|
on Small Business Management |
|
Issue of 2016‒07‒23
twenty-six papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Pau Roldan (New York University); Laurent Cavenaile (New York University) |
| Abstract: | We develop a model of firm dynamics through product innovation that explicitly incorporates advertising decisions by firms. We model advertising by constructing a framework that unifies a number of facts identified by the empirical marketing literature. The model is then used to explain several empirical regularities across firm sizes using U.S. data. Through a novel interaction between R&D and advertising, we are able to explain empirically observed deviations from Gibrat’s law, as well as the behavior of advertising expenditures across firms, the degree of substitution between R&D and advertising expenditures as firms grow large, and broadly the effects of advertising on both firm and economic growth. We find that smaller firms can be both more innovation- and advertising-intensive as in the data even when there exist increasing returns to scale in research. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed016:150&r=sbm |
| By: | Kudic, Muhamed; Ehrenfeld, Wilfried; Pusch, Toralf |
| Abstract: | We apply a network perspective and study the emergence of core-periphery (CP) structures in innovation networks to shed some light on the relationship between isolation and innovation. It has been frequently argued that a firm's location in a densely interconnected network area improves its ability to access information and absorb technological knowledge. This, in turn, enables a firm to generate new products and services at a higher rate compared to less integrated competitors. However, the importance of peripheral positions for innovation processes is still a widely neglected issue in literature. Isolation may provide unique conditions that induce innovations which otherwise may never have been invented. Such innovations have the potential to lay the ground for a firm's pathway towards the network core, where the industry's established technological knowledge is assumed to be located. The aim of our paper is twofold. Firstly, we propose a new CP indicator and apply it to analyze the emergence of CP patterns in the German laser industry. We employ publicly funded Research and Development (R&D) cooperation project data over a period of more than two decades. Secondly, we explore the paths on which firms move from isolated positions towards the core (and vice versa). Our exploratory results open up a number of new research questions at the intersection between geography, economics and network research. |
| Abstract: | Wir legen eine Netzwerkperspektive zugrunde und untersuchen die Entstehung von Kern-Peripherie- (CP-) Strukturen in Innovationsnetzwerken, um den Zusammenhang zwischen Isolation und Innovation vertiefend zu beleuchten. In bisherigen Studien wurde argumentiert, dass die Lage eines Unternehmens in dicht verknüpften Bereichen eines Netzwerks seine Fähigkeit verbessert, auf Informationen zuzugreifen und technologisches Wissen zu absorbieren. Dies erlaubt es solchen Unternehmen, neue Produkte und Dienstleistungen in einem höheren Maße zu generieren als weniger integrierte Konkurrenzunternehmen. Die Bedeutung peripherer Positionen für Innovationsprozesse ist jedoch bisher ein weitestgehend vernachlässigter Aspekt in der Literatur. Isolation kann ein einzigartiges Umfeld bereitstellen, das Innovationen induzieren kann, die anderenfalls niemals entstanden wären. Solche Innovationen können die Grundlage für den Pfad eines Unternehmens in Richtung des Netzwerk-Kerns bilden, von dem angenommen wird, dass sich dort das in der Branche etablierte technologische Wissen konzentriert. Unser Beitrag verfolgt zwei Ziele. Erstens schlagen wir einen neuen CP-Indikator vor und wenden ihn an, um die Entstehung von CP-Strukturen in der deutschen Laserindustrie zu analysieren. Dazu verwenden wir Projektdaten zu öffentlich geförderten Kooperationen über einen Beobachtungszeitraum von mehr als zwei Jahrzehnten. Zweitens untersuchen wir die Pfade, auf denen sich Unternehmen aus isolierten Positionen in Richtung des Kerns bewegen (und umgekehrt). Unsere Ergebnisse eröffnen eine Reihe von Fragestellungen an der Schnittstelle zwischen Geographie, Wirtschaft und Netzwerkforschung. |
| Keywords: | innovation networks,core-periphery,laser industry,Innovationsnetzwerke,Kern-Peripherie,Laserindustrie |
| JEL: | C45 D85 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:iwh-1-15&r=sbm |
| By: | Damijan, Jože; Kostevc, Črt; Marek, Philipp; Rojec, Matija |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the effect of foreign presence in the services sector on the productivity growth of downstream customers in the manufacturing sector in six EU new member countries in the course of their accession to the European Union. For this purpose, the analysis combines firm-level information, data on economic structures and annual national input-output tables. The findings suggest that services FDI may enhance productivity of manufacturing firms in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries through vertical forward spillovers, and thereby contribute to their competitiveness. The consideration of firm characteristics shows that the magnitude of spillover effects depends on size, ownership structure, and initial productivity level of downstream firms as well as on the diverging technological intensity across sector on the supply and demand side. The results suggest that services FDI foster productivity of domestic rather than foreign controlled firms in the host economy. For the period between 2003 and 2008, the findings suggest that the increasing share of services provided by foreign affiliates enhanced the productivity growth of domestic firms in manufacturing by 0.16%. Furthermore, the firms' absorptive capability and the size reduce the spillover effect of services FDI on the productivity of manufacturing firms. A sectoral distinction shows that firms at the end of the value chain experience a larger productivity growth through services FDI, whereas the aggregate positive effect seems to be driven by FDI in energy supply. This does not hold for science-based industries, which are spurred by foreign presence in knowledge-intensive business services. |
| Keywords: | production,cost,capital,total factor and multifactor productivity,capacity,economic integration |
| JEL: | D24 F15 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:iwh-5-15&r=sbm |
| By: | CHENGEDZAI MAFINI (DEPARTMENT OF LOGISTICS, VAAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY) |
| Abstract: | Many small to medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies are yet to adopt supply chain management practices. However, they have realised the strategic importance of supply chain management as a tool for optimum business performance. This paper examined the importance of dynamic capabilities, service quality and relationship continuity as mechanisms for the enhancement of supply chain performance in SMEs. Participants in the study included a total of 348 SME managers who were based in South Africa. Data were analysed using the Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 23.0). Spearman correlations were used to determine the strength of the relationship between constructs. Regression analysis was used to test for prediction between the dependant and independent constructs. The results of the correlation tests showed significant positive correlations between supply chain performance and all three predictor constructs (dynamic capabilities, service quality and relationship continuity). In the regression analyses, the three predictor constructs were statistically significant. A comparison of the betas showed that service quality exerts greater influence on supply chain performance than the other two constructs. The study is significant in that it facilitates improved diagnosis of supply chain performance challenges amongst SMEs in emerging economies. |
| Keywords: | Service quality, dynamic capabilities, relationship continuity, supply chain performance, SME |
| JEL: | M00 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:4005794&r=sbm |
| By: | Nuri Ersahin; Rustom M. Irani; Katherine Waldock |
| Abstract: | We examine entrepreneurial activity following the adoption of fraudulent transfer laws in the U.S. These laws strengthen creditor rights by removing the burden of proof from creditors attempting to claw back funds that were transferred out of failing businesses. These laws are particularly important for entrepreneurs whose personal assets are often commingled with those of the venture. Using establishment-level data from the U.S. Census Bureau, we find significant declines in start-up entry, churning among new entrants, and closures of existing ventures after the passage of these laws. Our findings suggest that strengthening creditor rights can, in some circumstances, impede entrepreneurial activity and slow down the process of creative destruction. |
| Keywords: | Creditor Rights; Bankruptcy; Entrepreneurship; Creative Destruction; Law and Finance Ersahin |
| JEL: | G21 G33 K22 L26 M13 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:16-31&r=sbm |
| By: | Müller, Steffen; Neubäumer, Renate |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes how life-cycle unemployment of former apprentices depends on the size of the training firm. We start from the hypotheses that the size of training firms reduces long-run cumulated unemployment exposure, e.g. via differences in training quality and in the availability of internal labor markets, and that the access to large training firms depends positively on young workers' ability and their luck to live in a region with many large and medium-sized training firms. We test these hypotheses empirically by using a large administrative data set for Germany and find corroborative evidence. |
| Keywords: | unemployment,training,apprenticeship,young workers,mobility,firm size |
| JEL: | D21 L10 L25 L26 L29 M13 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:iwh-5-16&r=sbm |
| By: | CHENGEDZAI MAFINI (DEPARTMENT OF LOGISTICS, VAAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY) |
| Abstract: | Many small to medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies are yet to adopt supply chain management practices. However, they have realised the strategic importance of supply chain management as a tool for optimum business performance. This paper examined the importance of service quality, dynamic capabilities and relationship continuity as mechanisms for the enhancement of supply chain performance in SMEs. Participants in the study included a total of 348 SME managers who were based in South Africa. Data were analysed using the Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 23.0). Spearman correlations were used to determine the strength of the relationship between constructs. Regression analysis was used to test for prediction between the dependant and independent constructs. The results of the correlation tests showed significant positive correlations between supply chain performance and two constructs; service quality and dynamic capabilities. Regression analysis showed that service quality and dynamic capabilities significantly predicted supply chain performance. A comparison of the betas showed that service quality exerts greater influence on supply chain performance than the other two constructs. The study is significant in that it facilitates improved diagnosis of supply chain performance challenges amongst SMEs in emerging economies. |
| Keywords: | Service quality, dynamic capabilities, relationship continuity, SME |
| JEL: | L22 M00 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:4005793&r=sbm |
| By: | Buchholz, Manuel; Tonzer, Lena; Berner, Julian |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes how firm-specific uncertainty affects firms' propensity to invest. We measure firm-specific uncertainty as firms' absolute forecast errors derived from survey data of German manufacturing firms over 2007-2011. In line with the literature, our empirical findings reveal a negative impact of firm-specific uncertainty on investment. However, further results show that the investment response is asymmetric, depending on the size and direction of the forecast error. The investment propensity declines significantly if the realized situation is worse than expected. However, firms do not adjust their investment if the realized situation is better than expected, which suggests that the uncertainty effect counteracts the positive effect due to unexpectedly favorable business conditions. This can be one explanation behind the phenomenon of slow recovery in the aftermath of financial crises. Additional results show that the forecast error is highly concurrent with an ex-ante measure of firm-specific uncertainty we obtain from the survey data. Furthermore, the effect of firm-specific uncertainty is enforced for firms that face a tighter financing situation. |
| Keywords: | risk climate,microeconomic survey data,forecast errors,firm investment,uncertainty |
| JEL: | D22 D84 E32 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:iwh-7-16&r=sbm |
| By: | Bryson, Alex (University College London); Forth, John (National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR)) |
| Abstract: | Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are known to contribute significantly to aggregate economic growth. However, little is known about the role played by management practices in SME growth since recession. We contribute to the literature on SME growth by analysing longitudinal administrative data on firms' employment and turnover, taken from the UK's Business Structure Database (BSD), with data on management practices collected in face-to-face interviews from the HR Managers and employees who were surveyed as part of the 2011 British Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS). We find off-the-job training is the only management practice that is robustly and significantly associated with higher employment growth, increased turnover, and a decline in closure probabilities, over the period 2011-2014. The findings suggest SME investment in off-the-job training is sub-optimal in Britain such that firms could benefit economically from increasing the amount of off-the-job training they offer to their non-managerial employees. |
| Keywords: | SMEs, small and medium-sized enterprises, employment growth, sales, workplace closure, HRM, training, recession |
| JEL: | L25 M12 M50 M53 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10042&r=sbm |
| By: | Blaseg, Daniel; Koetter, Michael |
| Abstract: | Does bank instability push borrowers to use crowdfunding as a source of external finance? We identify stressed banks and link them to a unique, manually constructed sample of 157 new ventures seeking equity crowdfunding. The sample comprises projects from all German equity crowdfunding platforms since 2011, which we compare with 200 ventures that do not use crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is significantly more likely for new ventures that interact with stressed banks. Innovative funding is thus particularly relevant when conventional financiers are facing crises. But crowdfunded ventures are generally also more opaque and risky than new ventures that do not use crowdfunding. |
| Keywords: | equity crowdfunding,credit crunch,bank stress |
| JEL: | G01 G21 G30 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:iwh-8-15&r=sbm |
| By: | Iritié, B. G. Jean Jacques |
| Abstract: | Criticisms vis-à-vis cluster policy are numerous, often confusing and really unhelpful; while some authors systematically question the merits, others on the contrary play a genuine role of counsel in his favour. This paper attempts to refocus the debate and analyses the economic issues, impacts and implications of the innovation clusters policy. To do this, we take a critical view of the literature on clusters, focusing on analysis of the effects of three industrial dynamics in perpetual movement within clusters, especially research and development, industrial location and technology cooperation. We assume that innovation cluster "potentiates", by a synergistic action, the beneficial effect of each of these three industrial dynamics in favour of localised firms. However, it appears from the analysis that the hopes and expectations invested in cluster policy must be reconsidered and relativised. So the reasons for the rising power of cluster policies must be sought elsewhere than in a necessarily consensual and tangible evidence of positive impacts of clusters. |
| Keywords: | cluster,innovation,competitiveness pole,research and development,industrial location,technology cooperation,localised knowledge spillovers,LKS,epistemic communities |
| JEL: | O25 O30 R10 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:142746&r=sbm |
| By: | Guglielmo Maria Caporale; Mario Cerrato; Xuan Zhang |
| Abstract: | Abstract This paper estimates a reduced-form model to assess the credit risk of General Insurance (GI) non-life firms in the UK. Compared to earlier studies, it uses a much larger sample including 30 years of data for 515 firms, and also considers a much wider set of possible determinants of credit risk. The empirical results suggest that macroeconomic and firm-specific factors both play important roles. Other key findings are the following: credit risk varies across firms depending on their business lines; there is default clustering in the GI industry; different reinsurance levels also affect the credit risk of insurance firms. The implications of these findings for regulators of GI firms under the coming Solvency II are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Insolvent, Doubly Stochastic, Insurance, Reinsurance |
| JEL: | G22 C58 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1591&r=sbm |
| By: | Fernando Galindo-Rueda; Fabien Verger |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a new taxonomy of industries according to their level of R&D intensity - the ratio of R&D to value added within an industry. Manufacturing and non-manufacturing activities are clustered into five groups (high, medium-high, medium, medium-low, and low R&D intensity industries), drawing on new and expanded evidence from most OECD countries and some partner economies. This paper also reports on differences in R&D intensity within industries across countries. This document represents an update and reframing of previous OECD taxonomies based on earlier versions of the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC), including services, whose coverage has improved in the R&D tables published by OECD (ANBERD). This taxonomy aims to support the presentation of statistics for industry groups when R&D is a relevant discriminant factor. Other existing or in-development taxonomies may be more appropriate for capturing differences in overall knowledge intensity or technology use. |
| Date: | 2016–07–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaaa:2016/4-en&r=sbm |
| By: | Intarakumnerd, Patarapong (Asian Development Bank Institute); Goto, Akira (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | Policies for stimulating technological development and innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises can be divided into three groups. Supply-side policies aim at increasing firms’ incentives to invest in innovation by reducing costs. Demand-side policies are public actions to induce innovation and/or speed up the diffusion of innovation. Systemic policies focus on strengthening interactive learning between actors in innovation systems. Policies can be implemented through various instruments comprising tax incentives, grants or direct subsidies, low-interest loans, and the government’s direct equity participation. These instruments have pros and cons. The experiences of four late-industrializing East Asian economies—Taipei,China; Singapore; Malaysia; and Thailand—provide key lessons. Firms at different levels of technological and innovative capability need different policy instruments. The more successful economies have a higher level of flexibility and policy coordination and learning. The amount, duration, and continuity of government supporting schemes are crucial. Policy makers must have a deep understanding of what constitutes innovations and innovation systems, and how they evolve over time. Innovation financing policies require other corresponding policy initiatives to make them successful. Lastly, institutional factors do shape the choices and effective implementation of these policies. |
| Keywords: | technological development; East Asia SMEs; diffusion of innovation; demand-side policies |
| JEL: | D22 L25 O31 |
| Date: | 2016–07–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0578&r=sbm |
| By: | Zsolt Csáfordi (Hungarian Academy of Sciences CERS, Institute of Economics); László Lőrincz (Hungarian Academy of Sciences CERS, Institute of Economics); Balázs Lengyel (Hungarian Academy of Sciences CERS, Institute of Economics); Károly Miklós Kiss (Hungarian Academy of Sciences CERS, Institute of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Labor flows are major source of knowledge spillover between companies, in which the characteristics of the companies play an important role. Previous research found the more productive the sending firm is he bigger effect of labor flows on the productivity of the receiving firm. Another literature claims that domestic firms benefit from labor flows from multinational enterprises (MNE). We test these arguments by analyzing an anonymized employer-employee linked panel database from Hungary for the 2003-2011 period and also look at the similarity of necessary skills in the sending and receiving firm because industry-specific skills of employee’s matter in organizational learning and therefore in productivity growth. We construct the skill-relatedness network of industries based on inter-industry labor mobility and distinguish related and non-related labor inflows by comparing the observed level of mobility to an expected level of mobility. Our results suggest that labor flows from more productive firms increases the effect of labor flows significantly. Domestic companies obtain productivity gains from labor inflows coming from MNEs; however, inflows from MNEs have the greatest positive effect if the receiving firm is also a MNE. The effect of flows from skill-related industries, and particularly from the same industry outperform the effect of flows from unrelated industries, however, these effects are mitigated by the relative productivity effect. |
| Keywords: | skill-relatedness network, firm productivity, knowledge spillover, labor mobility, productivity gap, firm ownership |
| JEL: | D22 J24 J60 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:4006263&r=sbm |
| By: | Jan Zabojnik (Queen's University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies a repeated-game model in which firms can build a reputation for rewarding innovative employees. In any Pareto efficient equilibrium, low-value innovations get developed in established firms, while high-value innovations get developed in startups. The threshold level can be discontinuous, so otherwise similar firms may exhibit very different levels of innovation. The paper also shows that the optimal incentive contract for innovative employees has an option-like form, and that a firm may want to worsen the distribution of possible innovations. The model's predictions are consistent with a broad set of observed regularities regarding the creation of employee startups. |
| Keywords: | Startups, innovation, reputation, venture capital |
| JEL: | L14 L26 O31 O34 M13 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qed:wpaper:1362&r=sbm |
| By: | Rene Belderbos; Leo Sleuwaegen; Dieter Somers; Koen De Backer |
| Abstract: | With the emergence of global value chains (GVCs), production processes are increasingly fragmented and dispersed across different countries. Although many MNEs still exhibit an important ‘home bias’ in their global innovation activities, a growing number of firms have offshored R&D and innovative activities to foreign locations. Is the more recent offshoring of R&D and innovation linked to the prior waves of manufacturing offshoring? The fear in OECD economies is that because of co-location effects between production and innovative activities, the loss of certain manufacturing/assembly activities may result in a loss of innovative capabilities (R&D, design, etc.) in the longer-term. The offshoring of R&D and innovation within GVCs poses new challenges to economic policy in OECD and emerging economies. For example, how can countries attract inward R&D investments by foreign MNEs? Should outward R&D investments by MNEs be a concern for the countries in which the MNEs are headquartered? |
| Date: | 2016–07–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaac:30-en&r=sbm |
| By: | Qadri, Mubashar; Mamoon, Dawood |
| Abstract: | The idea “Creating shared value” (CSV) offers a resolute direction to the debate on the link between business and society which can be restored through three distinct actions such as a) reconceiving products and markets; b) redefining productivity in the value chain; and c) building supportive industry clusters. The critical analysis predicts that the path of these actions is progressive in nature and their scope apparently ranges from narrow to wider deliberations. Keeping variant scope of proposed actions, this particular paper encapsulates only first course of action which indirectly is anticipating a new wave of innovation. For this new wave of innovation, the role of social capital is explored to determine the extent this capital can drive next wave of innovation. In this regard, a model is proposed to predict the link between various dimensions of social capital and innovation that can produce both social and business revenues. The proposed model is based on the assumption that social capital is not limited to network theory only rather its origins are deep rooted and relations with community are more important and relevant. If organizations emphasize more and invest in developing relationships with network actors like suppliers, customers and rivalry firms, then potential benefits of social capital might be unnoticed. Therefore, similar to defining ‘value’ too narrowly due to strategic myopia, keeping the social circle of small radius also limit the organization’s ability to exploit the embedded potential of social capital. |
| Keywords: | Creating shared value (CSV), Social capital, Innovation, Network relationship(s) |
| JEL: | M2 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:72554&r=sbm |
| By: | Sofka Wolfgang (Copenhagen Business School); Sprutacz Maren (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | The 2015 series of RIO Country Reports analyse and assess the policy and the national research and innovation system developments in relation to national policy priorities and the EU policy agenda with special focus on ERA and Innovation Union. The executive summaries of these reports put forward the main challenges of the research and innovation systems. |
| Keywords: | R&I system, R&I policy, ERA, innovation union, Semester analysis, Germany |
| JEL: | I20 O30 Z18 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc101181&r=sbm |
| By: | Alexander Coad (European Commission – JRC); Sara Amoroso (European Commission – JRC); Nicola Grassano (European Commission – JRC) |
| Abstract: | Although diversity between team members may bring benefits of new perspectives, nevertheless, what holds a team together is similarity. We theorise that diversity in one dimension is traded off against diversity in another. Our analysis of collaborative research teams that received FP7 funding presents robust results that indicators of diversity in several dimensions (diversity of organizational form (universities, firms, etc.), diversity in nationality, and inequality in project funding share) are negatively correlated with each other. |
| Keywords: | diversity, collaborative teams, FP7 research funding |
| JEL: | O30 M14 O19 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201604&r=sbm |
| By: | Merle Jacob (Lund University Sweden); Asa Lindholm Dahlstrand (Lund University Sweden); Sprutacz Maren (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | The 2015 series of RIO Country Reports analyse and assess the policy and the national research and innovation system developments in relation to national policy priorities and the EU policy agenda with special focus on ERA and Innovation Union. The executive summaries of these reports put forward the main challenges of the research and innovation systems. |
| Keywords: | R&I system, R&I policy, ERA, innovation union, Semester analysis, Belgium |
| JEL: | I20 O30 Z18 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc101217&r=sbm |
| By: | Pietro Moncada-Paternò-Castello (European Commission – JRC) |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes with new findings to the literature on corporate research and development (R&D) intensity decomposition by examining the effects of several parameters on R&D intensity and investigating its comparative distribution among top R&D firms, sectors and world regions/countries. It draws on a longitudinal company-level micro-dataset from 2005 to 2013, and uses both descriptive statistics and decomposition computation methods. The results confirm the structural nature of the EU R&D intensity gap. In the last decade the gap between the EU and the US has widened, whereas the EU gap with Japan and Switzerland has remained relatively stable. The study also uncovers differences in R&D intensity between EU and US companies operating in the sectors more responsible for the aggregate R&D intensity gap. In contrast, the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and Asian Tiger countries (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) R&D intensity gap compared to the EU has remained relatively stable, while companies from the rest of the world are considerably reducing such gap. Finally, the study shows a high concentration -sustained over time- of R&D investment in a few countries, sectors and firms, but in the EU there are fewer smaller top R&D firms that invest more intensively in R&D, than in the most closed competing countries. |
| Keywords: | corporate R&D; decomposition; EU R&D intensity gap, EU R&D policy |
| JEL: | O30 O32 O38 O57 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201605&r=sbm |
| By: | Fabio BRAGGION (Tilburg University); Mintra DWARKASING (Tilburg University); Steven ONGENA (University of Zurich, Swiss Finance Institute and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | We empirically test hypotheses emanating from recent theory predicting that household wealth inequality may determine entrepreneurial dynamism and corporate financing. We construct two measures of wealth inequality at the US MSA/county level: One based on the distribution of financial rents in 2004 and another one related to the distribution of land holdings in the late Nineteenth century. Our results suggest that in more unequal areas business creation, especially of high-tech ventures, is lower and more likely to be financed via bank and family financing. Wealth inequality seemingly also affects local institutions such as banks, schools, and courts. OR from paper: We empirically test hypotheses emanating from recent theory showing how household wealth inequality may determine corporate financing and entrepreneurial dynamism. We employ a historic measure of wealth inequality, i.e., the distribution of land holdings at the US county level in 1890, and saturate specifications with comprehensive sets of fixed effects and characteristics. The estimated coefficients suggest that county-level wealth inequality robustly increases sole-ownership and the proportion of equity, family and bank financing, yet decreases angel and venture capital financing. Inequality further reduces the likelihood local firms are high-tech and depresses various other measures of entrepreneurial dynamism. |
| Keywords: | inequality, corporate financing, entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | D31 G3 L26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp1427&r=sbm |
| By: | Kale, Deeksha |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of a policy package aimed at increasing access to bank credit of small firms at the national level in India. In 2006, the Government of India expanded the pool of small firms eligible for directed credit under a nation-wide credit program, by changing the criterion that determined the small business status of firms across all industries. Exploiting the expansion in the pool of small firms eligible for directed lending, I analyze the crowding out of previously eligible firms by recently eligible firms. I also study the growth in credit experienced by small firms from sources other than bank credit. I find that recently eligible firms not only disproportionately increased their bank credit stock relative to previously eligible firms, but also increased borrowings from other sources of credit. In other words, I find no evidence of substitution of other forms of credit with bank loans for recently eligible firms. |
| Keywords: | Banking; Government Policy; Credit Access |
| JEL: | G1 G18 G2 |
| Date: | 2016–07–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:72510&r=sbm |
| By: | Kjetil Storesletten (University of Oslo); Gueorgui Kambourov (University of Toronto); Loren Brandt (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of a large SOE (State-Owned Enterprises) sector on economic growth and document that localities (prefectures) in China with a large SOE sector in 1995 experienced a smaller economic growth than those with a small SOE sector in 1995. We show that one important mechanism through which the size of the SOE sector affects economic growth is the effect on firm entry in the non-SOE sector. In prefectures with a high SOE output share, non-SOE firm entry is small and the entrants have low TFP, labor productivity, and level of capital. We also infer the capital and output wedges that firms in the non-SOE and the SOE sector are facing in 1995 and 2004. We conclude that these wedges alone cannot account for the documented facts on non-SOE firm entry and that the analysis needs to incorporate a feature that would operate as a start-up cost (or an entry wedge). We build a heterogeneous firm model with endogenous entry to help understand the non-SOE entry patterns in the cross section in 1995. Then, we use the model to analyze the effect of a number of changes in the economic environment in China between 1995 and 2004. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed016:182&r=sbm |
| By: | Sharon Belenzon; Mark Schankerman |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how business models can be designed to tap effectively into open innovation labor markets with heterogeneously motivated workers. Using data on open source software, we show that motivations are diverse, and demonstrate how managers can strategically influence the flow of code contributions and their impact on project performance. Unlike previous literature using survey data, we exploit the observed pattern of project membership and code contributions-the "revealed preference" of developers-to infer the motivations driving their decision to contribute. Developers strongly sort along key dimensions of the business model chosen by project managers, especially the degree of openness of the project license. The results indicate an important role for intrinsic motivation, reputation, and labor market signaling, and a more limited role for reciprocity. |
| Keywords: | strategic human capital; sorting; motivations; open innovation; open source; intellectual property rights |
| JEL: | J1 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:58514&r=sbm |