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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2012‒03‒08
fifteen 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: | Economic development practitioners and scholars recognize the link between universities and regional economic development. It is predicated on the spillover of knowledge from universities to commercialization. The literature has focused on the supply side, which involves university research and technology transfer mechanisms. We examine the role played by the demand for university-based knowledge and university-developed technology. We identify links between businesses and the university as a key conduit facilitating the spillover of knowledge using data on the Department of Energy’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. We provide supply-side evidence on university research relationships and how the use of knowledge and technologies that flow from a university impact economic growth. We identify the role that SBIR-funded businesses play in the spillover of knowledge from the creating organization to where that knowledge is used and commercialized. Our results suggest that knowledge is systematically transmitted through university-related research. |
| Keywords: | Economic development; Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Licensing; SBIR program; University research |
| JEL: | L26 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2012–02–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2012_003&r=sbm |
| By: | Priit Vahter (Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham); James Love (Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham); Stephen Roper (Small and Medium Sized Enterprise Centre, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | Traditionally, literature on open innovation has concentrated on analysis of larger firms. We explore whether and how the benefits of openness in innovation are different for small firms (less than 50 employees) compared to medium and large ones. Using panel data over a long time period (1994-2008) from Irish manufacturing plants, we find that small plants have on average significantly lower levels of openness, a pattern which has not changed significantly since the early 1990s. However, the effect of ‘breadth’ of openness (i.e. variety of innovation linkages) on innovation performance is stronger for small firms than for larger firms. For small firms (with 10-49 employees) external linkages account for around 40 per cent of innovative sales compared to around 25 per cent in larger firms. Small plants also reach the limits to benefitting from openness at lower levels of breadth of openness than larger firms. Our results suggest that small firms can gain significantly from adopting an open innovation strategy, but for such firms appropriate partner choice is a particularly important issue. |
| Keywords: | Open innovation; SMEs; boundary-spanning linkages; learning effects; Ireland |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sme:wpaper:113&r=sbm |
| By: | Moodysson, Jerker (CIRCLE, Lund University); Zukauskaite, Elena (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with institutional conditions in regional innovation systems; how institutions affect the organization of innovation activities among firms, and in what ways regional policy initiatives can be supportive. The analysis draws on data on innovation networks and activities in the life science, media, and food industries. The theoretical framework takes account of the ways in which regional policies are able to impact individuals’ and organizations’ action in relation to each other by being internalized. It is argued that such ability is decisive for the success or failure of the policy initiative. Three cases of regional policy targeting the promotion of innovation in different industries in Sweden are analyzed. |
| Keywords: | regional innovation systems; knowledge; institutions; innovation; policy |
| JEL: | O38 O52 |
| Date: | 2012–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2011_013&r=sbm |
| By: | Allen, Stuart D. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics); Layson, Stephen K. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics); L, Albert N. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a systematic analysis of the net economic benefits associated with the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. We offer a derivation of producer and consumer surplus to estimate economic benefits. Fundamental to the implementation of these models is a specific value of the elasticity of demand, but in its absence we estimate what its value would be when the benefit-to-cost ratio associated with public support of the SBIR program equals unity. We infer from these calculations, and from general knowledge about the ability of SBIR-funded firms to exploit their monopoly position, that the SBIR program likely generates positive net economic benefits to society. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Technology; SBIR Program; Benefit-to-cost Ratio; Program Evaluation; Producer Surplus; Consumer Surplus |
| JEL: | H43 O22 O31 O38 |
| Date: | 2012–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2012_004&r=sbm |
| By: | MORIKAWA Masayuki |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the relationship between the use of stock options and productivity by employing firm-level panel data from the Basic Survey of Japanese Business Structure and Activities. According to the analysis, the use of stock options has a positive impact on firm productivity. Productivity steadily increases after the adoption of stock options. In addition, we found suggestive evidence that R&D investment increases after the introduction of stock options. These results imply that the deregulation on the use of stock options in 1997 and the subsequent legal reforms have had positive contributions to the productivity performance of Japanese firms. |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:12011&r=sbm |
| By: | Santamarmía, Lluís; Nieto, María Jesús; Miles, Ian |
| Abstract: | The ways in which manufacturing firms come to offer services to customers – servitisation or servicisation – are attracting considerable attention. This paper examines an innovation survey of Spanish firms in order to investigate one aspect of this phenomenon: the introduction of new or improved services by manufacturers. Specifically, the paper analyses the determinants of service innovations in manufacturers and determines whether they differ from those of product or process innovations in these same firms. The study finds that almost 20 percent of the firms in the sample have introduced such services in the recent past and that important differences exist between service and product (goods) innovations, with service innovations being particularly related to human resource development and closer links to customers. This suggests that service innovation by manufacturers has much in common with the innovation patterns detected in service sector firms. Intriguing differences across manufacturing sectors are also noted, with the lowest- and highest-tech sectors reporting more service innovations than the medium-tech sectors |
| Keywords: | Innovation; Manufacturing; Service; Servitisation; |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:carlos:info:hdl:10016/13490&r=sbm |
| By: | Francesco Aiello; Valeria Pupo; Fernanda Ricotta (Dipartimento di Economia e Statistica, Università della Calabria) |
| Abstract: | This study analyses how firms' internal variables and regional factors affect Total Factor Productivity (TFP) of Italian manufacturing firms. Due to the hierarchical structure of our data, we employ a multilevel model that allows for a clear distinction between firm and region-specific effects. Results refer to 2004-2006 and show, as expected, the importance of firm-specific determinants of TFP. At the same time, they indicate that location matters, in the sense that the context where firms operate plays a crucial role in determining the level of TFP. In more detail, we find that the regional endowment of infrastructure, the efficiency of local administration and the investments in R&D exert a positive effect on firms' performance. We also argue that regional gaps in the endowment of these factors help to understand the dualistic nature of the Italian economy, where a wealthy North coexists with a less developed South. |
| Keywords: | Manufacturing Firms, Total Factor Productivity, Italian Regional Divide, Multilevel Models |
| JEL: | L60 R11 C31 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clb:wpaper:201202&r=sbm |
| By: | Hernán Enríquez; Juan Tomás Sayago |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to test the spatial patterns in small and medium size manufacturing firms (11 to 50 employees for small size firms and 51 to 200 for medium size firms) in Bogotá, Colombia, from 2006 to 2008. For this, the Ripley’s K(r) function distance based method is used in order to measure the firms´ spatial concentration, using level of employment and firm size as identification variables, for a sample of four ISIC digits industries located inside the urban perimeter. In this case, the K(r) function allows the reader to establish clustering agglomeration tendencies in each industry and additionally evaluate if dynamic spatial concentration, dispersion, or randomness between firms thru time exists. Evaluating location by firm size would indicate us trends of employment and predominant industry activity in the city, and its relation with other urban features. |
| Date: | 2011–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000386:009333&r=sbm |
| By: | Ljungquist, Urban (CSIR, Blekinge Inst of Technology); Ghannad, Navid (Halmstad University) |
| Abstract: | • Purpose: To identify facilitating and redundant components of core competence development during the growth phases in entrepreneur-driven SMEs. • Methodology: Conducts a longitudinal empirical study based on large number of interviews. • Findings: Describes how individual competences critical for a start-up firm (entrepreneurial, market and network) eventually are transformed into organisational routines and institutionalised. Highlights distinction between competence and organisational structure. The latter could emerge incrementally in a firm, yet also be a tool to manage organisational change. • Research limitations/implications: Brings in-depth knowledge by qualitative analysis. Future studies should test our findings in large-scale study with quantitative analysis. • Practical implications: A start-up built on technology competence needs to combine with market competences, preferably in parallel, or in sequence, for ideal core competence development. To expand further, the entrepreneur ultimately must step down. Important to balance the firm's ambidexterity by adding exploitation to the initial exploration. To boost expansion further, explicate visions and policies must be added, which will guide and release employees' innovative drive. • Social implications: Suggests how entrepreneurial spirits could be transformed to facilitate growth beyond small firm size. • Originality/value: Informs scholars and managers of core competence facilitators during SMEs growth phases. |
| Keywords: | SME; growth; core competence; entrepreneurial; case study; Sweden |
| JEL: | M13 |
| Date: | 2012–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bthcsi:2012-001&r=sbm |
| By: | Stuart McDonald (School of Economics, The University of Queensland); Mohamad Alghamdi; Bernard Pailthorpe |
| Abstract: | In a seminal paper, Goyal and Moraga-Gonzalez (2001) use an undirected network to characterize knowledge flows between firms engaging in research in an oligopolistic market. In their paper, firms are regarded as inhabiting a research joint venture (RJV), if they share the same edge of the network. These firms are allowed an R&D spillover of 1; the outside firms (firms not sharing an edge in the network) are permitted a constant knowledge spillover that is less than one. We begin our paper by showing that this last assumption has important consequences when dealing with R&D networks of size greater than or equal to six firms. We present examples of topologically non-equivalent networks that have the same degree of connectivity and generate identical outcomes in terms of R&D effort, firm profits and total welfare. We then modify their model so that R&D spillovers decrease as the number of shortest paths increases between any two firms. We show that under product differentiated Cournot and Bertrand competition, we have different outcomes for all economic variables. We also show that R&D effort increases with respect to the number of collaborative links if firms are in a weakly competitive market, whereas it declines if firms are in a more competitive market where products are closer substitutes. We also find that in more competitive markets there is a conflict between the stability and the efficiency of RJVs. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qld:uq2004:454&r=sbm |
| By: | O.A. Carboni |
| Abstract: | This paper employs individual firm data in order to check the existence of industry-spatial effects alongside other microeconomic determinants of R&D investment. Spatial proximity is defined by a measure of firms’ industry distance based on trade intensity between sectors. The spatial model specified here refers to the combined spatial autoregressive model with autoregressive disturbances (SARAR). In modelling the outcome for each location as dependent on a weighted average of the outcomes of other locations, outcomes are determined simultaneously. The results of the spatial two stage least square estimation suggest that in their R&D decision firms benefit from spillovers originating from neighbouring industries. |
| Keywords: | spatial weights; spatial dependence; spatial models; R&D |
| JEL: | O10 O31 R11 C31 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:201204&r=sbm |
| By: | Chaminade, Cristina (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | Using firm-level data collected through a survey and case studies in 2009-2010, this article systematically compares the patterns of globalization of innovation in regions with different institutional thickness. The paper shows that these patterns differ substantially across regions and discusses relationship between regions, institutional frameworks and different forms of globalization of innovation. |
| Keywords: | regional innovation systems; institutional thickness; global innovation networks; Europe; China; India; Brazil; South Africa |
| JEL: | F23 F59 O33 |
| Date: | 2012–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2011_015&r=sbm |
| By: | Chaminade, Cristina (CIRCLE, Lund University); Plechero, Monica (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | The access to global innovation networks (GINs) has been extremely unequal across regions around the globe. While certain regions are considered knowledge hubs, able to link to global knowledge flow, other still remain marginalized, pointing out to the role of regional innovation systems in the emergence and development of GINs. Using firm-level data collected through a survey and case studies in 2009-2010, this article systematically compares the patterns of global networks in the ICT industry in a selection of European and non-European regions. Contrary to what we expected, the results show that GINs may emerge in regions which are neither too innovative nor institutionally thick (like Tier 1) nor too thin (like Tier 3). |
| Keywords: | globalization; innovation networks; regions; Europe; India China |
| JEL: | O32 |
| Date: | 2012–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2012_002&r=sbm |
| By: | Daniela Baglieri (University of Messina - University of Messina); Maria Cristina Cinici (University of Catania - University of Catania); Vincent Mangematin (MTS - Management Technologique et Strategique - Grenoble École de Management (GEM)) |
| Abstract: | This article investigates how anchor firms sustain high tech clusters rejuvenation by means of technological pre-adaptation. Based on evidences are drawn from the comparison of the evolution of two nano-electronics clusters, i.e., Grenoble (France) and Catania (Italy) clusters which are sharing the same anchor tenant firm STMicroelectronics. Cluster rejuvenation comes from pre-adaptation of actors (scientific and technological diversity), competition amongst anchor tenant firms, competition and overlap amongst networks and the mobilization of sleeping anchors tenant organizations to renew actors and technologies. As soon as the process of specialization (asset specificity, network specificity, technology speciation) starts, it is important to stimulate pre-adaptation to avoid lock-in of the cluster on one technological trajectory |
| Keywords: | rejuvenation; cluster growth; industry life cycle; anchor tenant firm, pre-adaptation |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:gemptp:hal-00536195&r=sbm |
| By: | Vincent Mangematin (MTS - Management Technologique et Strategique - Grenoble École de Management (GEM)); Khalid Errabi (MTS - Management Technologique et Strategique - Grenoble École de Management (GEM)) |
| Abstract: | There is growing academic and policy interests in the factors that underpin the formation and the growth of clusters, especially for such 'hyped up' scientific and technological fields as the nanotechnologies. This paper analyses the determinants of scientific cluster growth (measured by the number of publications that emanate there from), distinguishing between structural effects (i.e. initial cluster size, scientific field composition and geographic location) on the one hand and its scientific variety, organizational diversity and degree of openness (in terms of collaboration with outside actors) on the other. Overall, scientific variety enhances clusters growth, but organizational diversity slows it down. However, patterns of growth are different in Asia, Europe and North America. It seems that cluster evolution is highly contingent on national systems of innovation and on the history of collaboration amongst local actors. Policy makers and cluster strategists must design specific policies by zone, and should not simply attempt to replicate best practices from one zone to another. Slow growth may reflect also 'elitist' strategies - those based on quality rather than on numbers |
| Keywords: | cluster growth; nanotechnology; scientific district; publication |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:gemptp:hal-00526701&r=sbm |