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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2021‒11‒15
thirteen papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | DI MININ Alberto; DE MASSIS Alfredo; MONCADA PATERNO' CASTELLO Pietro (European Commission - JRC); MARQUES SANTOS Anabela (European Commission - JRC); HAEGEMAN Karel (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered many challenges, but also opportunities, for businesses across Europe. We examine how the innovation and growth of firms in the EU have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, and how as “European Innovation Champions”, SMEs reacted to the resultant shock. We find that compared to non-innovative firms, the economic performance of innovative firms in the EU has been considerably less affected by the pandemic. We also identify five different paradoxical behaviours of ‘European Innovation Champions” during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Industrial policies targeting SMEs should be flexible and allow companies to adapt their investment plans in line with the evolving conditions to preserve and succeed through the crisis. EU instruments, such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility and Horizon Europe, offer wide opportunities for firms to exit from the Covid-19 crisis and boost their future competitiveness. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, innovation, growth, firms |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc126964&r= |
| By: | Velilla, Jorge |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we use different sources of data from the GEM to show a descriptive and comparative analysis of the different dimensions of the entrepreneurial activity, in the Spanish regions, and at international level. We also study the individual determinants of the entrepreneurial activity in Spain, and Europe, using bootstrapping techniques to avoid overfitted results. The results indicate that entrepreneurial levels in Spain are below the average of European countries, and also below the levels of United States, Canada, and Australia. However, the determinants of entrepreneurship appear to be similar in all the regions studied. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; GEM data; Spain |
| JEL: | L26 |
| Date: | 2021–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:110323&r= |
| By: | Dirk Czarnitzki; Kristof Van Criekingen |
| Abstract: | From a firm’s perspective two competing forces are driving the decision to invest in innovation. On the one hand, innovative performance is an important driver of profitability and growth. On the other hand, investments in innovation suffer from negative externalities, i.e. spillovers to other firms, and hence imitation could be induced. To preempt imitation firms may protect their inventions by means of intellectual property rights, such as patents. By taking out a patent, however, a firm also conveys information about the functioning of the invention to competitors. In this empirical paper, we highlight the trade-off of patenting by setting up a recursive system of equations on knowledge leakage and imitation that, among other factors, may be partly determined by firms’ patenting activity. Thereby we contribute to the debate on the functioning of the contemporary patent system. We find that patenting firms are being less confronted with imitation. The effect of patents on the dissemination of R&D findings is, however, insignificant. Therefore, we conclude that patent disclosures do not significantly harm the appropriability conditions for inventions, but help to protect, at least partly, against imitation, as it has been originally envisaged by policy. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, R&D, Imitation, Dissemination, Patents |
| Date: | 2021–10–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:msiper:682983&r= |
| By: | Huseyin OZTURK; YASUDA Yukihiro |
| Abstract: | We empirically investigate the capital structure of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Japan to identify whether the firm-specific determinants of leverage exhibit locational differences. Examining this theme in the context of Japanese geography is important because the country has considerable difference, especially in terms of its demography, capital intensity, and industrial structure. Akin to previous studies that have examined the impacts of firm-specific determinants on the capital structure of firms between geographies, our results indicate differences between Japanese prefectures. However, when we conduct an in-depth test of prefecture pairs, we interestingly find that the impact of the firm-specific determinants of leverage does not greatly differ between prefecture pairs in terms of both sign and magnitude. We briefly discuss why this might be an important finding for policy-making, given the recent policy responses to the COVID 19 pandemic. |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:21092&r= |
| By: | Victoria Galan-Muros (Innovative Futures Institute); Fatime Barbara Hegyi (European Commission - JRC); Alep Blancas; Andrea Sagredo |
| Abstract: | In the last decades, so-called geographies of innovation have emerged worldwide as vehicles to drive economic development. These urban areas are planned and actively managed spatial clustering of a wide range of innovative organisations and intermediaries to undertake collaborative innovation activities. However, the concept of geography of innovation (or innovation geography) remains ambiguous. In addition, there are no commonly accepted definitions or classifications of different models of geographies of innovation. Terms such as park, hub, district, cluster, and ecosystem are used interchangeably, and their definitions can be far-reaching and adaptable. The key question addressed in this research is the main challenges of current policies for geographies of innovation in Europe, offering a view on how governments can better support the emergence and development of geographies of innovation in Europe.Hence, this report aims to explore the concept of geographies of innovation as an evolution of industrial and business clustering combining theoretical and practical approaches. The authors propose a definition and classification of the different models of geographies of innovation, highlighting some of the main challenges in implementing this identification and measurement. The comparative case study analysis containing thirteen case studies from four cities provide evidence supporting the development of European, national, or regional policies, enabling current and future geographies of innovation to enhance their performance and their contributions to greener, cleaner, socially more just, and overall to more developed cities and regions in Europe and beyond. |
| Keywords: | geographies of innovation, innovation districts, economic development, social development, policy development, policy support |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc125482&r= |
| By: | Ferreira, M.; Haber, T.; Rörig, C. |
| Abstract: | Using a unique dataset covering the universe of Portuguese firms and their credit situation we show that financially constrained firms are found across the entire firm size distribution, account for a larger total asset share compared to standard heterogeneous firms models, and exhibit a higher cyclical sensitivity, conditional on size. In light of these findings we reassess the importance of the firm distribution in shaping aggregate outcomes in the canonical model of heterogeneous firms with financial frictions. We augment the productivity process with ex-ante heterogeneity of firms, allowing us to match the distribution of constrained firms conditional on size. This, together with the fact that constrained firms have a higher capital elasticity, leads to up to four times larger aggregate fluctuations and capital misallocation. |
| Keywords: | Firm size, business cycle, financial accelerator |
| JEL: | E62 E22 E23 |
| Date: | 2021–11–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:2176&r= |
| By: | RIGHI Riccardo (European Commission - JRC); LOPEZ COBO Montserrat (European Commission - JRC); SAMOILI Sofia (European Commission - JRC); CARDONA Melisande (European Commission - JRC); VAZQUEZ-PRADA BAILLET Miguel (European Commission - JRC); DE PRATO Giuditta (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | The brief presents the results of the AI worldwide ecosystem analysis for the period 2009-2020, by applying the Techno-Economic ecoSystem (TES) analytical approach. The TES approach allows to map the AI worldwide ecosystem by considering the main AI-related industrial, innovation and research activities, and all the economic players that are involved in them (i.e. firms, research institutes, governmental institutions). The brief analyses the position of the EU in the international context, via-à-vis the United States, China, and other main players in the landscape, in terms of size of the AI ecosystem, specialisation in AI areas, AI firms and AI R&D capacities. It follows with an in-depth analysis of the EU ecosystem, with a section devoted to the impact of EC-funded projects on the EU AI ecosystem. |
| Keywords: | artificial intelligence, ecosystem, ai firms, ai R&D |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc125613&r= |
| By: | Fabio Manca; Giuseppe Piroli |
| Abstract: | What are the drivers of growth and convergence in productivity at regional level? Differences in the stock of human capital across regions are hypothesized to be the major cause of differences in the speed by which following regions converge and catch-up with the most advanced ones. In addition, we test the role played by R&D expenditures and institutions exploiting a database covering European regions from 1995 to 2015, which includes regional total factor productivity (TFP) computed by the conventional residual approach. We find robust empirical evidence for these hypotheses in terms of both model specifications and sectoral disaggregation. |
| Keywords: | Regional Studies, European Regions, Catching-up, Total Factor Productivity |
| JEL: | P48 D24 J24 E02 C31 C33 |
| Date: | 2021–10–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eei:rpaper:eeri_rp_2021_07&r= |
| By: | Christopher Goetz; Martha Stinson |
| Abstract: | The U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS) provide annual measures of how many businesses begin, end, or continue their operations and the associated job creation and destruction. The BDS is a valuable resource for information on the U.S. economy because of its long time series (1978-2019), its complete coverage (all private sector, non-farm U.S. businesses), and its tabulations for both individual establishments and the firms that own and control them. In this paper, we use the publicly available BDS data to describe the dynamics of the economy over the past 40 years. We highlight the increasing concentration of employment at old and large firms and describe net job creation trends in the manufacturing, retail, information, food/accommodations, and healthcare industry sectors. We show how the spatial distribution of employment has changed, first moving away from the largest cities and then back again. Finally, we show long-run trends for a group of industries we classify as high-tech and explore how the share of employment at small and young firms has changed for this part of the economy. |
| Date: | 2021–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:21-33&r= |
| By: | LEOGRANDE, ANGELO; COSTANTIELLO, ALBERTO; LAURETI, LUCIO |
| Abstract: | In this article we estimate the determinants of broadband penetration in Europe. We use data from the European Innovation Scoreboard of the European Commission for 37 countries in the period 2010-2019. We apply Panel Data with Fixed Effects, Panel Data with Random Effects, WLS, OLS and Dynamic Panel. We found that the level of “Broadband Penetration” in Europe is positively associated to “Enterprises Providing ICT Training”, “Innovative Sales Share”, “Intellectual Assets”, “Knowledge-Intensive Service Exports”, “Turnover Share SMEs”, “Innovation Friendly Environment” and negatively associated with “Government procurement of advanced technology products”, “Sales Impact”, “Firm Investments”, “Opportunity-Driven Entrepreneurship”, “Most Cited Publications”, “Rule of Law”. In adjunct we perform a clusterization with k-Means algorithm optimized with the Silhouette Coefficient and we find the presence of three different clusters. Finally, we apply eight machine learning algorithms to predict the level of “Broadband Penetration” in Europe and we find that the Polynomial Regression algorithm is the best predictor and that the level of the variable is expected to increase of 10,4%. |
| Keywords: | General; Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives; Management of Technological Innovation and R&D; Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital. |
| JEL: | O30 O31 O32 O33 O34 |
| Date: | 2021–10–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:110457&r= |
| By: | João Marcos Preato Deolindo (UFS); Márcia Siqueira Rapini (Cedeplar/UFMG) |
| Abstract: | The present work intends to evaluate the impacts of the Professional Master in Technological Innovation and Intellectual Property of the UFMG in the contribution of the university to the firm’s technological innovation and by reducing the so-called learning divide . Besides, the role of the universities in the National Innovation Systems is addressed in a historical perspective, but also in a contemporary way, by means of the discussion on the three current main approaches about the University-Firm relationship. The Latin American approach, proposed by Arocena and Sutz (2003, 2005), is highlighted in this monograph for making opposition to models based on developed economies, presenting directions for the universities that are better suited for countries characterized by technological backwardness, deep social and income inequalities and scarcity of “interactive learning spaces”. The methodology adopted consists of a descriptive analysis of the responses collected with a survey applied to alumni students of the program and the results reverberate the findings of Arocena and Sutz (2010) about the problem of weak knowledge demand in the South and reaffirm the importance of a more activity role of universities in the social development. |
| Keywords: | Professional master, innovation, learning divides, university-firm interaction, social development. |
| JEL: | O39 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td636&r= |
| By: | XU Peng |
| Abstract: | Japan has been experiencing substantial growth in the proportion of their elderly population due to historically low fertility. Aging has strong adverse impacts on economic growth, productivity, entrepreneurship, and technology adoption. In this study, we investigate the effect of population aging as well as the effect of macro factors on corporate exits of small businesses. Economically inefficient small firms are more likely to exit the market via business closures or bankruptcies, larger insolvent firms attempt to survive by filing for rehabilitation, and larger underperforming firms seek acquisitions as a flight from loss strategy to avoid a worst-case scenario such as bankruptcy or rehabilitation. All other things being equal, population aging increases acquisitions but decreases forced exits such as rehabilitation and bankruptcies. Though it is well-documented that recent voluntary exits are driven by CEO aging in small business, population aging has no significant effect on business closures of firms operated by aged CEOs. Yen appreciations trigger rehabilitation and this effect is robust. A decline in long-term interest rates especially increases bankruptcies of non-aged CEOs. As for exit routes, population aging significantly decreases the probability of force exits relative to business closures or acquisitions. |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:21091&r= |
| By: | Chu, Shuai; Wu, Mengfei |
| Abstract: | The fundamental purpose of university geographic clustering is to gather resources through "agglomeration" to improve the performance of higher education and scientific research. However, it has been debated whether university clusters can achieve the latter goal. With the help of the “quasi-experiment” of Chinese "University Towns" project in the 1990s, this study determines the impact of university clusters on scientific research performance. Panel data of 2000 colleges and universities from 1993 to 2017 in the compilation of scientific and technical statistics of Chinese higher education and time-varying difference in differences method are used. The results show that the cluster of colleges and universities have a significant negative impact on the scientific research performance due to technological dis-proximity and rising commuting costs. And the clustering effect is related to the number of participating schools and the level of the university. Therefore, university clustering cannot effectively promote the performance of scientific research and unable to bring agglomeration economies. |
| Keywords: | University cluster,Economies of agglomeration,Scientific research performance,Time-varying difference in differences method |
| JEL: | I23 O38 O53 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:963&r= |