nep-sbm New Economics Papers
on Small Business Management
Issue of 2014‒06‒02
eight papers chosen by
Joao Carlos Correia Leitao
Universidade da Beira Interior and Universidade de Lisboa

  1. Patents as quality signals? The implications for financing constraints on R&D By Hottenrott H.; Czarnitzki D.; Hall B.H.
  2. End-user collaboration for process innovation in services: The role of internal resources By Narula R.; Martinez-Noya A.; Ashok M.
  3. Foreign Direct Investment and Domestic Entrepreneurship: Blessing or Curse? By Danakol, Seçil Hülya; Estrin, Saul; Reynolds, Paul; Weitzel, Utz
  4. Why are some regions more innovative than others? The role of firm size diversity By Agrawal, Ajay; Cockburn, Iain M; Galasso, Alberto; Oettl, Alexander
  5. Entrepreneurship, public policy, and cities By Lerner, Josh
  6. Entrepreneurship Education By Jonathan Bainée
  7. Récents enseignements de la théorie des réseaux en faveur de la politique et du management des clusters By Raphaël Suire; Jérôme Vicente
  8. Are clusters more resilient in crises? Evidence from French exporters in 2008-2009 By Martin, Philippe; Mayer, Thierry; Mayneris, Florian

  1. By: Hottenrott H.; Czarnitzki D.; Hall B.H. (UNU-MERIT)
    Abstract: Information about the success of a new technology is usually held asymmetrically between the research and development RD-performing firm and potential lenders and investors. This raises the cost of capital for financing RD externally, resulting in financing constraints on RD especially for firms with limited internal resources. Previous literature provided evidence for start-up firms on the role of patents as signals to investors, in particular to Venture Capitalists. This study adds to previous insights by studying the effects of firms patenting activity on the degree of financing constraints on RD for a panel of established firms. The results show that patents do indeed attenuate financing constraints for small firms where information asymmetries may be particularly high and collateral value is low. Larger firms are not only less subject to financing constraints, but also do not seem to benefit from a patent quality signal. Keywords Patents, Quality Signal, Research and Development, Financial Constraints, Innovation Policy
    Keywords: Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives; Management of Technological Innovation and R&D; Technological Change: Government Policy;
    JEL: O31 O32 O38
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2014013&r=sbm
  2. By: Narula R.; Martinez-Noya A.; Ashok M. (UNU-MERIT)
    Abstract: This paper focuses on how to improve process innovation in service sectors. To do so, we analyse how the interplay of external knowledge sources specifically, the intensity of end-user collaboration and the breadth of external collaboration and the firms internal resources impact process innovation at the firm level. Survey data from 166 Information Technology Services firms provide the empirical data, which is tested using the partial least squares structural equation model. Our results demonstrate that benefits from collaboration are not automatic, as the firms commitment of internal resources fully mediates the impact of the intensity of end-user collaboration and breadth of external collaboration on process innovation. Thus, internal resources become critical to make effective use of the knowledge residing both internally and externally, and key managerial practices that enable a firm to extract benefits from external collaboration are identified. Keywords end-user collaboration; external knowledge sources; internal resources; process innovation; service industry
    Keywords: IT Management; Management of Technological Innovation and R&D;
    JEL: M15 O32
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2014019&r=sbm
  3. By: Danakol, Seçil Hülya; Estrin, Saul; Reynolds, Paul; Weitzel, Utz
    Abstract: This paper explores the effects of foreign direct investment, measured by mergers and acquisitions, on domestic entrepreneurial entry. We use a micro-panel of more than two thousand individuals disaggregated by industry in seventy countries including both developed and developing economies, 2000-2009. The theory yields ambiguous predictions about the relationship between FDI and entrepreneurship; positive spillovers via dissemination of technology or negative because of crowding out. Our empirical analysis is conducted at three levels of aggregation. We find the relationship between FDI and domestic entrepreneurship in aggregate and intra-industry to be negative. Policies need to consider how to counteract this effect.
    Keywords: entrepreneurship; foreign direct investment; new firm entry; spillovers
    JEL: F23 L26 M13
    Date: 2014–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9793&r=sbm
  4. By: Agrawal, Ajay; Cockburn, Iain M; Galasso, Alberto; Oettl, Alexander
    Abstract: Large firms spawn spin-outs caused by innovations deemed unrelated to the firm's overall business. Small firms generate demand for specialized services that lower entry costs for others. We study the interplay of these two localized externalities and their impact on regional innovation. We examine MSA-level patent data during the period 1975-2000 and find that innovation output is higher in regions where large and small firms coexist. The finding is robust to across-region as well as within-region analysis and the effect is stronger in certain subsamples in a manner that is consistent with our explanation.
    Keywords: cities; externalities; firm size diversity; innovation; patents; spin-outs
    JEL: L16 O18 O47
    Date: 2013–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9766&r=sbm
  5. By: Lerner, Josh
    Abstract: Since the 2008-09 global financial crises, interest among policy makers in promoting innovative, ventures has exploded. The emerging great hubs of entrepreneurial activity, like Bangalore, Dubai, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, Singapore, and Tel Aviv, bear the unmistakable stamp of the public sector. Enlightened government intervention played a key role in each region's emergence. But for each effective government intervention, dozens, even hundreds, disappointed, with substantial public spending bearing no fruit. This paper sheds light on how governments can avoid mistakes in stimulating entrepreneurship. In recent decades, efforts have increased to provide the world's poorest with financing and other assistance to facilitate their entry into entrepreneurship or the growth of their small ventures. These are typically subsistence businesses offering services like snack preparation or clothing repair. Such businesses typically allow business owners and their families to get by, but little else. The public policy literature, along with academic studies of new ventures, often does not distinguish among the types of businesses being studied. The author will focus here exclusively on high-potential new ventures and the policies that enhance them. This choice, not intended to diminish the importance of efforts to boost microenterprises, reflects the complexity of the field: the dynamics and issues involving micro firmsare quite different from those of their high-potential counterparts. A substantial literature suggests that promising entrepreneurial firms can have a powerful effect in transforming industries and promoting innovation.
    Keywords: Microfinance,Debt Markets,Emerging Markets,Investment and Investment Climate,Small Scale Enterprise
    Date: 2014–05–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6880&r=sbm
  6. By: Jonathan Bainée (UEA - Unité d'Économie Appliquée - ENSTA ParisTech, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne)
    Abstract: Entrepreneurship and, thus, small- and middlesized firms (SMEs) have had a growing interest for the past two decades, from the academic world as well as from public authorities. This interest is part of many economic changes. In particular, technological change and the increasing incidence of innovation in most developed countries have reduced the importance of the size of the companies in the industry and favored the development of entrepreneurial activities. In addition, globalization would have dragged the comparative advantages of North American and European countries toward knowledge-based activities, while the "knowledge-based economy" would be relatively more conducive to entrepreneurship and to SMEs. The issues in terms of ability to manage the creation, transition, and business development are primordial, both in their qualitative and quantitative dimension. It is in this context, conducive to new needs of knowledge, that emerge entrepreneurship teachings designed to inspire and enable individuals to start and to grow entrepreneurial ventures. They can be addressed in two steps. First, a historical approach will show how teachings in entrepreneurship have evolved in their implementation based on a double dynamic of empowerment and "complication" of training programs in entrepreneurship, which seems structured around the controversy over the ability to learn to undertake business or initiate the risk culture. Second, practical teaching methods of entrepreneurship will be analyzed, making sure to highlight the multifaceted reality of innovative approaches and actions through an international benchmark conducted by the PIMREP (ParisTech Innovation Management Research and Education Program) network (PIMREP 2010, 2011)
    Keywords: Entrepreneuriat ; management de l'innovation ; enseignements ; Eco-système
    Date: 2013–04–15
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-00980385&r=sbm
  7. By: Raphaël Suire (CREM UMR CNRS 6211, University of Rennes 1, France); Jérôme Vicente (PACTE-CNRS, Sciences-Po Grenoble)
    Abstract: After an abundant literature on the crucial role of cluster development for innovation and growth in knowledge-based economies, cluster policies have been recently and increasingly called into question in the aftermath of several empirical evidences. Our aim is to show that, in spite of this growing scepticism, new opportunities for cluster policy and collective management exist. They require moving their focus from the “connecting people” one best way that gets through the whole of cluster policy guidelines to more surgical and targeted incentives for R&D collaborations, as well as renewed coordination mechanisms, which favour a set of particular network failures along the life cycle of clusters.
    Keywords: Network theories, cluster policy, cluster management
    JEL: B52 D85 O33 R11 R12
    Date: 2014–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tut:cremwp:201409&r=sbm
  8. By: Martin, Philippe; Mayer, Thierry; Mayneris, Florian
    Abstract: Clusters have already been extensively shown to favor firm-level economic performance (productivity, exports, innovation etc.). However, little is known about the capacity of firms in clusters to resist economic shocks. In this paper, we analyze whether firms that agglomerate in clusters and firms that have been selected to benefit from the "competitiveness cluster'' industrial policy, implemented in France in 2005, have performed better on export markets during the recent economic turmoil. We show that, on average, both agglomeration and the cluster policy are associated with a higher survival probability of firms on export markets, and conditioning on survival, a higher growth rate of their exports. However, these effects are not stronger during the 2008-2009 crisis; if anything, the opposite is true. We then show that this weaker resilience of competitiveness cluster firms is probably due to the fact that firms in clusters are more dependent on the fate of the ``leader'', i.e. the largest exporter in the cluster.
    Keywords: clusters; competitiveness clusters; crisis; exports; resilience
    JEL: F1 R10 R11 R12 R15
    Date: 2013–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9667&r=sbm

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