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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2014‒12‒03
sixteen papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Egbetokun A.; Oluwatope O.; Adeyeye D.; Sanni M. (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | Using innovation survey data on a sample of UK manufacturing firms, Laursen and Salter 2006 documented a non-monotonous relationship between external search strategies and firm-level innovative performance. We find partially similar results in a combined sample of Nigerian manufacturing and service firms. A major discrepancy is that external search appears not to matter for radical innovation in our sample. Based on multiple research streams including economics of innovation and development economics, we develop and test new hypotheses on sectoral differences and the role of the economic context. We find that in a developing context, a wider range of innovation obstacles implies broader external search and more intense obstacles require deeper search. We explore the implications of these results for management research and theory. |
| Keywords: | Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables: General; Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation; Networks; Management of Technological Innovation and R&D; |
| JEL: | L14 O32 C30 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2014073&r=sbm |
| By: | Muscio, Alessandro; Nardone, Gianluca; Stasi, Antonio |
| Abstract: | The importance of eco-innovations for industry has been rising exponentially in recent years. However, even if recent trends show that firms are increasingly committed to eco-innovations, there is little knowledge on why and how companies integrate environmental sustainability into new product development. In this paper we offer a comprehensive analysis of the drivers of eco-innovation in the Italian wine industry on the basis of a large survey on Italian wine producers. We analyse the impact of firms’ characteristics and their technological and organizational capabilities on the introduction of eco-innovations. The relevance of the drivers in influencing the probability of introducing eco-innovations is measured with a latent class econometric model. Our evidence shows that business characteristics and firms’ scientific search processes and their general innovative behaviour are key drivers of eco-innovation. Therefore, according to our results, firms’ commitment to eco-innovate does not differ substantially from other types of innovation activities. |
| Keywords: | Wine industry, eco-innovation, environmental innovation, green innovation, innovation drivers, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Industrial Organization, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, L2, L6, O3, Q5, |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iefi13:164752&r=sbm |
| By: | William R. Kerr; Ramana Nanda |
| Abstract: | We review the recent literature on the financing of innovation, inclusive of large companies and new startups. This research strand has been very active over the past five years, generating important new findings, questioning some long-held beliefs, and creating its own puzzles. Our review outlines the growing body of work that documents a role for debt financing related to innovation. We highlight the new literature on learning and experimentation across multi-stage innovation projects and how this impacts optimal financing design. We further highlight the strong interaction between financing choices for innovation and changing external conditions, especially reduced experimentation costs. |
| JEL: | G21 G24 L26 M13 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20676&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:wpaper:hal-00962391&r=sbm |
| By: | Paul O'Sullivan (Economics, National University of Ireland, Maynooth); |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of R&D leadership on Research Joint Venture formation. If firms compete in R&D, there is a first (second)-mover advantage, when spillovers are relatively low (high). RJV profits exceed those of R&D leadership, except for a very narrow range of low unit R&D costs and spillovers. For a leader, preventing follower activity is only profitable if unit R&D costs and spillovers are relatively low. If unit R&D costs are sufficiently low, preventing the follower from becoming active may be welfare dominant but not profit maximizing, possibly justifying a role for government policy to subsidise R&D investment |
| JEL: | D21 L13 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:may:mayecw:n251-14.pdf&r=sbm |
| By: | Hohler, Julia; Kuhl, Rainer |
| Abstract: | The Agribusiness is in flux: a shrinking number of up- and downstream corporations questions traditional equilibrium concepts. How will the population of firms develop and which consequences will arise for competition? In 1931, Gibrat stated the firm size and a firm’s growth rate to be independent. Testing the validity of Gibrat’s law for the German Agribusiness allows drawing conclusions on future developments of concentration. By investigating 551 manufacturing downstream enterprises, we reject Gibrat’s law and find small firms to grow stronger than bigger firms in relation to their initial size. Consequently, the sector could reach a steady state in concentration. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness, structural change, empirical growth., Agribusiness, |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gewi14:187593&r=sbm |
| By: | Ugur, Mehmet; Guidi, Francesco; Solomon, Edna; Trushin, Eshref |
| Abstract: | The volume of work on productivity effects of research and development (R&D) investment has expanded significantly following the contributions of Zvi Griliches and others to microeconometric work in late 1970s and early 1980s. This study aims to meta-analyse the research findings based on OECD firm and industry data, with a view to establish where the balance of the evidence lies and what factors may explain the variation in reported evidence. Drawing on 1,262 estimates from 64 primary studies, we report that the average effect of R&D capital on productivity and the average rate of return on R&D investment are both positive, but smaller than the summary measures reported in previous narrative reviews and meta-analysis studies. We also report that a range of moderating factors have significant effects on the variation among productivity and rates-of-return estimates reported in primary studies. Moderating factors with significant effects include: (i) measurement of inputs and output; (ii) model specifications; (iii) estimation methods; (iv) levels of analysis; (v) countries covered; and (vi) publication type among others. |
| Keywords: | Research and Development (R&D), Innovation, Productivity, Firm, Industry, OECD, Meta-Analysis |
| JEL: | C49 C80 D24 O30 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2014–08–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59686&r=sbm |
| By: | Dostie, Benoit (HEC Montreal) |
| Abstract: | The firm's stock of human capital is an important determinant of its ability to innovate. As such, any increase in this stock through firm-sponsored training might lead to more innovation. We test this hypothesis using detailed data on firms' human capital investments and innovation performance, the Canadian longitudinal linked employer-employee data from 1999-2006. Our results, with workplace fixed-effects and allowing for time-varying productivity shocks, demonstrate that more training leads to more product and process innovation, with on-the-job training playing a role that is as important as classroom training. We then demonstrate that on-the-job training has a positive impact on firm-level productivity through improved process innovation. |
| Keywords: | innovation, firm-sponsored training, productivity, linked employer-employee data |
| JEL: | J24 L22 M53 O32 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8506&r=sbm |
| By: | Bruno Amable (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne, CEPREMAP - Centre pour la recherche économique et ses applications - Centre pour la recherche économique et ses applications, IUF - Institut Universitaire de France - Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique); Ivan Ledezma (LEDa - Université Paris-Dauphine, IRD - DIAL - UMR 225); Stéphane Robin (PRISM - Pôle de recherche interdisciplinaire en sciences du management - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne : EA4101) |
| Abstract: | Several recent policy and academic contributions consider that liberalising product markets would foster innovation and growth. This paper analyses the innovation-productivity relationship at the industry-level for a sample of OECD manufacturing industries. We pay particular attention to the vertically-induced influence of product market regulation (PMR) of key input sectors of the economy on the innovative process of manufacturing and its consequences on productivity. We test for a differentiated effect of this type of PMR depending on whether countries are technological leaders or laggards in a given industry and for a given time period. Contrary to the most widespread policy claims, the innovation-boosting effects of liberalisation policies at the leading edge are systematically not supported by the data. These findings question the relevance of a research and innovation policy based on liberalisation. |
| Keywords: | Product market regulation; innovation; productivity; growth |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00973947&r=sbm |
| By: | Nathan, Max (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | A growing number of studies find linkages between workforce diversity and business performance, but key aspects of this relationship remain unclear. First, within the firm, the role of 'top team' demography on firm outcomes is surprisingly little understood. Second, urban location may amplify firm-level processes, but almost no studies test these firm-area interactions. I deploy English cross-sectional data to explore these issues, using latent class analysis to tackle firm-level heterogeneity. I find evidence of positive links in some firm classes, both linear and non-linear, and suggestive evidence that ethnic top team diversity is amplified in the London city-region. |
| Keywords: | firm-level analysis, business performance, diversity, ethnicity, gender, cities |
| JEL: | J15 L21 R23 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8462&r=sbm |
| By: | Lorenz Kueng; Mu-Jeung Yang; Bryan Hong |
| Abstract: | What determines firm growth over the life-cycle? Exploiting unique firm panel data on internal organization, balance sheets and innovation, representative of the entire Canadian economy, we study recent theories that examine life-cycle patterns for firm growth. These theories include organizational capital accumulation and management practices, financial frictions, learning about demand, and recent endogenous growth models with incumbent innovation. We emphasize the importance of differentiating between pure age effects of these theories and effects on size conditional on age. Our stylized facts highlight both empirical successes and shortcomings of current theory. First, models of organizational capital and innovation are broadly consistent with firm size correlations conditional on age but have difficulties matching the life-cycle dynamics of firm organization and innovation. Second, among theories we analyze, organizational capital and management practices are the most important determinants to explain intensive margin firm growth over the life-cycle. Third, although less important to explain intensive margin firm growth, financial frictions are an important determinant of firm exit, conditional on firm age. |
| JEL: | D2 D22 D23 D24 D9 D92 E20 E24 E32 F23 G3 G32 M1 M5 O3 O4 O47 O51 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20621&r=sbm |
| By: | Hatice Jenkins (Department of Banking and Finance, Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus); Monir Hussain (Department of Banking and Finance, Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus) |
| Abstract: | Providing SMEs with access to external finance has been a major concern for many governments and international organizations for three decades. In recent years the experiences of emerging market countries suggest that a paradigm shift is taking place in SME finance. Particularly in fast-growing emerging market countries, banks are increasingly targeting SMEs as a new line of banking business. This research analyzes how the macroeconomic factors have contributed to the increased commercial bank lending to SMEs in Turkey, a fast-growing emerging market country. Based on an econometric analysis it is found that a high GDP growth rate and increasing competition in the Turkish banking sector have contributed to the growing banking sector credit to SMEs. The findings also reveal that curbing the high inflation rate and reducing government domestic borrowings have significantly helped to encourage bank lending to the SME segment. This research contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence to much-discussed theoretical arguments on the characteristics of an enabling macroeconomic environment for SME finance. |
| Keywords: | SME lending, macroeconomics, banking sector, emerging markets, access to credit |
| JEL: | G21 G28 O12 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qed:dpaper:261&r=sbm |
| By: | Chong, Hooi Ying; Chan, Tze-Haw |
| Abstract: | This study assesses the market structure and competitiveness of Malaysian pharmaceutical industry. A panel analysis of 41 pharmaceutical manufacturing firms over 2004-2012 is conducted founded on the modified Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) framework. Our study reveals that the Malaysian pharmaceutical industry is highly concentrated (oligopoly) and the major findings are threefold. First, anti-competitive practices subsist among the pharmaceutical firms. Major players may have greater control over the markets and potentially colluded to gain better profits. Second, selling intensity is evident to raise the firms’ business performance, suggesting that advertisement, marketing campaigns, product differentiations and distribution efforts could be effective in building competencies over the rivals. Third, the study has tackled the endogeneity problem of traditional SCP with dual causal effects found between business conduct and business performance. Firms and authorities should consider the interactive mutual influences of structure-conduct-performance when formulating their respective management decisions and regulatory rules. |
| Keywords: | Modified Structure-Conduct-Performance, Pharmaceutical Industry, Competition, Panel Regression, Panel Causality |
| JEL: | D2 I15 L1 |
| Date: | 2014–08–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59537&r=sbm |
| By: | Bresson G.; Etienne J.; Mohnen P. (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a Bayesian approach to estimate a factor augmented productivity equation. We exploit the panel dimension of our data and distinguish individual-specific and time-specific factors. On the basis of 21 technology, infrastructure and institution indicators from 82 countries over a 19-year period 1990 to 2008, we construct summary indicators of these three components and estimate their effect on the growth and the international differences in GDP per capita. |
| Keywords: | Single Equation Models; Single Variables: Models with Panel Data; Longitudinal Data; Spatial Time Series; Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models: Classification Methods; Cluster Analysis; Factor Models; Measurement of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence; |
| JEL: | C23 C38 O47 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2014052&r=sbm |
| By: | William Milberg; Nina Shapiro (Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA)) |
| Abstract: | We discuss the effects of the stock market in the second part of the paper, which centers on the relation between stock prices and R&D investment. We examine Tobin’s (and Minsky’s) “q” theory and the implications it has for this investment, along with the relationship between innovation and stock prices in the 1920s and 1990s. We compare the links between them in these periods with those of the 2000s, arguing that what distinguishes the recent run up in asset prices from the bubbles of those other eras is that this bubble was not accompanied by an investment boom, in either fixed capital or R&D. Finance financed finance, increasing its availability instead of productive capabilities, with the innovations of the period mainly financial, and the legacy not new production facilities and knowledge that could be utilized under more propitious conditions, but unfinished housing developments and abandoned houses. |
| Keywords: | stock market, innovation |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epa:cepawp:2013-2&r=sbm |
| By: | Alina Sorgner (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena); Michael Fritsch (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena); Alexander Kritikos (DIW, Berlin) |
| Abstract: | Based on representative micro data for Germany, we compare the incomes of self-employed with those of wage workers. Our results show that the median self-employed entrepreneur with employees earns significantly more than the median salaried employee, while the median solo entrepreneur earns less. However, solo entrepreneurship pays for those with a university entrance degree but no further professional qualification as well as for those who were in the upper percentiles of the income distribution in their previous salaried job. Surprisingly, the variation in hourly incomes of solo entrepreneurs is higher than that of entrepreneurs with employees. |
| Keywords: | Income, Entrepreneurship, Self-Employment, Start-ups, Germany |
| JEL: | L26 D22 |
| Date: | 2014–11–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2014-029&r=sbm |