1,721,101 research outputs found
Innovation orientation and export behaviour: insights into a typology of UK SMEs
No full textDrawing on a survey of 500 UK small business owner-managers, the study develops a typology of innovative SMEs. Examined factors include firm size, firm growth, owner-managers’ expectation, export behaviour, and their perceived barriers to export in relation to their capabilities including products/services, business plan, knowledge, resources. External barriers include factors such as market competition and government regulations. Our findings show that product innovators are found to encounter more barriers to export, in comparison with process innovators or firms developing a combination of innovations. Product innovators are more likely to suffer from their limited export knowledge, language, and logistics problems, which influence their export behaviour. On the other hand, process innovators perceive the lack of focus on exporting in their business plan as a main constraint to their export behaviour. However, interestingly this firm cluster reported having the highest expectations of firm growth compared to other firm groups. Our results clarify different critical factors determining owner-managers’ perceptions and behaviour towards export. Furthermore, the findings provide practitioners with insights into the impact of the firms’ business capabilities, their innovation adoption, and export behaviour. The analysis also contributes to deepen policy-makers’ knowledge of identifying relevant supporting initiatives for SMEs to boost their export and innovation performance
Can Small Firms Innovate Away From Competition?
Full text linkIn this paper we test whether innovation allows entrepreneurs to navigate their way out of highly com-petitive markets into calmer waters where competitive pressures are reduced. In doing so, we establishthree key findings: first, in line with the Schumpeterian creative destruction theory, our results docu-ment a decreasing marginal effect of prior innovation on consecutive perceived competition, an effectthat is stronger for small firms operating in more competitive markets; then, we highlight the differ-ent synergistic effects generated by the complementarity between tangible and intangible innovationactivities in competitive and oligopolistic markets that support the Schumpeterian view; finally, weestablish that such synergies have proven crucial in navigating out of the COVID-19 pandemic
Determinants of export and innovation management amongst British SMEs
No full textExporting presents an opportunity for SMEs to secure growth as they expand their activities into international markets. But there are also significant sunk costs associated with this strategic decision which are non-recoverable. In this paper we empirically examine what shapes the firms’ decision to internationalise and question whether firms with (a) more resources, (b) higher capability levels, (c) higher planning intentionality, and (d) more innovative capacity, are more likely to internationalise and, when they do, secure a stronger presence in international markets.
Drawing on the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (DBIS) Annual Small Business Survey dataset of more than 5,712 UK SMEs for 2012, our results offer support for all hypotheses in that older and larger firms, those with higher internal capability, those with greater planning intentionality and a growth orientation, and those with more innovative products and services are more likely to operate in international markets. Importantly, the capability effect dominated the planning intentionality effect suggesting building up internal skills and resources are fundamental to being successful internationally. Our analysis provides new insights for both policy-makers and SMEs who seek to enhance the internationalisation process. We suggest that more initiatives should be focused on facilitating the firms’ internal capabilities and innovation, which then shapes their competitiveness and ability to sustain activity in the international market. SMEs should take into account their available resources and capabilities before developing a strategic plan to cope with challenges in the internationalisation process
Barriers to exporting: new insights into UK SMEs
No full textDrawing on a cross-sectional survey of 5,723 UK SMEs, this paper examines the challenges and barriers perceived by owner-managers to exporting. The paper will contribute to developing our understanding of the barriers to exporting by analyzing the relative importance of firm-related factors, resource endowments, entrepreneurial intentions and innovation in determining SMEs owner-managers’ decision to export. The results show that planning intentionality acted to reduce the probability of not having suitable products or services being a barrier to exporting. Capability was also found to exert a negative effect, although only at the 10% significance level. Process innovation was associated with a significant reduction in the probability of firms citing lack of a strategic export focus in their business plans. Innovation and capabilities did not have any effect on firms having citing sufficient domestic market demand as a barrier to exporting nor in terms of their ability to locate international customers. Planning intentionality was found to be positively associated with firms’ having sufficient domestic sales. Planning intentionality was found to have a positive association with costs being a barrier to exporting. In contrast, capability was associated with a reduction in the probability of costs being a barrier to exporting. Finally, we find that product-service innovation, planning intentionality and goal setting were all found to exert a positive effect on the probability that a firm would begin exporting in the future. These results provide support for the theory of planned behavior, and resource-based theories in relation to understanding SMEs’ export behaviour. Our analysis found that three factors dominate SME’s barriers to exporting. These include “not having a suitable product or service”; “not having exporting as a strategic objective”; and “having sufficient domestic sales”. However, “Innovation capabilities” were unlikely to constrain SMEs in exporting, and indeed innovators were more likely to incorporate exporting into their business plans. Firm capabilities were found to be important in reducing the likelihood that “not having a suitable product or service” or being concerned about “the costs of internationalisation” represented a barrier to exporting. This suggests that building up firm level capabilities can stimulate SMEs to internationalize their activities.
Our findings regarding business planning are mixed. More planning was associated with a reduction in the probability that firms would not have a suitable product or service appropriate for export markets, and firms were more likely to cite sufficient domestic sales as a reason for not seeking to export. Hence, planning is beneficial as firms are better able to have marketable products/services and generate significant sales in home markets. In conclusion, our analysis has contributed to the resource based view, theory of goal- setting and planned behaviour in explaining owner-managers’ perception and behaviours in relation to exporting. Practically, our results provide entrepreneurs and policy-makers insights into understanding export barriers, enhancing the initiatives for the Export Drive 2020 launched by UK government
Dynamic Discouraged Borrowers
Full text linkThis paper investigates the intertemporal dynamics of borrower discouragement. Using a cross-country panel of firms that were resurveyed across the waves of the Survey on Access to Finance of Enterprises, we find that the probability of transitioning into discouragement changes over the business cycle and across bank financing products: term loans and credit lines. Past credit experiences and firm-level risk indicators are important factors in explaining the probability of being discouraged over time.We also analyse the transitioning out of discouragement, and show that firm-level improvements in credit history and profit outlook drive the transitioning out of the discouragement state
Market consolidation, market growth, or new market development? Owner, firm, and competitive determinants
No full textMarket entry decisions are complex and involve high sunk costs with uncertain or risky outcomes. In this study we explore how the owner, firm, and competitive pressures shape this decision. Using a large UK data set of SMEs, we find that the preferred form of growth, and growth is not always desired, is expansion in existing markets. Key determinants of the decision to pursue a new market entry strategy are formal education, and large firm based market competition. Further, these decisions are made simultaneously not sequentially.
Keywords: market entry, firm growth, owner characteristics, competitivenes
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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