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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2013‒06‒30
five papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Michael Fritsch (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena); Ronney Aamoucke (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena) |
| Abstract: | Based on detailed information about the regional knowledge base, particularly about universities, we find that regional public research and education have a strong positive impact on new business formation in innovative industries but not in industries classified as non-innovative. Measures for the presence and size of public academic institutions have more of an effect on the formation of innovative new businesses than indicators that reflect the quality of these institutions. We find relatively weak evidence for interregional spillovers of these effects. Our results clearly demonstrate the importance of localized knowledge and, especially, of public research for the emergence of innovative new businesses. |
| Keywords: | New business formation, innovative start-ups, universities, regional knowledge |
| JEL: | L26 L60 L80 O18 R12 R30 |
| Date: | 2013–06–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2013-026&r=sbm |
| By: | Agustí Segarra (Universitat Rovira i Virgili & CREIP); José García-Quevedo (Universitat de Barcelona & IEB); Mercedes Teruel (Universitat Rovira i Virgili & CREIP) |
| Abstract: | Theoretical and empirical approaches have stressed the existence of financial constraints in innovative activities of firms. This paper analyses the role of financial obstacles on the likelihood of abandoning an innovation project. Although a large number of innovation projects are abandoned before their completion, the empirical evidence has focused on the determinants of innovation while failed projects have received little attention. Our analysis differentiates between internal and external barriers on the probability of abandoning a project and we examine whether the effects are different depending on the stage of the innovation process. In the empirical analysis carried out for a panel data of potential innovative Spanish firms for the period 2004-2010, we use a bivariate probit model to take into account the simultaneity of financial constraints and the decision to abandon an innovation project. Our results show that financial constraints most affect the probability of abandoning an innovation project during the concept stage and that low-technological manufacturing and non-KIS service sectors are more sensitive to financial constraints. |
| Keywords: | Barriers to innovation, failure of innovation projects, financial constraints |
| JEL: | O31 D21 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:2013/6/doc2013-11&r=sbm |
| By: | Vincent Lefebvre (ISC Paris Business School - ISC Paris Business School); Miruna Radu Lefebvre (Audencia Recherche - Audencia) |
| Abstract: | This conceptual paper examines the issue of integrating CSR at the start-up level with the aim of increasing the firm's ability to identify new opportunities. Both a constraint and an occasion to strengthen the company's legitimacy and competitive advantage, CSR principles and practices are a key vehicle for opportunity identification and implementation. Historically, SMEs have contributed significantly to the improvement of existing products and services, and the creation of new ones. Grounding CSR in the strategy of enterprises at the start-up level is increasingly examined as an effective management tool with multiple benefits for opportunity identification. CSR may be promoted as a means of nurturing creativity and innovation at the start-up level and beyond, through pushing entrepreneurs to imagine new business models, to discover new raw materials, as well as to create new products and services so as to respond to both economic and social expectations. |
| Keywords: | opportunity recognition, entrepreneurial opportunity, CSR, entrepreneurship, creativity |
| Date: | 2012–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00836856&r=sbm |
| By: | Marina Doroshenko (Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge, National Research University — Higher School of Economics); Ian Miles (University of Manchester, Research Laboratory for Economics of Innovation, Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge, National Research University — Higher School of Economics); Dmitri Vinogradov (Essex Business School, University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) are widely argued to be important actors in innovation systems. They are active both innovating themselves, and by providing their clients with important knowledge and learning opportunities. This study uses survey data to investigate the mechanisms of knowledge transfer and innovativeness improvement through the provision of KIBS. The empirical core of the paper is a set of Russian surveys of KIBS and their clients: KIBS are a fairly new phenomenon in Russia, so this provides an opportunity to contrast KIBS supplier-client relationships featuring more and less experienced customers. Many of the KIBS firms’ services are highly tailored to customer specificities, and we consider how far this is minor customisation and how far novel products (and thus potentially product innovations) are involved. These services typically involve KIBS consumers into a coproduction process, where both the formal supplier and the formal user of the service are engaged together in service production. Knowledge transfers through learning-by-doing in such cases affect customers' propensity to innovate and improve their absorptive capacity. The paper concludes that the generation of innovations through KIBS may well be a self-sustaining process. In this process, service providers are incentivised to engage in service innovations by more innovative customers’ demand for highly individualised services. In turn, the process stimulates the innovativeness of customers, as they engage in learning-by-doing through coproduction. |
| Keywords: | service innovations, customised service production, knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), knowledge spill-over, learning-by-doing. |
| JEL: | D83 L84 O32 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:wpbrp12sti2013&r=sbm |
| By: | Doepke, Matthias (Northwestern University); Zilibotti, Fabrizio (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | We discuss the two-way link between culture and economic growth. We present a model of endogenous technical change where growth is driven by the innovative activity of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is risky and requires investments that affect the steepness of the lifetime consumption profile. As a consequence, the occupational choice of entrepreneurship hinges on risk tolerance and patience. Parents expecting their children to become entrepreneurs have an incentive to instill these two values in their children. Cultural transmission is Beckerian, i.e., parents are driven by the desire to maximize their children's happiness. We also consider, in an extension, a paternalistic motive for preference transmission. The growth rate of the economy depends on the fraction of the population choosing an entrepreneurial career. How many entrepreneurs there are in a society hinges, in turn, on parental investments in children's patience and risk tolerance. There can be multiple balanced-growth paths, where in faster-growing countries more people exhibit an "entrepreneurial spirit." We discuss applications of models of endogenous preferences to the analysis of socio-economic transformations, such as the British Industrial Revolution. We also discuss empirical studies documenting the importance of culture and preference heterogeneity for economic growth. |
| Keywords: | culture, entrepreneurship, innovation, economic growth, endogenous preferences, intergenerational preference transmission |
| JEL: | J20 O10 O40 |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7459&r=sbm |