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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2012‒09‒03
twelve papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Donato Iacobucci (Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, Università Politecnica delle Marche); Alessandra Micozzi (Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, Università Politecnica delle Marche) |
| Abstract: | The paper proposes a framework to evaluate the impact of academic spin-offs at regional level and applies it to the context of the Marche region (Italy). Spin-off creation is the most complex way of commercializing academic research, compared to licensing and R&D collaborations, but with the highest potential impact on the regional context. The empirical analysis shows that when measured in quantitative terms the impact of spin-offs on local economies is rather low; however, there are qualitative direct and indirect effects that must be taken into consideration. By focusing on providing R&D services, spin-offs play an important role in promoting the up-grading of the regional industrial system, which is mainly based on small and medium-sized firms in low and medium-tech sectors. Though not very successful in terms of growth and job creation in the short run, spin-offs provide an entrepreneurial experience for a high number of young researchers. We can expect that in the longer terms these people can play an important role within the local system in the start-up of new companies or as agents of innovation for established firms. |
| Keywords: | spin-offs, technology transfer, regional innovation system |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cme:wpaper:1204&r=sbm |
| By: | Erik Stam; Ron Martin |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses mechanisms of decline and renewal in high-tech regions, illustrated with empirical evidence on the Cambridgeshire high-tech region in the UK. The paper contributes to ecological ('carrying capacity') and evolutionary (path dependence) theories of regional development. It provides a longitudinal, multilevel analysis of invention, firm, and industry dynamics and change in the supply and costs of resources in order to explain the decline of high-tech regions. While expansion of the Cambridgeshire high-tech region has been sustained over time, recently forces of decline have been stronger than those of renewal. Decline in employment has been most marked in the local telecommunications and biotech sectors, while the creation of variety by new firms has fallen off most strongly in the local IT software & services industry. Increasing diseconomies of agglomeration are in evidence, together with a contraction of finance that may have been a harbinger of financial stringency to come. |
| Keywords: | high-tech regions, industrial dynamics, innovation, entrepreneurship, cluster decline |
| JEL: | L22 M13 O31 R11 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:1210&r=sbm |
| By: | Czarnitzki, Dirk; Hottenrott, Hanna |
| Abstract: | The ability of firms to establish R&D collaborations that combine resources, exploit complementary know-how, and internalize R&D externalities has been shown to be of high importance for the successful creation and implementation of new knowledge. We argue in this article that collaborative R&D may not only be beneficial in terms of appropriability of returns to R&D investment, access to the partner's knowledge base and the exploitation of scale and scope in R&D, but that it may also be a strategy to cope with financing constraints for R&D. Studying panel data we show that collaboration with science alleviates liquidity constraints for research. Horizontal collaboration reduces liquidity constraints for both research as well as R and D. Vertical collaboration has no such effects. -- |
| Keywords: | Collaborative Research,Industry-Science Links,Research and Development,Liquidity Constraints,Innovation Policy |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O38 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:12049&r=sbm |
| By: | Stuart McDonald (School of Economics, The University of Queensland); Mohamad Alghamdi; Bernard Pailthorpe |
| Abstract: | Using a data set spanning the period 1899-2000, we construct a network of RJVs and track the pattern of growth of this network over time. The resulting R&D network is emergent in the sense that RJVs are contained within it, connected to other RJVs by the existence firms sharing membership with multiple RJVs. This paper shows that the largest growth in the R&D networks occurred during the last three decades of the Twentieth Century. During this growth period, the R&D network has a pattern of collaboration that can be characterized as having the “small world†property. This has implications for the rate of information diffusion across the network, as it implies that many non-collaborating firms are in fact quite close to each other in terms of degree of separation. We show that this network structure is due to the presence of a small number of highly connected firms that collaborate across multiple RJVs. These firms have an important characteristic in that without their presence in the network, the R&D network looses its cohesiveness and the small world property disappears. Hence, these highly connected firms have an important role to play in determining the overall robustness of the R&D network. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qld:uq2004:469&r=sbm |
| By: | Gust-Bardon, Natalia Irena |
| Abstract: | Globalisation and the advent of information and communication technology (ICT) change the role of spatial distance in innovation activities. Geographical proximity used to be seen as a necessary condition to share tacit knowledge and to enhance trust between innovators; now this approach is being challenged by claiming that the role played by spatial distance diminishes with time. The aim of this paper is to present territorial innovation models as examples of theories based on assumptions of a crucial role of local environment and spatial distance in innovation processes and to present arguments against the said assumption. The paper concludes advocating the encouragement to cooperate both within the local network area and with distant partners and the creation of territorial innovation models as open systems engaged in interactive learning by global connectivity. -- |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fisifr:r42012&r=sbm |
| By: | Chen, Yongmin; Pan, Shiyuan; Zhang, Tianle |
| Abstract: | Under continual innovation, greater patent strength expands innovating firms’ profit against imitation, but also shifts profit from current to past innovators. We show how the impact of patents on innovation, as determined by these two opposing effects, varies with industry characteristics. When the discount factor is sufficiently high, the negative profit division effect is negligible, and innovation monotonically increases in patent strength; otherwise, innovation has an inverted-U relationship with patent strength, and stronger patents are more likely to increase innovation when the discount factor or the fixed innovation cost is higher. We also show how the impact of patents on innovation may change with firms’ innovation capability and with the intensity of competition from imitators. |
| Keywords: | Continual innovation; patents; patent strength; profit expansion; profit division |
| JEL: | O3 L1 |
| Date: | 2012–08–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40874&r=sbm |
| By: | Bode, Alexander; Müller, Katja; Hill, Johannes |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dar:wpaper:58996&r=sbm |
| By: | Hottenrott, Hanna; Lopes-Bento, Cindy |
| Abstract: | This study shows for a large sample of R&D-active manufacturing firms that collaborative R&D has a positive effect on firms' patenting in terms of both quantity and quality. When distinguishing between alliances that aim at joint creation of new knowledge and alliances that aim at exchange of existing knowledge, the results suggest that the positive effect on patent quantity is driven by knowledge exchange rather than joint R&D. Firms engaged in joint R&D, on the other hand, receive more forward citations per patent indicating that joint R&D enhances patent quality. In light of literature on strategic patenting, our results further suggest that knowledge creation alliances lead to patents that are filed to protect valuable intellectual property, while exchange alliances drive portfolio patenting, resulting in fewer forward citations. -- |
| Keywords: | R&D Collaboration,Knowledge Exchange,Patents,Innovation,Count Data Models |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O33 O34 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:12047&r=sbm |
| By: | Niels Bosma; Erik Stam; Sander Wennekers |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the results of the first large scale international comparative study of entrepreneurial employee activity (intrapreneurship). Intrapreneurship is a more wide-spread phenomenon in high income countries than in low income countries. At the organizational level, intrapreneurs have relatively high job growth expectations for their new business activities, as compared with independent young businesses. At the individual level, intrapreneurs are much more likely to have the intention to start a new independent business than other employees. However, at the country level there is a negative correlation between intrapreneurship and early- stage entrepreneurial activity. An explanation for these contrasting outcomes is the diverging effect of per capita income on intrapreneurship (positive effect) and early- stage entrepreneurial activity (negative effect). Underlying mechanisms include the role of larger firm presence, of higher education and of the opportunity costs of independent entrepreneurship. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurial employee activity, intrapreneurship, independent entrepreneurial activity, economic development, institutions |
| JEL: | J83 L26 M13 O43 O57 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:1212&r=sbm |
| By: | Anabela Schinck (CEFAGE_UE); Soumodip Sarkar (CEFAGE_UE,Department of Management, University of Évora, Portugal) |
| Abstract: | Bootstrapping finance involving the use of resources to start and grow a venture at the lowest possible or even at no cost, acquires especial significance in times of a credit crunch. In this paper we explore, for the first time the use of bootstrap finance techniques in a small country European case. Based on a sample of ninety-nine Portuguese firms we first determine the most popular bootstrapping strategies, and then we test a set of hypotheses involving several socio-demographic and economic variables, some for the first time in the literature. The results yield some very interesting insights on small business strategies of non-conventional methods of financing. This paper also reveals how these strategies are related to characteristics of the small business owner, namely gender and education, as well as two business characteristics of the firm, that of firm size and internationalization. |
| Keywords: | Warrants: Entrepreneurship; financial bootstrapping; small firm financing. |
| JEL: | L26 M13 G31 G32 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfe:wpcefa:2012_20&r=sbm |
| By: | Fredin, Sabrina (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to analyse how innovative, individual activities influence the evolution of local industries according to three stages. When discussing the evolution of industries or economies, the concept of path dependency is often a central element. Its vague nature makes it however difficult to be used as an interpretative lens when studying the evolution of local industries. In order to limit the broad concept, several aspects have been identified for discussion; all are explicitly linked to path dependency in economic geography literature and all are acknowledged to be of significance for stimulating the evolution of local industries. Based on the review of the evolutionary economic theory literature, the following three stages have been identified: first, the entering of new knowledge which may, or may not, be the starting point for a new local industry; second, the formation of the new local industry; third, the anchoring process of the new local industry. All three stages are intertwined and include the question how the new emerging industry and the existing local structures relate to each other. The three stages will be illustrated through the discussion of the evolution of the IT industry in Linköping, Sweden. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; local economic development; institutional foundation; informal institutions; path dependency |
| JEL: | N94 O14 R11 |
| Date: | 2012–08–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2012_007&r=sbm |
| By: | Teerawat Charoenrat (University of Wollongong); Charles Harvie (University of Wollongong) |
| Abstract: | A major motivation of this study is to examine factors that are most important in contributing to the relatively poor efficiency performance of Thai manufacturing SMEs. The results obtained will be significant in devising effective policies aimed at tackling this poor performance. This paper uses data on manufacturing SMEs in the North-eastern region of Thailand in 2007 as a case study, by applying a stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and technical inefficiency effects model. The empirical results obtained indicate that the mean technical efficiency of all categories of manufacturing SMEs in the North-eastern region is 43 percent, implying that manufacturing SMEs have high levels of technical inefficiency in their production process. Manufacturing SMEs in the North-eastern region are particularly labour intensive. The empirical results of the technical inefficiency effects model suggest that skilled labour, municipal area and ownership characteristics are important firm-specific factors affecting technical efficiency. The paper argues that the government should play a more substantive role in developing manufacturing SMEs in the North-eastern provinces through: providing training programs for employees and employers, encouraging greater usage of capital and technology in the production process of SMEs, enhancing the efficiency of state owned enterprises, encouraging a wide range of ownership forms and improving information and communications infrastructure. |
| Keywords: | Technical Efficiency; Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA); Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs); Manufacturing; North-eastern Region of Thailand |
| JEL: | C31 C87 D24 O12 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uow:depec1:wp12-03&r=sbm |