African small and medium enterprises, networks, and manufacturing performance

This paper examines the role of private support institutions in determining small and medium enterprise (SME) growth and performance in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It finds that SMEs in SSA get around market failures and lack of formal institutions by creating private governance systems in the form of long-term business relationships and tight, ethnically-based, business networks. There are important links between these informal governance institutions and SME performance. Networks raise the performance of"insiders"and, in the sparse business environments of the SSA region, have attendant negative consequences for market participation of"outsiders,"such as indigenous African SMEs. This is indicated through the determinants of access to supplier credit. Policy interventions will be needed to improve the platform for relation-based governance mechanisms and to address the exclusionary effects of tight networks.Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Business in Development,Business Environment,Technology Industry

Increasing returns and network structure in the evolutionary dynamics of industries

The paper explores the idea that properties at the level of firms coevolve with more aggregate properties at the level of market institutions in the dynamics of industries. We propose that the structure of network of vertical relations limits the effect of increasing returns at the firm level. The paper develops a set of empirical measures and discusses a detailed case study of the commercial jet engine industry. The analysis of the structural dynamics of the network of vertical relations between engine suppliers and airframe manufacturers during the history of the industry (1958-1997) explains a final configuration of the industry marked by the coexistence of increasing returns to investments in R&D and marketing activities, with an intense competition among a few large incumbents, a low level of concentration and a strong instability of market shares. The emergence of a hierarchical network with a core and a periphery leads to equalisation of technical and market opportunities within the core and prevents incumbents to exit the industry.increasing returns; concentration; market shares; aircraft-engine industry; vertical relations; network.

Co-evolutionary dynamics in strategic alliances : the influence of the industry lifecycle

This study examines the application of the co-evolution literature to strategic alliance formation in SME’s in the UK and Australia in two differing industries at different stages of the industry life-cycle. Extending the framework developed by Das and Teng (2002) and that of Wilson and Hynes (2009), it engages with wider industry and environmental characteristics present in these two countries, specifically examining whether different theories of alliance formation are better suited to different stages of an industry life cycle. The issues discussed above are explored and developed through the use of a qualitative case study approach. Findings indicate strong resource-based drivers for alliance formation in both industries, with firms dependent on the co-evolution of their alliances and indeed selected by the results of their alliance participation. However, differences emerged in the strategic use of alliances in these two industries. The influence of the stage of the industry life cycle on this is discussed

High-Growth Entrepreneurial Firms in Africa: A Quantile Regression Approach

This paper studies the growth performance of a large set of entrepreneurial firms in ten manufacturing sectors of eleven Sub-Saharan African countries. The focus of the paper is on identifying those entrepreneurs. attributes and firm characteristics that tend to generate a significant number of high-growth firms in these countries. To this end, we use a quantile regression, which provides a more complete estimation of the growth distribution of firms conditional on different attributes. The results indicate that especially firms that engage in product innovation, have their own transport means and are connected to the internet through their own website are characterized by higher growth rates and display a more skewed distribution to the right, hosting a higher number of high-growth firms. The effect of the last two variables, which relate to distance-bridging modes of infrastructure, points to the self-reinforcing growth effects.quantile regression, high-growth firms, firm growth, Africa

A Network Perspective on Inter-Organizational Transfer of R&D Capabilities: A Study of International Joint Ventures in Chinese Automobile Industry

Multinational enterprises' transfer of R&D capabilities to their international joint ventures in the less developed countries has been an emerging phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to understand the transfer of R&D capabilities between organizations embedded in drastically different organizational contexts using a network perspective. We identified different networks involved in the R&D capability transfer process from the perspectives of source organization, recipient organization and the interface between them, and analyzed the impact of different attributes of these networks on the effectiveness of R&D capability transfer, based on the notion that R&D capabilities are largely collective knowledge.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39746/3/wp362.pd

Peripheral Regions in Duress: Counter-Social Capital Impediments of Local Development in Rural Greek Areas

Unlike most enthusiastic narratives of various success stories in recent North European regional economic development led by innovation, localized learning, social capital and institutional embeddedness, this paper deals with a set of major stresses and problems of local economic development in peripheral, less favoured, regions. By drawing upon concrete research experience of regional development projects we try to shed light upon the processes of spatio-economic change and the management of local production in connection with prevailing cultural attitudes/values in less developed Greek rural areas. attidudes/values constituting a kind of localized “counter-social capital†deposit that impedes any likely innovative local development initiatives. The paper argues that the major problems facing these areas are not only or solely associated with the effects of market economy restructuring and the operation of macroeconomic and macropolitical forces at the regional and local level, but, also with inadequate management of human skills, lack of productive mentality and negative cultural values and attitudes. The policy relevance of our analysis calls for the elaboration of alternative development strategies aimed rather at enchancing local social capital potentialities than at improving hard infrastructures and providing financial incentives to local firms.

The current crisis of intensive work regimes and the question of social exclusion in industrialized countries

The aim of this article is to analyze the difficulties currently being faced by regimes of social regulation of economic life and the ways in which they are being transformed. In order to address this complex question, transformations in the labour market are examined. Emphasis is given in particular to the fact that the decline in life-time jobs has had a destabilizing impact on employment systems. This is true not so much in terms of reduced employment. In fact, numerous job opportunities have been created in the tertiary sector, though insecure and badly paid, but these jobs do not reflect the traditional standards of social regulation and therefore entail a weakening of the mechanisms of social integration and a growing risk of exclusion. At this point the theme of the heterogeneity and polarization of working careers in service society is introduced, highlighting in particular the variety of regulatory forms with their different and changing mixes of family, state and market. These policy mixes form the basis for the various models of welfare capitalism identified here. Finally, consideration is given to the two main responses to this transitional phase in industrialized countries. On the one hand, in English-speaking countries which are characterised by intensive deregulation and the spread of flexible forms of work; on the other hand, in the countries of continental Europe where the redistributive modes of traditional welfare programmes have been preserved. Neither of these strategies, however, has produced new and lasting prospects for synergies between the economy and the society. Potential regulatory innovations would presuppose a reappraisal of modes of activity that are at present 'invisible' such as production for own consumption, family care, volunteer and charitable work and the creation of social capital. Political steps in this direction could lead to a new balance between state, market and family that would secure the level of cooperation needed for socially embedded economic life. -- Der Aufsatz analysiert die gegenwärtigen Schwierigkeiten, mit denen verschiedene Regimes sozialer Regulierung der Wirtschaft konfrontiert sind, einschließlich ihrer Transformationspfade. Um dieser komplexen Fragestellung gerecht zu werden, werden zunächst die allgemeinen Veränderungsprozesse auf dem Arbeitsmarkt dargestellt. Besonderes Gewicht wird dabei auf die Tatsache gelegt, daß der Abbau von lebenslangen Arbeitsverhältnissen das Beschäftigungssystem massiv destabilisiert. Das bezieht sich nicht ausschließlich oder gar vorrangig auf die rückläufigen Beschäftigungsmöglichkeiten. Gleichzeitig sind nämlich im Dienstleistungssektor zahlreiche neue Arbeitsplätze entstanden - wenn auch in der Regel unsichere und schlecht bezahlte. Sie spiegeln ein geringeres Maß gesellschaftlicher Regulierung und implizieren damit eine schwächere soziale Integration sowie ein höheres Risiko sozialer Ausgrenzung. In diesem Zusammenhang werden die Trends zur Heterogenisierung und Polarisierung der Berufsbiographien in der Dienstleistungsgesellschaft thematisiert und dabei besonders die Vielfalt der länderspezifischen Mischungen von Zuständigkeiten von Familie, Staat und Markt dargelegt. Diese bilden die Grundlage für die in diesem Beitrag identifizierten Modelle wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Kapitalismen. Es lassen sich zwei verschiedene Reaktionsmuster der Industriestaaten auf diese Veränderungsprozesse unterscheiden. Auf der einen Seite stehen USA und Großbritannien mit ihren ausgeprägten Deregulierungspolitiken und der Ausweitung von flexiblen Arbeitsverhältnissen; auf der anderen Seite die Länder Kontinentaleuropas, die auf die Beibehaltung der Transferorientierung traditioneller Wohlfahrtsprogramme setzen. Keine dieser Strategien führte jedoch zu neuen und dauerhaften Synergie-Effekten zwischen Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Die Möglichkeiten für innovative Regulierungen - so die hier vertretene These - sind daran gebunden, daß bislang 'unsichtbare' Produktionen aufgewertet werden, wie beispielsweise Produktion zum Eigenverbrauch, unbezahlte Tätigkeiten wie Familienarbeit, Solidarität und die Bildung von sozialem Kapital. Ein solcher Ansatz könnte richtungsweisend sein für ein neues regulatives Gleichgewicht, das den Mindestanforderungen an Kooperation Rechnung trägt und damit die Voraussetzung für ein sozial integriertes Wirtschaftsleben gewährleistet.