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on Small Business Management |
| By: | Diego Sancho-Bosch (Department of Economic Analysis, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)); Elena Huergo (ICAE – Department of Economic Analysis, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how the level of public R&D subsidies and firm size jointly influence firms’ net R&D investment. Using data on Spanish manufacturing firms from 2008 to 2018, we estimate parametric and non-parametric dose–response functions after applying entropy weighting to balance covariate distributions across treatment levels. The results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between subsidy intensity and net R&D expenditure for small, medium-sized, and large firms, but not for very large firms, which display a negative linear pattern. We also find substantial heterogeneity in subsidy effects within both the SME and large-firm categories, and show that the public funding share of R&D expenditure at which the positive impact of subsidies peaks declines markedly with firm size. These findings suggest that support schemes should implement progressively lower maximum subsidy rates, rather than relying on only two distinct caps for SMEs and larger firms. Overall, the results underscore firm size as a critical determinant of innovation policy effectiveness and provide practical guidance for optimizing subsidy design. |
| Keywords: | R&D support, policy evaluation, dose-response, entropy balancing. |
| JEL: | L24 L25 O32 R11 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucm:doicae:2509 |
| By: | Junhui Jeff Cai; Xian Gu; Liugang Sheng; Mengjia Xia; Linda Zhao; Wu Zhu |
| Abstract: | This paper studies whether, how, and for whom generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) facilitates firm creation. Our identification strategy exploits the November 2022 release of ChatGPT as a global shock that lowered start-up costs and leverages variations across geo-coded grids with differential pre-existing AI-specific human capital. Using high-resolution and universal data on Chinese firm registrations by the end of 2024, we find that grids with stronger AI-specific human capital experienced a sharp surge in new firm formation$\unicode{x2013}$driven entirely by small firms, contributing to 6.0% of overall national firm entry. Large-firm entry declines, consistent with a shift toward leaner ventures. New firms are smaller in capital, shareholder number, and founding team size, especially among small firms. The effects are strongest among firms with potential AI applications, weaker financing needs, and among first-time entrepreneurs. Overall, our results highlight that GenAI serves as a pro-competitive force by disproportionately boosting small-firm entry. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2512.06506 |
| By: | Ciliberti, Stefano; Carraresi, Laura; Bröring, Stefanie |
| Abstract: | In the food industry low amounts of capital are invested in innovation and R&D and companies are mainly engaged in developing product and process innovations in order to keep up with continuously changing consumer preferences. Notwithstanding, marketing and organizational innovation are becoming pivotal for food companies in order to specifically meet these preferences, and develop new business practices which allow them to implement successful external relationships aimed at a greater and successful innovation activity. In this regard, the present paper aims to shed lights on the determinants of both types of non-technological innovations in two of the largest EU food and drink producers by turnover and value added: Italy and Germany. To this purpose, an econometric analysis is run using microdata of the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) carried out in 2012. Results highlight that, apart from some significant differences concerning the role of knowledge sources, training activities represent a relevant driver for both marketing and organizational innovations in both countries. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ief017:258158 |
| By: | Busato, Patrizia; Berruto, Remigio; Sopegno, Alessandro; Rosso, Marco |
| Abstract: | The FOODLAB project develop a project-based learning approach and an entrepreneurial spirit in students, foster interactions between stakeholders in Food innovation and guide the development of innovative projects for Ecotrophelia, the European competition on food innovation that bring hundreds of students to compete at European level with their idea. The FOODLAB project enable the setting up of a European Foodbusiness Transfer Laboratory to create/help future entrepreneurs, with dedicated modules to promote interactions with food companies, technical centres, research centres or business companies. In FOODLAB project is we reach the aim to provide an innovative tools to help to build business models, business plans to serve students, high education institutions, and SMEs. The tool built for this purpose is a client server application, highly customizable to follow the target needs. It allows to setup a complete business model and business plan providing template, defaults sentences, available example of business plan. The tool incorporate in a customizable template and related information to built-in high quality business plans, and provide kind of expert knowledge base for those who need a business plan or document to promote their idea or agrifood product for development. The tool was validated with success by a team of students that participate to Ecotrophelia Italy 2016. Training modules and guidelines are also available to facilitate the use of the tool. The tool can be used by students of High Education Institution, or workers and managers for training by also for business model and business plan implementation. The tool showed a great potential to develop of targeted, standard business models and business plans that could be transferable to other domains or tailored to a specific type of product or food innovation. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ief017:258162 |
| By: | Kartiki Verma (Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi); Sunil Kanwar (Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of the strengthening of intellectual property rights (IPR) on industry-level outcomes such as sales, innovation, and profitability in India, for the period 1990-2020. We first construct a novel industry-specific IPR implementation index that reflects de facto enforcement across 27 two-digit industries. Industry outcomes are then modelled using industry data at the two-digit level. The empirical results reveal significant heterogeneity in the effects of IPR regimes. Stronger IPR protection disproportionately benefits firms with higher R&D intensity, amplifying both R&D investment and profitability, with robustness checks confirming consistency across alternative specifications. However, the gains from IPR protection are less pronounced for firms heavily engaged in innovation. This interaction may also reflect a strategic shift in firm behavior rather than a decline in performance. IPR reform positively affect R&D and profitability, particularly in pharmaceuticals and advanced manufacturing. The strengthening of IPR is a powerful driver of performance when paired with internal innovation capacity, highlighting the critical role of absorptive capacity |
| Keywords: | Intellectual property rights, enforcement, de facto index, industry JEL codes: O34, C43, K11, L16 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cde:cdewps:360 |
| By: | Jarkko Harju (Tampere University & Finnish Centre of Tax Systems Research (FIT)); Toni Juuti (Labour Institute for Economic Research & Tampere University & FIT); Tuomas Matikka (VATT Institute for Economic Research & FIT) |
| Abstract: | Using full-population data from Finland, we show that individuals at the top of the income distribution are significantly more likely to start new incorporated businesses. High-income earners also establish more successful and productive businesses than others. In contrast, parental income is not linked with selection into new entrepreneurship or firm-level outcomes. We find that income gains from entrepreneurship are rather similar across individual and parental characteristics, and that entrepreneurship is associated with upward income mobility regardless of initial income levels. Overall, our findings suggest that entrepreneurship can serve as an upward economic ladder for individuals from diverse backgrounds. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, income mobility, productivity |
| JEL: | L26 J24 J3 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fit:wpaper:41 |
| By: | Maczulskij, Terhi |
| Abstract: | Abstract Previous international research suggests a positive association between improved access to trade market and innovation activity. This policy brief summarizes the results from the recent Finnish paper examining how firms’ innovation activity responds to product- and destination-specific export demand shocks in their export markets. I draw on unique administrative data for Finnish manufacturing firms from 1999 onwards, matched with national customs records, patent data, and innovation and R&D surveys. The analysis reveals that positive export demand shocks significantly increase patenting activity and the likelihood of introducing new product innovations, while negative shocks reduce patenting and exports. The study finds that these innovation responses are dynamic, with patent applications rising in the short term and granted patents materializing over longer horizons. Heterogeneity analysis shows that more productive and financially stronger firms benefit disproportionately from export demand expansions. This pattern suggests that financial constraints may limit the ability of firms to adopt new innovations even when export opportunities expand. |
| Keywords: | Export demand shock, Firm-level, Innovation, Manufacturing |
| JEL: | F14 O19 O30 |
| Date: | 2026–01–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:briefs:171 |
| By: | Ma, Yubei; Hu, Wuyang; Zhan, Jintao |
| Keywords: | Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:361096 |
| By: | Antonin Bergeaud; Ruveyda Nur Gozen; John Van Reenen |
| Abstract: | We introduce a methodology to measure cross-country trends in innovation capability - "technological trajectories" and implement this on a new rich dataset covering patents between 1836 and 2016 across multiple countries. Intuitively, trajectories are revealed by a country's sustained increases in patenting across multiple patent offices. We first describe the data patterns, showing the relative decline of the UK, and the rise first of the US and Germany, and then later of Japan and China. We then econometrically estimate trajectories on (i) the post-1902 period for France, Germany, Japan, the UK and US, and (ii) the post-1960 period for a wider sample of 40 countries. Our trajectories are strongly positively correlated with Total Factor Productivity growth, and also (but less strongly) associated with the growth of labour productivity and capital intensity. We show that future trajectories are predicted by a country’s initial levels of R&D, education and defence spending, classic drivers of innovation in modern growth theory. |
| Keywords: | patents, technical progress, economic history, innovation |
| Date: | 2026–01–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp2146 |
| By: | Vik, Jostein; Stræte, Egil Petter |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to explore the diversity of farmers’ relationship to the networks that make up the knowledge and innovation systems. We approach farmer’s knowledge diversity through the development of a typology based on a principal component analysis (PCA) of Norwegian farmers. The analysis indicates a preliminary typology of farmers where the main types are: 1) the self-confident farmers; 2) the knowledge-seeking farmers; 3) the knowledge-purchasing farmers; 4) the experienced farmers; 5) the collective- knowledge farmers; and, 6) the well-educated farmers. We discuss how extension service may improve communication, knowledge services, and knowledge networks. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ief017:258181 |
| By: | Sillero Illanes Carmen (European Commission - JRC); Rogalski Tomasz; De Cubber Geert; Kowalik Magdalena |
| Abstract: | This report presents the findings of a review of the Podkarpackie aerial drone and robotics ecosystem, conducted between March 2024 and November 2025 in partnership with the Regional Government of Podkarpackie. The study forms part of REGDUALOSA (Regions, Dual Use, Open Strategic Autonomy), an exploratory initiative of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). It examines policy pathways through which Podkarpackie could strengthen its aerial drone sector as a dual-use industry, thereby enhancing regional competitiveness and contributing to European strategic autonomy. The analysis applies an adapted version of the POINT methodology, combining desk research, expert interviews, and stakeholder consultations. Amid increasing geopolitical instability, the European Commission announced the European Drone Defence Initiative in October 2025, aimed at protecting EU borders and reinforcing defence capabilities under the ReArm Europe initiative, which mobilises up to €800 billion. Bordering Ukraine and hosting a well-established aerospace cluster, Podkarpackie is strategically positioned to advance dual-use innovation. Based on the evidence gathered, the report formulates twelve strategic recommendations to improve governance, funding coordination, SME participation, and skills development. It also introduces the concept of Territorial Preparedness as an innovation policy framework that positions regional ecosystems at the forefront of Europe’s resilience, industrial sovereignty, and long-term security. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc143402 |
| By: | Federico Moscatelli; Julio Raffo; Shreyas Gadgin Matha; Christian Chacua; Matté Hartog; Eduardo Hernandez Rodriguez; Muhammed A. Yildirim |
| Abstract: | In developing countries' innovation activities, limited patenting suggests structural gaps that hinder technological progress. This paper investigates whether countries can leverage their scientific and productive capabilities to realize untapped technological potential. We analyze connections between trade, science, and technology across global innovation ecosystems and introduce an indicator to assess where countries are positioned to expand their technological capabilities. Our results show that the indicator predicts technological output growth, though growth slows when countries exceed their predicted potential, indicating diminishing returns. The indicator performs better in more complex ecosystems. These findings provide valuable insights for policymakers, offering a framework to address weaknesses in innovation ecosystems and foster balanced, sustainable technological development. |
| Keywords: | Innovation capabilities, complexity metrics, innovation ecosystems, science and technology policies, industrial policy, economic development, smart specialization |
| JEL: | O25 O31 O33 O11 O14 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wip:wpaper:90 |
| By: | P.-J. Barlatier; J. Du; E. Josserand; T. Bardon (Audencia Business School); P. Hermel; E. Ruiz |
| Abstract: | https://doi.org/10.37725/mgmt.2025.13718 |
| Keywords: | Ecosystem innovation, sustainability, ecosystem governance, multilevel framework, value creation |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05427308 |
| By: | gert Bijnens; Joep Konings; Aaron Putseys |
| Abstract: | This paper identifies a firm-level Productivity J-curve induced by intangible investments. Using novel microdata on business-to-business transactions for Belgian firms, we construct a comprehensive measure of intangible in vestment covering software, R&D, design, training, and organizational capital. Our analysis shows that returns on intangibles substantially exceed those of traditional production factors, highlighting their central role in value creation. However, because intangible expenditures are rarely capitalized and are often recorded as intermediate inputs, they are not properly accounted for in conventional measures of total factor productivity (TFP). This misclassification creates systematic mismeasurement, whereby inputs are overstated relative to output in the short run, leading to an underestimation of TFP. Exploiting the lumpy nature of intangible expenditures within a difference-in-differences event-study framework, we document that such mismeasurement results in a persistent underestimation of TFP, by about 3% over a seven-year horizon. Given average measured TFP growth of 1% annually, this represents a substantial distortion. The bias is strongest among small, young, and low-capital intensive firms, reflecting slower absorption of intangible assets. By clarifying how intangible capital and emerging technologies such as AI systematically distort measured productivity, our findings provide new empirical insights into the productivity slowdown and the role of mismeasurement in modern economies. |
| Date: | 2025–11–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:vivwps:779815 |
| By: | Jos\'e M. Gaspar; Minoru Osawa |
| Abstract: | We develop a Schumpeterian quality-ladder spatial model in which innovation arrivals depend on regional knowledge spillovers. A parsimonious reduced-form diffusion mechanism induces the convergence of regions' average distance to the global frontier quality. As a result, regional differences in knowledge levels stem residually from asymmetries in the spatial distribution of researchers and firms. We analytically characterize the processes of innovation and knowledge diffusion. We then explore how the weight of intra-relative to inter-regional knowledge spillovers interacts with freer trade to shape the spatial distribution of economic activities. If intra-regional spillovers are relatively stronger, a higher economic integration leads to progressive agglomeration. If inter-regional spillovers dominate, researchers and firms may re-disperse after an initial phase of agglomeration as integration increases. This happens because firms and researchers have incentives to relocate to the smaller region, where they can leverage the concentrated knowledge base of the larger region while avoiding congestion in innovation. The smoothness of the dispersion process depends on the particular weight of intra-regional spillovers. If inter-regional spillovers become stronger as trade becomes freer, then the latter induces a monotone dispersion process. When integration is high enough, stable long-run equilibria always maximize the growth rate of the global frontier quality and the average distance to the frontier, irrespective of whether spillovers are mainly local or global. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2512.06402 |
| By: | Lingling, Chen; Bocheng, Peng; He, Leng; Sheetal, Abhishek (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) |
| Abstract: | This study replicates the instrumental variables (IV) analysis from Morandi Stagni et al. (2021), “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush: Technology search strategies and competition due to import penetration, ” which examines how import penetration affects firms’ technology search strategies, distinguishing between exploration (new knowledge) and exploitation (refining existing knowledge). We replicate this work to interrogate its assumptions, including the exogeneity of instruments (tariffs and exchange rates) affecting search only through import penetration, the linearity of effects, potential omitted variable bias from domestic confounders (e.g., firm size, R&D intensity, domestic competition), and sample biases toward larger firms due to missing data filters, which may limit generalizability in complex global trade domains. Employing the original IV method in R with publicly available datasets (NBER Patent Data, CRSP-Compustat, and Peter Schott’s trade data) for U.S. manufacturing firms from 1991 to 2006, we yield 5, 076 firm-year observations from 319 firms, closely matching the original after sales adjustments. We extend the analysis using XGBoost machine learning to assess variable importance in a non-linear, multivariate context, excluding tautological variables (e.g., total_cites, patent_stock_lag). The IV replication successfully reproduces the original outcomes: increased import penetration, instrumented by tariffs and exchange rates, significantly reduces technological exploration (mean = 0.038) and increases exploitation (mean = 0.962) across 3, 259 observations with non-zero citations. Surprisingly, the XGBoost extension reveals that import penetration adds minimal predictive power (not in the top 10), with firm fundamentals (e.g., xrd, sale, capx) and domestic competition metrics (total_sim, hhi) dominating rankings—China-specific penetration ranks modestly (#8–#9). This coherently links to the original’s assumptions by highlighting omitted confounders and non-linear interactions that overstate foreign shocks’ causal role, implying domestic and internal drivers primarily shape search strategies in global environments and calling for nuanced policies beyond trade protections. |
| Date: | 2026–01–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:m7rzn_v1 |
| By: | Nicoletta Berardi; Benjamin Bureau |
| Abstract: | This paper documents the existence and evolution of a gender gap in bank financing among non-financial firms, disentangling demand- and supply-side effects. Using quarterly panel data for French firms from 2012 to 2023, we find that this gap is driven by the demand side: women-led firms are between 12% and 26% less likely to apply for bank credit, depending on the type of loan. However, conditional on applying, the probability of rejection for women-led firms does not differ significantly from that of men-led firms. Moreover, we find no evidence that the gender gap in credit demand is closing over time. |
| Keywords: | Finance Gender Gap; Bank Credit; Gender Ask Gap |
| JEL: | E51 G30 J16 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:banfra:1024 |
| By: | Lorenzo Emer; Anna Gallo; Mattia Marzi; Andrea Mina; Tiziano Squartini; Andrea Vandin |
| Abstract: | Innovation emerges from complex collaboration patterns - among inventors, firms, or institutions. However, not much is known about the overall mesoscopic structure around which inventive activity self-organizes. Here, we tackle this problem by employing patent data to analyze both individual (co-inventorship) and organization (co-ownership) networks in three strategic domains (artificial intelligence, biotechnology and semiconductors). We characterize the mesoscale structure (in terms of clusters) of each domain by comparing two alternative methods: a standard baseline - modularity maximization - and one based on the minimization of the Bayesian Information Criterion, within the Stochastic Block Model and its degree-corrected variant. We find that, across sectors, inventor networks are denser and more clustered than organization ones - consistent with the presence of small recurrent teams embedded into broader institutional hierarchies - whereas organization networks have neater hierarchical role-based structures, with few bridging firms coordinating the most peripheral ones. We also find that the discovered meso-structures are connected to innovation output. In particular, Lorenz curves of forward citations show a pervasive inequality in technological influence: across sectors and methods, both inventor (especially) and organization networks consistently show high levels of concentration of citations in a few of the discovered clusters. Our results demonstrate that the baseline modularity-based method may not be capable of fully capturing the way collaborations drive the spreading of inventive impact across technological domains. This is due to the presence of local hierarchies that call for more refined tools based on Bayesian inference. |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2601.10224 |
| By: | Yusuf Emre Akgunduz; Gokce Karasoy Can; Elif Ozcan Tok |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of pre-pandemic digitalization investments on pandemic performance, using data from Türkiye. We compare firms that adopted digital technologies before the pandemic with those that did not, employing a coarsened exact matching and difference-in-differences approach. Our first contribution is the development of a novel firm-level digitalization index, constructed using firm-to-firm trade data. The findings show that digitalized firms outperformed their non-digitalized pairs across key metrics, including assets, sales, employment, profitability, and export shares. In particular, digitalized firms have real assets, real sales, and employment that are 3 percent, 5 percent, and 2 percent higher, respectively. The impact of digitalization is even more pronounced in terms of profitability, return on assets, and export share, with higher levels ranging from 0.13 percentage points to 0.50 percentage points. To explain these results, we identify key channels through which digitalization enhanced firm performance which is our second contribution. Specifically, we show that digitalized firms expanded their trade networks—adding more partners and operating over greater distances—reduced labor churn rates, and improved productivity and competitiveness. Digitalization expands market reach, boosting the number of trading partners by 5 percent, while also increasing the average distance to trade partners by 2 percent more than less digitalized firms. |
| Keywords: | Digitalization, COVID-19, Coarsened Exact Matching, differences-in- differences, firm performance |
| JEL: | O33 C55 D22 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcb:wpaper:2602 |
| By: | Elie Gray (TBS - Toulouse Business School); André Grimaud (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) |
| Abstract: | We formalize inter-sectoral knowledge diffusion in a standard fully endogenous Schumpeterian growth model. Each sector is simultaneously sending and receiving knowledge; thereby, to produce new knowledge, the research and development activity of each sector draws from a pool of knowledge which stems from this diffusion. This enables us to revisit the scale effects issue by revealing how this property (inconsistent with empirical evidence) relates with knowledge diffusion (the importance of which is empirically highlighted). Weshow that suppressing knowledge diffusion across sectors is a sufficient but not necessary condition for obtaining scale-invariancy. Then, we identify several sets of assumptions which enable us to obtain models which are reasonably consistent with empirical evidence both on scale effects and how knowledge diffuses in the economy. Specifically, these models do not exhibit scale effects (or at least not significant ones) while considering various scope of knowledge diffusion (including possible occurrence of general-purpose technologies). |
| Keywords: | Schumpeterian growth theory, Scale effects, Knowledge diffusion, Knowledge, spillovers, Non rivalry, Technological distance |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04723727 |
| By: | Shigeharu Okajima (Kobe University, Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, 2-1 Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe 657- 8501.); Hiroko Okajima (Nagoya University, Nagoya University Graduate School of Economics, Furocho, Chikusa Ward, Nagoya City Aichi 464-8601.); Naohiro Shirao (Osaka University of Economics, 2-2-8 Osumi HigashiYodogawa-ku Osaka-shi, 533-8533.); Kenji Takeuchi (Kyoto University, Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Yoshida-honmachi Kyoto, 606-8501.) |
| Abstract: | Eco-labels are widely promoted as information-based environmental instruments that generate “win–win†outc omes by improving both environmental quality and firm profitability. However, credible causal evidence on t heir financial effects remains limited. Using panel data on Japanese firms from 2012 to 2016, this study ex amines whether Type I (third-party certified) and Type II (self-declared) eco-labels improve firm financial pe rformance. To address selection bias, we apply inverse probability weighting with firm and year fixed effect s and stabilize weights through trimming and capping procedures. We further examine heterogeneity between B2C and B2B firms based on differences in consumer visibility. The results show that Type I labels have no significant financial effects across all specifications. Type II labels exhibit modest positive effects for B2 C firms under trimmed weights, but these effects disappear when extreme weights are capped, indicating li mited robustness. Overall, we find no consistent financial benefits from eco-label adoption, challenging the b usiness-case narrative and suggesting that eco-label policies should be justified primarily by environmental ef fectiveness rather than expected profitability gains. |
| Keywords: | Eco-labels, Environmental labeling, Firm performance, Causal inference, Inverse probability weighting |
| JEL: | Q50 Q58 M14 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:was:dpaper:2503 |
| By: | Mair, Stefan; Bitsch, Vera |
| Abstract: | Succession is a pervasive topic in recent family business research and receives attention from a wide range of research directions. Strategic and principal-agent approaches discuss the subject from an organizational point of view; gender research takes a sociological viewpoint. The study assesses the perspectives of those involved in the succession process through a qualitative research approach. Based on in-depth interviews, a comparative analysis leads to the development of a substantial grounded theory of succession in horticultural family businesses. Results show a range of determining factors, including socialization of the potential successor, affecting the generation spanning succession process. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ief017:258173 |
| By: | Bednarik, Zuzana |
| Abstract: | Rural communities face ongoing challenges related to population decline, labor shortages, and uneven economic opportunities. In recent years, self-employed in-migrants[1] have been viewed as a potential driver of rural revitalization. These individuals contribute to job creation, stimulate local markets, and strengthen rural–urban linkages. However, while their initial impact on rural economies has been well recognized, a critical question remains: do these in-migrants stay long enough for their entrepreneurial activities to generate lasting benefits? The sustainability of rural job creation depends not only on attracting in-migrants with an entrepreneurial path but also on understanding the factors that influence their decision to remain in rural areas over time. |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development |
| Date: | 2026–01–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ncrcrd:388969 |
| By: | Bloom, Nicholas; Kawakubo, Taka; Meng, Charlotte; Mizen, Paul; Riley, Rebecca; Senga, Tatsuro; Van Reenen, John |
| Abstract: | We link new forecast and management data on over 20, 000 firms to data on productivity in manufacturing and services. The panel survey was administered in the UK in July 2017 and November 2020, coinciding with two periods of considerable uncertainty from Brexit and Covid. We find that better-managed firms make more accurate forecasts for firm-level turnover and macro-level GDP. Uniquely, we show better-managed firms are also aware that they make more accurate forecasts and have greater confidence in their predictions. This highlights how superior forecasting ability enables well-managed firms to make improved operational and strategic choices. |
| Keywords: | management; productivity; expectations; uncertainty; forecasting |
| JEL: | L20 M20 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2025–12–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:130291 |