|
on Small Business Management |
|
Issue of 2011‒10‒22
seven papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Paige Ouimet; Rebecca Zarutskie |
| Abstract: | We present evidence that young employees are an important ingredient in the creation and growth of firms. Our results suggest that young employees possess attributes or skills, such as willingness to take risk or innovativeness, which make them relatively more valuable in young, high growth, firms. Young firms disproportionately hire young employees, controlling for firm size, industry, geography and time. Young employees in young firms command higher wages than young employees in older firms and earn wages that are relatively more equal to older employees within the same firm. Moreover, young employees disproportionately join young firms that subsequently exhibit higher growth and raise venture capital financing. Finally, we show that an increase in the regional supply of young workers increases the rate of new firm creation. Our results are relevant for investors and executives in young, high growth, firms, as well as policymakers interested in fostering entrepreneurship. |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:11-31&r=sbm |
| By: | FARACE, Salvatore (CELPE - Centre of Labour Economics and Economic Policy, University of Salerno - Italy); MAZZOTTA, Fernanda (CELPE - Centre of Labour Economics and Economic Policy, University of Salerno - Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the determinants of innovation and its effects on small- and medium-sized firms We use the data from the OPIS databank, which provides a survey on a representative sample of firms from a province of the Southern Italy. We want to study whether small and medium sized firms can have a competitive advantage using their innovative capabilities, regardless of their sectoral and size limits. The main factor influencing the likelihood of innovation is knowledge, which is acquired through different ways. The econometric methodology consists of two bivariate models in order to estimate the probability of increased sales conditioned to the probability of innovation. We found that knowledge positively influences the probability of innovation; at the same time, knowledge has also a positive indirect effect on the increase of sales through innovation. |
| Keywords: | innovation; small and medium sized firms; human capital; networks; bivariate probit |
| JEL: | C24 C25 O31 |
| Date: | 2011–10–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sal:celpdp:0120&r=sbm |
| By: | Giulio Cainelli; Massimiliano Mazzanti; Sandro Montresor |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the drivers of the environmental innovations (EI) introduced by firms in local production systems (LPS). The role of firm network relationships, agglomeration economies and internationalization strategies is analysed for a sample of 555 firms in the Emilia-Romagna region, North-East of Italy. Cooperating with 'qualified' local actors - i.e. universities and suppliers - is the most important driver of EI for most firms, along with their training policies and IT innovations. The role of agglomeration economies is less clear and seems to depend on the EI propensity of more locally oriented firms playing in industrial district areas, which might even turn agglomeration economies into dis-economies. Networking effects and agglomeration economies are instead found to strongly promote the adoption of EI by multinational firms, thus highlighting the importance of local-global interactions. We provide some interesting findings for particular kinds of challenging EI in such fields as CO2 abatement and ISO labelling, generally extending the analysis of EI drivers by joining local and international factors. |
| Keywords: | Eco-innovation, foreign ownership, networking, district, agglomeration economics, local production systems |
| JEL: | C21 L60 O13 O30 Q20 Q58 F23 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpol:1108&r=sbm |
| By: | Sandrine Labory |
| Abstract: | The paper analyses the role of external knowledge flows in the upgrading of the biomedical district of Mirandola, Emilia-Romagna region, in Italy. The district produces two types of products, namely disposables and electromedical machines, and the paper considers this second production type. The Mirandola district has been able to maintain a relatively good competitive position. The paper shows that while all firms in this sector in this region tend to have fairly good performance in terms of size and revenue growth, a significant difference exists in terms of innovation performance. Firms in the Mirandola district produce more patents and more scientific publications. From a methodological point of view, negative binomial regressions are made on the determinants of patenting and publishing activity by firms. Two major factors seem to explain the superior performance in terms of innovation. First, the significant role of the leader firms in the district. Second, linkages external to the district, namely relationships with research centres (universities in particular) located not only in the region but also in the rest of the country and abroad. The importance of external relations and institutional diversity (in terms of variety of institutions collaborating in scientific publications), appear to grow over time. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; Upgrading; Industrial districts; Biomedical sector |
| JEL: | O31 L60 R11 |
| Date: | 2011–10–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udf:wpaper:201114&r=sbm |
| By: | Basant, Rakesh; Chandra, Pankaj; Upadhyayula Rajesh |
| Abstract: | The role of industrial clusters in the industrialization of many emerging economies continues to dominate the debate among policy makers and researchers worldwide. While recent discussions on this debate have focused on knowledge spillovers among participants within clusters, knowledge flows between non local networks and the cluster actors have not been accorded due attention in the literature. Further, the literature does not compare the relative impact of knowledge flows among firms within clusters and firms outside clusters. In this study, we attempt a comparative analysis of the role of knowledge flows in capability formation among firms in the Indian Information Technology sector (IT sector) across cluster and non-cluster locations. The empirical results suggest that at the firm level, leveraging of capabilities to enhance performance and networks to build capabilities is not automatic; structural features of the firms’ location enable this transformation. Moreover, while capabilities affect performance of firms positively only in clusters, economies of scale and some strategies like quality certification used by firms impact performance of firms outside clusters. Interestingly, although economies of scale do not impact the performance of firms within clusters, they do, however affect the capability formation of firms within clusters only. Further, we found that local and national non-customer networks affect capability formation of firms within and outside clusters whereas international customer networks affect capability formation of firms within clusters only. These have implications for how firms can develop appropriate strategies to enhance their performance. |
| Keywords: | Industrial Clustering, Information Technology industry, Networks, Capabilities |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:10677&r=sbm |
| By: | Chiara Franco; Alberto Marzucchi; Sandro Montresor |
| Abstract: | This paper draws on the multi-dimensional characterization of absorptive capacity (AC) to empirically investigate the antecedents and the effects of its "potential" dimension (PAC): i.e., the firm's capacity of acquiring and assimilating external knowledge, as distinguished from its "realized" transformation and exploitation (RAC). Based on a sample of about 10,500 firms for an area of 3 EU countries (Italy, Germany and Spain) we find that the firm's reliance on external knowledge in general increases its PAC, and that this effect is magnified by the internal shocks the firm faces. However, both these effects find relevant exceptions when different kinds of external sources are considered, at different kinds of distance from the absorbing firm. Unexpectedly, social integration mechanisms in the firm makes PAC less, rather than more, inductive of innovation outcomes. On the contrary, the human capital of the firm has a positive moderating role on the PAC effects. A possible trade-off in the exploitation of the externally assimilated knowledge is suggested. |
| Keywords: | absorptive capacity; external knowledge; innovation |
| JEL: | O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpol:1106&r=sbm |
| By: | Roberto Antonietti; Giulio Cainelli |
| Abstract: | A recent strand of the economic literature has emphasised the role of services, and in particular knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), as a primary source of knowledge creation and diffusion. Since this transferring process often occurs through strong face-to-face interactions, the role of spatial proximity becomes crucial. Theoretical and empirical literature shows that the geographic concentration of industry induces firms to vertically disintegrate their production, due to the lowering of transport and governance costs as well as to the reduction of opportunism in managing transactions. However, the evidence is primarily based on manufacturing firms, whereas little or no attention is given to service firms. In this paper we try to fill this gap by estimating the effects of spatial agglomeration on knowledge intensive business service firms' vertical disintegration with reference to the metropolitan region of Milan. Relying on a rich firm-level dataset of about 12.000 KIBS firms located in the metropolitan area of Milan in 2008, we first geo-referenciate our data by employing a GIS routine. Then, we define a set of rings moving out of increments of 1 kilometre, and we count the number of firms located within each ring. For each firm, we compute, ring by ring, the number of neighbouring firms that are in the same three-digit industry, and the number of firms that are in all the three-digit industries except for the one in which the firm operates. In this way, we estimate the impact of proximity-based specialization Vs diversification economies on KIBS firms' vertical disintegration, exploiting information on the actual distance between each pair offirms in the sample. Our dependent variable is calculated as the share of purchased business services over total production costs. This purchased-inputs variable allows accounting for the fact that "many business services are likely to be exactly the kind of locally produced intermediate input that producers in localized areas will have greater access to than producers in isolated areas" (Holmes 1999, p. 316). |
| Keywords: | GIS, KIBS, spatial agglomeration, vertical disintegration |
| JEL: | R12 L8 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpol:1105&r=sbm |