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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2014‒04‒05
eight papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Universidade da Beira Interior and Universidade de Lisboa |
| By: | Joseph E. Stiglitz |
| Abstract: | The pace of innovation is related both to the level of investment in innovation and the pool of knowledge from which innovators can draw. Both of these are endogenous: Investments in innovations are affected by the pool of knowledge and the ability of firms to appropriate the returns to their innovative activity, itself affected by the intellectual property rights (IPR) regime. But as each firm engages in research, it both contributes to the pool, and takes out from it. The strength and design of IPR affects the extent to which any innovation adds to or subtracts from the pool of ideas that are available to be commercially exploited, i.e. to the technological opportunities. We construct the simplest possible general model to explore the resulting dynamics, showing that, under plausible conditions, stronger intellectual property rights may lead to a lower pace of innovation, and more generally, that long run effects may be the opposite of the short run effects. |
| JEL: | E61 H41 O3 O31 O32 O33 O34 O38 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20014&r=sbm |
| By: | Beatrice D'Ippolito (MTS - Management Technologique et Strategique - Grenoble École de Management (GEM)); Marcela Miozzo (MBS - Manchester Business School - University of Manchester); Consoli Davide (INGENIO (CSIC-UPV) - INGENIO) |
| Abstract: | The paper explores two pathways that are crucial for making knowledge economically useful - knowledge systematisation and knowledge reconfiguration - and analyses how their interplay enables the emergence of a new business function or activity. Knowledge systematisation is the abstraction and diffusion of operative principles to the effect of expanding to broader remits practices that had been initially conceived for a narrow purpose. Knowledge reconfiguration involves the conversion and formalisation of these novel practices within existing firm and industry organisation. Using the design activity as a lens, and drawing on primary and secondary interviews and archival data on the home furnishing sectors in Italy, our case study articulates the processes that facilitate the abstraction of general rules from novel practices and the changes that are necessary, both within firm and industry organisation, to foster their diffusion. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge systematisation; knowledge reconfiguration; design; firm organisation; industry organisation; routines; capabilities; home furnishing |
| Date: | 2014–03–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:gemwpa:hal-00962391&r=sbm |
| By: | Matthijs Janssen; Carolina Castaldi; Alexander Alexiev |
| Abstract: | For both managers and policy makers involved in innovation, capability failures regarding development of new services are a major concern. Efforts to strengthen those capabilities, and evaluation thereof, demand more comprehensive insight in firms’ actual abilities to source ideas and convert them into marketable service propositions. This paper aims to provide clarity by operationalizing a set of dynamic service innovation capabilities (DSICs). We first review how existing conceptualizations adopt recent insights from the dynamic capability view, which emphasizes the need to identify microfoundations corresponding to a limited set of common constructs. One of the encountered conceptualizations, consolidating earlier works in specific service sectors, was found appropriate for gauging DSICs across a wide range of industries. It exemplifies how DSICs can be conceptualized according to the so-called synthesis approach to service innovation by capturing insights on the evolutionary properties of the creation of novel solutions. Secondly, we operationalize a refined version of such DSICs and develop a measurement scale, using two subsamples from a dataset of 391 Dutch firms. The measured capabilities are found to correlate to different extents with performance measures. Our main contribution, a validated scale for five complementary DSICs, opens the way to comparative analyses which are of relevance for further research, management and policy development. |
| Keywords: | Dynamic capabilities, service innovation, measurement scale |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ein:tuecis:1407&r=sbm |
| By: | ISHIWATA Ayako; Petr MATOUS; TODO Yasuyuki |
| Abstract: | Poverty reduction in rural Africa necessitates diversification of income sources from agriculture to nonfarm activities. Clustering of micro-enterprises in rural areas can promote nonfarm income. This study examines the determinants of growth in sales and skill levels of microenterprises in a tailor cluster in rural Ethiopia, focusing on the role of business networks. We collected panel data, including measures of business networks through procurement, outsourcing, and financing, for three years from 136 firms, the population in the "survival" cluster. The results show that when firms are closer to the center of business networks, i.e., firms are characterized by a higher centrality measure, they are more likely to increase sales. However, although network centrality is also associated with a higher level of tailoring skills, the skill level itself has no significant effect on sales. The finding implies that consumers in the area are not concerned much about the quality of products. Therefore, while expanding business networks can promote sales and skill levels, incentives to upgrade skills are minimal. |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:14014&r=sbm |
| By: | Lopez-Garcia, Paloma; di Mauro, Filippo; Benatti, Nicola; Angeloni, Chiara; Altomonte, Carlo; Bugamelli, Matteo; D’Aurizio, Leandro; Navaretti, Giorgio Barba; Forlani, Emanuele; Rossetti, Stefania; Zurlo, Davide; Berthou, Antoine; Sandoz-Dit-Bragard, Charlotte; Dhyne, Emmanuel; Amador, João; Opromolla, Luca David; Soares, Ana Cristina; Chiriacescu, Bogdan; Cazacu, Ana-Maria; Lalinsky, Tibor; Biewen, Elena; Blank, Sven; Meinen, Philipp; Hagemejer, Jan; Tello, Patry; Rodriguez-Caloca, Antonio; Cede, Urska; Galuscak, Kamil; Merikyll, Jaanika; Harasztosi, Peter |
| Abstract: | Drawing from confidential firm-level balance sheets in 11 European countries, the paper presents a novel sectoral database of comparable productivity indicators built by members of the Competitiveness Research Network (CompNet) using a newly developed research infrastructure. Beyond aggregate information available from industry statistics of Eurostat or EU KLEMS, the paper provides information on the distribution of firms across several dimensions related to competitiveness, e.g. productivity and size. The database comprises so far 11 countries, with information for 58 sectors over the period 1995-2011. The paper documents the development of the new research infrastructure, describes the database, and shows some preliminary results. Among them, it shows that there is large heterogeneity in terms of firm productivity or size within narrowly defined industries in all countries. Productivity, and above all, size distribution are very skewed across countries, with a thick left-tail of low productive firms. Moreover, firms at both ends of the distribution show very different dynamics in terms of productivity and unit labour costs. Within-sector heterogeneity and productivity dispersion are positively correlated to aggregate productivity given the possibility of reallocating resources from less to more productive firms. To this extent, we show how allocative efficiency varies across countries, and more interestingly, over different periods of time. Finally, we apply the new database to illustrate the importance of productivity dispersion to explain aggregate trade results. JEL Classification: L11, L25, D24, O4, O57 |
| Keywords: | allocative efficiency, competitiveness, cross country analysis, firm-level data, productivity and size distribution, total factor productivity |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20141634&r=sbm |
| By: | Ivan Faiella (Bank of Italy); Alessandro Mistretta (University of Rome Tor Vergata) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a method of estimating the energy expenditure of Italian manufacturing firms with 20 or more employees for the period 2003-11. Use is made of multiple sources in order to impute firm-level energy consumption in the dataset of the Bank of Italy’s Survey of Industrial and Service Firms; the expenditure is then obtained using the market prices of the different energy sources. According to our estimates, in 2011 the average firm spent about €740,000 to purchase energy, 61 percent more than in 2003. Energy expenditure is higher for firms located in the North, for larger firms and for those producing building materials and ceramics or in the chemical and petrochemical industry. In the period 2003-11 energy costs rose from 2.3 to 2.6 per cent as a proportion of turnover and from 27.1 to 30.8 per cent as a proportion of labour costs. Other conditions being equal, the magnitude of energy expenditure is negatively associated with firm’s performance indicators: firms with higher energy costs have both a lower rate of sales volume growth and a lower propensity to export. |
| Keywords: | energy costs, firms' competitiveness, statistical imputation |
| JEL: | C53 D24 Q41 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_214_14&r=sbm |
| By: | Makram El-Shagi; Claus Michelsen; Sebastian Rosenschon |
| Abstract: | The impact of environmental regulation on technology diffusion and innovations is studied using a unique data set of German residential buildings. We analyze how energy efficiency regulations, in terms of minimum standards, affects energy-use in newly constructed buildings and how it induces innovation in the residential-building industry. The data used consists of a large sample of German apartment houses built between 1950 and 2005. Based on this information, we determine their real energy requirements from energy performance certificates and energy billing information. We develop a new measure for regulation intensity and apply a panel-error-correction regression model to energy requirements of low and high quality housing. Our findings suggest that regulation significantly impacts technology adoption in low quality housing. This, in turn, induces improvements in the high quality segment where innovators respond to market signals. |
| Keywords: | Environmental regulation, innovation, technology diffusion, residential real estate, energy efficiency |
| JEL: | D2 Q4 R5 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1371&r=sbm |
| By: | Certan, Simion; Certan, Ion |
| Abstract: | The functionality of the new economic system of Republic of Moldavia, based on market relations and opened to world, frequently marked by dynamism, often by uncertainty and risk, sometimes even hostility, depends, crucially, on the innovation activity. Innovation activity, formation of innovation potential is definitely influenced by motivational politics and the reward system. The article reflects on the evolution of innovative activity, formation of innovation potential, motivational system and proposes some measures that would boost the intellectual property. |
| Keywords: | education, innovation, intellect, motivation, performance, rewards, research |
| JEL: | Q0 |
| Date: | 2013–10–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:55004&r=sbm |