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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2011‒01‒03
fourteen papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Oliviero Carboni |
| Abstract: | This work explores the roles of potential simultaneity and heterogeneity in determining firms decisions to engage in R&D collaboration, using a sample of Italian manufacturing firms. Partnerships with other firms, research institutions, universities and other small centres are considered jointly by applying a multivariate probit specification. This allows for systematic correlations among different cooperation choices. The results support the hypothesis that the four cooperation decisions are interdependent. The decision to cooperate in R&D differs significantly depending on the cooperation options. Public support, the researcher intensity and the size are all of importance in determining R&D alliance strategies. |
| Keywords: | Applied Econometrics; R&D cooperation; firm behaviour |
| JEL: | C24 D21 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:201029&r=sbm |
| By: | Zukauskaite, Elena (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the role of university knowledge in innovation processes of cultural industries. Most of the previous studies on cultural industries highlighted the importance of locally clustered firms in innovation processes. Studies, analyzing university-industry collaboration focused on technological development or industrial R&D, neglecting cultural industries as object of analysis. The paper addresses this gap in the literature while analyzing collaboration with university patterns and innovation processes of new media firms in Scania, Southern Sweden. The findings reveal that innovation, influenced by industry-academia collaboration, takes place not only in technology based industries. Collaborative aspects of innovation process go beyond R&D transfer and include joint competence building, changes in market concepts and new social corporate responsibility actions. This paper adds to the understanding of innovation processes in cultural industries by introducing university as one more important actor in the knowledge exchange networks. |
| Keywords: | University-industry collaboration; innovation; cultural industries; new media; knowledge exchange |
| JEL: | O30 |
| Date: | 2010–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2010_015&r=sbm |
| By: | Francesco Bogliacino (European Commission, JRC-IPTS); Marco Vivarelli (Università Cattolica) |
| Abstract: | In this study we use a unique database covering 25 manufacturing and service sectors for 16 European countries over the period 1996-2005, for a total of 2,295 observations, and apply GMM-SYS panel estimations of a demand-for-labour equation augmented with technology. We find that R&D expenditures have a job-creating effect, in accordance with the previous theoretical and empirical literature discussed in the paper. Interestingly enough, the labour-friendly nature of R&D emerges in both the flow and the stock specifications. These findings provide further justification for the European Lisbon-Barcelona targets. |
| Keywords: | Technological change, corporate R&D, employment, product innovation, GMMSYS |
| JEL: | O33 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:2010/12/doc2010-55&r=sbm |
| By: | Corinne Autant-Bernard (Université de Lyon, Lyon, F-69003, France ; Université Jean Monnet ; CNRS, GATE Lyon St Etienne, Saint-Etienne, F-42000, France); Jean-Pascal Guironnet (Université de Caen, CREM CNRS 6211); Nadine Massard (Université de Lyon, Lyon, F-69003, France ; Université Jean Monnet ; CNRS, GATE Lyon St Etienne, Saint-Etienne, F-42000, France) |
| Abstract: | Using a sample of 46 000 EU firms from the Community Innovation Survey, this paper analyses the drivers of innovation adoption. In contrast to most empirical studies on innovation diffusion in which a specific technology is analyzed, this study covers several countries and industries in the European Union. Following Van de Ven and Van Praag (1981), Heckman’s method is applied in a context of binary endogenous variable to explain the choices made by firms regarding innovation. Distinctions are made between the internal generation of innovation and the adoption of innovation produced by others, as well as between different types of adoption (product vs. process and cooperation-based adoption vs. isolated adoption). The study is focused on the impact of users’ features and their cooperation with suppliers on the adoption choices. The results point out that cooperation is a key driver of adoption choices. Usual determinants such as firm size, absorptive capability or exports would foster generation of innovation instead of adoption. |
| Keywords: | Innovation adoption, Innovation diffusion, Community Innovation Survey, Process adoption, Product adoption |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:1034&r=sbm |
| By: | Subal C. Kumbhakar (State University of New York at Binghamton); Raquel Ortega-Argilés (IN+ Centre for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research, Instituto Superior Técnico); Lesley Potters (Utrecht School of Economics); Marco Vivarelli (Università Cattolica, Milano-Piacenza); Peter Voigt (JRC-IPTS) |
| Abstract: | The main objective of this study is to investigate the impact of corporate R&D activities on firm performance, measured by labour productivity. To this end, the stochastic frontier technique is used on a unique unbalanced longitudinal dataset on top European R&D investors over the period 2000–2005. The study quantifies technical inefficiency of individual firms. From a policy perspective, the results of this study suggest that – if the aim is to leverage firms’ productivity – emphasis should be put on supporting corporate R&D in high-tech sectors and, to some ex-tent, in medium-tech sectors. On the other hand, corporate R&D in the low-tech sector is found to have a minor effect in explaining productivity. Instead, encouraging investment in fixed assets appears important for the productivity of low-tech industries. Hence, the allocation of support for corporate R&D seems to be as important as its overall increase and an ‘erga omnes’ approach across all sectors appears inappropriate. However, with regard to technical efficiency, R&D intensity is found to be a pivotal factor in explaining firm efficiency. This is true for all industries. |
| Keywords: | Corporate R&D, productivity, technical efficiency, stochastic frontier analysis |
| JEL: | L2 O3 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201011&r=sbm |
| By: | Michele Cincera (Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles); Claudio Cozza (Fondazione Formit); Alexander Tübke (JRC-IPTS); Peter Voigt (JRC-IPTS) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates how corporate R&D evolves in the light of the contemporary economic crisis. We investigate what empirical evidence from past downturns suggests, discuss the relevant literature and perform an empirical analysis of recent business survey data (collected during 2009). We question whether companies tend to spend more or less on R&D and innovation activities during periods of recession and analyse empirically what general patterns can be distinguished in this regard, given the particular circumstances of the most recent crisis. Our findings suggest that company behaviour varies: some companies have reduced their innovation activities significantly, while others maintained them and a third group even increased their activities to reap the benefits in the expected upswing afterwards. Overall, we observe a deceleration of R&D and innovation activities in the light of the crisis, but the trend figures remain positive. Driven by the companies that reinforce their R&D and innovation efforts to thrive through the downturn and thus seek to gather the benefits in the upswing to come, the R&D and innovation landscape is likely to look different in the aftermath of the crisis. These changes will inevitably affect policy intervention in the field of innovation and are a unique chance for the reorientation of policy measures. More profoundly, they could be at the roots of a new paradigm, departing from a transition from an industrial to a knowledge-based society. |
| Keywords: | Corporate R&D investments, innovation activities, company strategy, economic crisis, R&D globalization |
| JEL: | F01 O33 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201012&r=sbm |
| By: | Marco Corsino; Roberto Gabriele; Sandro Trento |
| Abstract: | The paper proposes an empirical investigation of job flows for continuing manufacturing firms in Italy from 1996 to 2004 using high quality data on work forces and other characteristics of the firm. The magnitude of the job flows for small and medium-sized limited liability companies in Italy is lower than what observed in Anglo-Saxon countries, but it is still in line with evidence for firms in the Euro area. Second, the magnitude of job flows significantly shrunk in the aftermath of the economic downturn in 2001. Firms fared worse than in the late nineties and the labour market became less efficient in allocating job flows. Third, gross job creation and gross job destruction decrease as firm get larger, but when added to compute an indicator of net employment growth, size does not seem to affect firms' expansion. On the contrary, age significantly hinges on the growth opportunities of small and medium-sized enterprises. The econometric analysis corroborates the major findings of our descriptive investigation referring to the role of size and age. In particular, it shows that classification methods used to define size classes strongly influence the estimated relationship between growth and size industrial regimes play a role in shaping job flows. Our result show that firms in supplier dominated industries fared significantly lower than enterprises in other sectors during the sample period. |
| Keywords: | job creation; job destruction; persistence of jobs; firm growth |
| JEL: | J62 L60 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trt:disawp:1008&r=sbm |
| By: | Kitagawa, Fumi (University of Bristol); Wigren, Caroline (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | The recent rise in university-industry partnerships has stimulated an important public policy debate degrading the theoretical rationale for government support for knowledge transfer/exchanges from higher education sector. This paper draws on a particular case study conducted at Lund University, which is the largest comprehensive research university in Sweden. We ask the role of fundamental research at the university and organizational responses to growing expectations with respect to its subsequent use and applications, particularly those of ‘Centres of research excellence’. We identify new forms of intermediary organizations as ‘brokers on the boundaries’ which bridge the gap between everyday scientific activities of researchers, entrepreneurial activities of academics, and more centralized forms of strategic initiatives taken by an ‘entrepreneurial university’ as an organizational actor. The paper concludes by identifying organizational strategic choices and constraints, and implications for rapidly changing higher education and research policies in Sweden and beyond. |
| Keywords: | Academic Entrepreneurship; Sweden |
| JEL: | O30 |
| Date: | 2010–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2010_002&r=sbm |
| By: | Martin, Roman (CIRCLE, Lund University); Moodysson, Jerker (CIRCLE, Lund University); Zukauskaite, Elena (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with policy measures in the regional innovation system of Scania, Southern Sweden. Focus is dedicated to requirements on innovation policy from actors representing different industries. Previous studies have identified profound differences with regard the organization of knowledge sourcing between firms and other actors in industries drawing on different knowledge bases. In correspondence with these findings, industries differ also with regard to how policy measures aiming to support innovation are perceived and acquired. Despite this, there is a tendency among regional policy programs to base their strategies on one ‘best practice’-model, inspired by successful (or sometimes less successful) cases in other parts of the world. The paper presents an in-depth analysis of such policy support targeting three industries located in one region, and ends with a suggestion to how those should be adapted to render influence on the institutional framework of the regional innovation system. |
| Keywords: | innovation policy; regional innovation systems; knowledge bases; Sweden |
| JEL: | O30 O38 |
| Date: | 2010–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2010_014&r=sbm |
| By: | A. Arrighetti; A. Lasagni |
| Abstract: | Firm growth is a selective and non-homogeneous phenomenon. In fact, “Most firms start small, live small and die small” (Davidsson et al. 2005). Few firms seem to grow in a rapid way, but their contribution to employment growth is often impressive. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze both external and internal factors which can affect the probability of being a high-growth firm (henceforth HGF) in Italy. We found that HGFs are on average young firms and are present in different sectors, but the role of demand is important to understand their performance. The most original results of this paper regard endogenous determinants of fast growth. First, we found that the concentration of ownership is important for HGFs that grow in sales. Second, the quality of human capital is a strong point for firms experiencing rapid employment growth. |
| Keywords: | : high-growth firms, firm growth, human capital, rapid firm growth |
| JEL: | D24 L25 L26 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:par:dipeco:2010-ep07&r=sbm |
| By: | Alex Coad; Mercedes Teruel |
| Abstract: | Inter-firm competition has received much attention in the theoretical literature, but recent empirical work suggests that the growth rates of rival firms are uncorrelated, and that firm growth can be taken as an essentially independent process. We begin by investigating the correlations of the growth rates of competing firms (i.e. the largest and second-largest firms in the same industry) and observe that, surprisingly, the growth of these firms can be taken as independent. Nevertheless, peer-effect regressions, that take into account the simultaneous interdependence of growth rates of rival firms, are able to identify significant negative effects of rivals' growth on a firm's growth. |
| Keywords: | Competition, Firm growth, Peer effects econometrics Length 32 pages |
| JEL: | L25 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:evopap:2010-18&r=sbm |
| By: | Castellacci, Fulvio; Zheng, Jinghai |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates the relationships between technological regimes and firm-level productivity performance, and it explores how such a relationship differs in different Schumpeterian patterns of innovation. The analysis makes use of a rich dataset containing data on innovation and other economic characteristics of a large representative sample of Norwegian firms in manufacturing and service industries for the period 1998-2004. First, we decompose TFP growth into technical progress and efficiency changes by means of data envelopment analysis. We then estimate an empirical model that relates these two productivity components to the characteristics of technological regimes and a set of other firm-specific factors. The results indicate that: (1) TFP growth has mainly been achieved through technical progress, while technical efficiency has on average decreased; (2) the characteristics of technological regimes are important determinants of firm-level productivity growth, but their impacts on technical progress are different from the effects on efficiency change; (3) the estimated model works differently in the two Schumpeterian regimes. Technical progress has been more dynamic in Schumpeter Mark II industries, while efficiency change has been more important in Schumpeter Mark I markets. |
| Keywords: | TFP growth; technical progress; technical efficiency; technological regimes; Schumpeterian patterns of innovation; CIS data |
| JEL: | L0 O1 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:27588&r=sbm |
| By: | Castellacci, Fulvio |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the dimensions shaping the dynamics of technology. We present a model where the knowledge stock of a country grows over time as a function of three main factors: its innovation intensity, its technological infrastructures and its human capital. The latter two variables contribute to determine the absorptive capacity of a country as well as its innovative ability. Based on this theoretical framework, we carry out an empirical analysis that investigates the dynamics of technology in a large sample of developed and developing economies in the last two-decade period, and studies its relationships with the growth of income per capita in a dynamic panel model setting. The results indicate that the cross-country distributions of technological infrastructures and human capital have experienced a process of convergence, whereas the innovative intensity is characterized by increasing polarization between rich and poor economies. Thus, while the conditions for catching up have generally improved, the increasing innovation gap represents a major factor behind the observed differences in income per capita. |
| Keywords: | Growth and development; technology gap; absorptive capacity; innovation; polarization; twin-peaks |
| JEL: | O11 O33 O40 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:27586&r=sbm |
| By: | Hayakawa, Kazunobu; Lee, Hyun-Hoon; Park, Donghyun |
| Abstract: | There is a large and growing empirical literature that investigates the determinants of outward foreign direct investment (FDI). This literature examines primarily the effect of host country characteristics on FDI even though home country characteristics also influence the decision of firms to invest abroad. In this paper, we examine the role of both host and home country characteristics in FDI. To do so, we constructed a firm-level database of outward FDI from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Our empirical analysis yields two main findings. First, host countries with better environment for FDI, in terms of larger market size, smaller fixed entry costs, and lower wages, attract more foreign investors. Second, firms from home countries with higher wages are more likely to invest abroad. An interesting and significant policy implication of our empirical evidence is that policymakers seeking to promote FDI inflows should prioritize countries with higher wages. |
| Keywords: | FDI, Multinational firm, Firm heterogeneity, Foreign investments, International business enterprises, Industrial management, Productivity |
| JEL: | D24 F21 F23 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper267&r=sbm |