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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2019‒03‒18
seventeen papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Pahnke, André; Welter, Friederike |
| Abstract: | Whilst internationally, the Mittelstand in Germany is admired and many countries try to emulate it, the current debate in Germany praises the Silicon Valley model of entrepreneurship, contrasting the Mittelstand as low-growth, low-tech and non-innovative - in short: as a hindrance to Germany's economic future. We therefore ask whether the Mittelstand actually is the antithesis to the Silicon Valley entrepreneurship model. We show that Mittelstand is more than a small and medium enterprise size, identifying its distinctive features (identity of ownership and management, sense of belonging). In this regard, we also discuss the influence of historical paths and current institutional settings on the Mittelstand model. Asking to what extent the Mittelstand is distinctive, we address its diverse contributions to economy and society. We suggest that the Mittelstand is an excellent example of everyday entrepreneurship and a vibrant segment of economy which is also competitive, innovative, and growth orientated; albeit in different ways compared to Silicon Valley entrepreneurship. In concluding, we outline ideas for future research and implications for policymakers. In our view, future research and policies should stand back from dichotomies such as "Mittelstand versus Silicon Valley entrepreneurship" and acknowledge the diversity and heterogeneity of entrepreneurship. |
| Keywords: | Mittelstand,context,everyday entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | L26 M13 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifmwps:0119&r=all |
| By: | Marco Grazzi (DISCE, Università Cattolica); Chiara Piccardo (Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Università di Verona); Cecilia Vergari (Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Università di Bologna) |
| Abstract: | This work investigates the relationship between proxies of innovation activities, such as patents and trademarks, and firm performance in terms of revenues and growth. By resorting to the virtual universe of Italian manufacturing firms we provide a rather complete picture of the innovation activities of Italian firms, in terms of patents and trademarks, and we study whether the two instruments for protecting Intellectual Property (IP) exhibit complementarity or substitutability. In addition, and to our knowledge novel, we propose a measure of concordance (or proximity) between the patents and trademarks owned by the same firm and we then investigate whether such concordance appears to exert any effect on performance. |
| Keywords: | Trademarks, Patents, Innovation, Intellectual Property, Complementarity, Concordance, Technological proximity, Firm performance, Firm growth |
| JEL: | O31 O34 L25 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie5:dipe0003&r=all |
| By: | Vojislav Maksimovic; Gordon M. Phillips; Liu Yang |
| Abstract: | We track firms at birth and compare the growth pattern of IPO firms and their birth-matched counterparts. Firms that are larger at birth with faster initial growth are more likely to attain a larger size later in life and go public. Firms in the top percentile of predicted propensity to go public grow 29 times larger fifteen years later than matched firms if they actually become public, and 14 times larger if they stay private, showing a large selection effect. We show that public firms, and especially those public firms backed by venture capital, respond more to demand shocks post-IPO. |
| JEL: | G20 G24 G3 G32 L1 L22 L23 L25 L26 |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25634&r=all |
| By: | Esin Yoruk |
| Abstract: | Based on theories from entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship literatures, this paper investigates how the fit between micro level entrepreneurial opportunity exploitation and macro level entrepreneurial influence sales and employment growth in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) firms. A multiple case study analysis contrasts young entrepreneurial and established intrapreneurial firms to the established conservative firms. Our findings for entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial ventures are in stark contrast to those of conservative firms. Not only entrepreneurial but also intrapreneurial firms are better at exploiting micro-level opportunities in the technology and market domains empowered by their intra-organisational competences. Moreover, they may purposefully select what macro-level opportunity to exploit, a process which contributes to their higher sales and employment growth. In other words, they are able to create the fit between micro and macro environments to generate high growth in stark contrast to conservative firms. |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:see:wpaper:2019:1&r=all |
| By: | Santacreu, Ana Maria (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis); Varela, Liliana (University of Warwick, CEPR and CAGE) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of increased import penetration on a country’s long-term patterns of trade. It shows that foreign competition induces firms to increase their R&D efforts in order to differentiate their products and escape competition. Quality improvements translate into increases in firms’ exports. This effect, however, is heterogeneous across sectors and is driven by sectors’ in which the country has a comparative advantage. On the aggregate, the impact of import competition on innovation and a country’s patterns of trade depends crucially on the distribution of sectoral comparative advantage. We provide evidence of this mechanism using firm-level data on trade and innovation for France and import competition driven by China’s WTO entry. |
| Keywords: | quality upgrading, import competition, patterns of trade, comparative advantage JEL Classification: F12, F14, O30, O41 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:404&r=all |
| By: | Gupta, Bishnupriya (University of Warwick); Mookherjee, Dilip (Boston University); Munshi, Kaivan (University of Cambridge); Sanclemente, Mario (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | We argue that community networks played an important role in the emergence of Indian entrepreneurship in the early stages of the cotton textile and jute textile industries in the late 19th and early 20th century respectively, overcoming the lack of market institutions and government support. From business registers, we construct a yearly panel dataset of entrepreneurs in these two industries. We find no evidence that entry is affected by prior trading experience or price shocks in the corresponding upstream sector. Firm directors exhibited a high degree of clustering of entrepreneurs by community. The dynamics of entry is consistent with a model of network-based dynamics. |
| Keywords: | JEL Classification: |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:402&r=all |
| By: | Ferrando, Annalisa; Pal, Rozalia; Durante, Elena |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the links between alternative growth phases of firms and barriers to financing and investment using firm-level information for a representative sample of EU companies. We propose a novel classification of corporates: high growth (HGEs), stable and declining enterprises. We find that during the phase of high growth, firms are on average more financially constrained. To match their needs for external finance, HGEs are more likely to apply for equity financing. Furthermore, we identify firms with high growth potential. Using survey data, we investigate the barriers to investment activities faced by actual and potential HGEs. Our findings suggest that the most stringent obstacles for actual HGEs are the availability of skilled staff and business regulations, while potential HGEs are blocked by uncertainty about the future. |
| Keywords: | high growth enterprises,financing conditions,bank financing,equity financing,obstacles to investment |
| JEL: | D22 G01 G20 G32 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:eibwps:201903&r=all |
| By: | Ray Lambert (Birbeck); Paul Temple (University of Surrey) |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates the link between standards, business strategy and innovation, based upon a factor analysis of the stated ‘context’ for innovation contained in the 2012-2014 UK Innovation Survey (UKIS). The analysis reveals a distinction between pro-active ‘entrepreneurial’ strategies and reactive and ‘defensive’ strategies, as well as firms, although regarded in the survey as innovation ‘active’ have no clear innovation based objective. We combine this classification with sectoral indicators of the significance of standards to investigate how firms deliver these strategies. We find that, in addition to the important role played by the type of innovation strategy, standards have a significant impact not only on the extensive margin of R&D expenditures, but also on the likelihood that firms will invest in related complementary investments, notably in training and design. We test these propositions with a specific UKIS question on the value that firms put on standards. The positive impact that standards have on the acquisition of innovation related assets suggest that, on balance, the impact of standards has significant pro-competitive effects on an innovation system. |
| JEL: | L21 O31 O32 O34 |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sur:surrec:0519&r=all |
| By: | Juan Carluccio; Clément Mazet-Sonilhac; Jean-Stéphane Mésonnier |
| Abstract: | We exploit a new dataset of consolidated balance sheets for some 1,850, mostly nonlisted, French corporate groups, in order to investigate the relationship between corporate investment and the cost of capital. Our empirical model is motivated by a standard Q-theory of investment and relates the rate of investment to a proxy for profits, the cost of capital and firm- and sector-level controls. We notably construct firm-level measures of the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) that account for industry-specific values of the cost of equity and reflect the actual capital structure of firms. We find a confirmation that a high WACC drags down investment: a one SD increase in the real WACC (+2 pp) is associated on average with a reduction by 0.65 pp in the investment rate. The effect is somewhat larger for manufacturing firms and when firms are highly leveraged or more dependent on external finance. We also investigate the impact of lower competition or higher uncertainty on business investment and do not find evidence in support of any role of these two factors in France in recent years. |
| Keywords: | Business Investment, Cost of Capital, Uncertainty, Competition |
| JEL: | G31 G32 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:banfra:710&r=all |
| By: | J. David Brown; John S. Earle; Mee Jung Kim; Kyung Min Lee |
| Abstract: | We estimate differences in innovation behavior between foreign versus U.S.-born entrepreneurs in high-tech industries. Our data come from the Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs, a random sample of firms with detailed information on owner characteristics and innovation activities. We find uniformly higher rates of innovation in immigrant-owned firms for 15 of 16 different innovation measures; the only exception is for copyright/trademark. The immigrant advantage holds for older firms as well as for recent start-ups and for every level of the entrepreneur’s education. The size of the estimated immigrant-native differences in product and process innovation activities rises with detailed controls for demographic and human capital characteristics but falls for R&D and patenting. Controlling for finance, motivations, and industry reduces all coefficients, but for most measures and specifications immigrants are estimated to have a sizable advantage in innovation. |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:19-06&r=all |
| By: | David Popp |
| Abstract: | Innovation is an important part of environmental policy, and encouraging innovation is often an explicit goal of policymakers. A large literature in environmental economics examines the links between environmental policy and innovation. Popp et al. (2010) provides an extensive review of the literature on environmental innovation. This paper updates that review, highlighting research published during the past decade, with a focus on empirical research examining links between environmental policy and environmentally friendly innovation. I highlight major trends in the literature, including an increased number of cross-country studies and a focus on the effect of different policy instruments on innovation. I include a discussion of the justifications and evidence for technology-specific policy incentives and present evidence on the effectiveness of government R&D spending. My review concludes with a discussion of three promising areas for new research on environmental innovation. |
| JEL: | O31 O38 Q55 |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25631&r=all |
| By: | Daniel Stock (Center for International Development at Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | While foreign direct investment may play a transformative role in the development of economies, foreign-owned firms are also said to be more “footloose” than comparable local firms. This paper uses a semi-parametric approach to examine the link between firm ownership and exit rates, tracking a set of export-oriented firms operating in Sri Lanka in years between 1978 and 2017. We find that foreign firms are in fact 42-56% more likely to exit than local firms, but only for their first years of existence. In their later years, foreign firms are actually less likely to exit than local firms, though this late advantage is not statistically significant when conditioned on the firms’ initial characteristics (such as employment size). This pattern supports the theory that foreign firms face a steeper early learning curve in adapting to local conditions. |
| Keywords: | Foreign Direct Investment |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cid:wpfacu:112a&r=all |
| By: | C.J. Krizan |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to quantify the difference in performance, of “treated” (program participant) and “non-treated” (non-participant) firms in SBA’s Scale-Up initiative. I combine data from the SBA with administrative data housed at Census using a combination of numeric and name and address matching techniques. My results show that after controlling for available observable characteristics, a positive correlation exists between participation in the Scale-Up initiative and firm growth. However, publicly available survey results have shown that entrepreneurs have a variety of goals in-mind when they start their businesses. Two prominent, and potentially contradictory ones are work-life balance and greater income. That means that not all firms may want to grow and I am unable to completely control for owner motivations. Finally, I do not find a statistically significant relationship between participation in Scale-Up and firm survival once other business characteristics are accounted for. |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:19-11&r=all |
| By: | Morcillo Laiz, Álvaro |
| Abstract: | The literature on the development of Mexican social sciences during the twentieth century has rarely considered universities as part of the state. If we do, then universities are characterized by traits similar to those of the state, such as clientelism. This plausible hypothesis has never been fully unexamined. Another trait of the literature that impairs our knowledge of the Mexican social sciences is the neglect of external actors, in particular by US philanthropies. In this manuscript I argue that the Rockefeller Foundation patronised liberal scholarship, practiced according to formal rational criteria, as an alternative to what foundation officers perceived as clientelism and amateurism at universities. While in the long run foundations were extremely consequential for Latin American social sciences, and therefore frequently considered part of a US imperialistic drive towards cultural hegemony in Latin America, they were not unitary actors and frequently failed to predict the actual impact of their grants. |
| Keywords: | intellectual history,sociology of science,history of sociology,international political sociology,cultural diplomacy,U.S.-Latin American relations,Mexico,Rockefeller Foundation,José Medina Echavarría,Daniel Cosío Villegas,El Colegio de México,Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales (UNAM),Wissenschaftssoziologie,Soziologiegeschichte,Internationale politische Soziologie,Kulturdiplomatie,Wissenschaftsförderung,US-lateinamerikanische Beziehungen,Mexiko,Rockefeller Stiftung |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbtci:spiv2019101&r=all |
| By: | Lina Cortés; Juan M. Lozada; Javier Perote |
| JEL: | C14 L11 L25 |
| Date: | 2019–03–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000122:017205&r=all |
| By: | Wilman Gómez; Carlos Esteban Posada; Remberto Rhenals |
| Date: | 2018–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000122:017203&r=all |
| By: | Yulia Altukhova-Nys (REGARDS - Recherches en Économie Gestion AgroRessources Durabilité Santé- EA 6292 - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne - SFR Condorcet - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne - UPJV - Université de Picardie Jules Verne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Jean-Marc Bascourret (REGARDS - Recherches en Économie Gestion AgroRessources Durabilité Santé- EA 6292 - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne - SFR Condorcet - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne - UPJV - Université de Picardie Jules Verne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Jean-Francis Ory (REGARDS - Recherches en Économie Gestion AgroRessources Durabilité Santé- EA 6292 - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne - SFR Condorcet - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne - UPJV - Université de Picardie Jules Verne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Jean-Luc Petitjean (REGARDS - Recherches en Économie Gestion AgroRessources Durabilité Santé- EA 6292 - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne - SFR Condorcet - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne - UPJV - Université de Picardie Jules Verne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Keywords: | comptabilité,exploitation agricole,agro-écologie |
| Date: | 2017–06–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02053018&r=all |