|
on Small Business Management |
|
Issue of 2016‒08‒07
eighteen papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Riccardo Crescenzi; Luisa Gagliardi; Simona Iammarino |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at foreign Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) investing in the UK and at their impact on the innovation performance of domestic firms active in their same sector. By employing data on Foreign Direct Investments matched with firm-level information the paper develops a direct measure of capital inflows at a three-digit industry level. In order to capture innovation in both manufacturing and services the paper relies on a broader proxy for firm innovativeness based on the Community Innovation Survey (CIS). The results suggest that domestic firms active in sectors with greater investments by MNEs show a stronger innovative performance. However, the heterogeneity across domestic firms in terms of internationalization of both their market engagement and ownership structure is the main driver of this effect. |
| Keywords: | multinational enterprises; innovation technological change; intra-industry knowledge diffusion; community innovation survey; United Kingdom |
| JEL: | F22 O33 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:62028&r=sbm |
| By: | Abeba Nigussie Turi (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague, Smetanovo nabrezi 6, 111 01 Prague 1, Czech Republic) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the spillover effect resulting from the foreign direct investment with a focus on the manufacturing firms in Ethiopia. Being one of the pillars of the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP), identifying the productivity spillovers arising from the FDI to the sector is timely. The research covers extensive econometric analysis based on the Central Statistics Agency’s (CSA) survey, for the years 2004 up to 2010, on the manufacturing firms and an Input-Output matrix, for the year 2005/6, constructed by the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI). My analysis suggests that there is an econometric evidence for positive Backward spillovers and negative Forward spillovers to the total productivity of the manufacturing firms in the country. The paper’s findings on this aspect are limited. Because, the analysis entirely rely on industry level secondary data and only one year Input-Output matrix. Therefore, there is a potential for further research work; given this benchmark finding. |
| Keywords: | Foreign Direct Investment, Spillover Effect, Total Factor Productivity |
| JEL: | F2 F21 F23 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fau:wpaper:wp2015_29&r=sbm |
| By: | Aghion, Philippe; Dechezleprêtre, Antoine; Hemous, David; Martin, Ralf; Van Reenen, John |
| Abstract: | Can directed technical change be used to combat climate change? We construct new firm-level panel data on auto industry innovation distinguishing between "dirty" (internal combustion engine) and "clean" (e.g. electric and hybrid) patents across 80 countries over several decades. We show that firms tend to innovate relatively more in clean technologies when they face higher tax-inclusive fuel prices. Furthermore, there is path dependence in the type of innovation both from aggregate spillovers and from the firm's own innovation history. Using our model we simulate the increases in carbon taxes needed to allow clean to overtake dirty technologies. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:faseco:27759048&r=sbm |
| By: | Ioannis Asimakopoulos (Bank of Greece); Panagiotis K. Avramidis (ALBA Graduate Business School at the American College of Greece); Dimitris Malliaropulos (Bank of Greece, University of Piraeus); Nickolaos G. Travlos |
| Abstract: | Using a unique dataset of corporate loans of 13,070 Greek firms for the period 2008-2015 and an identification strategy based on the internal credit ratings of banks, we provide evidence that one out of six firms with non-performing loans are strategic defaulters. Furthermore, we investigate potential determinants of firms’ behavior by relating the probability of strategic default to a number of firm characteristics such as size, age, liquidity, profitability and collateral value. We provide evidence of a positive relationship of strategic default with outstanding debt and economic uncertainty and a negative relationship with the value of collateral. Also, profitability and collateral can be used to distinguish the strategic defaulters from the financially distressed defaulters. Finally, we find evidence that the relationship of strategic default risk with firm size and age has an inverse U-shape, i.e. strategic default is more likely among medium-sized firms compared to small and large firms and it is also more likely among middle-aged firms compared to new-founded and established firms. |
| Keywords: | Strategic default; Non-performing loans; Corporate loans; Leverage |
| JEL: | G01 G21 G32 C23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bog:wpaper:211&r=sbm |
| By: | de Matías Batalla, David |
| Abstract: | In this paper, the author presents the impact of new players and factors in international business activities, which have a direct influence on international economic structure. One of the most important determinants over the last decades has been foreign direct investment, which has encouraged the dislocation of business activities in many industries. This, together with the rest of foreign direct investment, makes the author think of extending the OLI model to OLIM, where M is the mode of entry. One type of this mode is offshoring which makes easier the relocation of business activity from developed economies to developing economies. The study of offshoring activities is the focus of this paper, with the data coming from a survey of 166 Spanish multinational firms. Empirical evidence should provide us the main factors that motivate Spanish multinational firms to be engaged in foreign direct investment via offshoring. |
| Keywords: | foreign direct investment,eclectic paradigm,internationalization process,offshoring,multinational firms |
| JEL: | D23 F21 F23 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201637&r=sbm |
| By: | Agostino, Mariarosaria; Nifo, Annamaria; Trivieri, Francesco; Vecchione, Gaetano |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to contribute to the debate on the determinants of differentials in firms’ productivity. We test the hypothesis that macro factors, especially the quality of local institutions, play a role in explaining firm productivity in Italy. To this end, following Fӓre et al. (1994), we decompose the Malmquist index of total factor productivity (TFP) change for approximately 7,500 manufacturing small and medium-sized firms, and we proxy province-level institutional quality using the IQI index (Nifo and Vecchione, 2014). The results of our stimations suggest that better local institutions might help firms better combine inputs, approach the optimal size, and ultimately be more productive. |
| Keywords: | TFP, Malmquist index, Institutional quality, Italian manufacturing SMEs |
| JEL: | C31 C33 D24 L60 O43 O47 O50 R11 |
| Date: | 2016–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:72759&r=sbm |
| By: | Rosario Crino (Catholic University of Milan); Gino Gancia (CREI); Alessandra Bonfiglioli (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) |
| Abstract: | We study the equilibrium determinants of firm-level heterogeneity in a model in which firms can affect the variance of their productivity draws at the entry stage and explore the implications in closed and open economy. By allowing firms to choose the size of their investment in innovation projects of unknown quality, the model yields a Pareto distribution for productivity with a shape parameter that depends on industry-level characteristics. A novel result is that export opportunities, by increasing the payoffs in the tail, induce firms to invest in bigger projects with more spread-out outcomes. Moreover, when more productive firms also pay higher wages, trade amplifies wage dispersion by making all firms more unequal. These results are consistent with new evidence on how firm-level heterogeneity and wage dispersion vary in a panel of U.S. industries. Finally, we use patent data across U.S. states and over time to provide evidence in support of a specific mechanism of the model, namely, that export opportunities increase firm heterogeneity by fostering innovation. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed016:327&r=sbm |
| By: | Karbowski, Adam; Prokop, Jacek |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to analyze selected problems of interfirm R&D cooperation discussed in the industrial organization literature. Analyzed interrelated problems are: (i) stability of interfirm R&D cooperation, (ii) organization of interfirm R&D cooperation, (iii) asymmetries between cooperating firms and (iv) the impact of interfirm R&D cooperation on industry cartelization. On the basis of the literature review it can be concluded that the necessary condition for reaching benefits from interfirm R&D cooperation is to (1) successfully solve the free-rider problem arising in the process of knowledge sharing between collaborating firms and further (2) maintain stable cooperation. Obstacles to stable R&D cooperation can be, however, too low or too high values of asymmetries occurring between cooperating firms. Effective stabilization of interfirm R&D cooperation can be achieved, among others, by licensing of know-how, intensification of knowledge sharing between cooperating firms and various organizational forms of R&D cooperation (research joint-ventures and R&D cartels). From the social welfare perspective it should be also noted that tightening up of an interfirm cooperation at the R&D stage can result in the cartelization of industry (cartel on the market of a final good can be formed). |
| Keywords: | interfirm cooperation, research and development, industrial organization |
| JEL: | L24 O32 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:72784&r=sbm |
| By: | Rocha, Vera (Copenhagen Business School); van Praag, Mirjam C. (Copenhagen Business School) |
| Abstract: | Both organizational and sociological approaches in entrepreneurship research highlight the importance of social context in shaping individual preferences for entrepreneurship. An influential contextual factor that has not been studied in entrepreneurship research is one's boss at work. Do entrepreneurial bosses contribute to their employees' decisions to become entrepreneurs themselves? Using Danish register data of newly founded firms and their entrepreneurs and employees between 2003 and 2012, and employing methods that allow causal inferences, we show that entrepreneurial bosses indeed affect their employees' future entrepreneurship choices, especially if both boss and employee are female. We investigate two alternative underlying mechanisms that may shape the (female) boss' influence on (female) workers' entrepreneurship decisions. Our results consistently suggest that entrepreneurial bosses may act as role models for the entrepreneurship activities of their employees, especially between pairs of female bosses and female employees. We do not find any evidence on female bosses acting as "queen bees" at the workplace. Female entrepreneurial bosses may, thus, act as a lever to reducing the gender gaps in entrepreneurship rates. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, role models, gender gaps, female leadership |
| JEL: | L26 J24 J16 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10104&r=sbm |
| By: | Fabrizio Panebianco; Thierry Verdier; Yves Zenou |
| Abstract: | Consider a network of firms where a firm T is given the opportunity to innovate a product (first-generation innovation). If successful, this firm can temporarily sell this innovation to her direct neighbors because this will give her access to a larger market. However, if her direct neighbors innovate themselves on top of firm T's innovation (second-generation innovations), then firm T loses the right to sell her initial innovation to the remaining firms in the market. We analyze this game where each firm (T and her direct neighbors) has to decide at which price they want to sell their innovation. We show that the optimal price policy of each firm depends on the level of property rights protection, the position of firm T in the network, her degree and the size of the market. We then analyze the welfare implications of our model where the planner that maximizes total welfare has to decide which firm to target. We show that it depends on the level of property rights protection and on the network structure in a non-trivial way. JEL classification: D85, L1, Z13. Keywords: Networks, diffusion centrality, targets, innovation. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:igi:igierp:579&r=sbm |
| By: | Jens K. Perret (European Institute for International Economic Relations at the University of Wuppertal) |
| Abstract: | The present study picks up on the aspect of knowledge generation - a key part of every national innovation system - in the context of the USA and the Russian Federation. Following Fritsch and Slavtchev (2006) a knowledge production function can be used to account for the efficiency of an innovation systems. In detail this study provides a quantile regression estimation of the knowledge production function to account for a possible non-linear relationship between knowledge inputs and knowledge output. Using regional data for researchers, expenditures on R\& D and patent grants for the USA and the Russian Federation - motivated by the results of a kernel density estimation and transition matrices - a quantile regression is performed for a basic knowledge production function design; for Russia as well for an extended design. The results show that in both countries there exist groups of regions with smaller sized research systems that report significantly different dynamics and thus knowledge production functions than regions with larger sized research systems. |
| Keywords: | Russian Federation, USA, Innovation System, Knowledge Production Function, Knowledge Generation, Quantile Regression, Regional Economics |
| JEL: | P25 O31 O57 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bwu:schdps:sdp16003&r=sbm |
| By: | Sabine D'Costa; Enrique Garcilazo; Joaquim Oliveira Martins |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to understand the impact of nation-wide structural policies on the productivity growth of OECD regions. In particular we explore how this impact varies with the productivity gap of regions with their country's frontier region. We use a policy-augmented growth model that allows us to estimate the effects of macroeconomic and structural policies on regional productivity growth. We estimate our model with an unbalanced panel dataset consisting of 265 regions from 24 OECD countries covering the period 1997 to 2007. We find that the effects on regional productivity growth are differentiated with respect to the regional productivity gap: Relaxing employment protection legislation on temporary contracts or lowering barriers to trade and investment would enhance productivity growth in lagging regions, whereas reducing the amount of state control has the opposite effect on lagging regions. Macroeconomic factors also influence regional performance: trade openness and the government debt to GDP ratio are more beneficial to lagging regions. These results reveal that average relationships between nation-wide policies and the productivity of regions can hide strong differentiated effects according to the distance to the country frontier. This carries important policy implications, mainly that these region-specific effects should be taken into account in the policy design. |
| Keywords: | structural reforms, regional growth, lagging regions |
| JEL: | R11 R58 O18 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0203&r=sbm |
| By: | Piotr Gabrielczak (Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Lodz); Tomasz Serwach (Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Lodz) |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates the link between firm-level productivity and internationalization (through exports, imports and FDI) in the Lodz Voivodeship, Poland. Two hypotheses have been tested –self-selection and learning by internationalization. It has been found that productivity may affect import and FDI decisions of firms, while there is no evidence of such an effect regarding exports. At the same time, there is no proof for learning, suggesting that within the timeframe of the analysis firms from the Lodz Voivodeship do not experience productivity gains due to international trade or investment. |
| Keywords: | international trade, foreign direct investment, internationalization, productivity, self-selection, learning |
| JEL: | F12 F23 D22 |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ann:wpaper:7/2016&r=sbm |
| By: | Aghion, Philippe; Howitt, Peter; Prantl, Susanne |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we provide empirical evidence to the effect that strong patent rights may complement competition-increasing product market reforms in fostering innovation. First, we find that the product market reform induced by the large-scale internal market reform of the European Union in 1992 enhanced, on average, innovative investments in manufacturing industries of countries with strong patent rights since the pre-sample period, but not so in industries of countries with weaker patent rights. Second, the positive response to the product market reform is more pronounced in industries where, in general, innovators tend to value patent protection higher than in other industries, except for the manufacture of electrical and optical equipment. The observed complementarity between competition and patent protection can be rationalized using a Schumpeterian growth model with step-by-step innovation. In such a model, better patent protection prolongs the period over which a firm that successfully escapes competition by innovating, actually enjoys higher monopoly rents from its technological upgrade. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:faseco:27755230&r=sbm |
| By: | Goldschlag, Nathan (U.S. Census Bureau); Bianchini, Stefano (Université de Strasbourg); Lane, Julia (New York University); SanMartin Sola, Joseba; Weinberg, Bruce A. (Ohio State University) |
| Abstract: | Public support of research typically relies on the notion that universities are engines of economic development, and that university research is a primary driver of high wage localized economic activity. Yet the evidence supporting that notion is based on aggregate descriptive data, rather than detailed links at the level of individual transactions. Here we use new micro-data from three countries - France, Spain and the United States - to examine one mechanism whereby such economic activity is generated, namely purchases from regional businesses. We show that grant funds are more likely to be expended at businesses physically closer to universities than at those farther away. In addition, if a vendor has been a supplier to a grant once, that vendor is subsequently more likely to be a vendor on the same or related grants. Firms behave in a way that is consistent with the notion that propinquity is good for business; if a firm supplies a research grant at a university in a given year it is more likely to open an establishment near that university in subsequent years than other firms. |
| Keywords: | science policy, innovation, regional economic development, UMETRICS |
| JEL: | O30 R10 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10081&r=sbm |
| By: | Gerasim A. Mkrtychyan (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces an original methodology for assessing the organizational culture of an entrepreneurial university. Methods for the assessment of values in research activity and of resistance to organizational change have been developed. The study of values and characteristics of resistance to change was conducted on the academic staff of the faculties of Economics and Management at the Nizhny Novgorod campus of the Higher School of Economics. It was found that the campus professors' academic orientation in research activity dominates their entrepreneurial orientation and that the strength of this influence differs amongst them, depending on their values. Additionally, greatest resistance in professors is caused by changes in human resources policy and management; this resistance is of moderate intensity and passive. The study confirms a positive relationship between the academic orientation of the "motivation" and "reward" values and the intensity of resistance to change in personnel policy and management. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurial university, organizational culture, academic values, entrepreneurial values, resistance to change. |
| JEL: | M14 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:31edu2016&r=sbm |
| By: | Erling Barth; James Davis; Richard B. Freeman |
| Abstract: | We augment standard ln earnings equations with variables reflecting unmeasured attributes of workers and measured and unmeasured attributes of their employer. Using panel employee-establishment data for US manufacturing we find that the observable employer characteristics that most impact earnings are: number of workers, education of co-workers, capital equipment per worker, industry in which the establishment produces, and R&D intensity of the firm. Employer fixed effects also contribute to the variance of ln earnings, though substantially less than individual fixed effects. In addition to accounting for some of the variance in earnings, the observed and unobserved measures of employers mediate the estimated effects of individual characteristics on earnings and increasing earnings inequality through the sorting of workers among establishments. |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qsh:wpaper:427826&r=sbm |
| By: | Luis Garicano; Claire Lelargez; John Van Reenen |
| Abstract: | We show how size-contingent laws can be used to identify the equilibrium and welfare effects of labor regulation. Our framework incorporates such regulations into the Lucas (1978) model and applies it to France where many labor laws start to bind on firms with 50 or more employees. Using population data on firms between 1995 and 2007, we structurally estimate the key parameters of our model to construct counterfactual size, productivity and welfare distributions. We find that the cost of these regulations is equivalent to that of a 2.3% variable tax on labor. In our baseline case with French levels of partial real wage inflexibility welfare costs of the regulations are 3.4% of GDP (falling to 1.3% if real wages were perfectly flexible downwards). The main losers from the regulation are workers - and to a lesser extent, large firms - and the main winners are small firms. |
| Keywords: | Firm size; productivity; labor regulation; power law |
| JEL: | J1 N0 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:66765&r=sbm |