|
on Small Business Management |
|
Issue of 2019‒04‒29
twelve papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Crespi, Gustavo; Figal Garone, Lucas; Maffioli, Alessandro; Stein, Ernesto H. |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the direct and spillover effects of two matching grants schemes designed to promote firm-level research and development (R&D) investment in Chile on firm productivity. Because the two programs target different kinds of projects—the National Productivity and Technological Development Fund (FONTEC) subsidizes intramural R&D, while the Science and Technology Development Fund (FONDEF) finances extramural R&D carried out in collaboration with research institutes—analyzing their effects can shed light on the process of knowledge creation and diffusion. The paper applies fixed-effects techniques to a novel dataset that merges several waves of Chile’s National Manufacturing Surveys collected by the National Institute of Statistics with register data on the beneficiaries of both programs. The results suggest that while both programs have had a positive impact on participants’ productivity, only FONDEF-funded projects have generated positive spillovers on firms’ productivity. The analysis reveals that the spillover effects on productivity display an inverted-U relationship with the intensity of public support. Spillover effects were found to occur only if firms were both geographically and technologically close. |
| Keywords: | Chile, impact evaluation, innovation, matching grants programs productivity, spillover effects |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:9464&r=all |
| By: | Ukrainski, Kadri; Kanep, Hanna; Kirs, Margit; Karo, Erkki |
| Abstract: | Empirical studies have shown that the internationalization processes of firms in re-search and development (R&D) are slower compared to those of trade or investments. The pioneers of R&D internationalization have been high-tech companies in small mar-kets with little research resources in their home countries. The motives for internation-alization in R&D besides widening the R&D resource base concern the search for the novelty value of collaboration for innovation, but the costs are associated with collab-orative capacity and lack of experience. EU has aimed at boosting Europe's industrial leadership and competitiveness via different policy instruments, mainly R&D subsidies to SMEs and larger firms for collaborative partnerships with various institutional and geographical scopes. By comparing FP7 and Horizon2020, two recent Framework Pro-grammes (FPs), the innovation focus has strengthened besides basic research within subsidized R&D activities. Additionally, the projects involve more partnerships between higher education and research institutions, private firms and public sector bodies. The picture of the network formed by supported projects shows a concentration around larger and older EU member states while the smaller countries, but also EU13 (the new member states) locating on the periphery. Individual countries are engaged in international R&D networks with different patterns, but for EU13 countries the network-ing barriers seem to be higher, even in the most successful cases the single partner (mostly SME) projects dominate. In gaining stronger hub roles in the private firm R&D networks, the economies in all countries need to improve connectivity within and out-side their communities. |
| Keywords: | R&D,innovation,EU13 countries |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:opodis:201901&r=all |
| By: | Ivanova, Olga; Chatzouz, Moustafa |
| Abstract: | This papers studies the sectoral differences in the impacts of various innovation policies, human capital and R&D intensity on the productivity growth using econometric panel data techniques. We analyze the development of the sectoral productivity as depending on both knowledge creation and knowledge adoption, where both channels of productivity growth can be influenced by various types of R&D related public policy. We use the combination of the most recent EU-KLEMS database and OECD data for econometric analysis on six aggregated sectors of the economy. In contrast with other existing studies our econometric analysis covers the whole of the economy and includes various traditional, industrial and services sectors. The main contribution of the paper is in highlighting the differences between economic sectors and identifying potential for sector-specific innovation policies. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous growth, R&D, panel data, R&D policy, industrial sectors |
| JEL: | O47 |
| Date: | 2019–04–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:93488&r=all |
| By: | Hector Hernandez Guevara (European Commission – JRC); Nicola Grassano (European Commission – JRC); Alexander Tuebke (European Commission – JRC); Lesley Potters (European Commission – JRC); Petros Gkotsis (European Commission – JRC); Antonio Vezzani (European Commission – JRC) |
| Abstract: | The 2018 edition of the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard (the Scoreboard) comprises the 2500 companies investing the largest sums in R&D in the world in 2017/18. These companies, based in 46 countries, each invested over €25 million in R&D for a total of €736.4bn which is approximately 90% of the world’s businessfunded R&D. They include 577 EU companies accounting for 27% of the total, 778 US companies for 37%, 339 Japanese companies for 14%, 438 Chinese for 10% and 368 from the rest-of-the-world (RoW) for 12%. This report analyses the main changes in companies’ R&D and economic indicators over the past year and their performance over the past ten years. It also includes a patent-based analysis aimed at characterising further the innovation activity of the business sector in the 28 member states of the EU. Finally, the report comprises a 10-year analysis of the performance of Scoreboard companies based in Asian countries, examining in particular the role of foreign direct investment and related mergers and acquisitions. |
| Keywords: | Industrial R&D, top R&D investors, innovation, company performance, economic and innovation performance |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc113807&r=all |
| By: | Giovanni Marin (Department of Economics, Society & Politics, Universit? di Urbino Carlo Bo); Marco Modica (SGran Sasso Science Istitute GSSI, L'Aquila, Italy) |
| Abstract: | The Great Recessions a ected the Italian economy in a particularly severe way in terms of GDP collapse, increase in the unemployment rate and also in terms of number of rms that left the market. Moreover, because of its peculiar structural features, that is characterized by a business sector composed prevalently by a large number of micro and small firms, the Italian economy results to be particularly exposed to recession periods, especially so when these periods are prolonged and hit many sectors in the economy. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the Great Recession on the survival of firms for universe of Italian individual Firms. Our main contributions consist in the estimation of an indicator to capture the local demand shocks in order to infer about the link between local demand shock, rms' characteristics and hazard of exit. General results show that the conditional and unconditional hazard of exit is larger for female, old and foreign-born entrepreneurs. However, when considering the e ect of local demand shocks, this appears to be stronger for female, old, Italian entrepreneurs and for entrepreneurs located in highly- exposed labour market areas. |
| Keywords: | Resilience, Micro-Firms, Survival, Great Recession |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:urb:wpaper:19_02&r=all |
| By: | Lesley Potters (European Commission - JRC); Nicola Grassano (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | This thirteenth Survey on Industrial R&D investment trends is based on 148 responses of mainly large firms from a subsample of the 1000 EU-based companies in the 2017 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. The participating EU firms have a total of €69.2 billion of R&D investments, 36% of the total R&D investments by EU firms in the 2017 EU R&D Scoreboard, and expect R&D investment to increase by 5.4% per year in 2018 and 2019. |
| Keywords: | Research and Development, R&D, innovation, expectations, drivers, trends, survey |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc113713&r=all |
| By: | Huang, Chien-Yu; Yang, Yibai; Zheng, Zhijie |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the effects of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection on innovation and technology transfer in a North-South quality-ladder model with innovative Northern R&D and adaptive Southern R&D. The degree of IPR protection in two countries differs in terms of patent breadth, which determines the markups of Northern firms and their Southern affiliates, respectively. In this model, stronger IPR protection in the South leads to a permanent decrease in the North-South wage gap, a temporary increase in the Northern innovation rate, and a permanent increase in technology transfer. By contrast, stronger IPR protection in the North leads to a permanent increase in the North-South wage gap, ambiguous effects on the Northern innovation rate, and a permanent decrease in technology transfer. Finally, we perform a quantitative analysis by calibrating the model to the US-China data, and the numerical results support these policy implications. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual property rights protection, Schumpeterian innovation, multinational firms, technology transfer |
| JEL: | F12 F23 F43 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:92888&r=all |
| By: | Bronwyn H. Hall |
| Abstract: | A large number of countries around the world now provide some kind of tax incentive to encourage firms to undertake innovative activity. This paper presents the policy rationale for these incentives, discusses their design and potential effectiveness, and reviews the empirical evidence on their actual effectiveness. The focus is on the two most important and most studied incentives: R&D tax credits and super deductions, and IP boxes (reduced corporate taxes in income from patents and other intellectual property). |
| JEL: | H25 O32 O38 |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25773&r=all |
| By: | Carlo Gianelle (European Commission - JRC); Fabrizio Guzzo (European Commission - JRC); Elisabetta Marinelli (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | This report presents a set of preliminary conceptual and practical considerations on the evaluation of the Smart Specialisation policy. It opens a discussion that aims to set the scene for more articulated and detailed reflections. It is important that evaluation exercises are focused on selected elements of the policy scheme; this facilitates identifying suitable evaluation questions and methodologies. Evaluation is meaningful only in the presence of well-specified evaluation questions, stemming from the specific information needs of the actors involved in Smart Specialisation Strategies. A well-defined intervention logic, linking clear ends with means, is essential for evaluation. Monitoring systems act as early-warning mechanisms signalling critical aspects in the implementation, which call for deeper assessment and understanding through evaluation exercises. To plan useful evaluations and increase the chances of their results being used require an ongoing commitment to develop a learning culture and build evaluation capabilities across institutions and stakeholders. |
| Keywords: | Regional innovation policy; Smart Specialisation; public policy evaluation; policy monitoring |
| JEL: | O25 O38 R12 R58 |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc116110&r=all |
| By: | Andrea Andrenelli; Iza Lejárraga; Sébastien Miroudot; Letizia Montinari |
| Abstract: | Global value chains (GVCs) have sharpened the interdependencies between trade and foreign direct investment (FDI). Using a novel micro-level dataset covering about 27 000 corporate relationships of 147 multinational enterprises (MNEs) in 13 sectors, new evidence is provided on how firms organise their production globally by combining trade with investment, and on a range of non-equity, contract-based partnerships. The analysis leads to five stylised facts. First, MNE activities are a combination of trade, FDI and strategic partnerships. All firms rely on a mix of these different types of corporate relationships. Second, the configuration of trade, investment and strategic partnerships varies across sectors, firms and markets. The results highlight considerable firm-level heterogeneity within the same industry and across the different modes of entry. Third, investment performs various functions in GVCs. In addition to traditional forms of FDI such as “market-seeking” or “input-seeking”, investment “in capabilities” or “conglomerate” FDI also account for a relevant share of equity-based relationships. Fourth, support business functions emerge as key building blocks in GVCs, which suggests that policy reforms in transversal services sectors that support all GVCs should merit special attention. Fifth, GVCs display a clear geographical organisation. While domestic corporate relationships may lead to higher volumes of activities, in terms of the number of relationships MNEs have more partners abroad. Moreover, the large majority of GVC interactions take place within OECD countries. Overall, the complex and heterogeneous interlinkages observed in modern firm strategies highlight the importance of ensuring a level playing field for both trade and investment. |
| Keywords: | investment, multinational enterprises, Trade |
| JEL: | L23 L24 F23 |
| Date: | 2019–04–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:traaab:227-en&r=all |
| By: | Heyman, Fredrik; Norbäck, Pehr-Johan; Persson, Lars |
| Abstract: | Recent studies document a 30-year decline in various measures of entrepreneurship in the U.S. Using detailed Swedish employer-employee data over the period 1990 to 2013, we find young firms to be more prominent in the Swedish business sector than in the U.S. business sector. Young Swedish firms, aged five years or less, account for more than half of all firms during this period. We also observe an increase in Swedish entrepreneurial activity for start-ups. However, increasing job destruction rates for young firms has implied a declining employment share for younger firms from the mid-2000s. Moreover, most of the job creation by young firms occurs in the expanding service sector. We discuss different explanations for why Sweden appears not to have the same strong decline in entrepreneurial activity as the U.S. has had during the last two decades. We argue that one important explanation is economic reforms in Sweden in the 1990s that mitigated several hurdles to entrepreneurship. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship; industrial structure and structural change; job dynamics; Matched employer-employee data |
| JEL: | J23 K23 L26 L51 |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13683&r=all |
| By: | Krenz, Astrid |
| Abstract: | Female-run firms are less likely to be exporters although they exert positive influence in various aspects in an economy and society. With a new and comprehensive data set on manufacturing plants, I investigate the exporter productivity premium of female-run firms in Germany. The results show that female-run firms gain a higher exporter-productivity premium than male-run firms. I find evidence for selection into exporting but no impact for learning from exporting for female-run exporting firms. These results give hint to discrimination barriers that female-run firms face when they are exporting as compared to male-run firm exporters. |
| Keywords: | Gender Inequality,Exporter-Productivity Premium,Germany,Firm Heterogeneity |
| JEL: | F14 L25 L60 O12 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cegedp:368&r=all |