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on Small Business Management |
| By: | Michela Laura Bergamini; Leo Sleuwaegen; Bart Van Looy |
| Abstract: | Since the introduction of the notion ‘creative class’, artists have been portrayed as contributing to the innovation dynamics of cities and regions. While insights from qualitative studies suggest positive externalities from the arts to the knowledge economy, quantitative analyses so far offer only limited or no support for a systematic positive contribution to the (overall) innovative performance of regions. In this paper, we focus simultaneously on innovations of a technical nature (measured by patents) and of an aesthetic nature (measured by design rights). Relying on data of a large set of European regions (NUTS 2), we examine their joint impact on regional economic growth, and we analyze how different types of human capital – besides scientists and engineers, also artists – are associated with regional innovative performance. Our findings reveal that both types of innovation are relevant for explaining differences in regional growth. In addition, the analysis signals a distinctive contribution both from artists and from scientists and engineers, albeit in different activity realms. While scientists and engineers’ contribution towards regional innovation is very outspoken but confined to technological innovation, the presence of artists in the region is associated with technological and, more pronounced, with aesthetic innovation. Overall, our findings suggest the relevance of adopting a more encompassing view on innovation and creativity when assessing regional growth dynamics. |
| Keywords: | Creative class, artists, design rights, patents, regional innovation, economic growth |
| Date: | 2025–10–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:msiper:774092 |
| By: | Damián Tojeiro-Rivero (University Rovira i Virgili); Rosina Moreno (AQR-IREA, University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | Prior literature has argued that, although both captive knowledge sourcing (CKS) and non-captive knowledge sourcing (NCKS) are effective strategies for enhancing firm innovativeness, the former plays a more defined role in determining the likelihood of a firm achieving product innovations. However, we contend that the focus should not only be on the decision to innovate but, more importantly, on the profitability firms derive from such innovations. Given that knowledge acquired from external sources can provide firms with ideas that differ from their existing competencies, NCKS may be more advantageous, as the resulting innovations are likely to exhibit higher levels of novelty. Additionally, we examine the complementarity or substitutability between CKS and NCKS in driving innovation. Our findings for Spanish firms suggest that NCKS yields greater benefits than CKS. Moreover, adopting both strategies simultaneously does not result in higher benefits; instead, a minimum threshold of NCKS, above the median, is necessary to realize observable gains. This indicates that firms must demonstrate a substantial level of commitment to NCKS to effectively exploit its potential for generating returns from their most novel innovations. |
| Keywords: | Radical Innovation, Captive Knowledge Sourcing; Non-Captive Knowledge Sourcing; Spanish firms; Panel data; Complementarity/Substitutability JEL classification: |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aqr:wpaper:202503 |
| By: | Xu, Tao Louie; Liu, Li |
| Abstract: | This review revisits endogenous innovation as a co-evolutionary process of dynamic capabilities amidst the global techno-nationalist Tech Cold War. Integrating micro organisational and macro institutional perspectives, it articulates a triple-staged capability growth chain: technology exploration, market exploitation, and ecosystem orchestration to capture the innovation-oriented adaptive ambidexterity by which emerging tech firms transition from component supplier to supply-chain ecosystem orchestrator. Proposing a research agenda of innovation ecosystem, mega-science infrastructure, regional cluster, and organisational culture, this research offers an alternative analytical approach to endogenous innovation in fractured environments across firm, regional, and national dimensions. |
| Keywords: | endogenous innovation; Tech Cold War; neo-techno-nationalism; dynamic capabilities; industrial development; emerging-markets firms |
| JEL: | O3 O31 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2025–06–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:126220 |
| By: | Cyril Verluise (QuantumBlack); Gabriele Cristelli (London School of Economics); Kyle Higham (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research); Gaetan de Rassenfosse (Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne) |
| Abstract: | This study introduces in-text patent-to-patent citations—references embedded in the body of patent documents—as a novel data source to trace knowledge flows. Unlike front-page citations, which often reflect legal requirements, in-text citations are more likely to originate from inventors and signal meaningful technological linkages. We show that they exhibit stronger geographic and semantic proximity, greater self-referentiality, and closer alignment with inventor knowledge. Though less frequent than front-page citations, they yield robust results in models of knowledge diffusion. We release a validated dataset and reproducible code to support future research. Our findings offer new opportunities for strategy scholars interested in the microfoundations of innovation, the geography of knowledge flows, and the role of inventors in shaping firms’ knowledge trajectories. |
| Keywords: | citation; patent; knowledge flow; open data; spillover |
| JEL: | O31 O33 R12 C81 D83 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iip:wpaper:30 |
| By: | Yousra Nassou; Zakaria Bennani (ENCGT - Ecole Nationale de Commerce et de Gestion de Tanger - UAE - Abdelmalek Essaadi University [Tétouan] = Université Abdelmalek Essaadi [Tétouan]) |
| Abstract: | This study explores the historical evolution of SMEs in Morocco, emphasizing their diversity and the challenges they face. Through a comprehensive literature review, the analysis focuses on aspects specific to SMEs, including owner-driven management, limited resources, and performance measurement systems tailored to these structures. It also highlights the distinctive challenges of Moroccan SMEs, the influences of the economic environment, and government interventions, particularly the INTELAKA program, aimed at strengthening the competitiveness of SMEs in the country. |
| Keywords: | Government Support, Morocco, SMEs |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05217049 |
| By: | Robert Petrunia (Lakehead University) |
| Abstract: | This presentation extends the literature on firm dynamics by incorporating ownership networks and financing in the study of firm growth. I observe co-ownership connections for the universe of privately owned Ecuadorian manufacturing firms between 2000 and 2019. The structure of my data allows to construct ownership network variables and determine their impact on firm growth in a quantile fixed-effect dynamic regression framework. This approach uncovers the heterogeneous impact of firm age on firm growth across the entire conditional firm-growth distributions and statistically significant leverage and network effects. The relationship between firm growth and leverage remains positive with the inclusion of ownership networks. For young firms, the results indicate that there is no significant relationship between age and growth. This result suggests that financial variables continue to matter and that ownership networks capture alternative aspects of firm dynamics that have not been previously acknowledged. |
| Date: | 2025–10–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:cand25:02 |
| By: | Chahreddine Abbes; Amélie Lafrance-Cooke; Danny Leung |
| Abstract: | This study compares the performance of businesses owned by women (majority or equal ownership) that patent with that of majority men-owned businesses and businesses where gender of ownership cannot be assigned. It finds that women-owned firms have higher survival rates, but lower revenue growth rates, after filing for a patent than businesses where gender of ownership cannot be assigned, even after controlling for observable firm characteristics. The differences between women-owned businesses and businesses where gender of ownership cannot be assigned are greater than those between women-owned and majority men-owned businesses. Women-owned businesses have lower revenue growth rates than majority men-owned businesses, but only have higher survival rates in the fifth year after filing for a patent and after controlling for observable firm characteristics. When the possibility of exit through an acquisition is taken into account, differences in survival between women-owned businesses and other businesses disappear. This suggests that women-owned businesses that patent may have different exit strategies than other businesses. The differences in revenue growth suggest that there may be differences in the quality of the invention, or that some previously documented differences in favour of men-owned businesses (i.e., access to financing and knowledge-building opportunities) may affect the type of inventions developed by women-owned businesses and their ability to successfully commercialize them. Overall, the findings support the need for policies that take gender into account. |
| Keywords: | business performance, ownership, patents, intellectual property |
| JEL: | J23 M21 |
| Date: | 2024–09–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp8e:202400900003e |
| By: | Marc Ivaldi (TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - Comue de Toulouse - Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Nicolas Petit (EUI - European University Institute - Institut Universitaire Européen); Selçukhan Unekbas (EUI - European University Institute - Institut Universitaire Européen) |
| Abstract: | The killer acquisitions theory states that established firms buy new businesses to pre-empt future competition, particularly in the pharmaceutical and digital industries. The theory fuels demand to make merger policy more restrictive. But is the theory of killer acquisitions supported by empirical facts? Focusing on past investigations by the European Commission in information technology industries, this article studies whether acquisitions by large technology companies reduce competition by eliminating future rivalry. Despite the small sample size, the findings suggest that none of the reviewed transaction was followed by the disappearance of the target's products, a weakening of competing firms, and/or a post-merger lowering or absence of entry and innovation. |
| Keywords: | killer acquisitions, case study, dynamic competition, innovation, mergers and acquisitions, nascent competitors |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05308625 |
| By: | Ghauri, Muhammad Aurang Zaib; Mudassar, Minza; Audi, Marc |
| Abstract: | Digitalization has emerged as a transformative force in modern industrial development, reshaping operational models, innovation practices, and competitive structures. This study investigates the impact of digitalization on the financial performance of industrial growth. Drawing on the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities theory, and transaction cost economics, the study develops a comprehensive framework linking digital strategy alignment, digital capabilities, technology adoption, innovation culture, and external support to industrial financial performance. Using panel data regression analysis on industrial firms, the results reveal that digital strategy alignment consistently exerts the strongest positive influence across measures of return on equity, return on assets, and asset turnover. Digital technology adoption and innovation culture show mixed effects, enhancing equity returns and operational efficiency while imposing short-term costs on asset-based performance. Digital capabilities display both transitional inefficiencies and long-term benefits, while external support emerges as statistically insignificant. These findings emphasize that the financial gains of digitalization are contingent on strategic coherence, organizational readiness, and cultural transformation rather than on technology adoption alone. The study contributes to both theory and practice by highlighting that firms must view digitalization as a holistic transformation process to overcome short-term paradoxes and achieve sustainable growth, while policymakers should focus on creating supportive ecosystems that strengthen firm-level capacities. |
| Keywords: | Digitalization, Industrial Growth, Financial Performance, Innovation Culture |
| JEL: | O1 O3 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:126074 |
| By: | Lukáš Klarner (University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Faculty of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The main aim of this paper is to evaluate whether the concept of Industry 4.0 influences current change management in small and medium-sized enterprises and what obstacles prevent its wider implementation. An online questionnaire survey was conducted in 2024 to collect data, with 203 respondents from small and medium-sized enterprises participating. The questionnaire focused primarily on topics related to the implementation of changes, awareness of Industry 4.0, and the identification of barriers to the further development of change management and modern technologies. The results show that systematic change management is often neglected in companies, and it was also found that this is particularly the case where the perception of the importance of Industry 4.0 is low. It was also found that companies with a functioning strategy are more successful in implementing change. Financial costs, insufficient employee qualifications, and employee resistance can be identified as important barriers, with these barriers particularly affecting small and micro enterprises. Factor analysis also found that the barriers can be grouped into two main categories. The research confirms that successfully managing change in the era of digitalization requires a systematic approach, management support, and knowledge of change management principles. The paper represents one phase of a broader research project. |
| Keywords: | Change management, Industry 4.0, Small and medium-sized enterprises, Implementation, Czech Republic |
| JEL: | L60 M10 O33 |
| Date: | 2025–10–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boh:wpaper:04_2025 |
| By: | Stephan Heblich; Marlon Seror; Hao Xu; Yanos Zylberberg |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of large, successful manufacturing plants on other local producers in China, focusing on “Million-Rouble Plants†built in the 1950s during a brief alliance with the U.S.S.R. The ephemeral geopolitical situation and the locations of allied and enemy airbases provide exogenous variation in plant siting. We find a boom-and-bust pattern: Counties hosting these plants were 80% more productive than control counties in 1982 but 20% less productive by 2010. This decline reflects the performance of local establishments, which exhibit low productivity, limited innovation, and high markup. Specialization hindered spillovers, preventing the emergence of new clusters and local entrepreneurship. |
| Date: | 2025–04–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:uobdis:25/792 |
| By: | Gabriel Chaves Bosch (Queen Mary University of London); Cem Özgüzel (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics et IZA) |
| Abstract: | Does the presence of migrants influence innovation at the local level? This paper answers this question using novel data containing fine-grained information on the migrant population and geo-coded data on patent locations for a large set of 19 OECD countries over the 1990-2014 period. We find that a one percentage point increase in the local migrant share increases patent applications by 2.5%. This effect is driven by more urbanised and economically developed localities, where innovation levels are already higher to begin with. However, this impact becomes insignificant when aggregating observations at larger geographical levels, suggesting that the effect of migration on innovation is concentrated in space and features high rates of spatial decay |
| Keywords: | Migration; Innovation; Patents; OECD countries; local |
| JEL: | O31 J61 R11 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:25021 |
| By: | Ibrahim Rym (UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne, COACTIS - COnception de l'ACTIon en Situation - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne, LEST - Laboratoire d'Economie et de Sociologie du Travail - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | In a context of successive or prolonged crises and the re-evaluation of our productive and democratic models in light of planetary challenges, we consider it more crucial than ever to develop the capacity to support today's and tomorrow's entrepreneurs in the processes of social transformation in which they participate. However, entrepreneurship research is fragmented into a diversity of research streams, whose history has been shaped by various, often outdated, borrowings from neighboring disciplines (sociology, psychology, economic geography, anthropology...), leading to significant conceptual proliferation and the mobilization of knowledge that is sometimes obsolete. These streams (institutional entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, international entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship...), which represent sets of entrepreneurial situations that appear distinct but also reflect the concerns and beliefs prevalent at the times they emerged (Gabrielsson et al., 2023), have since developed their own trajectories. As a result, their evolution has sometimes taken divergent paths, making it increasingly difficult to transfer knowledge produced in one domain to another (McMullen et al., 2021; Baker and Welter, 2021). This further complicates the mobilization of these distinct academic corpora to support entrepreneurial processes, during which the situations encountered and the scope of opportunities extend beyond the boundaries delineated by the fields of literature. In this pivotal period presaging the restructuring of our economies and entrepreneurial models, the need for the discipline to consolidate around a comprehensive and parsimonious conceptual core, applicable to a multiplicity of specific situations, has become increasingly apparent (McMullen et al., 2021; Baker and Welter, 2021). This requires developing the capacity to empirically refute certain existing theoretical propositions, to challenge specific conceptual frameworks, to enhance the universality of the knowledge generated, and to specify actionable, non-essentialist categories of situations for practitioners. Such categories should refer to regimes of action - e.g., seeking partners, legitimizing - rather than identities attributed to their manifestations, such as social entrepreneurship, necessity entrepreneurship, or entrepreneurship in the Global South. This pursuit of parsimony – a form of "housekeeping" (Dimov, 2024) involving the sorting and refinement of its foundational elements – justifies turning to contributions from philosophy as a discipline, and more specifically to philosophies of action. Attention must therefore focus on understanding the entrepreneurial process itself, or rather the various forms of successive situations in which it is instantiated, to resist any temptation toward reification. It must also focus on how entrepreneurs perceive this open-ended process, how they project themselves into it, apprehend the situations they encounter, and act within them. Ultimately, interest lies in the interplay between cognition, action, and situation by which the entrepreneurial process is instantiated, as well as in the intersubjectivities that influence its trajectory (Le Pontois and Foliard, 2025). It is only by documenting these dimensions empirically that it will be possible to generate truly relevant knowledge (Thompson et al., 2023). Our fundamental research aims to actively contribute to this ambition of theoretical consolidation through the proposal of an original methodological approach for data collection and analysis, reproducible across various levels of analysis. We seek to demonstrate the value of this methodological approach, which is rarely employed in our discipline (and which we have tested on a small scale), by combining complementary approaches drawn from two distinct disciplinary domains—sociology and ergonomics. |
| Keywords: | Methodology, Epistemology, Agency, Entrepreneurship |
| Date: | 2025–07–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05313293 |
| By: | Huju Liu; Chaohui Lu; Haozhen Zhang; Jianwei Zhong |
| Abstract: | Canada has one of the highest shares of immigrants among developed countries. According to the 2021 Census, immigrants made up nearly one-quarter (23.0%) of the population—the largest proportion among G7 nations—and this figure is expected to rise to almost 32% by 2041 (Statistics Canada, 2022). Immigrants also tend to have higher business ownership rates compared with those born in Canada (Green et al., 2016). Therefore, understanding the impact of immigrant-owned businesses on the Canadian economy is essential. |
| Keywords: | Immigrant-owned firms, Canada, immigrant ownership, firm characteristics |
| JEL: | J23 M21 |
| Date: | 2025–02–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp8e:202500200002e |
| By: | Ryan Macdonald; Josip Lesica; Jenny Watt; Rupert Allen |
| Abstract: | Technological change has led to opportunities and challenges for firms in cultural industries, prompting questions about how these industries have been impacted in Canada. However, there is a lack of information about firms operating in cultural domains. This study attempts to fill this information gap by identifying firms in Canada’s cultural supply chain using administrative data from 2008 to 2020. |
| Keywords: | culture, cultural institutions, firm dynamics |
| JEL: | J23 M21 |
| Date: | 2025–04–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp8e:202500400005e |
| By: | Hufnagl, Miriam |
| Abstract: | In times of multiple crises such as climate change or global pandemics, science, technology, and innovation (STI) are expected to contribute to solving these grand challenges of humankind. Regarding the related policies, we observably entered an era of strategy that started in the mid-2000s. Nation states set up large-scale policy strategies (e.g. Germany's Hightech Strategy 2025, UK's Innovation and Research strategy for growth) to support innovation-related research and development activities, which were supposed to generate solutions for existential problems. But how do individual policy practitioners perceive this development and how does it alter their practical work? This contribution focuses on the perception and practice of individual policy practitioners from formulators at ministries to implementers at agencies in Germany, Sweden, and the UK via a contextualised empirical investigation (including the qualitative analyses of 53 guideline-led interviews). |
| Keywords: | STI policy strategies and instruments, Policy coordination, Challenge-orientation, Policy practitioner, Empirical investigation |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fisidp:329633 |
| By: | Florian Englmaier (LMU Munich); Jose E. Galdon-Sanchez (Universidad Publica de Navarra); Ricard Gil (IESE Business School); Michael Kaiser (E.CA Economics); Helene Strandt (LMU Munich) |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically examines how management practices affect firm productivity over the business cycle. Using plant-level high-dimensional human resource policies survey data collected in Spain in 2006, we employ unsupervised machine learning to describe clusters of management practices (“management styles”). We establish a positive correlation between a management style associated with structured management and performance prior to the 2008 financial crisis. Interestingly, this correlation turns negative during the financial crisis and positive again in the economic recovery post-2013. Our evidence suggests firms with more structured management are more likely to have practices fostering culture and intangible investments such that they focus in long-run profitability, prioritizing innovation over cost reduction, while having higher adjustment costs in the short-run through higher share of fixed assets and lower employee turnover. |
| Keywords: | management practices; culture; unsupervised machine learning; productivity; great recession; |
| JEL: | M12 D22 C38 |
| Date: | 2025–10–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:548 |
| By: | Alexander Amundsen; Amélie Lafrance-Cooke; Danny Leung |
| Abstract: | Zombie firms are businesses that persistently perform poorly over time without exiting, and their prevalence has been rising over time across many advanced economies. They negatively affect economic growth as they tend to be unproductive and compete with other healthy firms for scarce resources. In Canada, while the share of zombie firms was falling leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, they were becoming less productive over time, were negatively affecting healthy firms and were increasingly lowering aggregate productivity. In 2019, aggregate productivity would have been up to 5% higher had zombie firms exited (Amundsen et al., 2023). |
| Keywords: | zombie firms, COVID-19, business supports |
| JEL: | J23 M21 |
| Date: | 2025–01–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp8e:202500100002e |
| By: | Matthew Brown; Mark Brown; Ryan Macdonald |
| Abstract: | This article presents an exploratory analysis of the relationship between the population, firm counts and average property crime from 2017 to 2020 across the Toronto census metropolitan area (CMA). It combines datasets from different domains—crime, business counts and population data—using 500 m by 500 m spatial grids to explore their relationships. At this scale, residential and business land use can be at least partially separated, allowing the independent association between residential populations, business counts and crime to be measured and mapped across the Toronto CMA. This analysis provides a picture of the spatial pattern of crimes across the CMA, explores and validate the data by establishing expected baseline relationships, and points towards areas for more in-depth analysis to determine the relationship between crime and business outcomes. After accounting for the population of grid squares, a positive association between business counts and crime was found, consistent with previous work. Furthermore, after considering population and firm counts, statistically significant spatial clusters of high (and low) crime rates were found. This work therefore sets the foundation for future analysis that would examine how variations in crime rates across space and time affect business outcomes (e.g., firm profitability and exit). |
| Keywords: | property crime, firms, businesses, spatial crime patterns, geospatial analysis, crime hotspots |
| JEL: | J23 M21 |
| Date: | 2024–11–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp8e:202401100001e |
| By: | Michael Fritsch (Friedrich Schiller University Jena); Maria Greve (University of Utrecht); Michael Wyrwich (University of Groningen) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how the legacy of socialist regime in countries of Central and Eastern Europe has affected innovation and R&D cooperation and compares this to Western Europe. Our analysis reveals that the negative impact of socialism on innovation Central and Eastern European countries is mediated by interpersonal trust and the quality of government. These findings highlight the significance of historical context for innovation activity. Our insights are particularly relevant for policymakers who are trying to create effective strategies to encourage technological development in post-socialist regions. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, socialist legacy, institutional quality, trust |
| JEL: | O31 O43 P20 R11 |
| Date: | 2025–10–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2025-0010 |
| By: | Tomohiko INUI; YoungGak KIM |
| Abstract: | This study examines the stagnation of total factor productivity (TFP) in the Korean economy through the lens of the “Productivity J-curve†hypothesis. Despite Korea’s world-leading R&D intensity and active investment in ICT and software, TFP growth has slowed since the 2000s. Using firm-level data of Korean listed companies, the micro-level analysis reveals that R&D and software investments are consistently associated with unobserved and complementary intangible assets. At the macro level, the revised TFP growth rate—adjusted for such intangible investments—exceeds the conventional measure by about one percentage point per year after 2008, demonstrating a typical J-curve effect. These findings suggest that measurement challenges and time lags in intangible investment contribute to Korea’s productivity puzzle, highlighting the need for improved intangible asset statistics and policies that foster complementary investments in human, organizational, and digital capital. |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:25028 |
| By: | Gianmarco Daniele; Marco De Simoni; Domenico J. Marchetti; Giovanna Marcolongo; Paolo Pinotti |
| Abstract: | We show that credit constraints significantly increase the risk that firms are infiltrated by organized crime, defined as the covert involvement of criminal organizations in corporate decision-making. Using confidential data on criminal investigations, credit ratings, and loan histories for the universe of Italian firms, we find that a downgrade to substandard credit status reduces credit availability by 30% over five years and increases the probability of infiltration by 5%, relative to comparable firms. A local randomization design comparing firms just above and below the downgrade threshold confirms this result. The effect is pervasive across sectors and regions, but particularly strong in real estate, where the probability of infiltration rises by 10% following a downgrade. Infiltrated firms also display higher survival rates than other downgraded firms, despite similar declines in employment and revenues. These findings suggest that organized crime can serve as a financial backstop – sustaining non-viable businesses and potentially redirecting their strategies to serve criminal interests. |
| Keywords: | Organized crime, Firms, Bank Credit |
| JEL: | G32 K42 L25 O17 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:baf:cbafwp:cbafwp25255 |
| By: | Luisa Alamá-Sabater (Department of Economics and IIDL, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Joan Crespo (Department of Economic Structure, Universidad de Valencia, Spain); Miguel Ángel Márquez (Department of Economics, Universidad de Extremadura, Spain); Emili Tortosa-Ausina (IVIE, Valencia and IIDL and Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain) |
| Abstract: | We empirically evaluate how the efficiency of Spanish public universities impacts regional economic performance in Spain during the period 2010–2019. Efficiency is measured using activity analysis methods that attempt to capture reflect how universities perform in their respective missions—namely, teaching, research, and knowledge transfer. We analyse the geography of higher education by examining efficiency at the provincial (NUTS3) and regional (NUTS2) levels, as well as for groups of regions (NUTS1). Our results offer several key insights. First, we find that geography plays a differential role primarily when knowledge transfer activities are considered, while geographical patterns are similar for teaching and research activities. Second, the impact of universities’ efficiency on regional economic activity varies across different outcome measures. While provinces with more efficient public university systems show higher labor productivity and capital intensity levels, there is no significant relationship with per capita income. The spatial analysis indicates that efficiency gains generate indirect and positive spillovers, particularly for capital intensity, suggesting that improvements in university performance can benefit broader regional areas. Additionally, institutional quality, measured through regional government performance indicators, reinforces these effects. Our findings suggest that policies aimed at enhancing university efficiency should prioritise the research mission. Among the three university missions, research has the greatest impact on improving productive processes and is the most effective in fostering regional economic development. |
| Keywords: | bias-corrected efficiency; capital intensity; higher education institutions; regional growth; productivity |
| JEL: | C61 J24 R11 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2025/09 |
| By: | Tefera, Girum Abebe; Cassidy, Rachel; Weis, Toni Johannes |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a systematic review of the literature that evaluates the causal impact of interventions designed to enhance women's access to productive capital in low- and middle- income economies. The review identifies 27 studies that meet certain criteria, with wide geographic coverage. Overall, the evidence suggests that grants can spur entrepreneurship, but that such effects are mostly short-lived and not experienced by women operating subsistence businesses. For individual-liability loans, the evidence shows some positive impacts --- but only when credit products are designed to overcome flexibility needs and collateral constraints, and again often only for existing women entrepreneurs with higher baseline profits. The review also identifies an emerging research frontier, focused on the use of alternative data for credit scoring and the development of novel credit products facilitated by these data sources. |
| Date: | 2025–10–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11232 |
| By: | Alfredo D'Angelo; Marco Grazzi; Le Li; Daniele Moschella |
| Abstract: | The termination of an exporter-importer (E-I) relationship could challenge the company's export process. What are the consequences on the company's export performance in the foreign country? What role does export experience play in this relationship? The paper explores the overlooked phenomenon of E-I relationship termination and provides robust empirical evidence that the event has negative consequences on the firm's export performance in the foreign country. Despite this unsurprising, yet previously untested finding, our study shows a second important remark i.e., if the exporting firm has prior export experience, it is then able to cope with the negative effect of the termination event. Moreover, we find that the positive effect of prior export experience is only present in the early years of exporting. The results are based on a large longitudinal sample of French firms exporting to foreign buyers in EU countries. Findings are discussed along an in-depth case study to enhance robustness and comprehensiveness. |
| Keywords: | Exporter-Importer (E-I) relationship termination; Critical event; Export experience; Export performance |
| Date: | 2025–10–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2025/34 |