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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2011‒07‒02
ten papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Dick Johannes; Hussinger Katrin; Blumberg Boris; Hagedoorn John (METEOR) |
| Abstract: | A common phenomenon in entrepreneurship is that employees turn away from employmentto found their own businesses. Prior literature discusses the former employers’characteristics that influence the creation of entrepreneurial ventures. An investigation ofwhether these characteristics also affect the success of the spawned ventures is missing so far. This paper contributes to the literature by showing that entrepreneurial ventures spawned by well performing firms are financially more successful than ventures stemming from bad performing firms. This suggests that spawned entrepreneurs are able to exploit valuable knowledge from their previous employers which impacts their ventures’ performance positively. The analysis is based on a linked employee-employer dataset for the Netherlands for the period 1999-2004. |
| Keywords: | Strategy; |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umamet:2011034&r=sbm |
| By: | Emanuela Marrocu; Raffaele Paci; Stefano Usai |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at assessing the role of various dimension of proximity on the innovative capacity of a region within the context of a knowledge production function where we consider as main internal inputs R&D expenditures and human capital. We want to assess if, and how much, the creation of new ideas in a certain region is the result of flows of information and knowledge coming from proximate regions. In particular, we examine in details the concept of proximity combining the usual geographical dimension with the institutional, the technological, the social and the organizational proximity. The analysis is implemented for an ample dataset referring to 287 regions in 29 countries (EU27 plus Norway, Switzerland) for the last decade. Results show that human capital and R&D are clearly essential for innovative activity but with an impact which is much higher for the former factor. As for the proximity and network effects, we find that geography is important but less than technological and cognitive proximity. Social and organizational networks are also relevant but their role is more modest. Finally, most of these proximities prove to have a complementary role in shaping innovative activity across regions in Europe. |
| Keywords: | knowledge production; technological spillover; proximity; networks |
| JEL: | O31 C31 O18 R12 O52 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:201109&r=sbm |
| By: | Hottenrott, Hanna; Thorwarth, Susanne |
| Abstract: | University research provides valuable inputs to industrial innovation. It is therefore not surprising that private sector firms increasingly seek direct access through funding public R&D. This development, however, spurred concerns about possible negative long-run effects on scientific performance. While previous research mainly focused on a potential crowding-out of scientific publications through commercialization activities such as patenting or the formation of spin-off companies, we study the effects of direct funding from industry on professors' publication and patenting efforts. Our analysis on a sample of 678 professors at 46 higher education institutions in Germany shows that a higher share of industry funding of a professor's research budget results in a lower publication outcome both in terms of quantity and quality in subsequent years. For patents, we find that industry funding increases their quality measured by patent citations. -- |
| Keywords: | Scientific Productivity,Research Funding,Academic Patents,Technology Transfer |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:10105r&r=sbm |
| By: | Maksim Belitski (Brunel University); Julia Korosteleva (University College London) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the variation in entrepreneurship across cities of the Commonwealth of Independent States during 1995-2008, utilising a unique dataset and employing the System Generalised Method of Moments technique. Our findings suggest that banking reform facilitates entrepreneurship, whereas the size of the state discourages it. Our results confirm a U-shaped relationship between per-capita income and entrepreneurship. We also find that cities with higher concentration of universities are likely to have higher entrepreneurial entry. This provides some evidence for the importance of agglomeration economies in terms of higher concentration of knowledge which may lead to intensified exchange of ideas driving knowledge-based entrepreneurship in the region. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, small business, urbanisation, transition, CIS Urban Audit |
| Date: | 2011–06–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2011:i:397&r=sbm |
| By: | Hottenrott, Hanna; Peters, Bettina |
| Abstract: | This study presents a novel empirical approach to identify financing constraints for innovation based on the concept of an ideal test as suggested by Hall (2008). Firms were offered a hypothetical payment and were asked to choose between alternatives of use. If they selected additional innovation projects, they must have had some unexploited investment opportunities that were not profitable using more costly external finance. We attribute constraints for innovation not only to lacking financing, but also to firms' innovative capability. Econometric results show that financial constraints do not depend on the availability of internal funds per se, but that they are driven by innovative capability. -- |
| Keywords: | Innovation,financing constraints,innovative capability,multivariate probit models |
| JEL: | O31 O32 C35 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09081r&r=sbm |
| By: | Alessandra Colombelli; Marta Foddi; Raffaele Paci |
| Abstract: | Since the Lisbon agenda in 2000, Europe stated the goal to become the most advanced knowledge economy in the world relying specifically on the increase and strengthen of its human capital and technological endowments. However, given the presence of localized externalities in the knowledge accumulation process, this policy may produce distortive and unwanted consequences at the territorial level reinforcing the existing high inequalities among regions. Another crucial feature to be considered is the recent enlargement process of the European Union which has brought on stage new players characterized by a low average level of knowledge activity accompanied by a huge degree of internal territorial disparity. The aim of this paper is to identify the “knowledge regions” in Europe and to examine their main territorial features. To this aim we first build, for 287 regions belonging to 31 European countries, a comprehensive picture of the two variables - human capital and technological activity - which constitute the main pillars of the knowledge economy. We compute two synthetic indicators for human capital and technology and, on the basis of these two dimensions, we identify 74 knowledge regions, mainly located in the centre and north of Europe. This results are confirmed by a cluster analysis. |
| Keywords: | knowledge; human capital; technological activity; regions; Europe |
| JEL: | R11 J24 O30 O52 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:201110&r=sbm |
| By: | Nicola Gennaioli; Rafael La Porta; Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes; Andrei Shleifer |
| Abstract: | We investigate the determinants of regional development using a newly constructed database of 1569 sub-national regions from 110 countries covering 74 percent of the world’s surface and 96 percent of its GDP. We combine the cross-regional analysis of geographic, institutional, cultural, and human capital determinants of regional development with an examination of productivity in several thousand establishments located in these regions. To organize the discussion, we present a new model of regional development that introduces into a standard migration framework elements of both the Lucas (1978) model of the allocation of talent between entrepreneurship and work, and the Lucas (1988) model of human capital externalities. The evidence points to the paramount importance of human capital in accounting for regional differences in development, but also suggests from model estimation and calibration that entrepreneurial inputs and human capital externalities are essential for understanding the data. |
| JEL: | L26 O11 O43 O47 R11 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17158&r=sbm |
| By: | Anderson, Benjamin; Sheldon, Ian |
| Abstract: | Over the past three decades, the agricultural biotechnology sector has been characterized by rapid innovation, market consolidation, and a more exhaustive definition of property rights. The industry attributes consistently identified by the literature and important to this analysis include: (i) endogenous sunk costs in the form of expenditures on R&D; (ii) seed and agricultural chemical technologies that potentially act as complements within firms and substitutes across firms; and (iii) property rights governing plant and seed varieties that have become more clearly defined since the 1970s. This paper adds to the stylized facts of the agricultural biotechnology industry to include the ability of firms to license technology, a phenomenon observed only recently in the market as licensing was previously precluded by high transactions costs and âanti-stackingâ provisions. We extend Suttonâs theoretical framework of endogenous sunk costs and market structure to incorporate the ability of firms to license technology under well-defined property rights, an observed characteristic not captured in previous analyses of the sector. Our model implies that technology licensing leads to lower levels of industry concentration then what would be found under Suttonâs model, but that industry concentration remains bounded away from perfect competition as market size becomes large. |
| Keywords: | licensing, market structure, R&D, agricultural biotechnology, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, L22, L24, Q16, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:107832&r=sbm |
| By: | Heike Belitz; Marius Clemens; Christian von Hirschhausen; Jens Schmidt-Ehmcke; Axel Werwatz; Petra Zloczysti |
| Abstract: | We develop a composite indicator measuring the performance of national innovation systems. The indicator takes into account both “hard” factors that are quantifiable (such as R&D spending, number of patents) and “soft” factors like the assessment of preconditions for innovation by managers. We apply the methodology to a set of 17 industrialized countries on a yearly basis between 2007 and 2009. The indicator combines results from public opinion surveys on the process of change, social capital, trust and science and technology to achieve an assessment of a country’s social climate for innovation. After calculating and ranking the innovation indictor scores for the 17 countries, we group them into three classes: innovation leader, middle group and end section. Using multiple sensitivity analysis approaches, we show that the indicator reacts robustly to different weights within these country groups. While leading countries like Switzerland, the USA and the Nordic countries have an innovation system with high scores and ranks in every sub indicator, the middle group consisting among others of Germany Japan, the UK and France, can be characterized by higher variation within ranks. In the end section, countries like Italy and Spain have bad scores for almost all indicators. |
| Keywords: | National systems of innovation, Composite Indicators, Ranking |
| JEL: | O30 C81 H52 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2011-036&r=sbm |
| By: | Tobias Scholl (EBS European Business School); Thomas Brenner (Department of Geography, Philipps University Marburg) |
| Abstract: | We present a new statistical method that describes the localization patterns of industries in a continuous space. The proposed method does not divide space into subunits whereby it is not affected by the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP). Our method fulfils all five criteria for a spatial statistical test of localization proposed by Duranton and Overman (2005) and improves them with respect to the significance of its results. Additionally, our test allows inference to the localization of highly clustered firms. Furthermore, the algorithm is efficient in its computation, which eases the usage in research. |
| Keywords: | Spatial concenctration, localization, clusters, MAUP, distance-based measures |
| JEL: | C40 C60 R12 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pum:wpaper:2011-02&r=sbm |