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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2010‒10‒02
six papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Valeria Costantini (University of Roma III); Massimiliano Mazzanti (University of Ferrara, University of Bologna and CERIS-CNR); Anna Montini (University of Bologna) |
| Abstract: | The achievement of positive environmental performance at national level could strongly depend on differences in local capabilities of both institutions and the private business sector. Environmental regulation alone is a weak instrument if the institutional and business environment cannot transform regulation strengths into opportunities. In this paper, we use the new environmental accounting matrix for polluting emissions now available for the 20 Italian Regions that covers 24 sectors and combines a shift-share approach with spatial econometric modelling. We provide evidence of the role played by internal innovation, innovation spillovers and regional policies in shaping the geographical distribution of environmental performance achievements. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Performance, Technological Innovation, Regional Spillovers, Polluting Emissions, Italian Regions |
| JEL: | Q53 Q55 Q56 R15 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2010.108&r=sbm |
| By: | Gonzales, Kathrina G.; Yap, Josef T.; Macasaquit, Mari-Len R. |
| Abstract: | <p>Research and development (R&D) is an important resource for sustained economic growth. New knowledge created by a firm has spillover effects that improve the productivity of other firms and even other sectors. This is the heart of endogenous growth theory. In this framework, government policies can affect the rate of long-term economic growth by impacting the accumulation of both physical and human capital and the effort dedicated to research and development and the creation of new knowledge. A country can supplement its R&D efforts by enticing R&D firms to locate in the country or encourage local firms and multinational corporations operating there to conduct R&D activities. Factors that affect these decisions can be classified into push factors, pull factors, policy factors, and enabling factors. The last three are relevant for the host country while the first set of factors relate to the home country.</p> <p>A survey of firms operating in the Philippines was conducted to determine which factors are deemed important and areas where the Philippines is deemed inadequate. The findings have important policy implications. Push factors are found to be important, particularly the need to remain competitive. The pull factors that rate highly are (i) availability of talented skills at low cost; and (ii) size of market. The main policy factors that encourage firms to locate in the Philippines are: (i) good quality of education; and (ii) protection of intellectual property rights. The enabling factors are: (i) low cost of doing business; (ii) good physical and communication infrastructure; (iii) legal system; and (iv) availability of R&D support services. Two aspects are prominent in terms of discouraging R&D activity in the Philippines: (i) the high cost of R&D equipment and technology; and (ii) lack of technical manpower/engineers.</p> <p>Policies can look into the host country factors that do not rate highly and address the areas that are evaluated poorly. Policymakers should also be aware of the source of outward R&D spending which are mainly firms from the US and Japan. Most R&D of these firms is conducted in the ICT, automotive, and pharmaceutical industries. Meanwhile, interviews with associations of firms indicate that there is no cooperation among individual firms in terms of conducting R&D. The government can also initiate, strengthen, and support joint R&D efforts among firms in a specific sector given that there will likely be significant spillover effects in this type of endeavor.</p> |
| Keywords: | economic growth, foreign investment, technological innovation, intellectual property rights, research and development, Philippines, outsourcing, knowledge spillover, endogenous growth theory, push and pull factors, R&D spending, R&D investment |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phd:dpaper:dp_2010-07&r=sbm |
| By: | Ron Jarmin; C.J. Krizan |
| Abstract: | Because the ability of entrepreneurs to start their own businesses is key to the success of the U.S. economy and to the economic mobility of many disadvantaged demographic groups, understanding why entrepreneurship activity varies across groups and geography is an increasingly important issue. As a step in this direction we employ a novel set of metrics of business success to the growing literature and find great variation across groups and metrics. For example, we find that black-owned firms grow slower than white or Asian-owned firms. However, once we condition on firm survival, the differences disappear. Interestingly, we also find differences across groups in their start-up histories. For example, Asian-owned firms are less likely than white-owned firms to have started-out as nonemployers but firms owned by all other minority groups, as well as women-owned firms, are more likely to start-out without employees. |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:10-24&r=sbm |
| By: | J. David Brown; John S. Earle |
| Abstract: | What role does new firm entry play in economic growth? Are entrants and young firms more or less productive than incumbents, and how are their relative productivity dynamics affected by financial constraints and the business environment? This paper uses comprehensive manufacturing firm data from seven economies (United States, Georgia, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine) to measure new firm entry and the productivity dynamics of entrants relative to incumbents in the same industries. We contrast hypotheses based on “leapfrogging,” in which entrants embody superior productivity, with an “experimentation” approach, in which entrants face uncertainty and incumbents can innovate. The results imply that leapfrogging is typical of early and incomplete transition, but experimentation better characterizes both the US and mature transition economies. Improvements in financial markets and the business environment tend to raise both the entry rate and productivity growth, but they are associated with negative relative productivity of entrants and smaller contributions of reallocation to growth among both entrants and incumbents. |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:10-20&r=sbm |
| By: | stefano Colombo (DISCE, Università Cattolica); Luca Grilli (Department of Mangement, Economics and Industrial Engineering-Politecnico di Milano) |
| Abstract: | This article explores the possibility that under an intensely negative industry-specific shock, the commonly detected positive relationship between the human capital of founders and the survival prospects of start-up businesses may actually be reversed. Starting from an analysis of the issue from a theoretical perspective in order to derive the necessary and sufficient conditions for the emergence of these adverse selection phenomena in entrepreneurship, the study examines a sample of 179 Italian start-ups operating in the ICT services market created during the boom period from 1995 to early 2000. Econometric analyses provide evidence that, during an intense industry crisis (i.e., early 2000 to 2003), entrepreneurs with a substantial amount of human capital may pursue an exit strategy. |
| Keywords: | High-tech entrepreneurship; Adverse selection; Industry crises. |
| JEL: | L26 L86 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie3:ief0098&r=sbm |
| By: | Blandine LAPERCHE |
| Abstract: | The networked enterprise simultaneously seeks to develop new knowledge in order to be able to compete on international markets thanks to its innovation capacity and to improve its process of allocation of resources, notably by reducing its production and organisational costs. In this paper, we study the functions of intellectual property rights in these productive and organisational objectives of the networked enterprise. Intellectual property rights are usually studied in relation to their incentive/defensive and offensive roles. But do they play a role in the organisation and notably in the coordination of activities within the networked enterprise? We consider that they have an important ‘coordination function’, making easier the relationships between all the fragmented parts of the networked enterprise. This coordination role is moreover gaining ground in the context of collaborative innovation (innovation networks). It is thus associated to the ‘incentive/defensive function’ of IPRs, aiming at protecting and thus giving incentives to the constitution of the firm’s innovation potential, called here ‘knowledge capital’. This coordination function is also associated to the ‘offensive one’, relying on the construction and the reinforcement of entry barriers which largely contribute to define the position of the networked enterprise within the innovation network to which it usually belongs. The paper concludes by stressing the relationship between the functions of IPRs in networked enterprises and the extension and strengthening of IPRs at the global leve |
| Keywords: | intellectual property rights, networked enterprise, growth, coordination, innovation network |
| JEL: | Q55 D23 D85 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rii:rridoc:11&r=sbm |