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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2015‒01‒31
twelve papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Maietta, Ornella Wanda |
| Abstract: | The objective of the paper is to determine the role that R&D networking, through the collaboration of firms with universities, plays among the determinants of product and process innovation in the Italian food and drink industry and how geographical proximity to a university affects both R&D university-industry collaboration and innovation. The data are sourced from the 7th (1995-1997), 8th (1998-2000), 9th (2001-2003) and 10th (2004- 2006) waves of Capitalia survey. The approach is a trivarate probit analysis in which the dependent variables are R&D collaboration with a university, process and product innovation; the independent variables are firm, territorial and university characteristics. |
| Keywords: | Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaae14:182812&r=sbm |
| By: | Fındık, Derya ; Beyhan, Berna |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to introduce a qualitative indicator to measure innovation performance of Turkish firms by using firm level data collected by Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) in 2008 and 2009. We propose a new indicator to measure the innovation performance which is simply based on the perception of firms regarding to the impacts of innovation. In order to create performance indicators we conduct a factor analysis to group the firms’ perceptions on the impacts of innovation. Factor analysis gives us product and process oriented impacts of innovation. There are significant differences among product innovators, process innovators and firms engaged in both product and process innovations with respect to their perceptions on product and process oriented impacts of innovation. Among these three groups, product and process oriented impacts provide a highest value for the firms that perform both product and process innovations. As far as the link between firm characteristics and the impact of innovation is considered, there is a significant difference between small and large firms with respect to their perceptions on product oriented impact of innovation.While product oriented impact are larger for small firms, large firms focus more on process oriented impact. Anova results also indicate that perceptions on process oriented impact significantly differ among exporter firms, domestic market oriented firms and firms being active in internal and external markets. Process oriented impact generate results in favor of exporting firms. |
| Keywords: | innovation impact, product oriented impact, process oriented impact |
| JEL: | L2 M1 M2 O3 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:60961&r=sbm |
| By: | Berglund, Henrik (Chalmers University of Technology ); Sandström, Christian (The Rato institute ) |
| Abstract: | Abstract: Why do entrant firms sometimes gain the upper hand under conditions of discontinuous technological change? Previous research on this topic has either looked at the role of established competencies and/or firm incentives to invest in a new technology. In this paper we explore an alternative explanation. Drawing upon evidence from the ongoing transition from CCTV to digital, IP based video surveillance, we argue that entrant firms may be more prone to act entrepreneurially, i.e. more inclined to proactively create or transform markets and build ecosystems. As new technologies frequently require altered behaviour among customers and stakeholders, this capability is sometimes critical in order to succeed in a technological transition. Our contribution therefore lies in pointing out that not only may incentives to allocate R&D resources differ among entrants and incumbents, firms might also have different incentives to engage in entrepreneurial activities of creating or transforming markets. |
| Keywords: | Disruptive Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Incentives; Technological Discontinuities; business model; ecosystem. |
| JEL: | O14 |
| Date: | 2014–12–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0239&r=sbm |
| By: | Braunerhjelm, Pontus (Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum, Department of Industrial Economics and Management, Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies (CESIS) & Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) ); Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) ) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines policy measures that foster the creation of innovations with high inherent potential and that simultaneously provide the right incentives for individuals to create and expand firms that disseminate such innovations in the form of highly valued products. In so doing, we suggest an innovation policy framework based on two pillars: (i) the accumulation, investment, and upgrading of knowledge and (ii) the implementation of mechanisms that enable knowledge to be exploited such that growth and societal prosperity are encouraged. Knowledge is a necessary but far from sufficient condition for growth. To secure industrial dynamics and growth in the long term, institutions must be designed both to encourage sophisticated knowledge investments and to stimulate the creation, diffusion and productive use of knowledge in all sectors of the economy. We argue that the latter area has been overlooked in the policy discussion and that a coherent innovation policy framework must include tax policy, labor market regulation, savings channeling, competition policy, housing market regulation, and infrastructure to foster growth and future prosperity. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Institutions; Innovation policy; R&D; Technology transfer; University-industry relations |
| JEL: | J24 O31 O32 O57 |
| Date: | 2015–01–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0391&r=sbm |
| By: | Crass, Dirk |
| Abstract: | The market launch of product innovations is the most visible output of a firm's investment in innovation activities. To achieve this objective most efficiently, firms strengthen their technological capabilities, acquire external knowledge in a number of different ways, and optimize their innovation process. The success of a firm's innovation strategy has two dimensions: First, the ability of a firm to master the research and development process, leading to the market introduction of a product innovation. Second, the ability to turn the market introduction of a product innovation into commercial success. While a firms technological abilities make a product innovation possible, this product might face a lack of interest among potential customers after its market introduction. The introduction of a product innovation under a brand name might generate interest, adds credibility and reputation and has the potential for the firm to better appropriate the returns from its innovations. This paper investigates the role of brand use for the commercial success of product innovations, using a representative sample of German firms. The results show that firms can improve the odds of commercial success by pursuing a branding strategy. The market introduction of a product innovation is shown to be associated with 35% larger sales if the firm uses an established brand to introduce the product innovation into the market. |
| Keywords: | innovation performance,brands,trademarks,innovation,Germany |
| JEL: | O32 O34 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:14119&r=sbm |
| By: | Martin Backfisch (Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg ) |
| Abstract: | Firms’ search for external knowledge is one aspect of knowledge integration in the innovation process. The literature has investigated innovation and the breadth of search in different information channels. We introduce the concept of search balance reflecting the heterogeneity of a firm’s knowledge base. Results from German Community Innovation Survey data shows that search balance is positively connected to the introduction of product as well as process innovations. The connection is stronger for process innovations. The relative balance between all information sources used by firms is important for process innovations, but less so for product innovations. Product innovations rely on specific search directions where internal or market-based knowledge is found, offering an alternative to balanced search. Such an alternative does not exist for process innovations such that knowledge from specific information channels has to be accompanied by balanced search in other channels to be successfully used for process innovations. |
| Keywords: | Openness, knowledge sources, innovative search, search balance, innovation, innovation performance |
| JEL: | K21 K42 L41 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:201461&r=sbm |
| By: | Höhler, 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: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaae14:182689&r=sbm |
| By: | Elert, Niklas (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) ); Andersson, Fredrik (Örebro university ); Wennberg, Karl (The Ratio institute and Stockholm Scool of Economics ) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the long - term impact of entrepreneurship education and training in high school on entrepreneurial entry, performance, and survival. Using propensity score matching, we compare three Swedish cohorts from Junior Achievement Company Program (JACP) alumni with a matched sample of similar individuals and follow these for up to 16 years after graduation. We find that while JACP participation increases the long - term probability of starting a firm as well as entrepreneurial incomes, there is no e ffect on firm survival |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship Education; Quasi - experiment; Performance |
| JEL: | D22 L25 L26 |
| Date: | 2014–12–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0245&r=sbm |
| By: | Isabelle Sin (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research ); Richard Fabling (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research ); Adam B. Jaffe (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research ); David C. Maré (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research ); Lynda Sanderson (New Zealand Treasury ) |
| Abstract: | This research uses Statistics New Zealand’s Integrated Data Infrastructure and data from the Business Operations Survey to investigate the correlations at the firm level between a) employee characteristics and firm international engagement, and b) firm international engagement and innovation. The main findings on employee characteristics and international engagement are: • Firms that employ a higher fraction of high-ability foreigners (and thus a lower fraction of high-ability natives) are more likely to export. • Firms that employ a higher proportion of people who previously worked for an exporter are more likely to export. • The proportions of foreign employees and employees with export experience are correlated with many other types of international engagement by firms. • Employees from Australia and the Pacific and from Europe are positively correlated with firm exporting. The correlations are absent for foreign employees from Asia. • The probability that a firm earns income in a given country is more correlated with its fraction of employees from that country than with its total fraction of foreign employees. • A firm with a higher fraction of employees from a given country is more likely to earn income in that country only if the country is developed. The main findings on international engagement and innovation are: • Firms that export innovate more, even after controlling for size. • Among exporters, the proportion of firm sales that comes from exports shows little correlation with innovation. • Firms that export to more countries innovate more. • Exports of raw goods have little correlation with innovation; exports of manufactured goods or services have a strong correlation. • Firms that recently entered a new export market report especially high innovation, and firms that began earning overseas income in the previous two years report higher innovation than those that have earned overseas income for a longer period. • Not all export destinations are correlated with higher innovation. Exports to the Americas are positively correlated with innovation, but there is no evidence that firms that export more to Asia are more likely to innovate. • In addition to exporting, most other types of international engagement, such as inward and outward foreign direct investment, are positively correlated with innovation. • Firms' sources of ideas for innovation vary with the types of international engagement in which they are involved. The patterns are consistent with exporters gaining ideas from their international customers, firms gaining ideas from their foreign owners, and importers gaining ideas from their foreign suppliers. Although these relationships are correlations only and should not be interpreted as proof of causality, they do suggest that the experience and specialized knowledge of employees may be relevant to firms’ decisions to engage internationally, and that such engagement may act as a conduit for foreign knowledge to enter the country. |
| Keywords: | exporting, innovation, migrants, international engagement, workforce composition |
| JEL: | O31 F16 F22 J61 J24 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtu:wpaper:14_15&r=sbm |
| By: | Tomasz Norek (University of Szczecin, Poland ); Daniel Luis Arenhardt (Federal University of Santa Maria, Brasil ) |
| Abstract: | The basic goal of this article is an attempt to conduct comparative analysis of innovation determinants in companies of small and medium enterprises sector in Brazil and Poland. The comparison shall enable evaluation which determinants stimulate and which are barriers to innovativeness development in the SME sector in the researched countries. Additionally, such comparison shall indicate if and in what way the economical potentials, cultural differences and different historical conditions of the economic development of the researched countries influence the determinants of the innovative activity of the SME sector. The Authors put forward the following research hypothesis: H1: The determinants forming the innovative potential are similar for Brazilian and Polish companies of SME sector. In order to examine the hypothesis, the Authors have browsed the world literature on the subject of innovative actions determinants in companies with a special consideration of SME sector companies, they have presented the present condition of innovativeness in SME sector companies in Brazil and Poland (an Internet questionnaire has been used in the research) and they have conducted own empirical researches on the determinants influencing the innovativeness level. The received results have been subject to basic statistical comparative analysis and on this basis with the logical induction the Authors have made conclusions on the determinants of innovative activity in researched companies. The article includes the results of all the empirical researches conducted by the Authors in the years 2009-2013 and generally available data considering the innovativeness level in the researched countries. |
| Keywords: | innovative SMEs; determinants of innovation activity; SMEs in Brazil and Poland |
| JEL: | O10 O30 O50 O57 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pes:wpaper:2014:no41&r=sbm |
| By: | Mattia Tassinari ; Marco R. Di Tommaso (University of Ferrara ) |
| Abstract: | The economic crisis has shown the weakness of some Italian industries, calling for an effective policy response for promoting innovation of the national system. In this context, the ability to evaluate the presence of cooperative forms of innovation and of open innovation practices becomes extremely important in order to define efficient and effective industrial policy strategies. The purpose of this paper is to assess the different degree of openness of innovation processes in Italian manufacturing industries, in order to get useful information for industrial policy decisions. The analysis is conducted through the construction of two different composite indicators. The first, the Open Innovation Index (OII), provides a ranking of the Italian manufacturing industries on the basis of the different degree of openness of innovation processes of enterprises. The second, the Economic Performance Index (EPI), aims to classify manufacturing industries considering the sectoral performance in term of innovative capacity, productivity and ability to promote economic growth. Some policy implications are derived from the comparison between the two rankings. |
| Keywords: | Open Innovation, Industrial Policy, Manufacturing, Composite Indicator |
| JEL: | O32 L14 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cme:wpaper:1406&r=sbm |
| By: | Fernando Galindo-Rueda ; Valentine Millot |
| Abstract: | This working paper sums up the main findings of an OECD project aiming to provide an evidence basis for focusing efforts to improve the measurement of technological and non-technological forms of business innovation, with particular focus on the role of design. It reviews a broad range of novel design-related measures, indicating their advantages and limitations in terms of policy relevance and insights. The analysis of design provides a valuable test-case for assessing the robustness of the overall framework for measuring innovation as proposed in the OECD/Eurostat Oslo Manual. It identifies a number of areas for potential development in a future revision, focused on the role of users and the implementation of the definition of innovation and innovation activities. It also identifies a range of design concepts based on an informal consultation with the design expert community. <P> The paper also illustrates a number of findings arising from the first-time use of a set of experimental and optional questions on design implementing a “ladder-type” model of design which describes levels of sophistication and integration of the design function within the firm. Cognitive testing and analysis of the microdata from a large and representative sample of Danish firms shows a high degree of respondent acceptance of the experimental questions and supports their predictive validity vis-à-vis a number of hypotheses on the use of design and a series of innovation and economic outcomes potentially associated to it. |
| Keywords: | innovation, surveys, technology, design, measurement |
| Date: | 2015–01–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaaa:2015/1-en&r=sbm |