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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2014‒11‒22
twelve papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Sanchez, Juana |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a novel empirical study of innovation practices of U.S. companies and their relation to productivity levels using new business micro data from the Business Research and Development and Innovation Survey (BRDIS) for the years 2008-2011. The paper follows the work of Frenz and Lambert, who use factor analysis to reduce a set of inputs and outputs of innovation activities into four latent unobserved innovation modes or practices for OECD countries using Community Innovation Surveys (CIS). Patterns obtained with BRDIS data are very similar to those found by those authors in some OECD countries. Companies are grouped according to their scores across the four factors to see that in large, small and medium companies more than one mode of innovation practices prevails. The next step in the analysis links different types of innovation practices to levels of productivity using regression analysis. The four innovation modes have a statistically signifcant positive relation with the level of productivity, other things constant. The paper demonstrates the possibility of taking into account the multidimensionality of innovation without the use of composite indicators. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, R&D, Productivity, Cluster, Latent Modes, Regression |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O33 O34 O4 |
| Date: | 2014–09–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:58719&r=sbm |
| By: | Borrás , Susana (Department of Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School, and CIRCLE, Lund University); Edquist , Charles (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | Who produces scientific and technical knowledge these days? What type of knowledge is being produced and for what purposes? Why are firms and governments funding research and development? This chapter studies the role of knowledge production (especially R&D activities) in the innovation process from an innovation system perspective. It examines how governments and public agencies in different countries and at different times have actually approached the issue of building, maintaining and using knowledge production in their innovation systems. It also examines the critical and most important issues at stake from the point of view of innovation policy, looking in particular at the unresolved tensions and systemic unbalances related to knowledge production and last but not least, it elaborates a set of overall criteria for the selection and design of relevant policy instruments and addresses those tensions and unbalances. This chapter suggests that innovation policy develops a portfolio approach to the public investment in R&D and knowledge production. |
| Keywords: | Innovation system; innovation policy; knowledge production; R&D; universities; innovation policy instruments |
| JEL: | L38 M38 O25 O31 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2014–10–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2014_021&r=sbm |
| By: | Attila Havas (Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences) |
| Abstract: | Business-academia (B-A) collaborations have been analysed by an extensive body of literature, taking many different angles, and using various sources and types of information (patent statistics, the Community Innovation Survey data, evidence from specific surveys, interviews, or case studies), but usually a given paper is relying on a single method, addressing one or two major research questions. In contrast, this paper tackles both R&D and innovation collaborations among businesses and academia relying on information from different statistics and interviews. The latter source also allows exploring motivations for, and major features of, business-academia co-operation. The paper argues that mapping B-A collaborations by using multiple methods and multiple sources of information can significantly improve the reliability and richness of our understanding, and can offer insights on dynamics and qualitative features of these co-operation processes. Interviews conducted in Hungary – in line with other research findings – have also confirmed that (i) motivations, incentives for, and norms of, conducting R&D and innovation activities diametrically differ in business and academia; and (ii) different types of firms have different needs. Thus, more refined policy measures are to be devised to promote B-A collaboration more efficiently, better tuned to the needs of the actors, based on a relevant taxonomy of their co-operations. Evaluation criteria for academics should also be revised to remove some major obstacles, currently blocking more effective B-A co-operation. Several findings presented in this paper can be generalised beyond the cases considered, but the research design to analyse B-A collaborations and the concomitant policy recommendations always need to be tailored to the innovation systems in question. |
| Keywords: | Types of knowledge; Business-academia collaboration; Multiple methods to map business-academia collaborations; STI policy implications |
| JEL: | O38 O33 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:discpr:1419&r=sbm |
| By: | Waters, James |
| Abstract: | Financing innovation presents informational and control problems for the financier, and different solutions are used for funding of US companies and universities. In this paper we examine how funding characteristics influenced the change in innovation during the 2007-8 financial crisis for both. We extend prior theories of external financing’s effect on company performance during crises, firstly to university performance, and secondly to show the influence of time variation in aggregate funding. Empirical results are consistent with our theory: external dependence and asset intangibility had a limited effect on company innovation on entering the crisis, but increased university innovation. Overall, however, company patenting was more robust than university patenting, despite the out-performance being masked by respective portfolio characteristics. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; patenting; economic crisis; financing constraint |
| JEL: | G32 L14 O31 |
| Date: | 2014–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59016&r=sbm |
| By: | Dechezlepretre, A; Martin, R; Mohnen, M |
| Date: | 2014–10–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imp:wpaper:17753&r=sbm |
| By: | INUI Tomohiko; ITO Keiko; MIYAKAWA Daisuke |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how Japanese firms' export decision is affected by the availability of information on export markets, focusing on whether the availability of such information has a different impact on the export decision between large firms and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In contrast to existing studies which solely focus on information sharing among firms, we are interested in the role of firms' lender banks as an additional source of information. Specifically, using a unique dataset containing information not only on firms' export activities but also on their lender banks' exposure to other exporting firms as well as the lender banks' own overseas activities, we find that information provisions by lender banks positively affect SMEs' decision to start exporting and the range of destinations to which they export. Such information provisions from lender banks also reduce the likelihood that exporter firms exit from export markets. The export-to-sales ratio of exporter firms, however, is not affected by such information provisions. We also find that the importance of the information provisions by lender banks on SMEs' export decision crucially depends on the type of products (i.e., differentiated or homogeneous) produced in the industries to which the firms belong. These results imply that information on foreign markets provided by lender banks substantially reduces the fixed entry costs associated with starting exporting and entering new export markets as well as firms' costs associated with continuing to export. |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:14064&r=sbm |
| By: | Aristovnik, Aleksander |
| Abstract: | The main aim of the paper is to measure the relative efficiency of the R&D sector in the EU-27 at the regional level. For this purpose, the paper applies a non-parametric approach, i.e. data envelopment analysis (DEA), to assess the relative technical efficiency of R&D activities across selected EU (NUTS-2) regions. The empirical analysis integrates available inputs (R&D expenditures, researchers and employment in high-tech sectors) and outputs (patent and high-tech patent applications) over the 2005–2010 period. The empirical results show that among regions with a high intensity of R&D activities the most efficient performers are Noord-Brabant (Netherlands), Stuttgart (Germany) and Tirol (Austria). In contrast, a wide range of NUTS-2 regions from the Baltics, Eastern and Southern Europe is characterized by an extremely low rate of knowledge production and its efficiency, particularly in Poland (Mazowieckie), Lithuania (Lietuva), Latvia (Latvija), Romania (Bucuresti-Ilfov), Bulgaria (Yugozapaden), Slovakia (Západné Slovensko), Greece (Attiki), Spain (Canarias) and Italy (Sardegna). |
| Keywords: | Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA); Efficiency; EU; NUTS-2 regions; R&D |
| JEL: | C61 O3 R1 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59081&r=sbm |
| By: | Asian Development Bank (ADB); (Office of Regional Economic Integration, ADB); ; |
| Abstract: | The report takes a comparative look at ADB and OECD experiences, and aims to identify promising policy solutions for creating an SME base that is resilient to crisis, from a viewpoint of access to finance, and which can help drive growth and development. |
| Keywords: | Small and medium-sized enterprises, SME finance, Financial Inclusion, SME loans, SME equity markets, SME capital markets, SME access to finance, SME definition, SMEs in Asia and Pacific, Trade finance |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:asd:wpaper:rpt146403-2&r=sbm |
| By: | Ulf Lewrick; Lukas Mohler; Rolf Weder |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a framework to assess the relative importance of three key sources of productivity growth that research on international trade focuses on: (i) inter-industry specialisation; (ii) intra-industry reallocation of resources across heterogeneous firms, including firm entry and exit; and (iii) technological progress. Detailed data on Swiss manufacturing firms illustrate how the framework can be empirically applied. Based on this example, we find that intra-industry reallocations are the most important source of growth in aggregate total factor productivity, reflecting in particular the productivity growth of large, incumbent firms and the entry of new firms. That said, inter-industry specialisation and general technological progress remain important supplementary sources of growth in Swiss manufacturing. |
| Keywords: | Growth, total factor productivity, inter-industry trade, intra-industry trade |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:469&r=sbm |
| By: | Michael Fritsch (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena); Javier Changoluisa (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effect of new business formation on the productivity of incumbent manufacturing establishments. We obtain robust empirical evidence of productivity improvements that are due to the emergence of new businesses in the same industry, that is, on the output market. This effect is spatially limited to the respective region. Regional competition from new businesses on the input market and cross-industry effects are not related to incumbents' productivity changes. The effect that new competition has on incumbents is moderated by an incumbent's distance from the technological frontier; incumbents close to the frontier exhibit a more pronounced positive reaction. |
| Keywords: | New business formation, productivity, incumbent firms |
| JEL: | L26 D20 O12 |
| Date: | 2014–10–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2014-025&r=sbm |
| By: | Alberdi Pons , Xabier (Deusto Business School (DBS), Universidad de Deusto); Gibaja Martíns, Juan José (Deusto Business School (DBS), Universidad de Deusto); Parrilli, Mario Davide (Deusto Business School (DBS), Universidad de Deusto and DBS and Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness) |
| Abstract: | Interaction is a central feature of well-functioning and integrated Regional Innovation Systems. However, it does not necessarily occur in an automatic fashion, denoting the existence of various system problems that may block learning and other crucial innovation processes. “Intermediaries” are organizations that encompass an increasing role in overcoming these problems. Still, they have not been adequately framed and assessed. The paper meets this need and presents a number of developments. First, we identify and categorize intermediaries according to some specific Innovation System problems they tap into, while we also include them in a novel intermediary component. Second, we operationalize sets of quantitative variables that permit new preliminary assessments. This methodology also permits new empirical insights that help framing more specific policy tools. The empirical analysis roots on an ad hoc data exploitation stemming from various surveys conducted by the Spanish Official Statistical Institute (INE) and the Spanish Venture Capital Association (ASCRI). We conduct multivariate techniques such as Multiple Factor and Cluster Analysis. The methodology creates a new typology that sorts Spanish regions according to the presence -or absence- of intermediaries when dealing with system problems. We find dissimilar outputs across regions. The latter might demand that their intermediary components are provided with strategic recommendations in response to specific system requirements. |
| Keywords: | regions; innovation systems; system problems; intermediaries; Spain; multiple factor analysis |
| JEL: | O18 R15 R50 R58 |
| Date: | 2014–10–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2014_020&r=sbm |
| By: | Antoine Dechezleprêtre; Ralf Martin; Myra Mohnen |
| Abstract: | How much should governments subsidize the development of new clean technologies? We use patent citation data to investigate the relative intensity of knowledge spillovers in clean and dirty technologies in two technological fields: energy production and transportation. We introduce a new methodology that takes into account the whole history of patent citations to capture the indirect knowledge spillovers generated by patents. We find that conditional on a wide range of potential confounding factors clean patents receive on average 43% more citations than dirty patents. Knowledge spillovers from clean technologies are comparable in scale to those observed in the IT sector. The radical novelty of clean technologies relative to more incremental dirty inventions seems to account for their superiority. Our results can support public support for clean R&D. They also suggest that green policies might be able to boost economic growth through induced knowledge spillovers. |
| Keywords: | Innovation spill-overs, Climate Change, Growth, Patents, Clean technology, Optimal climate policy |
| JEL: | O30 O44 Q54 Q55 Q58 H23 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1300&r=sbm |