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on Small Business Management |
| By: | Yeşim Gürel Üçdoğruk (Dokuz Eylul University, Department of Economics); Yılmaz Kılıçaslan (Anadolu University, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Measuring the effects of innovative activities on firms’ productivity has been an active area for research for several decades, both as a policy concern and as a challenge for econometric applications. This paper attempts to analyze the relationship among innovation input, output and productivity in Turkish manufacturing firms through CDM model by adding ICT investments together with R&D as an input to innovation. The evidence is based on a panel data sample of Turkish manufacturing firms in the 2003–2010 period, constructed from the waves of the ‘Annual Manufacturing Industry Statistics’ and the four consecutive waves of ‘Community Innovation Surveys’. Regarding the model specification, the first step models the firm R&D decisions in terms of two equations: a selection equation and an intensity equation. The selection equation consists of R&D indicator variable that takes the value 1 if firm decides to perform R&D and explanatory variables affecting R&D decision. The intensity equation consists of firm’s innovative effort and a set of determinants of R&D expenditure. These two equations are estimated by using Heckman selection method. The second step models the firm innovation activity by innovation equation including ICT investment intensity and the latent innovation effort proxied by the predicted value of R&D intensity from the first step model. This equation is estimated as a bivariate probit model, assuming that most of the firm characteristics that affect product and process innovation are the same, although of course their impacts may differ. The last step estimates the productivity equation that is specified as a simple Cobb–Douglas technology with constant returns to scale, and with labor, capital and knowledge inputs, where we have “labor productivity” (real sales per employee, in logs); “investment intensity” that is our proxy for physical capital and “knowledge inputs” that are proxied by the predicted probability of product and process innovation. |
| Keywords: | R&D, ICT, innovation, productivity, Turkey |
| JEL: | L60 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eyd:cp2015:31&r=sbm |
| By: | Ceren Ozgen (VU University Amsterdam); Cornelius Peters (IAB); Annekatrin Niebuhr (Christian-Albrechts-Universitat zu Kiel); Peter Nijkamp (VU University Amsterdam); Jacques Poot (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | Increasing international labor migration has important effects on the workforce composition of firms in all migrant-receiving countries. The consequences of these changes for firm performance have attracted growing attention in recent years. In this paper, we focus explicitly on the impact of cultural diversity among migrant employees on the innovativeness of firms. We briefly synthesize empirical evidence from a range of contexts across Europe, North America, and New Zealand. We then utilize two unique and harmonized linked employer–employee datasets to provide comparative microeconometric evidence for Germany and the Netherlands. Our panel datasets contain detailed information on the generation of new products and services, determinants of innovation success, and the composition of employment in establishments of firms over the period 1999 to 2006. We find that innovation in both countries is predominantly determined by establishment size and industry. Moreover, obstacles encountered and organizational changes faced by firms drive innovation too. With respect to the composition of employment, the presence of high-skilled staff is most important. Cultural diversity of employees has a positive partial correlation with product innovation. The size and statistical significance of this effect depends on the econometric model specification and the country considered. We conclude from the literature synthesis and the new comparative evidence that cultural diversity of employees can make a positive, but modest and context dependent, contribution to innovation. |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2014009&r=sbm |
| By: | Christopher Goetz; Henry Hyatt; Erika McEntarfer; Kristin Sandusky |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we highlight the potential for linked employer-employee data to be used in entrepreneurship research, describing new data on business start-ups, their founders and early employees, and providing examples of how they can be used in entrepreneurship research. Linked employer-employee data provides a unique perspective on new business creation by combining information on the business, workforce, and individual. By combining data on both workers and firms, linked data can investigate many questions that owner-level or firm-level data cannot easily answer alone - such as composition of the workforce at start-ups and their role in explaining business dynamics, the flow of workers across new and established firms, and the employment paths of the business owners themselves. |
| JEL: | J21 L26 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21639&r=sbm |
| By: | Ceren Ozgen (VU University Amsterdam); Peter Nijkamp (VU University Amsterdam); Jacques Poot (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | An important question for firms and policymakers is whether the recruitment of foreign workers can boost innovation. Migration studies have demonstrated positive economic impacts of cultural diversity on productivity and innovation at the regional level, but the impacts at firm level are less well known. Merging data from four different sources, provided by Statistics Netherlands, we construct and analyze a unique linked employer-employee micro dataset of 4582 firms that includes qualitative information on firm innovation. We consider both the number of immigrants these firms employ and their cultural diversity. Potential endogeneity of migrant employment is addressed by an instrumental variables approach that accounts for the past geographic distribution of immigrants and the past culinary diversity of the municipality the firm is located in. We find robust evidence that firms employing relatively more migrants are less innovative. However, there is evidence of integration in that this effect is generall less strong or even absent for second generation immigrants. Moreover, firms employing a more diverse foreign workforce are more innovative, particularly in terms of product innovations. The benefits of diversity for innovation are more apparent in sectors employing relatively more skilled immigrants. |
| Keywords: | Immigration,Innovation,Cultural diversity, Knowledge spillovers,Netherlands |
| JEL: | D22 F22 O31 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2013026&r=sbm |
| By: | Erik G. Hurst; Benjamin W. Pugsley |
| Abstract: | The nonpecuniary benefits of managing a small business are a first order consideration for many nascent entrepreneurs, yet the preference for business ownership is mostly ignored in models of entrepreneurship and occupational choice. In this paper, we study a population with varying entrepreneurial tastes and wealth in a simple general equilibrium model of occupational choice. This choice yields several important results: (1) entrepreneurship can be thought of as a normal good, generating wealth effects independent of any financing constraints; (2) nonpecuniary entrepreneurs select into small-scale firms; and (3) subsidies designed to stimulate more business entry can have regressive distributional effects. Despite abstracting from other important considerations such as risk, financing constraints, and innovation, we show that nonpecuniary compensation is particularly relevant in discussions of small businesses. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, non-pecuniary benefits |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:15-34&r=sbm |
| By: | Chiara Pancotti (CSIL Centre for Industrial Studies); Emanuela Sirtori (CSIL Centre for Industrial Studies); Silvia Vignetti (CSIL Centre for Industrial Studies) |
| Abstract: | A debated policy issue is how to combine the excellence goals chased by Research and Innovation (R&I) policies and the need to reduce regional disparities as of the EU Cohesion Policy priorities. In other words there is a tension between concentrating funds in core and well-endowed urban areas, in order to reach economies of scale and scope, or rather favouring less endowed, peripheral and economically weaker regions, which could be less prepared to achieve excellence in innovation and research. A way to address this trade-off has been proposed by the recent smart specialisation approach. This approach admits the possibility for any region to generate innovation, by leveraging its own strengths and competitive advantages and selectively targeting its place-based R&I strategy on those economic activities in which the region can hope to excel. However, the conditions which could actually ensure a synergic relation between different policies aiming at enhancing European competitiveness, overcoming possible obstacles and tensions, still have to be explored. This paper aims at providing some insights on how and at which conditions regional innovation policies can be effective in promoting both excellence and cohesion objectives in lagging behind EU regions. To this end, the case of the regional innovation policy carried out by Apulia region (Southern Italy) is presented. The experience of Apulia indicates that there is scope for lagging behind regions to develop well-designed regional innovation systems, supporting the development and implementation of far reaching innovation strategies adapted to the specific needs and assets of regional economy. At the same time, there is a pressing need to develop novel practices of governance in particular as regards avoiding demand-driven approach which adapts excessively to the perspectives of local firms and can be more easily (and in difficult circumstances perhaps even necessarily) prone to short termism. This paper critically describes elements of strengths and weaknesses observed within the case study of Apulia region, to produce lessons learned of more general relevance. |
| Keywords: | smart specialisation, place based, cohesion policy, regional innovation system |
| JEL: | O25 O38 R58 |
| Date: | 2015–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mst:wpaper:201501&r=sbm |
| By: | Jürgen Bitzer (University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics); Erkan Gören (University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics); Sanne Hiller (Ruhr University Bochum) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the question of how immigrant employees affect a firm’s capacity to absorb foreign knowledge. Using matched employer-employee data from Denmark for the years 1996 to 2009, we are able to show that non-Danish employees from technologically<br>advanced countries contribute significantly to a firm’s total factor productivity (TFP) through their ability to access foreign knowledge. The empirical results suggest that the impact increases if the immigrants come from technologically advanced countries, are highly educated, and work in high-skilled positions. |
| Keywords: | R&D Spillovers, Absorptive Capacity, Firm-Level Analysis,<br>Foreign Workers, Immigrants |
| JEL: | D20 J82 L20 O30 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:old:dpaper:386&r=sbm |
| By: | Irani Arráiz; Miriam Bruhn; Rodolfo Stucchi |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the use of psychometric tests, designed by the Entrepreneurial Finance Lab (EFL), as a tool to screen out high credit risk and potentially increase access to credit for small business owners in Peru. We use administrative data covering the period from June 2011 to April 2014 to compare debt accrual and repayment behavior patterns across entrepreneurs who were offered a loan based on the traditional credit-scoring method versus the EFL tool. We find that the psychometric test can lower the risk of the loan portfolio when used as a secondary screening mechanism for already banked entrepreneurs---i.e., those with a credit history. For unbanked entrepreneurs---i.e., those without a credit history---using the EFL tool can increase access to credit without increasing portfolio risk. |
| Keywords: | Credit, SME, Asymmetric information, Psychometric tests, Credit risk, Access to credit |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:91557&r=sbm |
| By: | Mafini Dosso (European Commission – JRC - IPTS); Antonio Vezzani (European Commission – JRC - IPTS) |
| Abstract: | This paper sheds new lights on the internationalization of technological activities of the top corporate R&D investors worldwide. In particular, we provide evidence on the technological factors determining their international R&D location strategies. The empirical analysis is based on the patenting activities of the top R&D investors, as reported by the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, at the USPTO over the period 2010–2012. The technological proximity to the host country in which these companies seek for new knowledge is a key determinant for their R&D location decision. However, technological proximity has a non-linear effect on the companies' location strategies as they search for new technologies not too close to their knowledge base. Furthermore, top R&D investors worldwide target countries with comparative advantages in emerging technologies. Countries willing to attract high-value investments should create an environment conducive to the creation and development of brand new ideas with a high potential impact on the long term growth. |
| Keywords: | International Knowledge seeking, Multinational Corporations (MNCs), Patents, Emerging technologies, Technological proximity |
| JEL: | O30 F23 L20 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201509&r=sbm |
| By: | Benjamin W. Pugsley; Aysegül Sahin |
| Abstract: | We document two striking facts about U.S. firm dynamics and interpret their significance for employment dynamics. The first is the dramatic decline in firm entry and the second is the gradual shift of employment toward older firms since 1980. We show that despite these trends, the lifecycle dynamics of firms and their business cycle properties have remained virtually unchanged. Consequently, aging is the delayed effect of accumulating startup deficits. Together, the decline in the employment contribution of startups and the shift of employment toward more mature firms contributed to the emergence of jobless recoveries in the U.S. economy. |
| Keywords: | firm dynamics, employment dynamics, business cycles, entrepreneurship |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:15-33&r=sbm |