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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2014‒04‒18
eight papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Universidade da Beira Interior and Universidade de Lisboa |
| By: | Paola Cardamone; Valeria Pupo; Fernanda Ricotta (Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza, Università della Calabria) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the influence of universities on Italian firms’ probability to innovate. Using firm-level data, we focus on institutionalised technology transfer (TT) activities in universities, namely spin-offs, patents and research contracts. Results show that TT activities play a significant role in the probability to innovate by Italian manufacturing firms located in the same province as the university. Nevertheless, the effect is not uniform: the contribution of university TT activities to the probability of firms’ innovating is concentrated in certain territorial areas (North-East and Centre) and sectors (science based and scale intensive) and among firms that are large. |
| Keywords: | Universities, Technology transfer, Manufacturing firms, Innovation, Spillovers |
| JEL: | C25 O30 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clb:wpaper:201403&r=sbm |
| By: | Angela, Vásquez-Urriago; Andrés, Barge-Gil; Aurelia, Modrego |
| Abstract: | The aim of this work is to analyse the heterogeneous effect of Science and Technology Parks (STPs) on firms’ innovation outcomes, contingent on firms’ size and innovation effort. Despite the worldwide diffusion of STPs and the increasing literature aimed at analyzing their effect on tenants’ performance, empirical evidence on the heterogeneous effect of STPs location on different firms is very scarce. We use information for a representative sample of 39,722 Spanish firms, 653 of them located on 22 of the 25 official Spanish STP. Results show, on the one hand, that firm size is negatively related to an STP location effect and, on the other, that only a small amount of internal innovation effort is required to achieve a very high return from park location. However, firms without innovation efforts do not benefit from a park location. Finally, as internal innovation efforts increase, the park effect reduces, but is still at a high level. |
| Keywords: | Science and Technology Parks, heterogeneous treatment effects, product innovation, firms’ internal innovation capabilities, size |
| JEL: | L25 O25 R53 |
| Date: | 2014–04–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:55130&r=sbm |
| By: | Jesus Lopez-Rodriguez (European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Prospective); Diego Martinez (University Pablo Olavide) |
| Abstract: | A significant part of the innovation efforts carried out across very heterogeneous economies in Europe is under the form of Non-R&D innovation activities. But the traditional macro approach to the determinants of TFP does not handle this issue appropiately. This paper has proposed and estimated an augmented macro-theoretical model to the determinants of total factor productivity (TFP) by jointly considering the effects of R&D endowments and the impact of Non-R&D innovation activities on …firms´ levels of productivity. The estimation of the model for a sample of EU26 countries covering the period 2004-2008 shows that the distinction between R&D and Non-R&D endowments really matters for a number of different issues. First, the results show a sizable differential impact of these endowments on TFP growth, being the impact of R&D twice as big as the impact of Non-R&D. Second, absorptive capacity is only linked to R&D endowments. And third, the two types of endowments cannot strictly been seen as complements at least for the case of countries with high R&D intensities or high Non-R&D intensities. |
| Keywords: | TFP, R&D, Non-R&D expenditures, EU countries |
| JEL: | O0 O3 O4 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:2013/6/doc2014-16&r=sbm |
| By: | Erika Raquel Badillo (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona); Rosina Moreno (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | We provide evidence on the dynamics in firms’ R&D cooperation behaviour. Our main objective is to analyse if R&D collaborative agreements are persistent at the firm level, and in such a case, to study what are the main drivers of this phenomenon. R&D cooperation activities at the firm level can be persistent due to true state dependence, this implying that cooperating in a given period enhances the probability of doing it in the subsequent period and it can also be a consequence of firms’ individual heterogeneity, so that certain firms have certain characteristics that make them more likely to carry out technological alliances. A second contribution of the paper deals with the differentiated persistence pattern of collaboration agreements for three different types of partners: customers and/or suppliers, competitors and institutions. We specifically explore the degree of the persistence in R&D collaborative activities when considering them separately as well as the possibility of finding crossed-persistence across these different partner types. |
| Keywords: | R&D cooperation; Persistence; Innovative Spanish firms; Technological partners. JEL classification: L24; O32; D22; C23 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aqr:wpaper:201405&r=sbm |
| By: | Sami Gharbi; Jean-Michel Sahut; Frédéric Teulon |
| Abstract: | The empirical evidence suggests that firms in high-tech industries exhibit high stock return volatility. In this paper, we conceive of the R&D investment intensity as a possible explanation for the stock volatility behavior in these industries. We suggest that R&D activities generate information asymmetry about the prospects of the firm and make its stock riskier. Relying on Panel data models, we investigate this relationship for French high-tech firms. We find out a strong positive relationship between stock return volatility and R&D investment intensity. This finding suggests that R&D intensive firms should implement an efficient information disclosure policy to reduce information asymmetry and to avoid excessive stock return volatility. |
| Keywords: | R&D; Idiosyncratic idiosyncratic volatility; Riskrisk; Asymmetric asymmetric information; Stock stock return; Innovationinnovation; Highhigh-tech firms |
| Date: | 2014–04–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2014-218&r=sbm |
| By: | Carlo Altomonte; Tommaso Aquilante; Gábor Békés; Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano |
| Abstract: | We use a representative and cross-country comparable sample of manufacturing firms (EFIGE) to document patterns of interaction among firm-level internationalization, innovation and productivity across seven European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom). We find strong evidence of positive association among the three firm-level characteristics across countries and sectors. We also find that the positive correlation between internationalization and innovation survives after controlling for productivity, with some evidence of causality running from the latter to the former. Our analysis suggests that export promotion per se is unlikely to lead to sustainable internationalization because internationalization goes beyond export and because, in the medium-to-long term, internationalization is driven by innovation. We recommend coordination and integration of internationalization and innovation policies 'under one roof' at both the national and EU levels, and propose a bigger coordinating role for EU institutions. |
| Keywords: | Internationalization, innovation, firm-level data, exports, foreign direct investment, outsourcing |
| JEL: | F13 F23 O31 O38 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepsps:032&r=sbm |
| By: | Koschatzky, Knut |
| Abstract: | More recently, the contribution of German universities to regional knowledge and technology transfer and their third role is particularly pronounced by the fact that the range of their tasks as well as their autonomy has increased significantly. Terms like new public management, self-control and strategic management underline this new role. Based on a stronger regional focus in national innovation policy, the objective of the paper is to analyze the recent developments of universities with regard to their regional activities. Of special interest will be the identification of the most prominent forms of the third role of universities and the analysis of new organizational modes of collaboration and interaction with industry. Based on a survey among German professors and the management levels of universities and by introducing the 'Research Campus' (Forschungscampus) program recently implemented by the German government, the paper shows that multilateral, multi-functional networks and long-term institutionalized partnerships are increasingly established. -- |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fisifr:r32014&r=sbm |
| By: | Klein, Alexander (University of Kent); Leunig, Tim (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines Gibrat’s law in England and Wales between 1801 and 1911using a unique data set covering the entire settlement size distribution.We find that Gibrat’s law broadly holds even in the face of population doubling every fifty years,an industrial and transportrevolution, and the absence of zoning laws to constrain growth. The result is strongest for the later period, and in counties most affected by the industrial revolution. The exception were villages in areas bypassed by the industrial revolution.We argue that agglomeration externalities balanced urban disamenities such as commuting costs and poor living conditions to ensure steady growth of many places, rather than exceptional growth of few. |
| Keywords: | Gibrat’s law, city-size distribution, industrial revolution |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:146&r=sbm |