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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2014‒02‒21
nine papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Universidade da Beira Interior and Universidade de Lisboa |
| By: | Dachs, Bernhard; Ebersberger, Bernd; Kinkel, Steffen; Som, Oliver |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effects of production offshoring on the innovation activities of manufacturing firms in the home country. The analysis is based on a dataset of more than 3000 manufacturing firms from seven European countries. We find that offshoring firms on average employ a higher share of R&D and design personnel, introduce new products more frequently to the market, and invest more frequently in advanced process technologies compared to non-offshoring firms. Concerns that offshoring may hurt innovation because of the lost links between production and product development are not supported by the evidence. -- |
| Keywords: | offshoring,R&D,home country effects,investment,product innovation,process innovation |
| JEL: | F23 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fisidp:39&r=sbm |
| By: | Camilla Jensen; Itzhak Goldberg |
| Abstract: | The objective of the PICK-ME (Policy Incentives for Creation of Knowledge – Methods and Evidence) research project is to provide theoretical and empirical perspectives on innovation which give a greater role to the demand-side aspect of innovation. The main question is how can policy make enterprises more willing to innovate? This task is fulfilled by identifying what we consider the central or most salient aspect of a demand-side innovation-driven economy, which is the small and entrepreneurial yet fast growing and innovative firm. We use the term ?Gazelle? to signify this type of firm throughout the paper. The main concern of policy-makers should therefore be how to support Gazelle type of firms through various policies. The effectiveness of different policy instruments are considered. For example, venture capitalism is in the paper identified as an important modern institution that renders exactly the type of coordination necessary to bring about an innovation system more orientated towards the demand side. This is because experienced entrepreneurs with superior skills in terms of judging the marketability of new innovations step in as financiers. Other factor market bottlenecks on the skills side must be targeted through education policies that fosters centers of excellence. R&D incentives are also considered as a separate instrument but more a question for future research since there is no evidence available on R&D incentives as a Gazelle type of policy. Spatial policies to foster more innovation have been popular in the past. But we conclude that whereas the literature often finds that new knowledge is developed in communities of physically proximate firms, there is no overshadowing evidence showing that spatial policies in particular had any impact on generating more of the Gazelle type of firms. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, demand-side driven policies, Gazelles, bottlenecks in factor markets, venture capitalism, ontology of knowledge, education systems, clusters |
| JEL: | B52 B53 D78 D83 G24 M13 N94 O3 O43 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sec:cnstan:0468&r=sbm |
| By: | Klapper, Leora; Love, Inessa; Randall, Douglas |
| Abstract: | This paper uses new panel data on the number of new firm registrations in 109 countries during 2002-2012 to study the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth. The data show strong evidence of a pro-cyclical pattern in entrepreneurship. An examination of heterogeneous relationships between new firm registration and the business cycle finds that higher levels of financial development and better business environments are associated with stronger pro-cyclicality of entrepreneurship both across countries and within countries over time. The results are robust to various measures of business regulation, such as the cost and time of starting a new firm and closing an insolvent firm. These findings suggest that fostering an efficient regulatory environment for the financial and private sector is important for encouraging a speedier recovery in the formation of new firms during economic expansions and aiding the efficient wind-down of insolvent firms during economic slowdowns. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics&Policies,Business in Development,Business Environment,Competitiveness and Competition Policy,E-Business |
| Date: | 2014–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6775&r=sbm |
| By: | Daniel Nepelski (European Commission – JRC - IPTS); Giuditta de Prato (European Commission – JRC - IPTS) |
| Abstract: | The EIPE project aims to identify ICT R&D&I-related activities which are geographically concentrated and which demonstrate high performance in ICT innovative activities: the European ICT Poles of Excellence. It also aims to help map the dynamics of ICT-related innovation and economic geography in Europe, pointing to the presence and possibly the emergence of agglomerated and globally performing ICT activities. An additional challenge of the EIPE project is that this identification process had to be based only on the analysis of quantitative data, and built on a set of relevant criteria leading to measurable indicators. The present report documents the methodologies and data sources used for this purpose. |
| Keywords: | ICT; information and communication technologies; innovation, R&D, ICT industry; region; Europe; Poles of Excellence; clusters; indicators; methods |
| JEL: | O32 O52 R12 R28 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc85356&r=sbm |
| By: | Antonio Vezzani (JRC-IPTS); Fabio Montobbio (Università degli Studi di Torino ? Dipartimento di Economia e Statistica "Cognetti de Martiis"); Sandro Montresor (University of Bologna); Gianluca Tarasconi (CRIOS - Center for Research in Innovation, Organization and Strategy, Bocconi University) |
| Abstract: | The present note contains an explorative and introductory analysis of the patenting activity exhibited by the top 100 companies of the IRI Scoreboard, and intends to identify strengths and weaknesses for its possible future extension to the whole Scoreboard. With respect to these companies, patent data are drawn from Patstat, on the basis of which patent families are built up, and crossed with other data on their R&D investments. Both the R&D and the patent applications of the investigated sample of companies increase over time. At the same time, important sector specificities in the R&D-patent relationship have been found. The analysis of the technological competences of the overall sample yields promising results. A first examination of the IPC classes of the patent applications suggests a certain concentration in the kind of technological knowledge that companies master. The analysis of the knowledge base and, more specifically, the companies' involvement in the creation of key enabling technologies (KETs) also highlights that important sector specificities go along with firm specific factors. All-in-all “augmenting” the Scoreboard data with company level patent information appears to be an interesting extension to be pursued. |
| Keywords: | patents, technological profile, KETS, R&D, IRI Scoreboard companies |
| JEL: | O30 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc86166&r=sbm |
| By: | Andersson, Martin (CIRCLE, Lund University); Gråsjö, Urban (University West); Karlsson, Charlie (Jönköping International Business School, and Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies (CESIS)) |
| Abstract: | Multinational firms (MNFs) have been shown to have a set of defining characteristics. Compared to domestic firms, they have a larger fraction of skilled workers, higher R&D to sales ratios and established networks to knowledge sources in several different countries. As illustrated by the so-called ‘anchor-tenant’ hypothesis, they can be described as “knowledge spillover agents”. MNF affiliates, as defined in this paper, are firms that are part of large domestic and foreign MNFs. In this paper we test whether the local presence of MNF affiliates generate spillover effects on the local industry. The empirical analysis focuses on as¬sessing whether the productivity of the regional manufacturing industry of non-affiliated firms is higher in regions with a large fraction of MNF affiliates. The analysis uses data on Swedish firms and is conducted on regional level as well as on firm level. The regressions show that local presence of MNFs in a region has a positive effect on Gross Regional Product (GRP) from non-MNFs. The paper also shows that regions where the low-productive non-MNFs are located appear to benefit the most from local presence of MNFs. The MNFs have, on the other hand, no effect on non-MNF productivity in regions where the high-productive non-MNFs are located. |
| Keywords: | Multinational firms; affiliates; productivity; R&D; knowledge; spillovers; skilled workers; region |
| JEL: | F23 J24 O33 R11 |
| Date: | 2014–02–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0343&r=sbm |
| By: | Katja Bringmann; Ann Verhetsel; Thomas Vanoutrive; Jo Reynaerts |
| Abstract: | The existing literature on cluster embeddedness largely neglects the impact of finance on the development of firm?s network linkages. This is striking in so far that particularly venture capital is often referred to as ?smart money? providing firms not only with funds but also with network contacts. Thus, in this paper, we intend to quantitatively assess the impact of venture capitalists on start-ups? embeddedness. Embeddedness generally occurs along three dimensions namely the societal, the network and the territorial one. Societal embeddedness refers to the cultural environment economic actions take place in. Network embeddedness representing the structure and nature of relations an organization is maintaining and territorial embeddedness implying the degree of spatial anchoring of a firm in a specific geographical area. It is assumed that for firms and regions there are several advantages arising from deep network and, respectively, territorial embeddedness: Among others, they include local knowledge spillovers which promote innovative thinking and, subsequently, strengthen firms? global competitiveness and thereby fueling regional economic growth. In addition, particularly territorial embeddedness is reckoned as shielding to some extent against firm relocation that is widely regarded as hampering regional development. Due to the riskiness of their business, insufficient hard assets, and an unforeseeable rate of return, innovative startups are generally unable to get capitalized by more conventional sources of money i.e. bank lending and therefore often return to venture capital. Besides providing incumbent innovative firms with funds, venture capitalists, reverting to their vast sectoral knowledge and personal contacts, are frequently facilitating the entry of startups into existing personal and industry networks. Generally, it is anticipated that those network contacts are densest in the immediate neighbourhood of the investor. Summing up, given its ?social? character, it is hypothesized that venture capital is an important driver of start-ups? embeddedness that is nevertheless spatially constraint. In order to answer to what extent venture capital impacts portfolio firms? territorial and network embeddedness and whether the geographical location of the venture capitalist has an effect on start-ups? local anchoring, we conduct an empirical analysis using data on venture capital flows. By reviewing cluster embeddedness from a financial geographic perspective, this analysis complements the literature that hitherto has largely neglected the role of venture capital in this respect. |
| Keywords: | Venture capital; Industrial Cluster; Embeddedness; Social Networks |
| JEL: | R12 G24 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa13p298&r=sbm |
| By: | Chiraz Ben Ali; Cédric Lesage |
| Abstract: | Family businesses are an important part of the world economy (Anderson and Reeb, 2003) and show significant differences in their corporate governance compared to non-family firms. Although displaying evident unique features, family firms have received relatively little attention as distinct from their equivalents in publicly held firms. Our study contributes to this growing research and investigates empirically the relationship between family shareholding and audit pricing. Using a sample of 3291 firm-year observations of major U.S. listed companies, for the period 2006- 2008, our results demonstrate that audit fees is negatively associated to family shareholding after taking into account unobservable firm effects, time-varying, industry effects and traditional control variables. The empirical results are robust to alternative family shareholding measures and estimation model specifications. Our results are consistent with the convergence-of-interests hypothesis suggesting that family firms face lower manager/shareholders agency costs. Auditors charge lower fees for family firms because of lower information asymmetry and risk as the controlling family is well informed about the firm and is better able to monitor managerial decisions. |
| Keywords: | Family firms, Audit Fees, Agency Conflicts, Corporate Governance |
| Date: | 2014–01–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2014-043&r=sbm |
| By: | Federica Rossi (Birkbeck, University of London) |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:img:wpaper:16&r=sbm |