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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2012‒01‒10
three papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Audretsch, David B. (Indiana University); Leyden, Dennis P. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics); Link, Albert N. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Partnerships between universities and industrial firms can play a key role in enhancing competitiveness because they provide a conduit for the spillover of knowledge from the academic organization where knowledge is created to the firm where it is transformed into innovative activity. We set forth in this paper a model of industry/university participation, and we test the model empirically using research project data on entrepreneurial firms that were funded through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. We find that larger firms are more likely to be involved in a research partnership with a university, in general, as are firms with founders who have an academic background. We find the latter result holds across disaggregated types of university partnerships, as well. We find no empirical evidence that the size of the SBIR award influences the likelihood of a research partnership. |
| Keywords: | Research partnership; Innovative behavior; Entrepreneurship; Industry/university relationship |
| JEL: | L24 L26 O31 O32 O34 |
| Date: | 2012–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2012_002&r=sbm |
| By: | Aiello, Francesco; Pupo, Valeria; Ricotta, Fernand |
| Abstract: | This study considers how firms’ internal variables and regional factors affect the total factor productivity of Italian manufacturing firms. Due to of the hierarchical structure of data in estimation, we employ a multilevel model. Results, which refer to 2006, show the importance of firm-specific determinants of TFP, but at the same time confirm the role of regional context in explaining the gap in TFP levels which exist between the South and the North of Italy. In this respect, we show that northern firms are localised in regions with adequate endowment of infrastructure, with efficient public administration and with high R&D intensity and, as a result of these factors, perform better than firms operating in less well endowed regions. |
| Keywords: | Manufacturing Firms; Total Factor Productivity; Italian Regional Divide; Multilevel Models |
| JEL: | R11 O14 L60 |
| Date: | 2011–12–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:35656&r=sbm |
| By: | Castillo, Leopoldo Laborda; Salem, Daniel Sotelsek; Guasch, Jose Luis |
| Abstract: | This paper examines two sources of global knowledge spillovers: foreign direct investments and trade. Empirical evidence demonstrates that foreign direct investment and trade can contribute to overall domestic productivity growth only when the technology gap between domestic and foreign firms is not too large and when a sufficient absorptive capacity is available in domestic firms. The paper proposes the terms research and development and labor quality to capture the innovative and absorptive capacity of the country. The spillover effects in productivity are analyzed using a stochastic frontier approach. This productivity (in terms of total factor productivity) is decomposed using a generalized Malmquist output oriented index, in order to evaluate the specific effect in technical change, technical efficiency change, and scale efficiency change. Using country-level data for 16 Latin American countries for 1996-2006, the empirical analysis shows positive productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment and trade only when the country has absorptive capacity in terms of research and development. Foreign direct investment and trade spillovers are found to be positive and significant for scale efficiency change and total productivity factor change. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory&Research,Labor Policies,E-Business,Foreign Direct Investment,Emerging Markets |
| Date: | 2012–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5931&r=sbm |