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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2012‒05‒22
seven papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Hülsbeck, Marcel; Kitzinger, Elena N. |
| Abstract: | Similar to the creation and distribution of new knowledge through industrial R&D and university research, entrepreneurial activity tends to vary across regions. Therefore the regionalized production of new knowledge is a prerequisite of entrepreneurial innovation. Based on endogenous growth theory, in particular the so-called Griliches-Jaffe-Model of regional knowledge production, we investigate industrial and university characteristics as determinants of technologically oriented entrepreneurship. Using hand-collected data from multiple sources, our results clearly show that high technology entrepreneurship is highly dependent on regional knowledge production by industry and university, while medium technology entrepreneurship does largely not dependent on these factors. -- |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:auguow:0311&r=sbm |
| By: | Czarnitzki, Dirk; Delanote, Julie |
| Abstract: | Young Innovative Companies (YIC) gained increasing attention from governments and scholars due to their expected high innovative performance and growth. Consequently, this study investigates whether Young Innovative Companies, as defined by the EU, grow more than other firms, both in terms of employment and in terms of sales. Using a database of Flemish firms over the years 2001-2008 reveals that these firms do grow significantly more than other firms. In addition, this study shows that YICs can be differentiated from New Technology Based Firms and small young firms in terms of growth, pointing to the importance of combining the individual properties characterizing YICs, that is being young (<6 years), small (<250 employees) and R&D intensive (R&D intensity > 15%). In our estimations, we also take the underlying distribution of the growth variables into account by performing quantile regressions. The results of these quantile regressions reveal that YICs especially grow faster than the other, already fast-growing firms, indicating that they are high performers. In addition, we never find that these companies perform significantly worse than the other firms. -- |
| Keywords: | Young Innovative Companies,Growth |
| JEL: | M13 L25 O33 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:12030&r=sbm |
| By: | Maureen McKelvey (University of Gothenburg, Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, School of Business, Economics and Law); Bastian Rake (Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Graduate College "The Economics of Innovative Change") |
| Abstract: | This paper explores how and why collaboration with different types of partners and the position within a research network can affect firms' innovative performance in terms of product innovations. A detailed empirical analysis is carried out in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. This industry is characterized by a rapidly developing, complex, and dispersed knowledge base, where one would expect positive benefits from collaboration and the position within a network for innovative output. The paper uses a unique dataset in pharmaceutical cancer research based on scientific co-publications and new drug approvals. We apply social network analysis and count data regressions. We observe that collaboration with a diverse set of partners from academia and the network position in terms of eigenvector centrality is positively related to product innovation. However, we do not find a general positive association between collaboration, particularly with biotechnology companies, and product innovation or between central network positions and product innovation. Therefore, these results require a re-assessment of the role of scientific collaboration and biotechnology companies in the development of the pharmaceutical industry. |
| Keywords: | Research Networks, Research Collaboration, Innovative Performance, Pharmaceuticals |
| JEL: | L25 O31 |
| Date: | 2012–05–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2012-021&r=sbm |
| By: | Bronwyn H. Hall; Francesca Lotti; Jacques Mairesse |
| Abstract: | Both Research and Development (R&D) and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) investment have been identified as sources of relative innovation underperformance in Europe vis-à-vis the United States. In this paper we investigate R&D and ICT investment at the firm level in an effort to assess their relative importance and to what extent they are complements or substitutes. We use data on a large unbalanced panel data sample of Italian manufacturing firms constructed from four consecutive waves of a survey of manufacturing firms, together with a version of the CDM model (Crepon et al., 1998) that has been modified to include ICT investment and R&D as the two main inputs into innovation and productivity. We find that R&D and ICT are both strongly associated with innovation and productivity, with R&D being more important for innovation, and ICT investment being more important for productivity. For the median firm, rates of return to both investments are so high that they suggest considerably underinvestment in both these activities. |
| JEL: | L60 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18053&r=sbm |
| By: | Matteo Bugamelli (Bank of Italy); Luigi Cannari (Bank of Italy); Francesca Lotti (Bank of Italy); Silvia Magri (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | The lag in innovation in Italy vis-Ã -vis the other main industrial countries is one of the effects of the fragmentation of the production system into many small firms that have trouble bearing the high cost of R&D and taking the related risks. Such other causes as shortages in human capital for management and R&D and excessive labor flexibility, undermining the incentive to invest in training, also play a role. Lack of financial sources is a further hurdle; equity, more suitable than debt for financing innovation, is less common than in other countries. Public incentives for firms have had modest results. To enhance the capacity for innovation some actions should be taken to help firms grow, adopt a more managerial approach, and increase their equity. It is important to support the venture capital market, which is less developed than in other countries. The design and management of public funding for innovation need improvement. |
| Keywords: | R&D, innovation, policy measures, Italy |
| JEL: | O32 O38 L11 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_121_12&r=sbm |
| By: | R. Basile; Stefano Usai |
| Abstract: | Endogenous growth theory has deeply influenced regional growth analyses and inspired regional development policies. Evidence of lack of convergence, club convergence and spatial polarization of per worker income levels has led scholars to question the explanatory power of neoclassical exogenous growth models and to look at endogenous growth theories as proper frameworks to interpret regional development. In particular, those models, which emphasize the role of knowledge spillovers as driving forces for economic growth and identify a large set of self- reinforcing mechanisms that can potentially cause low-productivity traps, have become central in the scientific debate. Only during the last ten years, however, there have been some analytical attempts to regionalize endogenous growth theory. This paper provides a critical survey of the growing literature on regional extensions of endogenous growth analysis. The focus is on those theoretical and empirical studies which have tried to explain lack of regional convergence, multiple equilibria and spatial polarization. The paper also suggests some directions for future research in this field. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous growth; regional analysis |
| JEL: | R11 O4 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:201211&r=sbm |
| By: | Hülsbeck, Marcel; Lehmann, Erik E.; Weiß, Dominik; Wirsching, Katharine |
| Abstract: | Familienunternehmen gelten in der öffentlichen Wahrnehmung als besonders innovativ und als Hidden Champions der deutschen Wirtschaft. In jüngster Zeit widmen sich Forscher vermehrt der Überprüfung dieser These und kommen zu diametral unterschiedlichen Ergebnissen. Einerseits wird Familienunternehmen ein besonderer Unternehmergeist bescheinigt, der sie besonders innovativ macht, andererseits soll die mangelnde Trennung von Eigentum und Kontrolle sowie unzureichende Diversifikation zu deutlich geringer Innovationsaktivität führen. In dieser Studie untersuchen wir Innovationsaktivitäten von 436 deutschen Industrieunternehmen unterschiedlicher Rechtsformen, Größen, Alter, Industrien und vor allem unterschiedlicher familiärer Beteiligung und Beeinflussung des Management und des Aufsichtsrates. Wir kommen dabei zu differenzierten Ergebnissen. Grundsätzlich wirkt sich sowohl familiäres Anteilseigentum als Beteiligung der Eignerfamilie im Top Management signifikant negativ auf Innovationsaktivitäten aus. Im Gegensatz dazu hat der Grad familiärer Kontrolle im Aufsichtsrat signifikant positive Auswirkungen auf das Innovationsverhalten. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass inhabergeführte Unternehmen aufgrund von Risikoaversion wenig innovativ sind, während der Rückzug der Investorenfamilie in die Rolle eines Ideengebers und Kontrolleurs zu mehr Innnovationen führt. -- Family businesses are publicly believed to be highly innovative and to be the Hidden Champions of the German industry. In recent times scholars have begun to examine this thesis and have come to starkly opposing results. On the one hand family businesses are attested to have a special entrepreneurial spirit which makes them highly innovative. On the other hand the lack of separation of ownership and control and insufficient diversification of family-investors are said to lead to less innovation activity. In this study we investigate the innovation activity of 436 German manufacturing firms differing in legal structure, size, age, industry, and - most importantly - in the degree of family ownership, family management and family control. The results of our analysis reveals differentiated results. Fundamentally, family ownership and family management are detrimental to firm innovation, at the same time family control has a positive impact on innovation activities. Our Results point to the fact that owner-managed businesses tend to innovate less due to risk aversion while a focus on controlling instead of managing a corporation by the owning family lead to an increase in innovations. |
| Keywords: | Familienunternehmen,Corporate Governance,Performance,Innovation,family firms,corporate governance,performance,innovation |
| JEL: | M21 G32 G34 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:auguow:0211&r=sbm |