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on Small Business Management |
| By: | Baliamoune-Lutz, Mina; Basuony, Mohamed A. K.; Lutz, Stefan; Mohamed, Ehab K. A. |
| Abstract: | Empirical evidence suggests that international ownership of local firms supports firm performance and growth through various channels such as financing, technology transfer, and improved access to international markets. This is particularly true for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that otherwise may lack access to a variety of vital resources. At the same time small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) formation may promote economic development. The relationship between firm performance and international ownership has been well explored for firms in developed economies but this is not the case for firms - including SMEs - in Africa and the Middle East. Largely due to lack of relevant cross-country financial data, existing literature on African and Middle-Eastern firms has presented survey-based evidence on firm performance while evidence based on detailed financial information remains lacking. The present paper aims at filling this research gap. We identify African and Middle-Eastern SMEs operating in the formal sector and examine the impact of ownership structure on firm performance. We use cross-sectional financial data covering about 25,500 companies - including about 30% SMEs - in 69 African and Middle-Eastern countries for the years 2006 to 2015. Our results indicate that international ownership has significant positive association with firm performance. For internationally-owned SMEs this appears to be true despite lower levels of equity and debt capital, implying that internationally-owned firms use international resources - other than capital - more efficiently! |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fhfwps:22&r= |
| By: | Priit Vahter; Maaja Vadi |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the dynamic nature of complementarities between technological and organizational innovation at firms. Using Spanish firm level panel data (PITEC) over period 2008-2016, it investigates how the formation, keeping and ending of the joint adoption of these two core types of innovation is associated with firm performance. In the case of the general static test of complementarities we find no evidence of complementarities. However, once we focus on the analysis of within-firm changes in the complementarity bundle of innovation types, we observe clear evidence that some sequential as well as simultaneous strategy switches towards combining technological and organizational novelties are associated with significant performance premia at firms. Our findings point out the key role of technological innovation in these complementarities. We find evidence of sequential complementarity only when organizational innovation is added to the already existing technological innovation at the firm, not when organizational innovation is added as first component before technological innovation. In the case of dissolving the complementarity bundle of innovation types, the key disadvantage for the firm is related to dropping the technological innovation. Giving up only organizational innovation while keeping the technological innovation appears to have no negative effect, on average, on firm performance. |
| Keywords: | technological innovation, organizational innovation, complementarities, sequential complementarity |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtk:febawb:138&r= |
| By: | Leonardo Costa Ribeiro (Cedeplar/UFMG); Jorge Nogueira de Paiva Britto (Universidade Federal Fluminense); Eduardo da Motta e Albuquerque (Cedeplar/UFMG) |
| Abstract: | The unit of analysis of this paper is an international knowledge link (IKL), a knowledge flow that leaves a trace and connects two nodes – different institutions, firms and universities, in different countries. We present and analyze 17,240,834 international knowledge links (data from 2017). These international knowledge links form three basic networks. These three international layers overlap and interweave, forming a network of networks. The contribution of this paper is the identification and preliminary analysis of this overlapping and intertwinement. These networks are robust and their properties suggest a hierarchical structure of a multilayer network that is asymmetric. These networks are interpreted as new layers of innovation systems, with implications for the dynamic of innovation – a reorganization of different levels of innovation systems, now a more complicated structure with interaction between local, sectoral and national levels, as well as these overlapping international networks. |
| Keywords: | International Knowledge flows; Innovation Systems; Networks of networks |
| JEL: | O32 O34 O39 |
| Date: | 2022–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td640&r= |
| By: | Greif, Gavin |
| Abstract: | The role of merchants in shaping the German industrialization is often acknowledged, yet scarcely researched. A small number of case-studies of merchant families and individual towns have shown the significance of merchants as capital providers, industrial entrepreneurs, and political actors, yet no supra-local study into the wider significance of this social group for the German economy exists. This dissertation introduces a new source, a business directory from 1798, to construct micro-data on 6099 individual merchant and manufacturing enterprises across 56 towns in Germany. The resulting dataset is the earliest supraregional evidence on the spatial variation of urban merchant communities in Germany to date. Furthermore, this paper provides a detailed overview of the types of eighteenth-century merchants and analyses under what exact circumstances merchants became industrial entrepreneurs. Using multivariate OLS regressions, it finds a strong association between a greater share of proto-firms in a town in 1798 and its growth rates across the nineteenth century. The findings point to a hitherto overlooked link between the qualitative structure of late eighteenth century merchant activity, the elasticity of supply of early industrial entrepreneurship, and the spatial variation of urban growth experiences in nineteenth century Germany |
| JEL: | N14 |
| Date: | 2022–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:113346&r= |
| By: | Coad, Alex (Waseda Business School); Mathew, Nanditha (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University); Pugliese, Emanuele (European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC)) |
| Abstract: | We develop and apply a novel methodology for quantifying the capability development of firms, and putting these capabilities (and hence also the firms) in a hierarchy, that we refer to as their position on the capabilities ladder. Our nestedness algorithm, inspired by biology and network science, defines a capability as complex if it is performed by only a few firms at the upper rungs of the ladder. We analyze balance sheet and innovation data of almost 40,000 Indian firms for the time period 1988-2015, and observe significant nestedness. Lower rungs of the capabilities ladder correspond to basic managerial and production capabilities. Mid-level rungs correspond to internationalization and acquiring absorptive capacity. Higher level rungs are more related to M&A and innovation. ICT capabilities have become more fundamental lower-level rungs on the capabilities ladder in recent years. We find that capability ranking can explain future growth patterns and survival probability of firms, summing up in one number their future potential trajectories. |
| Keywords: | Capabilities, Competences, Complexity, Balance sheet data, Resources |
| JEL: | L2 D2 O12 |
| Date: | 2021–08–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2021031&r= |
| By: | Santarelli, Enrico (Department of Economics, University of Bologna, and Department of Economics and Management, University of Luxembourg); Staccioli, Jacopo (Department of Economic Policy, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, and Institute of Economics, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies); Vivarelli, Marco (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, and Department of Economic Policy, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, and Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA)) |
| Abstract: | Using the entire population of USPTO patent applications published between 2002 and 2019, and leveraging on both patent classification and semantic analysis, this paper aims to map the current knowledge base centred on robotics and AI technologies. These technologies are investigated both as a whole and distinguishing core and related innovations, along a 4-level core-periphery architecture. Merging patent applications with the Orbis IP firm-level database allows us to put forward a twofold analysis based on industry of activity and geographic location. In a nutshell, results show that: (i) rather than representing a technological revolution, the new knowledge base is strictly linked to the previous technological paradigm; (ii) the new knowledge base is characterised by a considerable – but not impressively widespread – degree of pervasiveness; (iii) robotics and AI are strictly related, converging (particularly among the related technologies and in more recent times) and jointly shaping a new knowledge base that should be considered as a whole, rather than consisting of two separate GPTs; (iv) the US technological leadership turns out to be confirmed (although declining in relative terms in favour of Asian countries such as South Korea, China and, more recently, India). |
| Keywords: | Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, General Purpose Technology, Technological Paradigm, Industry |
| JEL: | O25 O31 O33 O34 |
| Date: | 2022–01–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2022003&r= |
| By: | Mustapha Douch (Bank of Lithuania, The University of Edinburgh); Huw Edwards (Loughborough University); Sushanta Mallick (Queen Mary University) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides empirical evidence on how the aftermath of the 2008 crisis affected firm productivity in the UK, taking account of the cohort effect of firms established after 2008. We test this using firmspecific and time-varying credit scores to capture firms’ ability to access credit. To overcome the identification problem, a matched sample based on firm’s credit score, firm age, size and ownership status is used by undertaking the propensity score matching approach. While we find evidence that smaller firm size and changes in credit conditions affect productivity, about half of the difference in productivity remains unexplained. We extend the matching analysis to examine sectors and cohorts, and find that, during 2011-2016, the low productivity is driven primarily by newer firms operating in the services sector, rather than in manufacturing. Within services, the underlying productivity puzzle is driven by a cessation of growth in high-productivity financial services, while abundant labour supply has led to a ‘levelling down’ of performance of newer firms in the rest of services, in line with relatively lowproductivity manufacturing. |
| Keywords: | : Total Factor Productivity, Cohort, Crisis, Firm Survival, Credit Score. |
| JEL: | E00 D24 E30 G21 |
| Date: | 2022–01–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lie:wpaper:101&r= |
| By: | Tetteh, Godsway Korku (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University); Goedhuys, Micheline (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University); Konte, Maty (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, and Barnard College, Columbia University); Mohnen, Pierre (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | Despite the contribution of previous studies to unravel the implications of mobile money in the developing world, the effect of this innovation on an important source of external finance, trade credit, has not been properly accounted for particularly in the informal sector. Using the 2016 FinAccess Household Survey, we investigate the relationship between mobile money adoption and the probability to receive goods and services on credit from suppliers based on a sample of entrepreneurs who operate informal businesses. We further explore the effect of mobile money adoption on the likelihood to offer goods and services on credit to customers. Our estimations suggest that entrepreneurs with mobile money are more likely to receive goods and sesrvices on credit from suppliers. We also find a positive and significant relationship between mobile money adoption and the likelihood to offer goods and services on credit to customers. The evidence supports the promotion of mobile money adoption among entrepreneurs in the informal sector to facilitate access to credit. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, Financial Innovation, Mobile Money, Trade Credit |
| JEL: | D14 G21 L26 O16 O33 |
| Date: | 2021–11–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2021043&r= |
| By: | Carolina Bernal; Mónica Ortiz; Mounu Prem; Juan F. Vargas |
| Abstract: | While there is a large literature on how conflict affects entrepreneurship and private investment, much less is known about how the end of a conflict affects businesses and firms’ creation. A priory, the direction of the effect is not obvious, as conflicts bequest poverty traps and inequality that reduce the returns of investment, and the territorial vacuum of power that is inherent to most post-conflict situations may trigger new violent cycles. Studying Colombia’s recent peace agreement and using a difference-in-differences empirical strategy, we document that dynamics of entrepreneurship in traditionally violent areas closely mapped the politics that surrounded the peace agreement. When the agreement was imminent after a 5-decade conflict and violence had plummeted, local investors from all economic sectors established new firms and created more jobs. Instead, when the agreement was rejected by a tiny vote margin in a referendum and the party that promoted this rejection raised to power, the rate of firms’ creation rapidly reversed. |
| Keywords: | Firm entry, Conflict, Peace agreement, Colombia |
| JEL: | D74 D22 |
| Date: | 2022–01–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000518:019939&r= |