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on Small Business Management |
| By: | Silvia Bertarelli; Chiara Lodi |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an empirical analysis about the relationship among innovation, productivity and exporting propensity within manufacturing firms of seven Eastern European Union countries. We analyse marginal effects of product, process and organisational-marketing innovations and test complementarity among them when the objective function is represented by the exporting propensity of a firm. Analysing CIS2008 data, we obtain that productivity improves exporting propensity; the more firms innovate the higher is their exporting probability; complementarity between process and organisational-marketing innovations is accepted in medium high and high technology firms. Complementary innovation strategies are detected for Bulgarian firms, even if Bulgaria is one of the least innovative Eastern European countries. |
| Keywords: | Propensity to export; Eastern Europe countries; Productivity; Complementarity; Product innovations; Process innovations; Organisational/Marketing innovations |
| JEL: | F14 O33 |
| Date: | 2015–07–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udf:wpaper:2015104&r=sbm |
| By: | Wajid Hasan Shah (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)) |
| Abstract: | This policy brief discovers, for example, that SMEs are vital for growth and jobs in Bangladesh, accounting for 40 per cent of all employment. In comparison with large enterprises and microenterprises, SMEs have traditionally been underserved in terms of access to credit. However, more recently collateral-free loans through bank lending have become available to SMEs with the central bank’s growing focus on SME financing. Although official statistics suggest that the SME loan default rate is about two per cent, it is acknowledged that overall SME loan default figures in Bangladesh may have reached five or six per cent. |
| Keywords: | Small and medium enterprise, loan defaults, entrepreneurs, obstacles |
| JEL: | F1 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unt:arpobr:apb41&r=sbm |
| By: | Marek Urbaniak (Poznan University of Economics); Ricardo Paes Mamede (ISCTE - Lisbon University Institute) |
| Abstract: | This article represents an attempt to empirically explore the effects of the current financial crisis on R&D and innovation across the European countries and aims to contribute to the knowledge on the impact of the financial crisis on the financing of R&D and innovation in Europe. Using macro data, we investigate the statistics on financing R&D and innovation by sectors of performance and sources of funds. A direct effect of the crisis on R&D and innovation expenditure during the crisis is compared with the pre-crisis period. We demonstrate that the EU member states have improved their innovative activities over the 2004–2012 period. This article makes an attempt at filling in the gaps in analyses of the influence that the financial crisis exerts on the financing of R&D and innovation. It is a contribution to the debate regarding the impact of the financial crisis in Europe on the volume and structure of innovation financing by sectors of the economy. |
| Keywords: | financing innovation activities, R&D and innovation expenditures |
| JEL: | G01 E23 O31 O43 O52 |
| Date: | 2015–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fes:wpaper:wpaper83&r=sbm |
| By: | KAWAKAMI Atsushi; EDAMURA Kazuma |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the influence of firms' design activity to total factor productivity using firm-level data from the Basic Survey of Japanese Business Structure and Activities and the Survey on Research Activities of Private Corporations. We adopt two approaches for calculating design activity. First, we regard registered design as a design activity. Second, we calculate design investment from the Survey on Research Activities of Private Corporations and estimate the relation between design activity and efficiency of design investment.Firms who hold registered designs tend to hold patents. Furthermore, holding both registered designs and patents makes the firms more efficient. On the other hand, a second approach shows that a design strategy for adding value to their products, originality, and valuing the firm's brand is more efficient than for product differentiation. Adopting designers from outside of their firms and training designers from within the firms are also efficient. These results investigated Verganti (2009)'s design driven innovation which focuses on product innovation in the aspect of design. |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:15041&r=sbm |
| By: | Dominic, Theresia; Theuvsen, Ludwig |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the relationship between firm resources, strategic management practices and firm performance of small agribusiness firms. Looking at level of managerial expertise and access to market information as primary resources, this research presents various arguments about their contribution to firm performance. The objective is to demonstrate the role of strategic management practices in facilitating the effective use of these resources to achieve agribusiness firm performance. Results from a structural equation model using a sample of 229 agribusiness firms from Tanzania indicate that the investigated resources alone do not directly contribute to firm performance unless there is application of strategic management as a potential mediator. Further investigation based on multigroup analysis shows contingency effects in the resources-performance relationship but significant influence of application of strategic management practices on performance across all groups of firms. The results imply that managers ought to identify a fit between their resources and strategic actions in order to enhance firm performance. The study provides manifold managerial implications for small firms that seek to improve firm performance. |
| Keywords: | Structural modelling, firm resources, strategic management practices, small firm performance, mediation analysis, Tanzania, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Labor and Human Capital, Marketing, Q13, Q18, M31, J24, |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gagfdp:200324&r=sbm |
| By: | Marco Di Cintio (Department of Management, Economics, Mathematics and Statistics; University of Salento); Emanuele Grassi (Department of Management, Economics, Mathematics and Statistics; University of Salento) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of uncertainty and flexible labour contracts on the Research and Development (R&D) expenditure. Using a panel of Italian manufacturing firms, we find a hump-shaped relationship between workforce flexibility and R&D outlays. Moreover, as predicted by the real options theory, our results suggest that product market uncertainty reduces R&D efforts and that flexible labour contracts countervail the adverse effect of uncertainty on R&D. |
| Keywords: | real options theory, R&D, uncertainty, temporary workers |
| JEL: | D22 D81 J41 O31 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lcc:wpaper:ec0003&r=sbm |
| By: | INUI Tomohiko; ITO Keiko; MIYAKAWA Daisuke |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the determinants of firm survival in export markets by explicitly taking into account the impact of firms' previous export market experience and their product differentiation. Utilizing a 16-year panel data set for Japanese manufacturing firms obtained from the Basic Survey of Japanese Business Structure and Activities compiled by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, we employ both hazard and panel probit estimations to examine the likelihood of exit from export markets. The results of our estimations show, first, that the exit probability from export markets decreases over the export duration. Second, the probability of exiting from export markets tends to be lower when firms are more research and development (R&D) intensive both prior to and after starting exports. Third, firms in industries that manufacture differentiated products (e.g., machinery) also experience higher survivability in export markets. These results imply that learning from exporting plays an important role in firms' survival in export markets. In addition, our results imply that firms producing differentiated products likely have a greater incentive to make up-front investments to start exporting, and that these investments in turn enable such firms to survive in export markets for a longer period. |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:15086&r=sbm |
| By: | Calabria, Alejandro A.; Rottenschweiler, Sergio |
| Abstract: | The creation of employment and its formalization is, undoubtedly, a controversial and relevant topic in Argentina. At present, a law project on this subject is under debate: "Promoting Registered Employment and Labor Fraud Prevention", whose aim is to promote employment and/or formalization of new employees, primarily in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, through the reduction of employer contributions. This decrease in public incomes should be compensated by other sources in order not to affect severely the financing of social security. This paper discusses the contribution that small and medium-sized enterprises to the social security system and examines the impact of the reduction of employer contributions to the financing of social security. |
| Keywords: | Creación de empleo; PyMEs; impacto fiscal |
| JEL: | E62 H25 H32 J38 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:65527&r=sbm |
| By: | Jean P. Sepulveda; Claudio Bonilla (School of Business and Economics, Universidad del Desarrollo) |
| Abstract: | This paper departs from the traditional analysis of the effects of risk aversion in entrepreneurship to study the determinants of entrepreneurial risk aversion in developing a new venture and becoming an entrepreneur. We took fear of failing as a proxy for risk aversion and applied our analysis to the most important Latin American economies. We observed that being male, having more years of formal education and believing to have the necessary skills to develop a new venture decreased the probability of feeling a fear of failing and, thus, eventually increased the probability of developing a new venture. Age affects risk quadratically (first positively, but after some point, negatively), and if there is a prior experience of having shut down a business, risk aversion increases, that is, the probability of feeling a fear of failing, which reduces the probability of becoming an entrepreneur |
| Keywords: | Risk Aversion, Entrepreneurship, Fear of Failing |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dsr:pastwp:18&r=sbm |