Evaluating the effectiveness of public support on inbound open innovation: evidence from Spanish manufacturing SMEs

Applying several matching estimators to a sample of Spanish manufacturing SMEs, we evaluate the impact of regional and federal funding on inbound open innovation strategies. Such SMEs are more likely to respond to public support by increasing either their cooperation with government institutions or their investment in extramural R&D than by enhancing cooperative networks. A policy corollary is to promote measures to attenuate cooperation failures. Methodologically, each type of funding and each type of cooperative partner should be considered separately. Moreover, overestimation of treatment effects when firms' unobserved characteristics are not addressed suggests that sensitivity analysis should complement matching estimation

Cooperation for innovation and its impact on technological and non-technological innovation: empirical evidence from European SMEs in traditional manufacturing industries

Drawing on a sample of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in traditional manufacturing industries from seven EU regions, this study investigates how cooperation with external organizations affects technological (product and process) innovations and non-technological (organizational and marketing) innovations as well as the commercial success of product and process innovations (i.e. innovative sales). Our empirical strategy takes into account that all four types of innovation are potentially complementary. Empirical results suggest that cooperation increases firms' innovativeness and yields substantial commercial benefits. In particular, increasing the number of cooperation partnerships has a positive impact on all measures of innovation performance. We conclude that a portfolio approach to cooperation enhances innovation performance and that innovation support programs should be demand-led

Portfolio entrepreneurship in farming: Empirical evidence from the 1881 census for England and Wales

This paper examines portfolio entrepreneurs: those who operate more than one business at any one time. It focuses on the conditions that influence the occurrence of multiple businesses as compared with single business. Empirical evidence on the choice between portfolio entrepreneurship and a single occupation are scarce. In particular, most previous studies discuss the incidence of portfolio entrepreneurship without providing further insights into what influences the decision to engage in multiple activities. To fill this gap in the literature, our objective is to test empirically the factors that affect choice. Drawing for the first time from the historical resource of the 1881 census data for England andWales, we use a multi-level logit model to explore how employee size, farm size in acres, population density, age, gender, marital status, household size, the entrepreneurial ratio, and regional heterogeneity affect the probability of portfolio entrepreneurship. This historical resource allows a unique whole population analysis which offers opportunities, for the first time, to compare factors influencing portfolio choices between modern and past farming practices.This research was supported by ESRC grant ES/M010953 ‘Drivers of Entrepreneurship and Small Businesses’. Piloting of the research for 1881 was supported by Leverhulme Trust grant RG66385 ‘The long-term evolution of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)’

Additionality effects of public support programmes on cooperation for innovation: evidence from European manufacturing SMEs

We have witnessed an increase in the number of research studies focusing on the behavioural additionality effects of research, development and innovation (RD&I) policy – where this form of additionality measures the impact of public support measures on firms' behaviour thought to promote innovation. This paper considers whether public support increases the propensity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in traditional manufacturing industries to cooperate for innovation. Drawing on a unique dataset of SMEs from six manufacturing industries across seven European Union (EU) regions, we estimated treatment effects by applying a range of matching estimators. The results suggest a positive yet heterogeneous impact of public support on cooperation for innovation in the sample SMEs. Overall, the largest treatment parameters refer to public-private partnerships. Following best practice in matching estimation, the study reports its findings from a novel simulation-based sensitivity analysis, which indicates that the estimated treatment parameters are robust with respect to any possible unobserved heterogeneity

Firm productivity in the Western Balkans: the impact of European Union membership and access to finance.

This study examines the productivity performance of Balkan firms within and outside the European Union (EU), including the influence of loans. A multiple treatment model is used to compare the effects on productivity of membership and loans both separately and collectively, which in the case of loans allows a separate analysis of their influence on firms in non-member states. The use of conditional quantile regressions measures the effect on productivity of membership and loans separately as treatment variables. This provides an analysis of where the treatment influence is greatest across the distribution curve and identifies the significance of selected control variables on the outcome. In the full sample, the findings indicate that EU membership and loans have a positive effect on productivity, with membership being more important than loans. Outside the EU, firms in receipt of loans are more productive than those without. However, the significance of both membership and loans is restricted to the lower end of the productivity distribution curve. The manufacturing sample shows that EU membership has a significant positive effect across 70% of the deciles measured, whilst the influence of loans is restricted to the lower deciles, with rental capital (leasing) also positively significant in the lower four deciles. In the services sector, however, membership is significant up to 90% of the distribution, with loans at 60%

Towns in victorian England and Wales: A new classification

ABSTRACT:This article describes the creation of a new urban classification based on the 1891 census of England and Wales. It is the first attempt to use the recently available electronic version of the census (I-CeM) to classify all large towns in late Victorian England and Wales on their economic structure. Where previous scholars were restricted by the form of occupation data contained in the published census reports, I-CeM allows manipulation of the data in order to aggregate urban units and examine their occupational structures in great detail. The classification is then used to compare key socio-economic characteristics of different towns.</jats:p

Corporate Boards and Environmental Offence Conviction: Evidence from the United Kingdom

Purpose This paper reports the results of an investigation into the relationship between corporate boards and the likelihood of a firm being convicted of an environmental offence in the United Kingdom (UK). Design/Methodology/Approach The study uses a probit model to analyse the relationship between corporate boards and the likelihood of a firm being convicted of an environmental offence in the UK, controlling for firm size, financial leverage and profitability. Findings The results suggest that the likelihood of a firm being convicted of an environmental offence increases with board size, but decreases with the presence of a woman on the board. No support is found for our hypotheses about the proportion of outside directors and the presence of a lawyer on the board. Marginal effects results also show that adding one member to the board increases the chance of a firm being convicted for an environmental offence by 4.2% while having a woman on the board decreases the likelihood of a firm being convicted of an environmental offence by 31.8%. Research limitations/implications The sample size of 55 firms is small which could affect the generalisability of the study. Originality/Value The study uses proprietary data obtained from the UK Environmental Agency to provide evidence for the first time how corporate boards affect the chances of a listed firm being convicted of an environmental offence in the UK

Network additionality and policy mix of regional and national public support for innovation

Applying a multilevel treatment model to a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms, we evaluate the joint impact of regional and national funding on firms’ cooperative relationships. A joint provision of public support from different administrative levels is termed a multilevel innovation policy mix. Because of heterogeneity in innovation behaviour and performance, we separately analyse small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large firms. Our empirical findings show heterogenous results with respect to both firm size and a type of cooperative partners. For SMEs, a multilevel policy mix has a synergistic effect on cooperation with customers. For other cooperative partners, the joint effectiveness depends on the comparison group. Namely, both sources jointly are more effective than regional support in isolation in promoting cooperation with suppliers and universities. For those SMEs that are funded from central government, a multilevel governance is effective in case of cooperation with government agencies and consultants. With regards to large firms, we find a limited evidence on complementarity between regional and national support. Namely, the policy mix is effective when large firms cooperate with other firms, specifically with customers and competitors. In contrast, empirical findings suggest no complementary effects for cooperation with knowledge providers

Cooperation for innovation in liberal market economies

This study focuses on the collaboration patterns that small firms hold with other agents within liberal market economies and identifies the collaborative drivers that in this context deliver a superior impact on innovation output measured by product and process innovations. To explore this research question, the study combines the literature on innovation systems with a growing literature on business innovation modes that studies whether businesses are driven by science and technology factors (STI), or experience-based factors such as learning-by-doing, by-using and by-interacting (DUI). In the UK liberal market economy, universities and research centres are expected to play a critical role for innovation well beyond the typical impact they produce in coordinated market economies. This hypothesis is largely verified through our empirical evidence. Methodologically, this research is developed through the application of propensity score matching in the context of the UK longitudinal small business survey (LSBS) for 2015

R&D and innovation policy in the Western Balkans: are there additionality effects?

This article examines three types of additionality—input, output, and behavioural—in a cross-country framework. Besides conducting a systemic evaluation, which is scarce even in developed economies, this is among the first studies to investigate the effectiveness of R&D and innovation policy in transition economies. We estimate treatment effects for small and medium-sized firms in six Western Balkan countries. Empirical findings from matching estimators indicate no input and output additionality, while we find evidence of behavioural additionality. These results highlight the importance of conducting a systemic evaluation of innovation public support. We discuss theoretical and policy implications stemming from our empirical findings