|
on Small Business Management |
|
Issue of 2026–08–31
thirty papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão, Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Berfin Kardaslar (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, DIW Berlin); Alexander S. Kritikos (DIW Berlin, University of Potsdam, GLO Essen, CEPA); Lukas Menkhoff (DIW Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, IfW Kiel) |
| Abstract: | In this study, we examine the relationship between personality traits, captured by risk tolerance and the Big Five traits, and firm size, as measured by the number of employees. We show that the personality of entrepreneurs matters for the size of their firm they operate. We use a novel add-on to the German Socio-Economic Panel that includes a sub-sample of owner-managers running larger firms. High levels of risk tolerance – associated with an increased likelihood of firm exit in existing research – is positively associated with firm size for entrepreneurs in the market. High scores in extraversion are also associated with larger firms. However, a high level of openness for experience, a main driver of founding ventures, is negatively related to firm size. Overall, we show that running larger firms is associated with traits that are partially different from those that increase the likelihood of entrepreneurial entry or survival. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, risk tolerance, personality traits, firm size |
| JEL: | L26 D81 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pot:cepadp:106 |
| By: | Zheng Tian; Luyi Han; Timothy Wojan; Stephan J. Goetz |
| Abstract: | Place-based policy is premised on the idea that productive investments that address endowment deficiencies may release latent comparative advantages, stimulating growth while reducing regional disparities. Extending place-based policy to the domain of innovation is conceptually challenging given conventional wisdom that settlement size is the principal determinant of agglomeration economies that fuels innovation. However, growing concern that more places are being left behind by the innovation economy has prompted greater interest in ways to expand the geography of innovation. Using confidential firm-level data from the 2018 Annual Business Survey, this study examines differences in self-reported innovation activity between firms in rural and urban counties to identify possible endowment deficiencies. We do this by employing the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method to quantify the urban-rural innovation gap to better understand the relative contributions of firm characteristics, owner characteristics, and county-level factors. |
| Keywords: | Place-based innovation policy, Rural–urban innovation gap, Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition, Annual Business Survey |
| JEL: | O31 R11 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:26-48 |
| By: | Giroud, Xavier; Liu, Ernest; Mueller, Holger |
| Abstract: | The vast majority of U.S. inventors work for firms that also have inventors and plants in other tech clusters. Using merged USPTO–U.S. Census Bureau plant-level data, we show that larger tech clusters not only make local inventors more productive but also raise the productivity of inventors and plants in other clusters, which are connected to the focal cluster through their parent firms' networks of innovating plants. Cross-cluster innovation spillovers do not depend on the physical distance between clusters, and plants cite disproportionately more patents from other firms in connected clusters, across large physical distances. To rationalize these findings, and to inform policy, we develop a tractable model of spatial innovation that features both within- and cross-cluster innovation spillovers. Based on our model, we derive a sufficient statistic for the wedge between the social and private returns to innovation in a given location. Taking the model to the data, we rank all U.S. tech clusters according to this wedge. While larger tech clusters exhibit a greater social-private innovation wedge, this is not because of local knowledge spillovers, but because they are well-connected to other clusters through firms' networks of innovating plants. In counterfactual exercises, we show that an increase in the interconnectedness of U.S. tech clusters raises the social-private innovation wedge in (almost) all locations, but especially in tech clusters that are large and well-connected to other clusters. |
| Keywords: | Innovation |
| JEL: | O31 R30 G30 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19206 |
| By: | D’Alessandro, Francesco; Santarelli, Enrico; Vivarelli, Marco |
| Abstract: | This study examines how regional technological relatedness and local AI knowledge influence regional innovative activity, as measured by patenting activity. Using a novel three-way longitudinal dataset (670 four-digit CPC classes × 302 NUTS-2 regions × nine four-year periods, 1986–2021) and leveraging a deep learning-based identification of AI patents, we show that two broad mechanisms operate in parallel. First, in accordance with the extant literature, technologies that are cognitively close to a region’s existing patent portfolio enjoy higher patenting activity, confirming that relatedness remains a strong and persistent predictor of innovative output. Second, local AI endowments are positively associated with patenting across technological fields, even after conditioning on relatedness, indicating that AI plays an enabling and cross-cutting role in a given regional innovation system. Moreover, the interaction between relatedness and AI turns out to be negative and statistically significant, implying that AI attenuates the extent to which local innovative efforts depend on the technology’s proximity to the regional portfolio. In sum, AI appears to enhance overall local innovative activity while reducing its reliance on pre-existing regional knowledge structures. |
| Keywords: | Artificial intelligence, AI, regional innovation, relatedness, Technological change |
| JEL: | O31 R11 |
| Date: | 2026–08–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2026012 |
| By: | Aaron Chatterji; Jorge Guzman; Joyce Ma; Ryan C. McDevitt |
| Abstract: | Firms shape public policy not only from the outside through lobbying and campaign contributions, but also from the inside when business owners hold public office. We study this channel using a novel dataset that links state legislators’ personal financial disclosures to bill sponsorship records across 26 U.S. states from 2009 to 2023. The disclosures allow us to observe business ownership during legislative service and to distinguish entrepreneurs, defined as legislators who both own and actively manage a firm, from passive shareholders and employees. Applying a large language model to bill text, we classify legislation as pro-business and identify a subset of pro-entry bills that reduce barriers facing new firms. Entrepreneurs are a substantial presence in state legislatures, accounting for over 40 percent of legislators, and their representation varies primarily across states rather than within states over time. Although entrepreneurs do not sponsor more bills overall, they initiate a greater share of bills as first or sole primary sponsor. They also do not appear to be generic advocates for business. Relative to legislators with other business ties, entrepreneurs are no more likely to sponsor pro-business bills or bills endorsed by state Chambers of Commerce. Instead, they selectively advance pro-entry legislation, especially bills related to deregulation and innovation rather than antitrust or access to capital. These findings document an important channel through which entrepreneurs shape the policy environment for entrepreneurship from within political institutions. |
| JEL: | D72 H7 L26 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35637 |
| By: | Jantos, Louisa; Dekker, Thekla; Bizer, Kilian |
| Abstract: | Institutions shape the conditions under which entrepreneurship and innovation unfold, yet how their degree of openness mediates sustainability-oriented development trajectories remains systematically underexplored. Drawing on 98 expert interviews across four high-performing European innovation regions, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Zürich, we develop and empirically ground a multi-dimensional framework of institutional openness as a dynamic regional capacity. Our findings reveal that institutional density is a necessary but insufficient condition for sustainability-oriented regional development: what matters equally is institutional permeability-the table to which regional configurations remain open to external actors, knowledge, and alternative development trajectories. Helsinki's highly integrative configuration stands in marked contrast to Zürich's more fragmented one, with Copenhagen and Stockholm occupying distinct intermediate positions. The interaction between formal and informal institutional dimensions, and the underappreciated role of intermediary organizations, critically determines whether regions can redirect entrepreneurship and innovation toward sustainability goals. We derive implications for place-based innovation policy. |
| Abstract: | Institutionen prägen die Bedingungen, unter denen Unternehmertum und Innovation entstehen, doch wie ihr Grad an Offenheit nachhaltigkeitsorientierte Entwicklungspfade beeinflusst, ist bislang systematisch untererforscht. Auf der Grundlage von 98 Expert*inneninterviews in vier leistungsstarken europäischen Innovationsregionen - Helsinki, Kopenhagen, Stockholm und Zürich - entwickeln und verankern wir empirisch einen mehrdimensionalen Rahmen institutioneller Offenheit als dynamische regionale Kapazität. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass institutionelle Dichte eine notwendige, aber nicht hinreichende Bedingung für nachhaltigkeitsorientierte Regionalentwicklung ist. Ebenso entscheidend ist institutionelle Permeabilität, das Ausmaß, in dem regionale Konfigurationen gegenüber externen Akteur*innen, Wissen und alternativen Entwicklungspfaden offen bleiben. Helsinkis hochintegratives Institutionengefüge steht in deutlichem Kontrast zu Zürichs stärker fragmentierter Konfiguration, während Kopenhagen und Stockholm jeweils eigenständige Zwischenpositionen einnehmen. Das Zusammenspiel formaler und informaler institutioneller Dimensionen sowie die unterschätzte Rolle von Intermediärsorganisationen bestimmen maßgeblich, ob Regionen Unternehmertum und Innovation auf Nachhaltigkeitsziele ausrichten können. Wir leiten daraus Implikationen für eine ortsbezogene Innovationspolitik ab. |
| Keywords: | Institutional Openness, Institutional Theory, Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Regional Development |
| JEL: | O31 O32 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifhwps:342483 |
| By: | Nathan Lane |
| Abstract: | Major economies are rearming, and rearmament is itself industrial policy. I ask whether defense promotion—especially innovation policy—can drive industrial development beyond the defense sector. I synthesize evidence on supply-side instruments (including R&D tax credits and grants) and demand-side procurement, tracing each from its effects on firms' own R&D investment through innovation and productivity outcomes to spillovers beyond the recipient firm. The evidence is conditionally positive: public support more often crowds private effort in than out, but returns concentrate among particular firms, technologies, and designs, and weaken as one moves from investment to outputs and from civilian to defense settings. Defense spillovers, in particular, cannot be assumed. I draw five lessons for designing defense industrial policy that delivers broader economic returns, with the greatest weight on Europe's rearmament. The developmental promise of defense promotion is real but conditional: whether rearmament also strengthens the wider industrial economy turns on how it is designed. |
| Keywords: | defense economics, industrial policy, innovation policy, R&D, procurement, EU, defence |
| Date: | 2026–08–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp2208 |
| By: | Timo Boppart; Peter J. Klenow; Reiko Laski; Huiyu Li |
| Abstract: | Which firms drive aggregate productivity growth? We document that firms with high price-earnings ratios tend to see increases in their subsequent earnings relative to sales, which we interpret as rents from ideas (innovation). We construct an endogenous growth model with shocks to firm innovation step-sizes and R&D efficiency and calibrate it to match patterns in the data. The model implies that growth would be much lower, even with the same innovative effort, if firms had the same step sizes. The model can be used to infer expected growth contributions of individual firms (such as members of the Magnificent Seven). We find that the share of growth coming from smaller listed firms substantially exceeds their sales share, whereas the largest listed firms account for less than their sales share. |
| JEL: | L11 O31 O41 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35594 |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Tourism start-ups are helping drive innovation in response to digitalisation, sustainability imperatives and changing traveller expectations. This paper examines how incubators and accelerators support tourism entrepreneurship across European and OECD countries. It highlights a growing and diverse support landscape, but also identifies challenges related to fragmented support, limited scale-up opportunities, and gaps in evidence on programme impacts. The paper outlines policy considerations to strengthen tourism innovation ecosystems, including better co-ordination, stronger industry linkages, more continuous support pathways, and improved monitoring and evaluation. By shedding light emerging practices, it contributes to a better understanding of how incubation and acceleration initiatives can support a more innovative, competitive and sustainable tourism sector. |
| Keywords: | accelerators, digital formation, entrepreneurship, incubators, tourism, travel and tourism start-ups |
| JEL: | Z38 L26 Z3 |
| Date: | 2026–08–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:cfeaab:2026/01-en |
| By: | Zoltan Elekes; Sandor Juhasz; Gergely Magyar; Balazs Lengyel; Gergo Toth |
| Abstract: | Regional industry clusters enhance firm performance, yet the geography of firm-to-firm transactions underlying this advantage remains unclear. Using nationwide supplier-buyer and labour-flow networks constructed from Hungarian administrative data, we examine how the spatial reach of cluster and non-cluster firms’ supplier, customer, and labour connections relates to firm performance. We find that greater geographic reach in both networks is associated with better firm performance. Among cluster firms, better-performing firms reach more distant customers while drawing from more geographically proximate labour markets. Our findings reveal that the spatial structure of inter-firm networks is a key source of the cluster premium. |
| Keywords: | supply chains, production networks, labour flows, regional clusters, firm performance |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2613 |
| By: | Cho, Rachel; Görtz, Christoph; McGowan, Danny; Schröder, Max |
| Abstract: | We propose a new approach to identify firm-level financial constraints by applying artificial intelligence to text of 10-K filings by U.S. public firms from 1993 to 2021. Leveraging transformer-based natural language processing, our model captures contextual and semantic nuances often missed by traditional text classification techniques, enabling more accurate detection of financial constraints. A key contribution is to differentiate between constraints that affect firms presently and those anticipated in the future. These two types of constraints are associated with distinctly different financial profiles: while firms expecting future constraints tend to accumulate cash preemptively, currently constrained firms exhibit reduced liquidity and higher leverage. We show that only firms anticipating financial constraints exhibit significant cash flow sensitivity of cash, whereas currently constrained and unconstrained firms do not. This calls for a narrower interpretation of this widely used cash-based constraints measure, as it may conflate distinct firm types – unconstrained and currently constrained – and fail to capture all financially constrained firms. Our findings underscore the critical role of constraint timing in shaping corporate financial behavior. |
| Keywords: | Financial Constraints; Artificial Intelligence; Expectations; Cash; Cash Flow; Corporate Finance Behavior |
| JEL: | D92 G31 G32 |
| Date: | 2025–09–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eoe:escoed:escoe-dp-2025-11 |
| By: | Adi Weidenfeld; Tom Broekel; Nick Clifton |
| Abstract: | The Regional Innovation Systems (RIS) framework explains regional innovation performance primarily through structural conditions and external knowledge flows. While this perspective has generated influential typologies and policy models, it offers limited insight into how RISs emerge and transform from within. This paper advances a dynamic perspective that conceptualises RIS development as a continuum from fragmented interaction to systemic integration. We argue that generative network mechanisms and systemic dimensions co-evolve recursively, enabling or constraining the formation of integrated RISs. By shifting attention from static structures to self-reinforcing dynamics, the framework provides a foundation for understanding RIS formation, transformation, and reversibility, and suggests a more adaptive, mechanism-oriented approach to policy. |
| Keywords: | regional knowledge networks, regional innovation systems, network evolution, evolutionary economic geography, institutions |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2614 |
| By: | Enriques, Luca; Nigro, Casimiro A.; Tröger, Tobias |
| Abstract: | European debates on competitiveness increasingly treat corporate law as a lever to help innovative firms scale. The European Commission's Proposal for a new "28th regime" seeks to introduce an optional, EU-wide corporate legal form designed, inter alia, to facilitate the cross-border scaling of innovative firms. A central instrument of the Proposal is the use of model articles of association to be adopted through future implementing acts. This Article argues that, while standardised articles may ease incorporation and lower drafting costs for ordinary unlisted firms, they fall short for VC-backed companies-the very cases that motivated the initiative. Building on prior work on venture capital contracting under mandatory corporate law, we identify four shortcomings. First, the architecture is incomplete: the Proposal omits a model shareholder agreement, even though effective VC contracting depends on the interaction between articles of association and shareholder arrangements. Second, the drafting process is overly generalist and unlikely to yield genuinely VC-specific templates. Third, the Proposal's fairness-oriented logic risks producing terms that clash with the asymmetric, statecontingent structures typical of VC deals. Fourth, the legal protection offered by the template is limited, focusing on formation-stage effects while leaving subsequent judicial intervention unconstrained. We propose four adjustments: introduce a model shareholders' agreement; create a dedicated VC drafting track; abandon fairness as the organising principle for VC templates; and provide a robust safe harbour covering both ex ante design and ex post enforcement. |
| Keywords: | 28th Regime, Entrepreneurship, EU Company Law, EU Inc., Innovation, Private Ordering, Startups, Venture Capital |
| JEL: | G38 K22 L26 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:lawfin:342486 |
| By: | Dieter F. Kogler; Keungoui Kim |
| Abstract: | Evolutionary Economic Geography (EEG) has become a central perspective within contemporary Economic Geography by explaining how regions, cities, industries, firms, technologies, and institutions evolve over historical time. This chapter introduces EEG’s intellectual foundations in evolutionary economics, Schumpeterian ideas of innovation and creative destruction, and geographical debates on uneven development, path dependence, and regional transformation. It reviews the field’s core conceptual contributions around history, novelty, complexity, emergence, and adaptability, and shows how these ideas have informed empirical research on related variety, regional branching, technological knowledge spaces, networks, resilience, path development, institutions, and policy. The chapter argues that EEG is best understood not as a closed paradigm, but as an evolving and plural research programme. Its future relevance depends on explaining not only how inherited capabilities shape regional trajectories, but also how capabilities, relatedness, and path dependence are produced, activated, selected, contested, and transformed. In doing so, EEG offers a powerful framework for understanding how economic landscapes inherit the past, generate novelty, and confront uncertain spatial, technological, social, and ecological futures. |
| Keywords: | Evolutionary Economic Geography; Regional Diversification; Path Dependence; Knowledge Spaces; Uneven Development |
| JEL: | R11 O33 O18 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2619 |
| By: | Choi, Jaedo; Levchenko, Andrei; Ruzic, Dimitrije; Shim, Younghun |
| Abstract: | We quantify the contribution of the largest firms to South Korea's economic performance over the period 1972-2011. Using firm-level historical data, we document a novel fact: firm concentration rose substantially during the growth miracle period. To understand whether rising concentration contributed positively or negatively to South Korean real income, we build a quantitative dynamic heterogeneous firm small open economy model. Our framework accommodates a variety of potential causes and consequences of changing firm concentration: productivity, distortions, selection into exporting, scale economies, and oligopolistic and oligopsonistic market power in domestic goods and labor markets. The model is implemented directly on the firm-level data and inverted to recover the drivers of concentration. We find that most of the differential performance of the top firms is attributable to higher productivity growth rather than increasingly favorable distortions. Exceptional performance of the top 3 firms within each sector relative to the average firms contributed 20.8% to the 2011 real GDP and 6.6% to the net present value of welfare over the period 1972-2011. Thus, the largest Korean firms were superstars rather than supervillains. |
| Keywords: | market power |
| JEL: | F12 F16 L11 N15 O40 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19207 |
| By: | Arkoh, Isaac; Van der Sluis, Evert |
| Abstract: | This study evaluates the impact of public agricultural research and development (R&D) and interstate knowledge spillovers on US agricultural productivity from 1971 to 2012. Using a statelevel production framework, it tests four spillover weighting schemes: USDA regions, geographic distance, production-mix clusters, and correlation-weighted clusters. Findings confirm that R&D significantly boosts total factor productivity, with national average social internal rates of return (19%-28%) substantially exceeding average local rates (9%-15%). Results are highly sensitive to spillover modeling, with agro-ecological similarity proving more predictive than geographic proximity. Public extension services further complement R&D, underscoring the need for coordinated investment to sustain productivity. |
| Keywords: | Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea26:404707 |
| By: | Carolin Nast; Tom Broekel |
| Abstract: | This study examines researchers’ diversification into sustainability research, distinguishing between initial entry and subsequent engagement intensity. While the existing literature emphasises individual-level drivers, we argue that such diversification is also shaped by organisational and relational contexts. Using bibliometric data from the University of Stavanger, Norway, we show that network distance to sustainability-active colleagues is a key predictor: researchers who are structurally closer to engaged peers are more likely to enter the field and deepen their involvement. By contrast, department- and faculty-level sustainability activities show weaker, more context-dependent associations, with department-level effects disappearing once network variables are included. The findings highlight the importance of intra-organisational knowledge networks for sustainability-oriented research transitions. |
| Keywords: | research diversification, sustainability research, organizational context, academic peer influence |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2618 |
| By: | Terry Moon; Linda Wu |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the income and tax consequences of selling ownership stakes in private companies using linked tax records of business owners in Canada. Comparing major shareholders who sell their entire stakes with matched counterparts who sell at a later time, we find large reductions in their overall income and taxes after selling their company, except for an initial spike in capital gains. Furthermore, they reduce their labor supply and wage income on average. We do not find evidence of serial entrepreneurship across ages or sectors, implying that business owners enjoy a "quiet life" after selling instead of starting new firms or remaining active in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | Business ownership; Firm sales; Capital gains taxation; Entrepreneurship; Labor supply |
| JEL: | H24 G34 J22 L26 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26175 |
| By: | Dekker, Thekla; Günzel-Jensen, Franziska; Scheidgen, Katharina |
| Abstract: | This paper explores how sustainable entrepreneurial ventures mobilize resources within over-supported sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems (SEEs). Drawing on 76 interviews and field data from Copenhagen and Stockholm-two mature, sustainability-oriented ecosystems densely populated with entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs)-the study employs an inductive qualitative design using the Gioia methodology. Contrary to prevailing assumptions that greater ESO density enhances entrepreneurial outcomes, the findings reveal that excessive and redundant support infrastructures generate structural inefficiencies and resource misallocations for ventures. Three distinct resourcing approaches emerge: The Hoarders, who over-engage and become trapped in ESO dependency; The Inverted Resources, who evolve from recipients to exploited ESO assets; and The Instrumentally Engaged, who selectively leverage ESO offerings for targeted gains while maintaining independence. These patterns demonstrate that in munificent ESO landscapes, venture resourcing shifts from acquisition under scarcity to navigation under abundance. The study contributes to ecosystem and resourcing theory by conceptualizing over-support as a paradoxical condition where institutional logics of support invert into extractive dynamics, undermining venture autonomy and ecosystem efficiency. Policy implications emphasize the need for outcome-oriented ESO evaluation and strategic curation over quantitative proliferation of support infrastructures. |
| Abstract: | Diese Studie untersucht, wie nachhaltige Gründungsunternehmen Ressourcen in überversorgten nachhaltigen unternehmerischen Ökosystemen (Sustainable Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, SEEs) mobilisieren. Anhand von 76 Interviews und Felddaten aus Kopenhagen und Stockholm - zwei reifen, nachhaltigkeitsorientierten Ökosystemen mit einer hohen Dichte an Entrepreneurial Support Organizations (ESOs) - wird mittels eines induktiven qualitativen Designs nach der Gioia-Methodik analysiert, wie Gründungsunternehmen auf ein Überangebot an Unterstützungsstrukturen reagieren. Entgegen der verbreiteten Annahme, dass eine höhere ESO-Dichte die Gründungsergebnisse verbessert, zeigen die Befunde, dass übermäßige und redundante Unterstützungsinfrastrukturen strukturelle Ineffizienzen und Fehlallokationen von Ressourcen erzeugen. Drei distinkte Ressourcierungsansätze werden identifiziert: Die Hoarders (Hamsterer): Gründerteams, die anfänglich möglichst viele ESO-Angebote akkumulieren, sich dabei aber in einer Abhängigkeit von ESOs verfangen und erkennen müssen, dass institutionelle Eigeninteressen der ESOs ihre unternehmerische Entwicklung behindern. Die Inverted Resources (Invertierte Ressourcen): Ventures, die zunächst als Vorzeigebeispiele im Ökosystem gefördert werden und sich zunehmend von Ressourcenempfängern zu Ressourcen für die ESOs selbst wandeln - mit der Folge von Erschöpfung durch Repräsentationspflichten und stagnierender Unternehmensentwicklung. Die Instrumentally Engaged (Instrumentell Engagierten): Erfahrene Gründerteams, die ESO-Angebote selektiv und zielgerichtet für spezifische Leistungen (z. B. Lebenszyklusanalysen, ESG-Zertifizierungen) nutzen, dabei Ineffizienzen bewusst in Kauf nehmen und ihre Unabhängigkeit wahren. Die Befunde zeigen, dass Ressourcenmobilisierung in reifen SEEs weniger ein Problem der Ressourcenknappheit als vielmehr der Ressourcennavigation unter Überfluss darstellt. Die Studie leistet damit einen Beitrag zur Ökosystem- und Ressourcentheorie, indem sie Überversorgung als paradoxe Bedingung konzeptualisiert: Institutionelle Unterstützungslogiken können sich in extraktive Dynamiken umkehren, die die Autonomie der Ventures und die Effizienz des Ökosystems untergraben. Für die Politik leiten sich daraus Implikationen ab, die eine ergebnisorientierte Evaluation von ESOs sowie eine strategische Kuration statt quantitativer Ausweitung von Unterstützungsstrukturen nahelegen. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, Resource Abundance, Resources, Multiple Case Study, Qualitative Study |
| JEL: | L26 O31 R11 M13 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifhwps:342482 |
| By: | Galanakis, Yannis; Savagar, Anthony |
| Abstract: | We introduce a novel real-time dataset—Companies House Real-Time (CHRT)— that captures daily firm creation and dissolution activity for the full population of UK-registered companies. CHRT tracks official business demography statistics but is available months earlier, providing timely disaggregated indicators. We demonstrate that firm entry is a leading indicator of GDP and employment. Using a structural vector autoregression (SVAR), we find that a one-standard-deviation increase in firm entry raises GDP by 0.10.2% over the following year and generates persistent gains in employment and productivity. These results highlight the value of real-time administrative data for macroeconomic monitoring, and underscore the importance of business formation as a margin of adjustment during economic fluctuations. Our findings suggest that firm entry data should be integrated into early-warning systems and policy frameworks, particularly in times of crisis or structural change. |
| Keywords: | Business Dynamism; Real-Time Indicators; Administrative Data; Economic Monitoring; Economic Measurement |
| JEL: | C81 D24 L11 L25 L26 O47 |
| Date: | 2025–11–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eoe:escoed:escoe-dp-2025-18 |
| By: | Ritisha Chittoor; Paul Pietraru; Andrew Sharpe |
| Abstract: | This report investigates recent trends in productivity growth within the U.S. manufacturing sector, highlighting a significant and persistent slowdown. By evaluating compound annual growth rates, we found that growth in manufacturing fell from 3.75 per cent over 1997-2011 to -0.51 per cent over 2011-2023, the largest slowdown of any two-digit NAICS sector. Using two- and three-digit NAICS data, this report first situates manufacturing within the broader private business sector and then aims to identify the specific industries contributing most to the sector’s underperformance. The manufacturing productivity growth slowdown was broad-based, but a few industries accounted for most of the aggregate decline. Comparative analysis with peer economies highlights that the U.S. manufacturing productivity slowdown has been particularly severe by international standards. Given manufacturing’s historical importance as a driver of productivity growth, its considerable scale, and its extensive inter-industry linkages, this slowdown has had broad implications for the wider private business sector. This report explores several potential explanations, including diminishing returns to technological innovation, structural shifts across industries, reduced R&D effectiveness, and the persistent effects of the Great Recession. It also considers broader constraints such as offshoring, stagnating capital intensity, and challenges related to productivity measurement. |
| Keywords: | United States, manufacturing, productivity slowdown, labour productivity, total factor productivity, computer electronics, growth accounting |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sls:resrep:2506 |
| By: | Jantos, Louisa; Bizer, Kilian |
| Abstract: | Regional innovation systems (RIS) and challenge-oriented regional innovation systems (CORIS) represent competing ideal types along a continuum from market-driven to sustainability-oriented innovation governance. Yet how these ideal types manifest empirically, and what forms of system-level agency emerge across this continuum, remains largely unexamined. Drawing on 47 semi-structured expert interviews in Zurich and Helsinki - two European innovation leaders selected through a most different systems design - and analysed through an inductive-deductive thematic coding approach, this paper shows that neither case conforms neatly to either ideal type. Both cities occupy intermediate positions on the RIS-CORIS continuum, with Zurich exhibiting a market-driven logic in which sustainability is contingent on economic viability, and Helsinki a challenge-oriented configuration in which economic development remains a constitutive co-goal. System-level agency operates through fundamentally different mechanisms in each case: resource mobilization through contractual arrangements in Zurich, and the active construction of institutional rationales in Helsinki. Despite these differences, both cases achieve comparable levels of regional innovation capacity - a finding consistent with equifinality across the continuum. Two shared structural limitations are identified: a persistent science-policy translation gap and multi-scalar governance dependencies that constrain regional actors regardless of system orientation. These findings advance the empirical understanding of hybrid RIS configurations and carry direct implications for regions seeking to reconfigure their innovation systems towards challenge orientation. |
| Abstract: | Regionale Innovationssysteme (RIS) und herausforderungsorientierte regionale Innovationssysteme (CORIS) bilden zwei konkurrierende Idealtypen. Sie spannen ein Kontinuum zwischen marktgetriebenem und nachhaltigkeitsorientiertem Innovationsmanagement auf. Wie diese Idealtypen empirisch auftreten und welche systemische Handlungsfähigkeit dabei entsteht, ist bislang kaum untersucht. Die Studie basiert auf 47 halbstrukturierten Experteninterviews in Zürich und Helsinki. Beide Städte wurden als europäische Innovationsführer mit möglichst unterschiedlichen Systemdesigns ausgewählt. Die Analyse erfolgte mittels eines induktiv-deduktiven Kodierungsansatzes. Ergebnis: Keine der beiden Städte entspricht einem der Idealtypen eindeutig. Beide nehmen Zwischenpositionen ein. Zürich folgt einer marktgetriebenen Logik, in der Nachhaltigkeit von wirtschaftlicher Tragfähigkeit abhängt. Helsinki zeigt eine herausforderungsorientierte Konfiguration, in der wirtschaftliche Entwicklung ein konstitutives Nebenziel bleibt. Systemische Handlungsfähigkeit funktioniert in beiden Fällen unterschiedlich. Zürich setzt auf Ressourcenmobilisierung durch vertragliche Vereinbarungen. Helsinki konstruiert aktiv institutionelle Begründungsrahmen. Dennoch erreichen beide Städte ein vergleichbares Niveau regionaler Innovationskapazität - ein Hinweis auf Äquifinalität entlang des Kontinuums. Zwei strukturelle Einschränkungen treten in beiden Fällen auf: eine anhaltende Lücke zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik sowie mehrskalige Governance-Abhängigkeiten. Beide begrenzen regionale Akteure unabhängig von ihrer Systemausrichtung. Die Befunde haben direkte Implikationen für Regionen, die ihre Innovationssysteme in Richtung Herausforderungsorientierung umgestalten möchten. |
| Keywords: | Regional Innovation System, Challenge-Oriented Innovation System, System-Level Agency, Innovation, Sustainability |
| JEL: | O31 R58 R11 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifhwps:342484 |
| By: | Güçeri, Irem; Hou, Xipei; Xing, Jing |
| Abstract: | We examine how investor-level tax incentives affect financing for start-ups using the introduction of a generous tax deduction for qualified angel and VC investment in China as a quasi-natural experiment. We find that the tax incentive increases funding for eligible start-ups, with stronger responses from larger and more experienced investors. The tax incentive leads to substitution between eligible and non-eligible investments. There is no evidence that the tax incentive lowers investment quality. We further show that the investor-level tax incentive encourages firm entry into affected industries, especially in cities more exposed to venture capital funds. |
| Keywords: | Venture capital; Tax incentives |
| JEL: | G24 G32 H25 L26 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19199 |
| By: | Alberto M. G. Saruggia; Sebastien Germano |
| Abstract: | This study shows that textual descriptors alone can predict early-stage startup success, defined as Exit, without relying on contextual, financial, or human capital variables. Using venture capital-curated datasets covering 7, 419 startups over 20 years, the research isolates text-based framing variables and engineers 850 features through startup narrative mapping. Data subsets and vector embeddings are evaluated for statistical significance, followed by supervised machine learning experiments across six models. LightGBM achieved the highest predictive performance (F1 = 0.48), while textual descriptors alone achieved F1 = 0.30, confirming the standalone predictive value of founder narratives. Feature analysis shows that optimized densities of hyping markers, including adjectives, jargon, and buzzwords, are associated with higher Exit probability, whereas excessive statement or name length reduces it. The study also introduces a quantifiable Hyping Score for venture capital applications, demonstrating that startup framing provides measurable signals for predicting Exit under conditions of high information asymmetry. |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2608.00045 |
| By: | Grega Smrkolj (Newcastle University); Florian Wagener (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | We study a continuous-time duopoly model of process innovation with R&D spillovers, comparing noncooperative R&D with cooperative research regimes. We extend the standard constant-spillover framework by allowing knowledge transmission to decay with technological distance and to favor followers over leaders in asymmetric specifications. In a global Markov-perfect model, firms may invest before production is viable, enter or exit production as costs evolve, and converge to no-market, monopoly, or duopoly outcomes. State-dependent spillovers change R&D incentives, catch-up dynamics, long-run market structure, and the welfare effects of research cooperation. In the computed equilibria, more follower-favoring spillovers weaken the leader's private incentive to invest but accelerate catch-up, shorten monopoly phases, and make eventual duopoly more likely. When spillovers are weak, cooperation mainly softens dynamic rivalry; when information sharing is substantial, cooperation expands market formation, lowers long-run costs, and can raise both consumer and total surplus, especially under the research-joint-venture regime. The value of R&D cooperation depends on the direction and persistence of knowledge flows, not only on their average intensity. |
| JEL: | C73 D43 O31 |
| Date: | 2026–06–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20260041 |
| By: | Mimosa Distefano; Lorenzo Incoronato; Anna Raute |
| Abstract: | Women often struggle to re-enter employment after career breaks, possibly because employers are uncertain about their productivity. We study whether hiring subsidies help firms overcome this uncertainty and hire from this group. Exploiting an Italian policy that temporarily cut payroll taxes for women hired from non-employment, we find that firms persistently hire more women with career breaks, including mothers, following subsidy adoption. Consistent with employer learning about target-group productivity, firms with better initial matches later hire more from this group. Subsidized workers also show stronger labor-market attachment. These findings suggest demand-side interventions can complement supply-side policies in addressing gender gaps. |
| Keywords: | gender employment gap; mothers; hiring subsidies; employer learning; firm hiring behavior |
| JEL: | J16 J23 H25 D83 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26211 |
| By: | Besley, Timothy (London School of Economics); Lambert, Peter John (London School of Economics and University of Warwick and CAGE); Michalski-Roland, Isabelle (Bank of England); Van Reenen, John (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of credit frictions arising from firm-level default risk on aggregate economic performance. We build a micro-to-macro model with heterogeneous firms and sector-specific production functions, showing that perceived default risk is a sufficient statistic for credit frictions. Using UK administrative data (2004-2019) matched to S&P risk measures, counterfactual estimates reveal that relaxing frictions raises output by 25% and wages by 23%. Ignoring equilibrium wage adjustments overstates output gains, while fixed-capital misallocation approaches understate them. Most gains reflect aggregate capital accumulation. Credit frictions remain above pre-crisis levels, reshape firm size dynamics, increase misallocation across firms, and dampen productivity growth over time. |
| Keywords: | productivity, default risk, credit frictions, misallocation JEL Classification: D24, E32, L11, O47 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:818 |
| By: | Johannes Gallé; Rodrigo Oliveira; Daniel Overbeck; Nadine Riedel; Edson R. Severnini |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first comprehensive evidence on how firms in an emerging economy respond to carbon taxation in the context of an early-phase policy, highlighting how firms adjust when incentives are modest but signals about future regulation are strong. We study the announcement and early implementation of South Africa’s 2019 carbon tax using detailed administrative firm-level data from 2011-2021. Employing a matched difference-in-differences design and event-study models, we trace dynamic firm responses. Contrary to concerns that carbon taxes might hinder growth or employment, we find no negative effects on firm performance or jobs. Leveraging variation in firms’ exposure to the tax through temporary tax-free allowances, we find that firms facing higher effective tax rates increased sales, employment, capital, and capital depreciation in anticipation of the policy, reflecting resolution of regulatory uncertainty and adjustments to mitigate stranded asset risks. While we detect no measurable reduction in emissions — likely due to anticipatory behavior — the results show that early-phase carbon pricing can shape firm behavior without harming economic outcomes, even in low- and middle-income settings. |
| Keywords: | carbon pricing, carbon tax, firm performance, employment outcomes |
| JEL: | H23 Q52 Q58 O13 O55 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12953 |
| By: | Jones, Kyle; Palmou, Christina |
| Abstract: | Trade matters. There is indisputable evidence across countries that firms that participate in international markets are more productive. But literature is less clear as to why. What are the mechanisms driving the trade-productivity premia observed in the data? To investigate this, we use an innovative dataset originally developed by Wales et al. (2018), which combines administrative data on trade in goods with survey data on firm labour productivity. We extend this dataset to include trade in services and updated trade in goods information between 2017 and 2022. This dataset, covering the 2005 to 2022 period, allows us to build the most comprehensive picture of British traders and to, not only estimate the most up-to-date relationship between trade and productivity but also to disentangle the role of self-selection of productive firms into exporting, from other causal impacts of trade on productivity via, for instance, technological upgrading or learning-by-doing. |
| Keywords: | trade; productivity; administrative data; learning-by-exporting |
| JEL: | F1 O3 O4 |
| Date: | 2025–08–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eoe:escoed:escoe-dp-2025-10 |
| By: | Amore, Mario Daniele; Bennedsen, Morten; Larsen, Birthe; Zhao, Zeyu |
| Abstract: | Using large-scale employee surveys and register data from Denmark, we construct firm-level measures of the working environment capturing its physical, psycholog- ical, and social elements. Our analysis reveals that firms with superior working en- vironments perform better in unannounced, third-party job inspections conducted by a government agency. Additionally, these firms demonstrate higher profitability and enhanced innovation quality, as evidenced by patent citations and survey data. Further, leveraging official medical records, we find that employees in firms with better working environments are less likely to experience mental health issues, have fewer workplace accidents, and exhibit lower levels of absenteeism. Collectively, our findings support a synergistic perspective on stakeholder and investor objectives: improving the working environment does not create a trade-off between shareholder value and employee well-being but rather leads to higher gains for both parties. |
| Keywords: | Workplace climate; Working conditions; Surveys |
| JEL: | M14 G30 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19298 |