Do entry barriers, perceived by SMEs, affect real antry? Some evidence from the Netherlands

The objective of this paper is to analyse the relationship between perceived entry barriers and real entry. Real entry rates are interpreted as an indicator for the dynamics in an industry. The major hypothesis of this paper is that important entry barriers restrict new entry. Real entry rates are provided by a starter ratio for different industrial sectors and provinces in the Netherlands.

A content and comparative analysis of strategic management research in the Baltic area

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a research agenda for qualitative studies in the field of strategic management (SM) in the Baltic area. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 167 SM-related articles in this area between 2000 and 2013 were found. The content within title, abstract and authors’ keywords was analysed by means of a multiple correspondence analysis based on the HOMALS technique. Findings – The intellectual structure of SM in the Baltic area is to some extent similar to the global structure of the field. Hence research on this topic in the Baltic area is well integrated in the field. Three topics of interest have been identified while the fourth seems to offer more limited opportunities for qualitative studies. These are: entry and competition; strategic behaviour and the micro-foundations of strategy; the growth-performance relationship; and global strategies. Research limitations/implications – Despite the modest number of articles in our sample, the findings are consistent with past research on the structure of the SM field. The classification of articles into qualitative- and quantitative-based methods helped provide a research agenda. Practical implications – SM scholars in the Baltic area may find this paper as an interesting input to their quest for finding and justifying their own research path. Originality/value – This is an original literature review. The use of a quantitative method in the literature review and the suggested matrix is a second original contribution to evolving methodologies for content analysis. The method allows the inclusion of large samples while limiting the use of scholars’ intuition. </jats:sec

Exporting, R&D and Absorptive Capacity in UK Establishments: Evidence from the 2001 Community Innovation Survey

This paper models the determinants of exporting (both export propensity and export intensity), with a particular emphasis on the importance of absorptive capacity and the endogenous link between exporting and R&D. Based on a merged dataset of the 2001 Community Innovation Survey and the 2000 Annual Respondents Database for the UK, our results suggest that alongside other factors, undertaking R&D activities and having greater absorptive capacity (for scientific knowledge, co-operation with international organisations, and organisational structure and HRM practices) significantly reduce entry barriers into export markets, having controlled for selfselectivity into exporting and the endogenous link between exporting and R&D. Nevertheless, conditional on entry, only greater absorptive capacity (for scientific knowledge) seems to further boost export performance in international markets, whereas spending on R&D no longer has an impact on exporting behaviour once we have taken into account its endogenous nature.exports; R&D; absorptive capacity; sample selection

Credit constraints, organizational choice, and returns to capital: Evidence from a rural industrial cluster in China

"Traditional economic theory posits that a well-functioning capital market is a necessary condition for industrialization and economic growth. In reality, micro and small enterprises are ubiquitous because entrepreneurs can undertake low-return activities with minimal barriers to entry. Using a cashmere sweater cluster in China as an example, this paper shows that organizational choice can overcome the prohibitive cost of investment. When facing credit constraints, firms are more likely to concentrate in divisible production technologies in the form of industrial clusters. Within clusters, a vertically-integrated production process can be decomposed into many small incremental stages that are more accessible for the small entrepreneurs widely available in rural China, thereby supporting industrialization even in the absence of a well-functioning capital market. The observed rate of returns to capital is closely related to the organizational choice under credit constraints." from authors' abstractIndustrialization, Entrepreneurship, Credit, Capital markets, organizational choice, Non-farm development,

Bandwagon or Barriers? The Role of Standards in the European and American Marketplace. Working Paper #1, November 1997

Industrial Standards - a highly technical and even obscure topic to many scholars and policy-makers - are crucial in shaping market access and conditions. They act as non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and may affect relations between governments and businesses. The paper examines the evolution of EU policy toward standards and evaluates recent efforts to foster greater cooperation between the EU and the US in reducing trade inhibiting of industrial standards

A network approach to overcoming barriers to market engagement for SMEs in energy efficiency initiatives such as the Green Deal

The Green Deal (GD) was launched in 2013 by the UK Government as a market-led scheme to encourage uptake of energy efficiency measures in the UK and create green sector jobs. The scheme closed in July 2015 after 30 months due to government concerns over low uptake and industry standards but additional factors potentially contributed to its failure such as poor scheme design and lack of understanding of the customer and supply chain journey. We explore the role of key delivery agents of GD services, specifically SMEs, and we use the LoCal-Net project as a case study to examine the use of networks to identify and reduce barriers to SME market engagement. We find that SMEs experienced multiple barriers to interaction with the GD such as lack of access to information, training, and confusion over delivery of the scheme but benefited from interaction with the network to access information, improve understanding of the scheme, increasing networking opportunities and forming new business models and partnerships to reduce risk. The importance of SMEs as delivery agents and their role in the design of market-led schemes such as the GD are discussed with recommendations for improving SME engagement in green sector initiatives

Contestability in public services - an alternative to outsourcing

The public don’t like monopolies. And they are suspicious of them in the public sector as well as the private sector. Sometimes there is no other way of organising the production and delivery of goods and services, but we all know from experience that monopolies are generally unresponsive to the needs of customers and service users, and they pay too much attention to the convenience of management and staff. On the other hand, we are also worried about the use of competition and outsourcing in the delivery of public services. The public want social services to be delivered by people who are motivated by a desire to serve. They worry about the profit motive. And they are concerned that public servants may be outwitted by commercially-savvy contractors. This paper argues that there is a middle way between monopoly and market-testing. It is possible to use performance benchmarking and the prospect of prompt intervention in case of underperformance to drive increased efficiency and effectiveness, while also recognising the importance of a public service ethos, and the value embedded in many of the systems, processes and relationships through which these services are currently delivered. That middle way is contestability

Models of regional growth: past, present and future

This paper presents an overview of various models of regional growth that have appeared in the literature in the last 40 years. It considers the past, and therefore supply-side models, such as the standard neoclassical, juxtaposed against essentially demand-side approaches such as the export-base and cumulative causation models (as integrated into the Kaldorian approach); before moving on to the present and more recent versions of the neoclassical model involving spatial weights and "convergence clubs", as well as New Economic Geography core-periphery models, and the "innovation systems" approach. A key feature of the more recent literature is an attempt to explicitly include spatial factors into the model, and thus there is a renewed emphasis on agglomeration economies and spillovers. Discussing "present" and "future" approaches to regional growth overlaps with the current emphasis in the literature on the importance of more intangible factors such as the role of "knowledge" and its influence on growth. Lastly, there is a discussion of the greater emphasis that needs to be placed at the "micro-level" when considering what drives growth, and thus factors such as inter alia firm heterogeneity, entrepreneurship, and absorptive capacity

THE ROLE OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN THE FIRM SELECTION PROCESS IN A HOST COUNTRY: EVIDENCE FROM SLOVENIA

This paper examines the role of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in firm selection processes in the Slovenian manufacturing sector in the 1994-2003 period by assessing the impact of the entry and presence of foreign firms on a domestic firm’s probability of exiting. The results confirm that not only do foreign entrants tend to be above-average productive but they also find it easier to exit (particularly those entering in the form of acquisitions). Further, the least efficient firms are found to experience a drop in their survival probability upon a foreign firm’s entry. In addition, a foreign firm’s entry seems to stimulate the selection process not only within the industry but also through backward linkages in the upstream supplying industries. Regarding the productivity spillover effects from foreign to local firms the results suggest that they mostly operate through vertical linkages rather than within the same industry.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57221/1/wp841 .pd