Department of Business Economics International Doctorate in Entrepreneurship and Management DOCTORAL DISSERTATION (Degree of Doctor of philosophy Ph d.)ENTREPRENEURIAL AND INNOVATIVE BEHAVIOR IN SPANISH SMES:
Submitted to the Department of Business Economics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of philosophy Ph d. by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Behavior This dissertation is the result of a research effort that focuses on subjects related to a major driver of economic growth:
Yeoh and Jeong, 1995). 2. 2. The importance and relevance of entrepreneurial SMES for contemporary societies As already stressed, there are many evidences that entrepreneurship is of great value for economic growth, productivity, innovation
entrepreneurship has gained additional attention in the current economic crisis, as it is widely viewed as a key aspect of economic dynamism.
considering the important and irreplaceable role of these companies 13 within the economy of a country, sometimes facing particular difficulties.
and technological change creates greater uncertainty in the world economy, entrepreneurship is believed to offer ways to help to meet new economic, social and environmental challenges.
According to OECD report Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard (2009), R&d intensity has increased in all OECD countries with the gradual shift to a knowledge-based economy.
human resource management, economics and finance, marketing, international business and corporate entrepreneurship. In the field of entrepreneurship, Alvarez and Busenitz (2001) present RBV through the entrepreneurial process of cognition, discovery, understanding market opportunities,
March, 1991), organizational economics (Rogers, 2004), international business (Eriksson et al. 1997; Lane et al. 2001; Zahra et al.
economic growth A model to examine the importance of technological catch up in explaining productivity growth. ACAP is a factor in explaining growth;
For instance, for Schumpeter (1934), organizational innovativeness is highlighted as an important factor for aggregate economic growth and performance over time.
Moreover, these companies play an important and irreplaceable role in the economy of a country by generating employment and contributing to the GDP.
pay dividends to their shareholders or expand its business. Otherwise, a negative FCF means that the company will sell part of its investment or increase its debt.
probably influenced by the peculiar environment of the economic crisis in which our research is inserted. It would be explained by a stochastic factor, namely,
that Spanish economy was affected more by the economic crisis from 2008 on, and it would be reflected in the growth rates presented by SMES.
is a large stochastic factor such as wars, terrorism, economic crisis and so on. Returning to our research questions and aims stated in Section 1,
and a successful innovative posture could be a key to access the export market in a global economy.
and IE 94 that one of the keys to generate a competitive advantage in a global economy is through innovativeness (Flor and Oltra, 2005;
) In the European business context, characterized by small domestic markets associated with the situational uncertainty and the current economic crisis,
large economies are facing difficulties due to recessions in their domestic markets. Thus, one of the avenues for small firms to gain market share
Innovation could be recognized as a key success factor in an increasingly competitive, global economy (Akman and Yilmaz, 2008.
Small Business Economics, 31,305-322. Akman, G. and Yilmaz, C. 2008. Innovative capability, innovation strategy and market orientation:
Review of World Economics, 146,657-689. Capelleras, J. L. and Greene, F. J. 2008. The determinants and growth implications of venture creation speed.
The World Economy, 33,374-398. Da Rocha, A.,Kury, B. and Monteiro, J. 2009. The difusion of exporting in Brazilian industrial clusters.
Small Business Economics, 21,409-422. Emsley, D. 2005. Restructuring the management accounting function: a note on the effect of role involvement on innovativeness.
The Journal of Industrial Economics, 35,567-81. Fariñas, J. C. and Martín-Marcos, A. 2007.
The World Economy, 30,618-646. Fernández, Z. 1999. El estudio de las organizaciones (la jungla dominada.
Small Business Economics, 24,205-231. Rhee, J.,Park, T. and Lee, D. H. 2010. Drivers of innovativeness and performance for innovative SMES in South korea:
Absorptive capability and economic growth: how do countries catch up? Cambridge Journal of Economics, 28,577-596.152 Roper, S. and Love, J. H. 2002.
Innovation and export performance: evidence from the UK and German manufacturing plants. Research Policy, 31,1087-1102.
Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 14,431-461. Schreider, J. B.,Stage, F. K.,King, J.,Nora, A. and Barlow, E. A. 2006.
Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 17,161-85. Urban, B. 2008. The prevalence of entrepreneurial orientation in a developing country:
Entrepreneurship, innovation and economic growth: evidence from GEM data. Small Business Economics, 24,335-350. Yamada, K. and Eshima, Y. 2009.
Impact of entrepreneurial orientation: Longitudinal analysis of small technology firms in Japan. The Academy of Management, Annual Meeting Proceedings (Conference Theme:
economy, society, or technological development. Composite indicators are much easier to interpret than trying to find a common trend in many separate indicators.
On the other hand, the temptation of stakeholders and practitioners to summarise complex and sometime elusive processes (e g. sustainability, single market policy, etc.
Then, for each discipline, e g. economics, sustainability can be measured at different (hierarchical) levels like economic agents, households, economic sectors, nations, European union,
italics added) 2. address several legitimate (and often contrasting) perspectives found among stakeholders on how to structure the problem. 3. handle in a credible way the unavoidable degree of uncertainty,
to reflect the multiplicity of stakeholders'viewpoints. Weights usually have an important impact on the results of the composite indicator especially
An example of pedigree matrix used to characterise the quality of a set of statistical indicators of knowledge economy can be found in Sajeva, 2004.
When the objective of the analysis is to present a huge data set using a few variables then in applying PCA there is the hope that some degree of economy can be achieved
b) Variance-inflation factor (VIF) is simply the reciprocal of tolerance. A VIF value greater than 4. 0 is an arbitrary
This method is used for the two composite indicators of the knowledge-based economy published by the European commission on Key Figures 2003-2004, for the environmental sustainability index developed at Yale university,
and to better forecast cycles in economic activities (Nilsson, 2000. When indicators are in the form of time series the transformation can be made by subtracting the mean over time (t) t qc E x and then by dividing by the mean of the absolute values of the difference from the mean.((
to reflect the multiplicity of stakeholders'viewpoints. Weights heavily influence the outcome of a composite indicator
the production of a chemical plant, the cycles of the economy. Exactly as in these examples, no formal encoding procedure exists,
Public opinion Advantages Disadvantages deals with issues on the public agenda. allows all stakeholders to express their implies the measurement of concern. the method could produce inconsistencies 68 preference
Second TAI analysis. This differs from the first analysis in that we assume that stakeholders have converged to using LIN aggregation.
in the second analysis we make the realistic assumptions that TAI stakeholders have converged eventually to an aggregations system,
In fact, one might argue that the choice of the aggregation system is dictated somehow by the use of the index and by the expectation of its stakeholders.
if stakeholders were to believe that the system should be non compensatory, e g. that one unit down on one sub-indicator should not be compensated by a unit up in another.
Another example of this presentational tool is given by the composite indicators of investment and performance in the knowledge-based economy,
Composite indicator of investment in the knowledge-based economy for comparison between the EU-15 and the former Acceding Countries. 8. 9 Comparing indicators using clusters of countries In the United nations Industrial Development
and transition economies in years 1985 and 1998 is based on clusters of countries with similar performance (see Figure 8. 15).
Technological evolution in industry both in industrialized and transition economies in years 1985 (blue cluster) and 1998 (black cluster.
's composite indicators for the knowledge based economy. Document presented by DG RTD at the Interservice consultation meeting on Structural Indicators on July 11th 2002.6.
Cherchye L. 2001), Using data envelopment analysis to assess macroeconomic policy performance, Applied Economics, 33,407-416.14.
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Dunteman, G.,H. 1989. Principal components analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Quantitative Applications in the Social sciences Series, No. 69.26.
a social choice approach, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, vol. 47, pp. 270-283.28.
The challenge from innovation-based growth in the Globalising Learning Economy, B. Lundvall and D. Archibugi eds.
an examination of composite performance indicators, Centre for Health Economics, Technical Paper Series 29.62. Jae-On K,
an index of pollution, Ecological Economics, vol. 35 pp. 191-202.67. Kahn J. R and Maynard P. 1995) Conjoint Analysis as a Method of Measuring Use and Non-Use Values of Environmental Goods,
an index of pollution, Ecological Economics, 32,191-202.125 70. Karlsson J. 1998), A systematic approach for prioritizing software requirements, Phd.
and Kremers J.,(1996), Market opening, regulation and growth in Europe, Economic policy (0) 23.october 78. Korhonen P.,Tainio R,
Two composite indicators to assess the progress of member States in their transition towards a knowledge based economy, DG RTD, Brussels. 95.
Munda G. 1995)- Multicriteria evaluation in a fuzzy environment, Physica-Verlag, Contributions to Economics Series, Heidelberg.
Sajeva, M. 2004) A methodology for quality assurance of knowledge economy statistical indicators, ERU report, in publication. 121.
U s. Department of energy and Energy Information Administration,(1995), Measuring energy efficiency un the United states'economy: a beginning.
Single Market page 15 Impact of E-commerce on the Economy page 16 GLOBAL B2c E-COMMERCE IN BRIEF page 17-19 Infographic page 18 The Global Infographic
Meanwhile, e-commerce has become a major influence on the European economy. Whereas the European Gross domestic product was more than €16. 4trn in 2013
and other stakeholders with practical means that can help them to optimize their businesses. Naturally
We would also like to thank all participating company members, business partners and stakeholders for their involvement.
Overview of the European countries A Brief Introduction to Europe Impact of E-commerce on the Economy Gross domestic product The total Gross domestic product (GDP) of Europe is estimated to have reached around €16. 4 trillion in 2013,
%Ecommerce Europe estimates the share of the European Internet economy in the GDP at 2. 2,
Contact Dr Christian Rammer Department of Industrial Economics and International Management Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) L 7, 1 D-68161 Mannheim
EN 1 INTRODUCTION 1. 1 Background Strengthening the innovative performance of the EU economy is a main goal of both the European commission and the governments of EU member states.
it is critical for the EU economy to keep pace with the technological Chapter 1 List of Figures Figure 2-1:
EN development in these KETS in order to benefit from their innovative potentials and spillovers to other sectors of the economy.
Although comparability of patent data is limited due to different economic values a patent may represent, different degrees of technological novelty and different degrees of actual applicability,
intermediaries (e g. technology centres, financing institutions) and other stakeholders (e g. from education, the broader public).
From a macroeconomic perspective, KETS can raise an economy's level of productivity, allowing for higher percapita income and increase in wealth.
and raise the overall level of innovation activities in an economy (see Helpman, 1998; see also van Ark and Piatkowski, 2004, on the role of ICT,
High macroeconomic effects of KETS result from their spread through the economy which can take considerable time.
sections of the economy simultaneously. A prominent example of an escalating technical progress in the recent past was information and communication technologies (ICTS.
KETS that exert less significant network effects are likely to result in lower economy-wide productivity gains.
Economies that are able to open up new KET-based markets earlier than others could gain a temporary monopoly
These cumulative effects will also act as entry barriers to other economies and can secure a long term lead in a certain KET.
History provides many examples for such cumulative technological advantages of economies e g. the U s. in aircraft, space and defence technologies, Japan in microelectronic household applications,
KETS and Policy Provided that economy-wide productivity and wealth effects of KETS primarily depend on the speed and breadth of their diffusion,
it is important for the EU economy to keep pace with the technological development in KETS.
Nevertheless, advancing KETS may require joint efforts of European economies, particularly in the areas of regulation and standardisation.
Although comparability of patent data is limited due to different economic values a patent may represent different degrees of technological novelty and different regulations of national patent offices, patent data are
Patents represent different economic values and different degrees of technological novelty. Though many efforts have been made to quantify the value of patents,
These patents are likely to represent higher economic values since these applications are more costly than applying just at a single national patent office.
Advanced materials as well as dvanced manufacturing technologies can virtually be employed for producing any kind of commodity. As a consequence, market potentials strongly depend on the underlying definition of a KET and
and hardly any has considered systematically the impacts of the economic crisis, which further limits the accuracy of market forecasts.
Regulative institutions (rules & regulations, policy, tax-incentives) Social institutions (norms, values, culture, social pressures) Institutions Competitive institutions (mimicking competitors, shareholder pressure
http://hesa. etui-rehs. org/uk/dossiers/files/Nano-economics. pdf 3. 3. 1. Nanotechnology cluster Europe:
A few large multinational enterprises act as anchor companies to stimulate economic growth while network organisations are in place to nurture academia-industry collaborations.
pdf 17 http://hesa. etui-rehs. org/uk/dossiers/files/Nano-economics. pdf 18 http://www. nanoforum. org/dateien/temp
which are located within the cluster network to stimulate economic growth. This market structure of a scientific base with MNES acting as anchor companies offers start-ups a good opportunity to settle down on the interface between them in an intermediary role.
/Nano-economics. pdf Chapter 3 Nanotechnology EN 83error! Unknown document property name. EN and nano biochemicals. 25 The cluster established partnerships with local nanotechnology firms to create new businesses, also in other industries such as electronic devices, medical and biotechnology, textiles, mechatronics, and information technologies.
and regions. 29 MEXT (education, culture, sports, science and technology) and METI (economy, trade and industry) are the main funding ministries,
METI (Japan's Ministry of economy, trade and industry) accompanies cluster development in two ways. There are divisions in place to support self-sustaining development of regional (cluster) economies (regional technology division, business environment promotion division),
and there are divisions to nurture technological development (research and development division, academia-industry cooperation promotion division). 31 On a local level, the Kyoto municipality is in charge of the cluster organisation
. org/uk/dossiers/files/Nano-economics. pdf 37 http://unit. aist. go. jp/nanotech/apnw/articles/library3/pdf/3-34. pdf
There are also certain public divisions within the ministries of technology and economy that combine technological development with regional (cluster) development.
/files/Nano-economics. pdf 41 http://eco-pro. biz/ecopro2009/events/E1000. php? tp=1&id=10760 European Competitiveness in KETS ZEW and TNO EN 88error!
MEXT (Japan's Ministry of education, culture, sports, science and technology) and METI Japan's Ministry of economy, trade and industry) are the main funding ministries,
There is a strong focus on basic research and a lack of commercialisation activity. 42 http://hesa. etui-rehs. org/uk/dossiers/files/Nano-economics. pdf Chapter 3
but is not highly visible in the private economy. Lack of entrepreneurial spirit strong research focus Rules and regulations The Japanese government defines rules and regulations to optimise the alignment of cluster activities according to the overall strategy.
a lack of scale economies and a lack of consumer acceptance (see Palmberg et al.,74ff;
EN nanotechnology strategies that aim at coordinating various actors from public agencies, industry and science and provide a long-term view of the likely role of nanotechnology for economy and society.
During economic downturns production drops sharply but when the economy recovers, semiconductor production does so as well.
Owing to the recent economic downturn, sales had declined by 5. 9 percent in 2009. Regarding the market size in different world regions,
Regarding the short-term perspectives, the financial markets and economic crisis has impacted severely business and consumer confidence worldwide.
and market semiconductor components, primarily in advanced economies. At the same time, they rely on specialised manufacturers, so called semiconductor foundries, to make the products in locations with low labour costs, such as Asian countries (Mowery, et al,
and 2) interactions with actors of related economic activities. Several initiatives support collaborative research efforts between industry and academia and firms (as outlined in the financial support section.
Support for research collaboration and commercialisation of research Canada has most favourable R&d tax scheme of Western economies ($49 costs for $100'R&d investment) Network
it has become standard industry logic that semiconductors are considered basically as commodity goods with rather low profit margins.
During economic downturns production drops sharply but when the economy recovers semiconductor production does so as well.
despite their hightechnology content, almost reached commodity status which further requires that technical solutions to present physical limits be cost-efficient without raising high investment needs for the manufacturers.
It is therefore all the more important to secure continuous research and development efforts even in times of economic downturn in order to stay fully operational and innovative when the economy catches up again.
For this purpose the most active applicants were assigned to one industrial or institutional sector based on their main economic activity.
-90 Specialty USDA (2008) 5 87-110 300-340 Commodity USDA (2008) 0. 9 5-11 50-86 Base chemicals
Commercial awareness of biotechnology during this period as well as a rapidly growing global economy investing venture capital in high-tech industries have spurred the cluster's growth.
The 7th framework programme of the EU directs their activity also in biotechnology. 67 A European knowledgebased bio-economy should be built by bringing together science
industry and other stakeholders. In addition, financial support for spin-offs from public research can help to enlarge the community of industrial biotechnology start-ups.
In addition, start-ups founded by scientists are regarded as important transmission media which allow transferring new scientific knowledge in economic activities
Information and knowledge are becoming our most valuable commodities unlimited access to which is becoming arguably the most significant driver of productivity and competitiveness.
however, seems still to be located in the so-called advanced economies. Within Europe for example, Germany accounts for 39 percent of European production volume, followed by France and the UK (12 percent each), The netherlands (10 percent) and Italy (8 percent)( Optech, 2007.
provide economic stability and strong international research links. Instead, this role is filled in part by larger public research institutes.
provide economic stability and strong international research links. Instead, this role in case of Optecbb is filled in part by larger public research institutes.
In Europe, the European commission treats photonics as a key technology for the economy of the 21st century because it impacts on many important European industries, such as telecommunication, lighting, environment, health care and life sciences, safety
as most other KETS, contribute to economic growth through two ways. On the other hand, photonics applications can help to increase the efficiency of production processes in various industries by enabling more advanced production technologies (e g. in the fields of measuring
This figure does not take into account the economic crisis from 2008/09 and is therefore likely to be overrated.
This is somewhat more than the expected mid-term real growth of the world economy (between 4 and 5 percent)
In the economics of materials, newly introduced materials often reach their maximum penetration rate only after 40 to 50 years after market introduction (see Moskowitz, 2009.
and increase opportunity costs of introducing advanced materials. European Competitiveness in KETS ZEW and TNO EN 266error!
Wallonia's Plastiwin cluster Introduction The manufacturing industry in Wallonia represented 24 percent of the value added of the regional economy in 2006 (the rest corresponds to services)( Biatour et al.
This traditional sector is the second largest industrial employer and an important driver of economic growth in the region (ECRN,
an action plan aiming to reinvigorate the regional economy. The government presented its objectives in a document entitled‘Priority actions for the future of Wallonia'subsequently called the new‘Marshall Plan Wallon'with a budget of €992, 5 m (Gouvernement Région Wallonne, 2005a,
which now receive special tax incentives for existing economic activities in those communities and any future activities such measures may attract.
Advanced material (and intelligent) manufacturing is one of the eight key areas for economic development for the Chinese government for the modernisation of their economy by 2050.
In 2008, the city's economy grew at an annual rate of 15.1 percent and had a GDP per capita of about $6, 700.
and senior management often includes a senior manager known as‘Head of discipline'who represents the Communist party (Economist, 2010).
) Interactions Relationships in China are of a specific nature due to the many changes the country has gone through over the past hundred years from a centrally planned economy (until 1978), the reform period (1978-2000) and after that the opening of the economy
The role of SMES should be considered more favourable in Belgium though as the smaller firms in China have a lesser position in the economy,
Within Europe, Germany is the single most important location for producing new materials technology (42 percent of all inventors of advanced materials patents) though smaller European economies were able to increase their patent output in recent
and reflect that most advanced materials are diffuse slowly because of high opportunity costs in substituting established by new materials
which is driven an industry platform comprising the main stakeholders in robotics in Europe. EUROP was established in 2004
Tentative estimates for the total market of AMT arrive at global sales (prior to the economic crisis of 2009) of more than 150 billion.
if such lessons could be transferred to European economies as we do not have a tradition of more central planning,
The more hierarchical structures that characterise their economies can form an obstacle for innovation as these lack the trust
since they do not allow for leveraging scale economies. Small firms need open markets to develop.
when compared to the efforts of emerging economies (such as China, India and may southeast Asian countries) to catch up with Western economies in education levels.
System failures that hinder KET development System failures relate to those factors in the system that hinder innovation (Klein Woolthuis, 2010.
This underscores the importance given to technology development as a basis for economic growth. European countries tend to emphasise the funding of (basic) research and industry-science collaboration
A mix of generic measures and KET specific interventions is most promising to accelerate the development, diffusion and use of KETS and their impacts on the wider economy:
Involving all main stakeholders and focusing on legislation that is flexible enough to adjust to technological progress within each KET is a promising approach.
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