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on Small Business Management |
| By: | Audretsch, David (Indiana University); Link, Albert (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics); van Hasselt, Martijn (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Scientific papers submitted for publication from U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)-funded research projects are an innovative output that has yet to be studied systematically. Using a knowledge production framework, we identify empirically covariates with the number of scientific papers resulting from SBIR projects over the period 1992 through 2001. We find empirically that when the firm involves a university in its funded project, more scientific papers result. When the form of university involvement is taken into account, we find the greatest impact on the output of scientific papers comes from the inclusion of an individual from the university who originally developed the technology being pursued by the firm in its SBIR project. In other words, the project-specific technical human capital knowledge from the university that spills over to the firm's projects begets (i.e., brings about) additional knowledge in the form of scientific papers submitted for publication. |
| Keywords: | innovative; technology; scientific publications; R&D; university knowledge spillovers; Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program; patents; |
| JEL: | J24 O31 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2019–09–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2019_012&r=all |
| By: | Marco Grazzi; Chiara Piccardo; Cecilia Vergari |
| Abstract: | This work investigates the relationship between proxies of innovation activities, such as patents and trademarks, and firm performance in terms of revenues, growth and profitability. By resorting to the virtual universe of Italian manufacturing firms this work provides a rather complete picture of the Intellectual Property (IP) strategies pursued by Italian firms, in terms of patents and trademarks, and we study whether the two instruments for protecting IP exhibit complementarity or substitutability. In addition, and to our knowledge novel, we propose a measure of concordance (or proximity) between the patents and trademarks owned by the same firm and we then investigate whether such concordance exert any effect on performance. |
| Keywords: | Trademarks, Patents, Innovation, Intellectual Property, Complementarity, Concordance, Technological proximity, firm performance, firm growth, firm performance, firm growth |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201904&r=all |
| By: | Marco Caliendo (University of Potsdam, IZA Bonn, DIW Berlin, IAB Nuremberg); Frank M. Fossen (University of Nevada, IZA Bonn); Alexander S. Kritikos (German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), University of Potsdam, IZA Bonn, IAB Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | As the policy debate on entrepreneurship increasingly centers on firm growth in terms of job creation, it is important to better understand which variables influence the first hiring decision and which ones influence the subsequent survival as an employer. Using the German Socio-economic Panel (SOEP), we analyze what role individual characteristics of entrepreneurs play in sustainable job creation. While human and social capital variables positively influence the hiring decision and the survival as an employer in the same direction, we show that none of the personality traits affect the two outcomes in the same way. Some traits are only relevant for survival as an employer but do not influence the hiring decision, other traits even unfold a revolving door effect, in the sense that employers tend to fail due to the same characteristics that positively influenced their hiring decision. |
| Keywords: | employer, entrepreneurship, business venturing, recruitment, firm growth, employment growth, personality |
| JEL: | J22 J23 L26 |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pot:cepadp:13&r=all |
| By: | Joonkyu Choi; Nathan Goldschlag; John Haltiwanger; J. Daniel Kim |
| Abstract: | We explore the role of founding teams in accounting for the post-entry dynamics of startups. While the entrepreneurship literature has largely focused on business founders, we broaden this view by considering founding teams, which include both the founders and the initial employees in the first year of operations. We investigate the idea that the success of a startup may derive from the organizational capital that is created at firm formation and is inalienable from the founding team itself. To test this hypothesis, we exploit premature deaths to identify the causal impact of losing a founding team member on startup performance. We find that the exogenous separation of a founding team member due to premature death has a persistently large, negative, and statistically significant impact on post-entry size, survival, and productivity of startups. While we find that the loss of a key founding team member (e.g. founders) has an especially large adverse effect, the loss of a non-key founding team member still has a significant adverse effect, lending support to our inclusive definition of founding teams. Furthermore, we find that the effects are particularly strong for small founding teams but are not driven by activity in small business-intensive or High Tech industries. |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:19-32&r=all |
| By: | Ivlevs, Artjoms; Nikolova, Milena; Popova, Olga |
| Abstract: | After the collapse of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe, former party members were particularly likely to start businesses and become entrepreneurs. However, it remains unclear whether this entrepreneurial activity was driven by the resources, information and opportunities provided by former party membership or because people with specific individual attributes were more likely to become party members (self-selection). This study is the first to separate the causal effect of former Communist party membership from self-selection. Using individual-level Life in Transition–III survey and instrumental variables analysis, we find that, in Central and Eastern European countries, membership of former Communist party has facilitated business set-up but not business longevity. Our results also suggest evidence of negative self-selection, meaning that people who joined the former ruling party tended have fewer of the traits associated with entrepreneurship such as motivation, risk tolerance, and entrepreneurial spirit. We show that former Communist party membership still matters for business practices, business ethics, and the nature of doing business in transition economies. |
| Keywords: | communism,communist party,elite networks,entrepreneurship,post-socialist countries |
| JEL: | L26 P20 P31 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:423&r=all |
| By: | Back, Paula Regina |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to show that the strategic incorporation of socially responsible actions, in small and medium enterprises contribute to improving the competitiveness of those organizations. The analysis is from a multi-stakeholder perspective. It investigates the link among firms’ relationship with key stakeholders with the objective to find out if there is a competitive advantage in applying Corporate Social Responsibilities practices. Besides the direct influence of Corporate Social Responsibility practices on competitive performance, the mediating connection of relationship improvements has been analyzed. By using their influence, stakeholders hold the key to the environment in which the organization operates and its subsequent financial performance. The empirical analysis was constructed on survey data through structural equation modeling (SEM). To accomplish this assignment data were collected from a sample of Brazilian SMEs. Participants were firms from the Southern region of Brazil mainly from the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Parana. The outcome shows that there is a strong connection between the development of Social Responsibilities practices and relational improvements. In addition, the significant relationship in developing Social Responsibilities Practices positively translates, with a high accuracy outcome into competitive performances. |
| Date: | 2019–01–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:thesis:bdumw&r=all |
| By: | Dalton, Patricio (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research); Pamuk, H. (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research); Ramrattan, R.; van Soest, Daan (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research); Uras, Burak (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Electronic payment instruments have the potential to spur the transparency of business transactions and thereby reduce information frictions. We design a field experiment to understand whether e-payments facilitate the financial inclusion of SMEs in developing world and to study adoption barriers. We encourage a random sample of Kenyan merchants to adopt a new mobile-money payment instrument and find that the decision to adopt is hampered by the combination of information, know-how and seemingly small transaction costs barriers. In addition, we nd that business owners who are more averse to transparency are more reluctant to adopt. Sixteen months after the intervention, we observe that treated firms have better access to finance in the form of mobile loans. The impact on financial access is more pronounced for smaller establishments, which also experience a considerable reduction in sales volatility. We conclude that e-payments can help un-collateralized firms become transparent and get financially integrated. |
| Keywords: | SME Finance; Transparency; payment technologies; Lipa Na M-Pesa |
| JEL: | D22 G00 G21 O33 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiucen:98cf0741-8e78-4bba-a270-4b1ee857cd39&r=all |
| By: | Bahaj, Saleem (Bank of England); Foulis, Angus (Bank of England); Pinter, Gabor (Bank of England); Surico, Paolo (London Business School) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses detailed firm-level data to show that monetary policy affects employment through housing collateral and corporate debt. Our research design exploits the fact that many small and medium-sized enterprises use their directors' homes as a key source of collateral for corporate loans, but directors typically live in a different region to their firm. This spatial separation of firms from their collateral allows us to distinguish the collateral channel from local demand effects. We find that younger and more levered firms with higher exposure to housing collateral fluctuations adjust employment the most following a change in monetary policy. The collateral channel explains a sizeable share of the aggregate employment response. |
| Keywords: | Firm heterogeneity; residential collateral; financial accelerator |
| JEL: | D22 E52 R30 |
| Date: | 2019–09–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boe:boeewp:0827&r=all |
| By: | David L. Rigby; Christoph Roesler; Dieter Kogler; Ron Boschma; Pierre-Alexandre Balland |
| Abstract: | Smart specialization was conceived as a “bottom-up†framework to identify new growth paths connected to the existing knowledge cores of regions. Operationalization of smart specialization has proven difficult, though a recent “mapping†of technologies in terms of knowledge relatedness and complexity suggests a useful cost-benefit framework. We extend these ideas, locating EU cities in a smart specialization space and tracking their development of alternative technologies over the period 1981 to 2015. Panel models show employment growth and GDP growth are faster in cities that exhibit a logic of technological development consistent with the tenets of smart specialization. |
| Keywords: | smart specialization, policy, complexity, technological relatedness, European Union |
| JEL: | O25 O38 R11 |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1931&r=all |
| By: | Enrico Beretta (Banca d'Italia); Giovanna Firpo (Banca d'Italia); Andrea Migliardi (Banca d'Italia); Diego Scalise (Banca d'Italia) |
| Abstract: | The work analyses - using various domestic and international statistical sources - the structural characteristics of the vast Italian museum, monumental and archaeological heritage, comparing them with those of the other main European countries. The main critical issues in managing the heritage are illustrated, distinguishing between factors related to conservation, accessibility, orientation towards visitors and the ability to relate with external stakeholders. Employing the microdata made available by the Istat census surveys, we study the factors behind the performance of cultural institutions in different outcome areas. The results indicate first that, notwithstanding the improvement in recent years, the effectiveness of management of cultural heritage falls short of its potential. The econometric analysis of the determinants of museum performance suggests that greater autonomy (accounting, organizational, operational) tends to generally correspond to better results, regardless of the public or private nature of the institution. Net of the individual observable characteristics of cultural institutions, there is a positive correlation between the various performance indicators, indicating the absence of fundamental trade-offs between the various branches of activity of museum sites. The legislative measures that, since 2014, have conferred a special autonomy on some museums have contributed to improving the value and attractiveness of the sites concerned. |
| Keywords: | artistic heritage, museums performance |
| JEL: | L33 Z18 H42 |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_524_19&r=all |