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on Economics of Strategic Management |
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Issue of 2019‒05‒13
eleven papers chosen by João José de Matos Ferreira Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Rammer, Christian; Spielkamp, Alfred |
| Abstract: | Hidden Champions (HCs) are firms unknown to the wider public, but global leaders in the niche markets they serve. This paper looks at distinctive features of these firms, focusing on their dynamic capabilities. Employing a unique data base on German firms, we identify a representative sample of German HCs. Based on a matching technique, we examine differences to other firms in terms of the firms' processes, position, and path. We find that HCs' competitive strategy rests on technology leadership and customisation. HCs are more open in their knowledge management, but without compromising control over the new product development process. HCs do not invest more into innovation, but achieve higher innovation success. The higher efficiency can be linked to their superior technological capabilities and to higher investment in human capital and HR management practices that mobilise the creative potential of their employees. |
| Keywords: | Hidden Champions,Germany,Competitive Strategy,Knowledge Management,Innovation,Dynamic Firm Capabilities |
| JEL: | L21 L25 M10 M21 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:19012&r=all |
| By: | Steenkamp Andre; Schaffer Mark; Flowerday Wayde; Goddard John |
| Abstract: | Improvements in productivity are necessary to effectively increase economic growth in the long term. The literature emphasizes a positive correlation between firm-level innovation and productivity gains. It is unsurprising, then, that policy makers and researchers widely acknowledge that innovation is one of the major drivers of productivity growth, and is therefore of critical importance to the competitiveness and growth of firms. Research and development (R&D) expenditure is used extensively as a proxy for innovation in the literature.Here, we use a production function approach to estimate the return to R&D in South African manufacturing firms for the period 2009–2014 using South African firm-level data. We find that the return to R&D in South African manufacturing firms is high compared to OECD countries. This analysis has been undertaken several times for OECD countries, but far less frequently for non-OECD countries. These findings therefore are not just novel for South Africa, but for the development economics literature more generally, and raise important insights for innovation policy in South Africa. |
| Keywords: | Productivity |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2018-42&r=all |
| By: | Chieu Trinh; Nguyen Tam |
| Abstract: | Slack resources are usually identified as an endogenous motivation for firms’ innovation. Still, it is crucial to assess the importance of slack in supporting innovation, especially in different institutional contexts.Therefore, the paper investigates the relationship by exploring a longitudinal dataset of 15,589 observations from about 2,500 surveyed manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Viet Nam. The analysis reveals that slack resources promote innovation in different ways.While the financial slack harms the efforts of introducing innovation, the presence of human resource slack encourages firms to engage more in innovation activities resulting in the introduction of new products or business processes.We further found that for firms located in a more favourable business environment the impact of human resource slack on innovation is less pronounced whereas the negative impact of financial slack is lessened. The above results enrich the current literature on the relationship between slack and innovation within an institutional context in emerging economies. |
| Keywords: | Slack,SMEs,Stewardship theory,Institutional economics,Behavioural Theory,Innovation,Institutional economics theory |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2018-78&r=all |
| By: | Lota Dabio Tamini; Aristide B. Valéa |
| Abstract: | Canadian small and medium-sized firms face two major challenges, namely, that of innovation in supporting their growth and improving their competitiveness and that of access to international markets. The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of research and Development (R&D) investment on the export performance of Canadian agri-food companies and on that of related sectors, namely, the textile and clothing sector and the manufacture of leather goods and similar products. We used impact assessment methods to analyze the effects of firms' innovation activities on their export performance. First, we analyzed explanatory factors for R&D expenses; second, we analyzed the impact of R&D on extensive (market access) and intensive (trade value) margins of trade. In doing so, we used Statistics Canada's National Accounts Longitudinal Microdata File (NALMF) for 2010 to 2015, which is coupled with the Trade by Exporter Characteristics (TEC) database. The size of firms and their support from the Canadian government affect their propensity to invest in R&D, the value of R&D expenses and their intensity, as measured from the ratio of R&D to sales of goods and services. Overall, our results show that investment in R&D has a positive impact on the export performance of agri-food SMEs. Les petites et moyennes entreprises (PME) canadiennes font face à deux grands enjeux soit celui de l’innovation afin notamment de soutenir leur croissance et améliorer leur compétitivité et celui de l’accès aux marchés internationaux. Le présent projet de recherche a pour objectif d’analyser l’impact des investissements en recherche et développement (R&D) sur les performances à l’exportation des entreprises agroalimentaires canadiennes et de celles de secteurs connexes soit les industries du textile et des vêtements et de la fabrication de produits du cuir et produits analogues. Les méthodes d’évaluation d’impact seront utilisées pour analyser les effets des activités d’innovation des entreprises sur leurs performances à l’exportation. Dans un premier temps, les facteurs explicatifs des investissements en R&D sont analysé. Puis nous analysons les effets des investissements en R&D sur les marges extensive (accès aux marchés) et intensive (valeur du commerce). Nous utilisons le Fichier de micro données longitudinales des comptes nationaux (NALMF) de Statistique Canada pour la période de 2010 à 2015 qui est couplé au fichier du programme de Commerce selon les caractéristiques des exportateurs (TEC). La taille des entreprises et l’appui du gouvernement canadien sont déterminants dans la probabilité d’investir dans la R&D ainsi que le montant de ces investissements et son intensité mesurée par le ratio du montant investit sur les ventes totales de biens et services des PME agroalimentaires. |
| Keywords: | Research and development,Agri-food,Small and medium-sized firm,Extensive margin of international trade,Intensive margin of international trade, Recherche et développement,Agroalimentaire,Petites et moyennes entreprises,Marge extensive du commerce international,Marge intensive du commerce international |
| JEL: | F14 Q16 Q17 |
| Date: | 2019–05–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2019s-09&r=all |
| By: | Le Son |
| Abstract: | The identification of potential innovation efforts plays an important role in evaluating the innovation process. The innovation efforts of firms in developing countries might be different to those of Western enterprises.This paper evaluates innovation processes in developing countries, especially the relationship between innovation efforts and outcomes. Instead of capturing only investment in research and development as in Western firms, the innovation efforts of firms in developing countries include investments in in-house research and development, technology acquisition, and other informal innovation activities.This research develops a mechanism to capture all innovation efforts based on firms’ characteristics, market features, and business environment. A predicted value of innovation investment is created which is intended to capture observed and latent innovation efforts.The results show that predicted innovation investment triggers innovation outcomes (jointly, product and process innovation outcomes) in the context of Vietnamese small- and medium-sized enterprises. |
| Keywords: | Small and medium enterprises,Developing countries,Innovation |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2019-7&r=all |
| By: | Demenet Axel; Hoang Quynh |
| Abstract: | Is the lack of ‘managerial capital’, alongside human and financial capital, a constraint on the growth of firms in developing countries? The evidence on this is still mixed, especially among small and medium enterprises.This paper uses a panel of Vietnamese small and medium enterprises to investigate this question. We build a multidimensional measure of managerial capital, combining both practices and attitudes, and link it with consistent estimates of firm-level productivity and mark-up. Even though bias may still affect the estimation of the overall influence of managerial capital on productivity, we show that there is a positive and significant association.Changes in management practices allow firms to be more efficient. Furthermore, we compare this association by firm size, and show that managerial capital is arguably as important for micro and small firms as it is for medium firms. Finally, it appears that the indicators related to ‘entrepreneurial attitudes’ play a more important role than elementary business skills. |
| Keywords: | Small and medium enterprises,Informal sector (Economics),Entrepreneurship |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2018-69&r=all |
| By: | Hoang Quynh; Pasquier-Doumer Laure; Saint-Macary Camille |
| Abstract: | Ethnic inequality remains a persistent challenge for Viet Nam. This paper aims at better understanding this ethnic gap through exploring the formation of risk sharing networks in rural areas. It first investigates the differences in risk sharing networks between the ethnic minorities and the Kinh majority, in terms of size and similarity attributes of the networks. Second, it relies on the concept of ethnic homophily in link formation to explain the mechanisms leading to those differences.In particular, it disentangles the effect of demographic and local distribution of ethnic groups on risk-sharing network formation from cultural and social distance between ethnic groups, while controlling for the disparities in the geographical environment. Results show that ethnic minorities have smaller and less diversified networks than the majority.This is partly explained by differences in wealth and in the geographical environment. But ethnicity also plays a direct role in risk-sharing network formation through the combination of preferences to form a link with people from the same ethnic group (inbreeding homophily) and the relative size of ethnic groups conditioning the opportunities to form a link (baseline homophily). Inbreeding homophily is found to be stronger among the Kinh majority, leading to the exclusion of ethnic minorities from Kinh networks, which are supposed to be more efficient to cope with covariant risk because they are more diversified in the occupation and location of their members.This evidence suggests that inequalities among ethnic groups in Viet Nam are partly rooted in the cultural and social distances between them. |
| Keywords: | Risk-sharing network,Ethnic group,Ethnic inequality,Homophily |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2018-134&r=all |
| By: | Ganau, Roberto; Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés |
| Abstract: | We investigate the extent to which regional institutional quality shapes firm labour productivity in western Europe, using a sample of manufacturing firms from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain, observed over the period 2009-2014. The results indicate that regional institutional quality positively affects firms' labour productivity and that government effectiveness is the most important institutional determinant of productivity levels. However, how institutions shape labour productivity depends on the type of firm considered. Smaller, less capital endowed and high-tech sectors are three of the types of firms whose productivity is most favourably affected by good and effective institutions at the regional level. |
| Keywords: | Cross-Country Analysis; labour productivity; Manufacturing firms; Regional Institutions; Western Europe |
| JEL: | C23 D24 H41 R12 |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13703&r=all |
| By: | Vanino, Enrico; Roper, Stephen; Becker, Bettina |
| Abstract: | UK Research Councils (UKRCs) spend around £3bn pa supporting R&D and innovation. We provide a comprehensive assessment of these grants on the performance of participating UK firms, using data on all projects funded by UKRCs over the 2004–2016 period and applying a propensity score matching approach. We exploit the richness of the data available in the Gateway to Research database by investigating the heterogeneous effect of these projects across several novel directions which have not been explored before. We find a positive effect on the employment and turnover growth of participating firms, both in the short and in the medium term. Exploring impacts across different types of firms we find stronger performance impacts for firms in R&D intensive industries and for smaller and less productive firms. We also consider how impacts vary depending on the characteristics of the funded research projects in terms of partners characteristics, receipt of other research grants and grant value. Finally, we focus on the different sources of grants, analysing in particular the evolution in the funding strategy of Innovate UK. Our results have implications for the extent and targeting of future Research Council funding both in the UK and elsewhere. |
| Keywords: | innovation; public support; R&D; Research Council; UK |
| JEL: | O30 O57 |
| Date: | 2019–04–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:100717&r=all |
| By: | Horbach, Jens; Rammer, Christian |
| Abstract: | Circular economy (CE) describes an economic concept that aims at saving resources by minimizing the use of material and energy over the entire life-cycle or products, including repair, reuse and recycling. CE innovations help to realize the goals of a sustainable development and target both the environmental, economic and social dimensions of sustainability. This paper looks at the economic and social dimensions by investigating the performance and employment effects of CE innovations at the firm level. CE innovations such as the reduction of energy and material consumption or the recycling of waste, water or material may lead to cost savings which in turn can increase the competitiveness of the firm and raise demand for a firm's products. Our econometric analysis uses data of two waves of the German part of the Community Innovation Survey (CIS). The performance effects of CE innovations measured by the financial standing of a firm and by turnover growth tend to be positive. The results of quantile regressions show that this is also the case for employment effects. |
| Keywords: | circular economy,Community Innovation Survey,eco-innovation,quantile regression |
| JEL: | C21 Q01 Q55 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:19016&r=all |
| By: | Elena Crivellaro; Alexander Hijzen; Cyrille Schwellnus |
| Abstract: | This paper provides guidance for developing country-specific policy recommendations from the broad policy principles of the new OECD Jobs Strategy. To this end, it identifies countries’ main policy challenges and develops broad policy packages to address them. It highlights the importance of considering countries' initial conditions – in terms of the state of the business cycle, fiscal and administrative capacity, past reforms, preferences and demography – for tailoring policy recommendations to country specific challenges, capabilities and needs. It also contains a checklist with key questions for each of the broad dimensions of labour market performance that should be considered when developing country-specific recommendations. |
| Keywords: | job quality inclusiveness, Job quantity, public policies |
| JEL: | J38 J58 J68 |
| Date: | 2019–05–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1546-en&r=all |