|
on Small Business Management |
|
Issue of 2024‒07‒15
twenty-six papers chosen by |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | A small group of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that grow fast over a short period of time, i.e., scalers, make an outsized contribution to job creation and economic growth. This paper provides a portrait of scalers in the Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, and its two autonomous provinces: Trentino and Bolzano-Bozen. The region hosts and attracts a dynamic population of scalers. Around one in nine SMEs in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol is an employment scaler, and more than one in six is a turnover scaler. However, the contribution of the fastest-growing scalers is lower than in the rest of Centre and North Italy, which is in part due to the sectoral specialisation of scalers in the region. |
| Keywords: | business growth, High growth firms, mobile firms, regional business environment, SMEs |
| JEL: | M1 R1 L25 |
| Date: | 2024–06–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:cfeaaa:2024/06-en&r= |
| By: | Fossen, Frank M. (University of Nevada, Reno); McLemore, Trevor (University of Nevada, Reno); Sorgner, Alina (John Cabot University) |
| Abstract: | This survey reviews emerging but fast-growing literature on impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on entrepreneurship, providing a resource for researchers in entrepreneurship and neighboring disciplines. We begin with a review of definitions of AI and show that ambiguity and broadness of definitions adopted in empirical studies may result in obscured evidence on impacts of AI on en-trepreneurship. Against this background, we present and discuss existing theory and evidence on how AI technologies affect entrepreneurial opportunities and decision-making under uncertainty, the adoption of AI technologies by startups, entry barriers, and the performance of entrepreneurial businesses. We add an original empirical analysis of survey data from the German Socio-economic Panel revealing that entrepreneurs, particularly those with employees, are aware of and use AI technologies significantly more frequently than paid employees. Next, we discuss how AI may affect entrepreneurship indirectly through impacting local and sectoral labor markets. The reviewed evidence suggests that AI technologies that are designed to automate jobs are likely to result in a higher level of necessity entrepreneurship in a region, whereas AI technologies that transform jobs without necessarily displacing human workers increase the level of opportunity entrepreneurship. More generally, AI impacts regional entrepreneurship ecosystems (EE) in multiple ways by altering the importance of existing EE elements and processes, creating new ones, and potentially reducing the role of geography for entrepreneurship. Lastly, we address the question of how regulation of AI may affect the entrepreneurship landscape by focusing on the case of the European Union that has pioneered data protection and AI legislation. We conclude our survey by discussing implications for entrepreneurship research and policy. |
| Keywords: | artificial intelligence, machine learning, entrepreneurship, AI startups, digital entrepreneurship, opportunity, innovation, entrepreneurship ecosystem, digital entrepreneurship ecosystem, AI regulation |
| JEL: | J24 L26 O30 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17055&r= |
| By: | Dobbelaere, Sabien (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); König, Michael D. (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Spescha, Andrin (ETH Zurich); Wörter, Martin (ETH Zurich) |
| Abstract: | The fraction of R&D active firms decreased in Switzerland but increased in the Netherlands from 2000-2016. This paper examines reasons for this divergence and its impact on productivity growth. Our micro-data reveal R&D concentration among high-productivity firms in Switzerland. Innovation support sustains firms' R&D activities in both countries. Our structural growth model identifies the impact of innovation, imitation and R&D costs on firms' R&D decisions. R&D costs gained importance in Switzerland but not in the Netherlands, explaining the diverging R&D trends. Yet, counterfactual analyses show that policies should prioritize enhancing innovation and imitation success over cost reduction to boost productivity growth. |
| Keywords: | R&D, innovation, imitation, R&D costs, policy, productivity growth, traveling wave |
| JEL: | E61 E65 D22 O31 O47 O52 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17026&r= |
| By: | Vivien Lefebvre (LARGE - Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg) |
| Keywords: | Potential slack zero-debt firms performance SMEs, Potential slack, zero-debt firms, performance, SMEs |
| Date: | 2023–03–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04585954&r= |
| By: | Zhang, Min; Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés |
| Abstract: | Innovation is key for economic growth and well-being. The capacity for innovation, however, is profoundly influenced by the quality of local institutions. Although the impact of national institutions on innovation is well-documented, the effects of subnational institutional variations on innovation remain underexplored. This paper studies the impact of government agency reforms, designed to enhance local government effectiveness, on the innovation performance of city-regions in China. We examine the adoption of these reforms between 2009 and 2016 as an exogenous shock to regional institutions. Our analysis identifies a positive and significant relationship between improvements in institutional quality and the innovation performance of Chinese city-regions, particularly pronounced in regions with medium to high levels of innovation. The results are robust to a series of checks including placebo and endogeneity tests and potential confounding policies. This research highlights the critical role of government institutions in driving innovation across China, bringing the fore important regional variations in the adoption of government agency reforms that are defining the country’s innovation landscape. |
| Keywords: | institutions; government quality; institutional reform; regional innovation; China; REF fund |
| JEL: | R11 O11 |
| Date: | 2024–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:122728&r= |
| By: | J. David Brown; Matthew Denes; Ran Duchin; John Hackney |
| Abstract: | Industry size standards that determine eligibility for small business subsidies have vastly increased over the past decade. We exploit quasi-random variation in the implementation of size standard increases to study the effects on small firms, subsidy allocation, and industry outcomes using Census Bureau microdata. Following size standard increases, revenues decline for an industry’s smallest firms, and they are less likely to survive. We link these effects to a reallocation of government procurement contracts from smaller to larger firms. Consequently, industries become more concentrated and growth declines. These findings highlight the broad economic effects of changing eligibility for small business subsidies. |
| Keywords: | government subsidies, small firms, procurement |
| JEL: | E24 G38 H25 H57 L25 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:24-28&r= |
| By: | Conlé, Marcus |
| Abstract: | In pursuit of technological development, China has created new organizations to promote innovation. In this brief, Marcus Conlé, an associate at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), examines New Research and Development Institutes (NRDIs), which are designed to foster knowledge transfer to industry. NRDIs were pioneered in Guangdong province in the 1990s, and have gained prominence in China’s national science, technology, and innovation policies since the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020). NRDIs are defined by their market orientation and extremely flexible organizational form. They work by establishing “innovation platforms” with local governments and private knowledge actors to carry out research and development (R&D), commercialize scientific and technological achievements, incubate local technology industries, and cultivate high-end talent. NRDIs have been instrumental to regional development in Guangdong, and especially Shenzhen, where they have succeeded in attracting talent from outside the region. NRDIs have important policy implications for international competition for talent. Understanding NRDIs is crucial for other countries that want to improve their own inter-regional innovation resources and respond to the challenge of China’s drive to attract global talent and knowledge resources. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, Guangdong, research and development, technology, innovation |
| Date: | 2024–03–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:globco:qt6rr023j0&r= |
| By: | Ondřej Dvouletý (Department of Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Business Administration, Prague University of Economics and Business.); Ivana Svobodová (Department of Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Business Administration, Prague University of Economics and Business.); Nina Bočková (Department of Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Business Administration, Prague University of Economics and Business.); Jarmila Duháček Šebestová (Department of Business Economics and Management, School of Business Administration, Silesian University in Opava.) |
| Abstract: | This article aims to understand better a specific group of first-time entrepreneurs starting a business at the age of 40 years and older (associated in the literature with the term "third age" or "silver age"), often experiencing career shocks or feeling a need to change their working lives and habits. The research explores the situation in the small, open Central European economy – the Czech Republic. It is based on extensive business register data covering the years 2010–2023, allowing first-time entrepreneurs within this age group to be captured. These individual-level data, combined with information from other sources, created a dataset of 178, 388 first-time entrepreneurs aged 40+ by the time of starting their business. These were used to study their characteristics and to analyse factors shaping their business survival. We found that, on average, 12, 857 individuals aged 40+ join entrepreneurship for the first time annually; their characteristics differ in terms of age, gender, sectoral orientation, region of doing business, and education. The results from the Cox-Hazard survival analysis support the importance of these factors, highlighting, for example, that females had higher chances of closing their business activity, and the likelihood of closing the business increases with age. This article uniquely addresses the population of third-age entrepreneurs in a specific country context. Becoming an entrepreneur at the third age might be an opportunity to change working habits, leave employment, and enhance work-life balance through an entrepreneurial career pathway. This is important, especially in the context of population ageing and increased life length expectancy, allowing individuals to stay economically active longer. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, First-time Entrepreneur, Third Age, Silver Age, 40+ population, Czech Republic, SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth. |
| JEL: | L26 J16 J14 |
| Date: | 2024–06–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:opa:wpaper:0076&r= |
| By: | Raquel Ortega-Argilés (The University of Manchester, The Productivity Institute); Pei-Yu Yuan (The Productivity Institute) |
| Keywords: | Research collaborations, Public support for R&D and innovation, UK, levelling-up, regional development |
| JEL: | O30 O40 R50 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anj:wpaper:046&r= |
| By: | Philipp Krug; Dominika Langenmayr |
| Abstract: | In many OECD countries, family firms face lower or no succession taxes if they fulfill continuation requirements. We study the effects of such preferential treat- ment in a two-generation model. Preferential treatment of continued firms leads to more entrepreneurship and higher wages, as entrepreneurs invest more as they value passing on a larger firm. However, more low-ability heirs continue the firm, leading to efficiency losses. In the presence of financial frictions, richer (but less able) heirs may invest more than buyers from outside. |
| Keywords: | Inheritance taxation, family firms, preferential tax treatment, estate taxation |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bav:wpaper:233_krug_langenmayr&r= |
| By: | Julien Martin; Florian Mayneris; Pierre Mohnen; Samson Aklobo |
| Abstract: | Today's climate and energy challenges make innovation more necessary than ever. However, market forces alone are probably not leading to a sufficient level of innovation.There is therefore a consensus among economists and public authorities that the social benefits of innovation are greater than the profits received by innovative companies. This is why governments are vying for measures to encourage corporate research and development (R&D). In this report, the authors offer a literature review that outlines what an optimal R&D support policy should be, and identify ways of increasing the impact of public support on private R&D, innovation and commercialization. Face aux défis climatiques et énergétiques d’aujourd’hui, l’innovation apparaît plus que jamais nécessaire. Toutefois, il est probable que les forces de marché seules ne conduisent pas à un niveau d’innovation suffisant. Il fait donc consensus chez les économistes et les pouvoirs publics que les bénéfices sociaux de l’innovation sont supérieurs aux bénéfices perçus par les entreprises innovantes. C’est pourquoi les gouvernements rivalisent de mesures pour encourager la recherche et le développement (R&D) des entreprises. Dans ce rapport, les auteurs proposent une revue de la littérature qui trace les grandes lignes de ce que devrait être une politique optimale de soutien à la R&D et identifient des pistes pour accroitre l’impact des aides publiques sur la R&D privée, l’innovation et sa commercialisation. |
| Keywords: | Research & Development, R&D, Innovation, Government, Support Policies, Recherche et développement, R&D, Innovation, Gouvernement, Politiques de soutien |
| Date: | 2024–06–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirpro:2024rp-10&r= |
| By: | Campbell, Douglas; Brodeur, Abel; Johannesson, Magnus; Kopecky, Joseph; Lusher, Lester; Tsoy, Nikita |
| Abstract: | Aghion, Van Reenen and Zingales (2013) find that institutional ownership causes an increase in innovation as measured by citation-weighted patent counts. To identify a causal effect, they use membership in the S&P 500 as an instrument for institutional ownership in a panel regression. We first replicate all regression tables in Aghion et al., and then test for robustness, mainly by adding in firm and sector*year fixed effects. We find that the positive relationship between institutional ownership and innovation is robust in 22% of robustness checks. On average, 2nd stage z-scores were just 42.7% of the original study. We find that when we include firm fixed effects, membership in the S&P 500 actually has a negative (though significant only at the 10% level) impact on institutional ownership (among non-indexed funds). Lastly, we find that the original control-function IV regression suffers from multi-collinearity, complicating inference. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Patents, Institutional Investment |
| JEL: | G23 G32 L25 M10 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:i4rdps:134&r= |
| By: | Elisa Rodepeter; Christoph Gschnaidtner; Hanna Hottenrott |
| Abstract: | Big Data (BD) is becoming widely available and manageable. This raises the question of whether Big Data Analytics (BDA) in companies leads to better decision-making and hence performance. Based on a large, representative set of start-ups in Germany, we study the adoption of BDA among small and young ventures and analyze its economic effects using various short- and longer-term performance measures. We investigate the effect of adopting BDA on the new ventures’ cost structure, sales, profits, survival rate, growth, and their probability of receiving Venture Capital (VC) financing while taking into account fac- tors that drive BDA adoption. Our findings, however, show that using BDA does not lead to an immediate competitive advantage in terms of the classical short-term performance measures. BDA adoption is rather associated with greater sales/profit uncertainty, higher (personnel) costs, and a higher probability of failure. Yet, the increased risk of adopt- ing BDA is compensated by a prospect of higher long-term performance conditional on survival. BDA-adopting start-ups perform better than comparable ones when considering longer-term performance measures such as their growth and their ability to secure VC. |
| Keywords: | Big data, Innovation, Productivity, Start-ups, Survival, Venture capital |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bav:wpaper:232_rodepeter_et_al&r= |
| By: | Elert, Niklas (Institute of Retail Economics (HFI)); Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | Many countries have implemented quasi-markets to enhance entrepreneurship and innovation in welfare service provision. However, the benefits have generally been limited; this can also be observed in Sweden, a country which stands out for its extensive use of quasi-markets. Based on the Swedish experience, we contend that quasi-markets can unlock their innovation potential only under a suitable institutional framework. By analyzing the development of quasi-markets in schools and eldercare nursing homes, we demonstrate that competition and profit incentives, though crucial, are insufficient catalysts for innovation in quasi-market contexts. Such markets demand a set of supporting institutions of an epistemic nature. These institutions should enable users to make knowledgeable choices and motivate entrepreneurial providers to compete and innovate in ways that align with user preferences. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Innovation Policy; Marketized care; Merit goods; Quasi-markets; Welfare services |
| JEL: | H42 H44 H75 I22 I28 L88 O31 |
| Date: | 2024–05–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1489&r= |
| By: | Diegmann, André (IWH Halle); Pohlan, Laura (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg); Weber, Andrea (Central European University) |
| Abstract: | We study how connections to German federal parliamentarians affect firm dynamics by constructing a novel dataset to measure connections between politicians and the universe of firms. To identify the causal effect of access to political power, we exploit (i) new appointments to the company leadership team and (ii) discontinuities around the marginal seat of party election lists. Our results reveal that connections lead to reductions in firm exits, gradual increases in employment growth without improvements in productivity. The economic effects are mediated by better credit ratings while access to subsidies or procurement contracts are documented to be of lower importance. |
| Keywords: | politicians, firm performance, identification, political connections |
| JEL: | O43 L25 D72 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17031&r= |
| By: | Boccia, Marinella; Iammarino, Simona; Sean, Chanmony; Veung, Naron |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the factors affecting firms’ perception on how important barriers to innovation are in the case of Cambodia. In particular, the study aims to bring the characteristics of Cambodian enterprises to the fore, shedding light on two issues: what the characteristics associated with firm’s perceptions of barriers to their economic and business operations are, and whether differences among their geographical location exist in relation to their assessment of how important such obstacles are. By using data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey 2016 in Cambodia, as well as information drawn from the previous wave of the same survey, the econometric analysis considers the complementarity among different types of obstacles highlighted in the empirical literature as being important from drawing policy implications. |
| Keywords: | obstacles to business firms; economic development policy; firm perceptions; World Bank survey; Cambodia |
| JEL: | R14 J01 L81 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:123702&r= |
| By: | Kriesch, Lukas (Justus Liebig University Giessen); Losacker, Sebastian (Justus Liebig University Giessen) |
| Abstract: | Many governments worldwide have proposed transitioning from a fossil-based economy to a bioeconomy to address climate change, resource depletion, and other environmental concerns. The bioeconomy utilizes renewable biological resources across all sectors and is strongly founded on scientific advances and technological progress. Given that the bioeconomy spans multiple sectors, industries, and technological fields, tracking it is challenging, and both policymakers and researchers lack a comprehensive understanding of the bioeconomy transition's progress. We aim to solve this problem by providing a dataset on patents, a commonly used indicator to study the development of novel knowledge and technological change, that identifies bioeconomy-related inventions. We leverage the advanced semantic understanding embedded in pre-trained transformer models to identify bioeconomy-related patents based on patent abstracts, and we use a topic modelling approach to identify several coherent technological fields within the corpus of bioeconomy patents. The dataset can be linked to other patent databases and therefore provides rich opportunities to study the technological knowledge base of the bioeconomy. |
| Keywords: | Patents; Bioeconomy; Natural Language Processing; Innovation |
| JEL: | O31 O34 Q16 Q55 |
| Date: | 2024–06–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2024_008&r= |
| By: | Robin Cowan; Nicolas Jonard; Ruth Samson |
| Abstract: | Many scholars observed changes in the intellectual property rights systems in the 1980s and 1990s throughout the world. Patent systems in particular seemed to be expanding their scope, and the legal system seemed to be changing its attitudes towards intellectual property rights. At the same time, and probably in response, firms started to change their patenting behaviour — treating patents as tools of competition and bargaining rather than as a means to protect the fruits of intellectual labour. In this paper we present a simulation model that can be used to discuss that shift. Firms search for new technologies and patent what they find. But different firms have different strategies: one is to protect an invention; a second is to protect a technology space; the third is to attack others’ technology spaces. In the literature the latter two have been described as different types of blocking. We examine different IPR regimes, characterized by who is able to infringe whose patent rights. This is an extreme case of who is able to extract rents from a given configuration of patent rights. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Patents, Knowledge network, Blocking strategies. |
| JEL: | O31 O34 C6 L5 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2024-20&r= |
| By: | JaeBin Ahn; Shekhar Aiyar; Andrea F. Presbitero |
| Abstract: | This paper provides cross-country firm-level evidence on productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bre:wpaper:node_10134&r= |
| By: | Brown, Alexander |
| Abstract: | China is creating an “accelerator state” through a multi-layered system to identify and fast track the growth of high-tech SMEs in strategic sectors. Certified high-tech SMEs enjoy unique advantages, most notably privileged access to public and private financing. In this policy brief, MERICS analyst Alexander Brown offers an analysis of the “Little Giants” program—a central feature of the accelerator state— that proves that selected firms are indeed benefiting from enhanced financing. The study also reveals flaws in its selection process. The implications for foreign actors are significant. The accelerator state aims to replace imports in key value chains, which poses a direct challenge to foreign firms. The blurred lines between state support and market forces in the scheme also make it more difficult for foreign governments to track distortionary practices and enforce fair competition. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, china, accelerator state, robotics |
| Date: | 2024–04–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:globco:qt4kx613b2&r= |
| By: | Roberto Blanco (BANCO DE ESPAÑA); Miguel García-Posada (BANCO DE ESPAÑA); Sergio Mayordomo (BANCO DE ESPAÑA); María Rodríguez-Moreno (BANCO DE ESPAÑA) |
| Abstract: | We study the access to credit and the propensity to exit the market of firms with no bank debt (the main funding source of Spanish non-listed firms) around the COVID-19 crisis. Our methodology allows us to disentangle credit supply from credit demand, as having no bank debt may be the result of financial constraints or a deliberate strategy. Before the COVID-19 crisis, zero-bank-debt firms, especially risky ones, faced more difficult access to bank loans than firms that had previously held bank debt owing to their lack of credit history. These credit constraints were tightened by the COVID shock, regardless of firms’ risk, arguably because of increased information asymmetries during a period of high macroeconomic uncertainty. Zero-bank-debt firms, even those with a low probability of default, were much more likely to leave the market during the COVID-19 crisis than firms with a history of bank debt. Moreover, granting new credit to zero-bank-debt firms reduced their probability of exit, which suggests a causal relationship between the two aforementioned findings. Beyond the specific setting of the pandemic, this paper adds to the broader literature on a better understanding of supply and demand-side constraints for corporate external funding, as crystalised in zero-debt firms. |
| Keywords: | zero-debt firms, credit constraints, information asymmetries, guarantees, market exit |
| JEL: | G30 G32 G21 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:2421&r= |
| By: | Peter Dickinson (Warwick Institute for Employment Research); Emily Erickson (Warwick Institute for Employment Research); Chris Warhurst (Warwick Institute for Employment Research) |
| Keywords: | Research, development, innovation, regional, sectoral |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anj:ppaper:034&r= |
| By: | Vivien Lefebvre (LARGE - Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg) |
| Keywords: | J63 L25 Layoffs SMEs social proximity stakeholder salience theory, J63, L25 Layoffs, SMEs, social proximity, stakeholder salience theory |
| Date: | 2023–04–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04585953&r= |
| By: | Arnone, Massimo; Angelillis, Barbara; Costantiello, Alberto; Leogrande, Angelo |
| Abstract: | In this article, we analyze the relationships that connect graduates from high school, the training system and employment rates and conditions in the Italian regions between 2004 and 2022. The data used refer to the Istat Bes database. The results show that the growth in the number of high school graduates is positively associated with higher university education and employment with the exception of job satisfaction. Subsequently we also present a clusterization with k-Means algorithm confronting the Silhouette Coefficient with the Elbow Method. Finally, we confront seven different machine-learning algorithms for the prediction of the level of graduated from high school. We also present economic policy suggestions to increase schooling in the Italian regions. The results are critically discussed |
| Date: | 2024–06–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:8whf2&r= |
| By: | Jose M Gonzalez-Varona; Adolfo Lopez-Paredes; David Poza; Fernando Acebes |
| Abstract: | Purpose: The new competitive environment characterized by innovation and constant change is forcing a new organizational behavior. This requires a digital transformation of SMEs based on collective performance determinants. SMEs have particular characteristics that differentiate them from large companies and a model that allows them to identify, leverage and develop their digital capabilities can help them to advance in digital maturity. Design/methodology/approach: An in-depth review of the existing literature on digital transformation and organizational competence was carried out on Scopus and Web of Science to identify the digital challenges faced by SMEs, and what digital capabilities they have to develop to face these challenges. In order to obtain the necessary information for the refinement of organizational competence for digital transformation model, six experts were interviewed; three of them are academics and the other three are professionals with management responsibilities in SMEs. We used semi-structured interviews, to keep the interviews focused and facilitate cross-data analysis between experts. In addition, it allowed us the possibility of analyzing new relevant aspects that could arise during the interview. Findings: As a result of this study we have developed a refined model of organizational competence for digital transformation that allows SMEs to identify and develop the digital capabilities necessary to advance in the digital transformation, refined with the opinions of six experts consulted. We were able to observe the importance of organizational learning and organizational knowledge to advance the digital transformation of SMEs. |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2406.01615&r= |
| By: | Arnone, Massimo; Leogrande, Angelo |
| Abstract: | In the following article, we analyzed a variable present in the ISTAT-BES dataset, namely "People You Can Count On"-PYCC for the Italian regions. Following an analysis of the time series aimed at highlighting the trends of the regions, we created a clustering with a k-Means algorithm optimized with the Silhouette coefficient. The data shows the presence of two clusters. We then present an econometric model aimed at estimating the value of PYCC based on a set of socio-economic variables. The results are also discussed in light of the economic policy implications. |
| Keywords: | Welfare Economics, Altruism, Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making, Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure, Inequality. |
| JEL: | D6 D63 D64 D9 J21 |
| Date: | 2024–06–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:121277&r= |