (UniversitŽ catholique de Louvain, CORE, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium and KULeuven, LICOS, B- 3000 Leuven, Belgium) |
| Abstract: | Using data from the Community Innovation Survey for Belgium in two consecutive periods, this paper explores the relationship between firm-level innovation activities and the propensity to start exporting. To measure innovation, we include indicators of both innovative effort (R&D activities) as well as innovative output (product and process innovation). Our results suggest that the combination of product and process innovation, rather than either of the two in isolation, increases a firmÕs probability to enter the export market. After controlling for potential endogeneity of the innovation activities, only firms with a sufficiently high probability to start exporting engage in product and process innovation prior to their entry on the export market, pointing to the importance of self-selection into innovation |
| Keywords: | exports, product innovation, process innovation, self-selection, firm heterogeneity |
| JEL: | D24 F14 L25 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2009–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cor:louvco:2009086&r=sbm |
| By: | Mark Freel; Jeroen P.J. de Jong; Tyler Chamberlin |
| Abstract: | This paper takes as its starting point an item of relatively recent academic orthodoxy: the insistence that ‘…interactive learning and collective entrepreneurship are fundamental to the process of innovation’ (Lundvall, 1992, p. 9). From this, academics have frequently taken “interactive” to imply “inter-organisational” and, whilst one might be concerned by this too casual conflation, there is a growing consensus that firms’ embeddedness in collaborative networks matters for their innovative performance (Gilsing et al., 2008). |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:10-08&r=sbm |
| By: | Geneviève Verdier; Erasmus Kersting; Era Dabla-Norris |
| Abstract: | How do firm-specific actions-in particular, innovation-affect firm productivity? And what is the role of the financial sector in facilitating higher productivity? Using a rich firm-level dataset, we find that innovation is crucial for firm performance as it directly and measurably increases productivity. Moreover, its effects on productivity are mediated through the financial sector; firms reap the maximum benefits from innovation in countries with well-developed financial sectors. This effect is particularly important for firms in high-tech sectors, which typically have higher external financing needs. |
| Keywords: | Access to capital markets , Capital , Cross country analysis , Development , Economic growth , Financial sector , Industrial production , Labor productivity , Private sector , Productivity , |
| Date: | 2010–02–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:10/49&r=sbm |
| By: | Peter G. Klein; Joseph T. Mahoney; Anita McGahan; Christos N. Pitelis |
| Abstract: | This paper explores innovation, experimentation, and creativity in the public domain and in the public interest. Researchers in various disciplines have studied public entrepreneurship, but there is little work in management and economics on the nature, incentives, constraints and boundaries of entrepreneurship directed to public ends. We identify a framework for analyzing public entrepreneurship and its relationship to private entrepreneurial behavior. We submit that public and private entrepreneurship share essential features but differ critically regarding the definition and measurement of objectives, the nature of the selection environment, and the opportunities for rent-seeking. We describe four levels of analysis for studying public entrepreneurship, provide examples, and suggest new research directions. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, public administration, political economy, institutions, transaction costs |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:10-07&r=sbm |
| By: | Junichi Nishimura; Hiroyuki Okamuro |
| Abstract: | Industrial clusters have attracted increasing attention as important locations of innovation. Therefore, several countries have started promotion policies for industrial clusters. However, there are few empirical studies on cluster policies. This paper examines the effects of the “Industrial Cluster Project” (ICP) in Japan on the R&D productivity of participants, using a unique dataset of 229 small firms, and discusses the conditions necessary for the effective organization of cluster policies. Different from former policy approaches, the ICP aims at building collaborative networks between universities and industries and supports the autonomous development of existing regional industries without direct intervention in the clustering process. Thus far, the ICP is similar to indirect support systems adopted by successful European clusters. Our estimation results suggest that participation in the cluster project alone does not affect R&D productivity. Moreover, research collaboration with a partner in the same cluster region decreases R&D productivity both in terms of the quantity and quality of patents. Therefore, in order to improve the R&D efficiency of local firms, it is also important to construct wide-range collaborative networks within and beyond the clusters, although most clusters focus on the network at a narrowly defined local level. However, cluster participants apply for more patents than others without reducing patent quality when they collaborate with national universities in the same cluster region. |
| Keywords: | Industrial cluster; University-industry partnership; Small and medium enterprise; R&D; Patent |
| JEL: | O23 O32 O38 R38 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:10-06&r=sbm |
| By: | Felipa de Mello-Sampayo (ISCTE - Lisbon University Institute - Department of Economics and UNIDE-ERC); Sofia de Sousa-Vale (ISCTE - Lisbon University Institute - Department of Economics and UNIDE-ERC); Francisco Camões (ISCTE - Lisbon University Institute - Department of Economics and UNIDE-ERC); Orlando Gomes (Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa - Escola Superior de Comunicação Social and UNIDE-ERC) |
| Abstract: | The pressure from national lobbies may lead governments to shift from an optimal into a non-optimal innovation policy. This paper examines the growth and welfare effects of optimal and non-optimal innovation policies. The non-optimal policy corresponds to a subsidy for national innovators that is equivalent to an optimal policy of incentives (tax cuts) to foreign investors. Since we are assessing what can nationals do with the support that could be oriented to foreign firms, we are measuring what the economy loses for not supporting foreign firms. We find welfare loss when supporting national R&D instead of foreign R&D. We conclude that the same support given to innovation can produce strikingly different outcomes depending on who receives the support. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous Growth, Foreign Direct Investment, R&D Policy |
| JEL: | F21 H21 O40 |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isc:wpaper:ercwp0210&r=sbm |