|
on Entrepreneurship |
| By: | Audretsch, David (Indiana University); Link, Albert (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | A compelling body of research has found that investments in knowledge from other firms and universities spill over to enhance the performance of entrepreneurial firms. This literature has shown that firm performance is positively related to investments in new knowledge by other firms and research universities. This paper addresses a gap in the literature by positing that public sector knowledge is also conducive to enhancing performance by knowledge intensive entrepreneurial (KIE) firms. Our findings suggest that the public sector provides a fertile source of knowledge for enhancing KIE firm performance. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship; performance; knowledge spillovers; public sector |
| JEL: | H41 L26 |
| Date: | 2018–08–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2018_005&r=ent |
| By: | Faisal Sohail (Washington University in St. Louis) |
| Abstract: | Most new firms are founded by former employees of existing firms - spinouts. This paper studies the relationship between employer size and spinout entry, size, and growth. Using data from Mexico, we document that employees from small firms are more likely to form spinouts than those from large firms. Second, spinouts from large employers start at a larger scale and grow faster than spinouts from small employers. Although a qualitatively similar relationship is observed in data from the U.S., there are large quantitative differences in the levels of spinout formation. To understand the impact of these differences on aggregate outcomes, we build a model of occupational choice and firm dynamics in which workers can learn from and adopt the productivity of their employers to form their own firms. In this framework, differences in the rates of spinout formation between Mexico and the U.S. are driven by differences in the efficiency with which employees learn from their employers. We interpret this efficiency as representing a form of managerial quality. The model, calibrated to match spinout entry rates across the two countries, can account for 13 and 19% of the cross-country variation in output per worker and firm growth respectively. These findings highlight the relevance of spinouts for aggregate outcomes, and the potential for managerial quality to not only impact incumbent firms but also future entrants. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed018:274&r=ent |
| By: | Brown, J. David (U.S. Census Bureau); Earle, John S. (George Mason University); Kim, Mee Jung (George Mason University); Lee, Kyung Min (George Mason University) |
| Abstract: | Analyzing data on all U.S. employers in a cohort of entering firms, we document a highly skewed size distribution, such that the largest 5% account for over half of cohort employment at firm birth and more than two-thirds at firm age 7. Little of the size variation is accounted for by industry or amount of finance, but relative size is strongly persistent over time: at age 7, the probability of 20+ employees is about 40 times larger for those entering with 20+ than for those entering with one. We link administrative and survey data to study the role of founder characteristics in high growth, defined as the largest 5% of the cohort at ages 0 and 7. Female-founded firms are 50% less likely to be in this ventile at both ages, and 34% less likely when controlling for detailed demographic and human capital variables. A similar initial gap for African-Americans, however, disappears by age 7. Founder age is positively associated with high growth at entry, but the profile flattens and turns negative as the firm ages. The education profile is initially concave, with graduate degree recipients no more likely than high school graduates to found high growth firms, but the former nearly catch up to those with bachelor's degrees by firm age 7, while the latter do not. Most other relationships of high growth with founder characteristics are highly persistent over time. Prior business ownership is strongly positively associated, and veteran experience negatively associated, with high growth. A larger founding team raises the probability of high growth, while, controlling for team size, diversity (by gender, age, race/ethnicity, or nativity) either lowers the probability or has little effect. Controlling for start-up capital raises the high-growth probability of firms founded by women, minorities, immigrants, veterans, smaller founding teams, and novice, younger, and less educated entrepreneurs. Perhaps surprisingly, female, minority, and less-educated entrepreneurs tend to choose high-growth industries, but fewer of them achieve high growth relative to their industry peers. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, business entry, firm growth, firm dynamics, founder, employment, firm size distribution, firm performance |
| JEL: | D22 J24 L25 L26 |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11662&r=ent |
| By: | Erhardt, Eva Christine |
| Abstract: | Do high-growth firms continue to create jobs after the high-growth period or is high-growth a one-time event? Does the answer to this question depend on the definition of high growth? This paper analyzes data from Amadeus on Bulgarian firms for three consecutive 3-year periods (2001-2004, 2004-2007, and 2007-2010). Previously, high growth has been defined in terms of relative growth or composite measures such as recommended by Eurostat-OECD. We additionally apply an absolute measure of growth, i. e. the actual change in headcount. Using a two-part model with separate equations for sur-vival and growth, we moreover specifically account for the impact of firm exits on aggregate effects. We find that definitions are central for outcomes. In terms of relative and Eurostat-OECD high growth our results for Bulgarian firms largely confirm what has been found for high-income countries: surviv-ing relative high-growth firms are characterized by negative future growth rates. High growth firms defined according to Eurostat-OECD continue to grow positively after high growth. If growth is meas-ured in absolute terms, then high growth firms only continue to create more jobs than non-high growth firms as far as surviving firms are concerned. Taking firm exits into account, absolute high-growth firms are outperformed by average firms due to the job losses of large exiting high-growth firms – with one notable exception: absolute high-growth firms of initially small size (10-49 employees) continue to grow faster than other firms even if exits are accounted for and indeed seem a worthwhile target for policies promoting high-growth entrepreneurship. |
| Keywords: | high-growth firms, growth measures, employment, persistence, entrepreneurship policy |
| JEL: | C18 D22 J23 L26 P23 |
| Date: | 2018–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:88077&r=ent |
| By: | Joonkyu Choi (University of Maryland) |
| Abstract: | Despite the importance of high-growth young firms for economic growth, determinants of their growth and survival dynamics are not well understood. In this study, I develop a dynamic occupational choice model that identifies a key predictor of the early growth trajectory of young firms: the outside options of the business founders. I show that entrepreneurs with higher outside options as paid workers tend to take larger business risks, and thus exhibit a more up-or-out type of firm dynamics. I find empirical support for the model's predictions using a large founder-firm matched data set built from administrative databases of the U.S. Census Bureau. I find that controlling for past business performance, young firms operated by entrepreneurs with higher outside options exhibit (i) higher firm exit rates, (ii) more growth dispersion, and (iii) faster growth conditioning on survival. With the calibrated model, I find that deterioration in the outside options of entrepreneurs can have a sizable negative impact on aggregate output and productivity via lower risk-taking by young firms and slower growth in their life cycle. These findings indicate that the expected post-failure outcomes of entrepreneurs are an important factor that governs young firm growth as well as aggregate output and productivity. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed018:1018&r=ent |
| By: | Michael Wyrwich (FSU Jena) |
| Abstract: | This brief research note identifies a causal effect of being Protestant on entrepreneurial choice. |
| Keywords: | Religion, Protestantism, Entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | L26 Z1 Z12 |
| Date: | 2018–08–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2018-010&r=ent |
| By: | Ramana Nanda; Sampsa Samila; Olav Sorenson |
| Abstract: | We use investment-level data to study performance persistence in venture capital (VC). Consistent with prior studies, we find that each additional IPO among a VC firm's first ten investments predicts as much as an 8% higher IPO rate on its subsequent investments, though this effect erodes with time. In exploring its sources, we document several additional facts: successful outcomes stem in large part from investing in the right places at the right times; VC firms do not persist in their ability to choose the right places and times to invest; but early success does lead to investing in later rounds and in larger syndicates. This pattern of results seems most consistent with the idea that initial success improves access to deal flow. That preferential access raises the quality of subsequent investments, perpetuating performance differences in initial investments. |
| JEL: | G24 M13 |
| Date: | 2018–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24887&r=ent |
| By: | Vladasel, Theodor (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | Family background matters for entrepreneurship. The focus on factors making siblings similar rather than different, however, may understate the total importance of families for occupational choice by hiding important sources of within-family heterogeneity. I assess the differential effects of birth order, family size, and sibling sex composition on unincorporated and incorporated entrepreneurship in a set of causal exercises using Swedish register data. These factors appear to have a negligible impact. First, while later born men are more likely to become unincorporated entrepreneurs, this effect is largely explained by their lower education and poorer labor market prospects, pointing towards the subsistence nature of this type of entrepreneurship. Second, I find limited evidence of causal family size effects in linear and non-linear instrumental variable approaches, using instruments based on multiple births and sibling gender. Third, while I find no pure sibling sex composition effect, there is a small negative effect of having a brother on the father-daughter association in unincorporated entrepreneurship. Fourth, neither source of within-family heterogeneity exhibits a clear relationship with incorporated entrepreneurship, although children with more than four siblings are less likely to become incorporated business owners. Finally, accounting for within-family differences increases previously estimated sibling correlations by little. The results are consistent with the absence of adult sibling peer effects in entrepreneurship and confirm the role of families in generating sibling similarities, rather than differences in occupational choice. The importance of family background for entrepreneurship is therefore only marginally understated. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship; incorporation; self-employment; family background; birth order; family size; sibling sex composition |
| JEL: | D13 J62 L26 |
| Date: | 2018–08–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2018_008&r=ent |
| By: | In Hwan Jo (National University of Singapore); Tatsuro Senga (Queen Mary University of London) |
| Abstract: | Government policies that attempt to alleviate credit constraints faced by small and young firms are widely adopted across countries. We study the aggregate impact of such targeted credit subsidies in a heterogeneous firm model with collateral constraints and endogenous entry and exit. A defining feature of our model is a non-Gaussian process of firm-level productivity, which allows us to capture the skewed firm size distribution seen in the Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS). We compare the welfare and aggregate productivity implications of our non-Gaussian process to those of a standard AR(1) process. While credit subsidies resolve misallocation of resources and enhance aggregate productivity, increased factor prices, in equilibrium, reduce the number of firms in production, which in turn depresses aggregate productivity. We show that the latter indirect general equilibrium effects dominate the former direct productivity gains in a model with the standard AR(1) process, as compared to our non-Gaussian process, under which both welfare and aggregate productivity increase by subsidy policies. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed018:955&r=ent |
| By: | Salome Baslandze (EIEF - Einaudi Institute for Economics a) |
| Abstract: | We study the Italian firms and their workers to answer this question. Our analysis uses a brand-new data spanning the period from 1993 to 2014 where we merge: (i) firm-level balance sheet data, (ii) the social security data on the universe of workers, (iii) patent data from the European Patent Office, (iv) registry of local politicians, and (v) detailed data on local elections in Italy. We find that firm-level political connections are widespread, especially among large firms, and that industries with a larger share of politically connected firms feature worse firm dynamics. Market leaders are much more likely to be politically connected and less likely to innovate, compared to their competitors. In addition, connections relate to higher survival and growth in employment and revenue but not in productivity – the result that we also confirm using regression discontinuity design. We build a firm dynamics model where we allow firms to invest in innovation and/or political connection to advance their productivity and to overcome certain market frictions. The model highlights the new interaction between static gains and dynamic losses from rent-seeking for aggregate productivity. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed018:1036&r=ent |
| By: | Nolan, Anne (ESRI, Dublin); Barrett, Alan (ESRI, Dublin) |
| Abstract: | A feature of employment at older ages that has been observed in many countries, including Ireland, is the higher share of self-employment among older labour force participants. This pattern of higher self-employment rates at the end of the labour market career may reflect lower rates of retirement among the self-employed compared to employees, as well as transitions into self-employment at older ages. In this paper, we use data from four waves of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), spanning the period 2010-2016, to examine both the characteristics of the older self-employed in Ireland and the determinants of transitions in employment states at older age. We find that the higher proportion of self-employed people at older ages in Ireland results from lower retirement rates among the self-employed and not from transitions from employment to self-employment. This is in contrast to other countries such as the US where transitions into self-employment are more prevalent. We find that the self-employed are older, more likely to be male, and significantly less likely to have any form of supplementary pension cover than the employed. These lower retirement rates and lower degrees of pension cover suggest that standard approaches to pension provision may be less effective in proving attractive to the self-employed in Ireland. |
| Keywords: | retirement, self-employment, older workers, Ireland |
| JEL: | D14 H55 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11663&r=ent |
| By: | Dejanir Silva (UIUC); Robert Townsend (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | We study the risk-taking behavior of entrepreneurs in an environment with two main ingredients: finite lives and uninsurable idiosyncratic risk on the business. We show that the fraction of wealth invested in the business depends on the idiosyncratic risk premium and that it declines substantially over the life cycle. The consumption-wealth ratio is U-shaped over the life cycle. We solve for the wealth distribution both across and within age groups. We show that the variance of wealth conditional on age has an inverted-U shape, initially increasing with age and eventually declining. We find support for these predictions in the data using a survey of entrepreneurial activity in Thailand. We also consider the impact of financial development and demographic transitions on asset prices, economic activity, and inequality. We show that an increase in the fraction of idiosyncratic risk entrepreneurs can insure or a decline in population growth will lead to a reduction in the idiosyncratic risk premium, an increase in the capital stock of the economy, and a decline in inequality. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed018:1318&r=ent |
| By: | Pellegrino, Gabriela (EPFL, Lausanne); Piva, Mariacristina (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza); Vivarelli, Marco (UNU-MERIT, and Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano) |
| Abstract: | In this work, we test the employment impact of distinct types of innovative investments using a representative sample of Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 2002-2013. Our GMM-SYS estimates generate various results, which are partially in contrast with the extant literature. Indeed, estimations carried out on the entire sample do not provide statistically significant evidence of the expected labour-friendly nature of innovation. More in detail, neither R&D nor investment in innovative machineries and equipment (the so-called embodied technological change, ETC) turn out to have any significant employment effect. However, the job-creation impact of R&D expenditures becomes highly significant when the focus is limited to the high-tech firms. On the other hand - and interestingly - ETC exhibits its labour-saving nature when SMEs are singled out. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, R&D, Embodied Technological Change, Employment, GMM-SYS |
| JEL: | O33 |
| Date: | 2018–06–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2018024&r=ent |
| By: | Jose Asturias (Georgetown University in Qatar); Kim Ruhl (Pennsylvania State University); Sewon Hur (University of Pittsburgh); Timothy Kehoe (University of Minnesota) |
| Abstract: | Applying the Foster, Haltiwanger, and Krizan (FHK) (2001) decomposition to plant-level manufacturing data from Chile and Korea, we find that a larger fraction of aggregate productivity growth is due to entry and exit during periods of fast GDP growth. Studies of other countries confirm this empirical relationship. To analyze this relationship, we develop a simple model of firm entry and exit based on Hopenhayn (1992) in which there are analytical expressions for the FHK decomposition. When we introduce reforms that reduce entry costs or reduce barriers to technology adoption into a calibrated model, we find that the entry and exit terms in the FHK decomposition become more important as GDP grows rapidly, just as in the data from Chile and Korea. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed018:1139&r=ent |
| By: | Calza, Elisa (UNU-MERIT); Goedhuys, Micheline (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | Using two waves of the Mirco, Small and Medium sized Enterprises (MSMEs) survey of Vietnamese manufacturing firms, this paper first explores what drives firms' decision to have a domestically recognized certificate, taking into account a rich number of factors related to the cost and expected benefits of certification as well as institutional factors. It further explores the presence of a positive and significant effect of domestic certificates on firm growth, these serving as signaling devices for desirable attributes under information asymmetry and thus leading to an increase in legitimacy and reputation. Evidence is indeed found for a signaling effect of certification, this being stronger for more recently adopted certificates, for advertising firms and for women entrepreneurs. |
| Keywords: | Certification, Firm growth, Transaction costs, Signaling Emerging economies, Viet Nam |
| JEL: | D22 D23 L25 O12 |
| Date: | 2018–06–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2018026&r=ent |
| By: | Laura Corazza (Dipartimento di Management, Università di Torino); Maurizio Cisi (Dipartimento di Management, Università di Torino); Greta Falavigna (CNR-IRCRES, National Research Council, Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth, via Real Collegio 30, Moncalieri (TO) – Italy) |
| Abstract: | The role of formal business networking in SMEs is receiving more attention from scholars and practitioners. However, several aspects remain unclear, including if and how, corporate sustainability approaches are implemented and aligned within such networks, mostly created for competitiveness and resource efficiency purpose. With the aim of filling this gap in the literature over Small Business Social Responsibility, an empirical investigation is proposed by analyzing 389 Formalized Network Contracts and their original legal document, following Bocken et al. (2014) business model archetypes and NBS (2012) studies on sustainable innovation and, normative-making perspectives. Findings include the addition of a new general aims for such FNC that is the creation and enablement of clusters, following the perspective of Creation of Shared Value. In addition, we demonstrate that FNC is a suitable tool for micro, SMEs, and individual entrepreneurs to meet sustainability issues introducing eco-innovations, eco-efficiency and shared value herein their products/services, business models and organizational changes as roughly half of these contracts include a reference to sustainability issues. |
| Keywords: | Formalized Network Contracts (FNCs), Sustainability, Creation of Shared Value (CSV), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) |
| JEL: | L22 M14 Q01 Q56 |
| Date: | 2018–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csc:ircrwp:201803&r=ent |
| By: | Loren Brandt (University of Toronto); Gueorgui Kambourov (University of Toronto); Kjetil Storesletten (University of Oslo) |
| Abstract: | The non-state manufacturing sector has been the engine of China's economic transformation. Up through the mid-1990s, the sector exhibited large regional differences; subsequently we observe rapid convergence in terms of new firm start-up rates, productivity, and wages. To analyze the drivers of this behavior, we construct a Melitz (2003) model that incorporates location-specific capital wedges, output wedges, and a novel entry barrier. Using Chinese Industry Census data for 1995, 2004, and 2008, we estimate these wedges and examine their role in explaining differences in performance across prefectures and over time. Entry barriers turn out to be the salient friction for explaining performance differences. We investigate the empirical covariates of these entry barriers and find that barriers are causally related to the size of the state sector. Thus, the downsizing of the state sector after 1997 may be important in explaining the rapid manufacturing growth over the 1995-2008 period. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed018:954&r=ent |
| By: | Low, Sarah A. |
| Abstract: | Manufacturing provides jobs and income that individuals, families, and communities in rural areas rely upon. In this study, rural manufacturing plant survival during a 15-year period (1996- 2011), which includes two recessions and a longstanding decline in manufacturing employment, is examined. An indepth survey, the 1996 ERS Rural Manufacturing Survey, is linked to quar - terly employment records so that the relationship between survival and plant- and community- level factors can be examined. Results suggest that smaller, independent manufacturing plants had higher survival rates than larger plants and multi-unit plants, such as branch plants. Results offer potential insights into rural economic development policy, like tradeoffs between retention incentives, financial capital access programs, or support for entrepreneurship development. |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development, Industrial Organization |
| Date: | 2017–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uersrr:262184&r=ent |
| By: | Emilia Bonaccorsi di Patti (Bank of Italy); Valentina Nigro (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | We analyse the financing sources of over 360,000 Italian start-ups registered between 2003 and 2010. The data show that, before the Global Financial Crisis, 50 per cent of start-ups borrowed from banks when they were one year old, and that bank loans covered 16 per cent of total assets on average. In the post-crisis period we find that the frequency of borrowing by one-year-old start-ups declines by 5 percentage points, and the difference does not disappear as firms become older. We also document that the post-crisis decline in borrowing from banks is more marked than that observed for older firms, controlling for business characteristics. |
| Keywords: | start-ups, corporate finance, financial constraints |
| JEL: | D22 G32 |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_449_18&r=ent |
| By: | Vincent Sterk (University College London); Jasper De Winter (De Nederlandsche Bank); Neeltje van Horen (Bank of England); Ralph De Haas (European Bank for Reconstruction and Dev) |
| Abstract: | We study the channels via which start-ups have contributed to aggregate productivity growth, before and during the financial crisis of 2008. We propose a novel productivity decomposition method, building on Melitz and Polanec (2015), which we apply to administrative micro data on the population of Dutch start-ups. Exploiting detailed balance sheet information, we document striking differences between the contributions of high- and low-leverage start-ups. Moreover, the arrival of the crisis triggered came with a collapse in productivity growth. We interpret these findings through the lens of a firm dynamics model with financial constraints and real adjustment frictions. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed018:201&r=ent |
| By: | Nguyen, Quoc Hung |
| Abstract: | We develop a tractable two-sector endogenous growth model in which heterogeneous entrepreneurs face borrowing constraints and the government collects tax to fund public eduction. This model is isomorphic to a Uzawa-Lucas model and there exists a balanced-growth path equilibrium in which the growth rate depends on the financial deepening level. We show that the policy tax rate exerts inverted U-shaped effects on the growth rate. Additionally, at the optimal policy tax rates the model's predictions are consistent with correlational regularities documented from 35 OECD countries with regards to financial deepening, factor accumulation and working hours. |
| Keywords: | Heterogeneity; Financial Deepening; Endogenous Growth |
| JEL: | E10 E22 E44 O16 |
| Date: | 2018–04–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:88328&r=ent |
| By: | Angelo Bonomi (CNR-IRCRES, National Research Council, Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth, via Real Collegio 30, Moncalieri (TO) – Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper concerns a study on the next production revolution called Industry 4.0 based on confluence of various technologies, mainly digital, with far reaching consequences especially for productivity and employment. This study considers the implementation of Industry 4.0 in SMEs and industrial districts that represent a great part of Italian industry. The latter represents certainly a major challenge to such implementation because of the existence of various obstacles constituted by availability of investment capitals, small scale productions and tendency to develop and to adopt only incremental innovations rather than radical ones typical of Industry 4.0. In this work we study the technologies involved in Industry 4.0, taking account of existence of specific technologies, called enabling technologies, whose confluence in the manufacturing industry determines the implementation of Industry 4.0. Such enabling technologies originate from the major fields of R&D activities such as nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI). In this paper we study the dynamic and possible evolution characterizing the formation of the various enabling technologies in a sort of ramification process, using specific models of technology, technology innovation and R&D, and their relation with manufacturing in SMEs and industrial districts. The results of the study underlines the importance of AI in determining possibilities and limits to Industry 4.0, the necessity to disrupt the tendency of SMEs in adopting only incremental innovations, the existence of “intranality effects” raising difficulties from the supply chain, and the importance of technology consulting firms in the integration of ICT in operating technologies of a manufacturing activity. |
| Keywords: | Industry 4.0, SMEs, industrial districts, technology innovation |
| JEL: | O14 O25 O33 |
| Date: | 2018–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csc:ircrwp:201804&r=ent |