The financing of small firm product innovation within the UK

This paper investigates the funding environment facing product innovating small manufacturing firms and both supports and contradicts a number of “stylised facts” which have emerged over the last decade. Amongst the key findings it appears that, whilst innovators were no more nor less likely to have sought external funds, they were significantly less likely to have successfully accessed bank finance. This finding is of particular gravity since bank debt remains the primary source of external finance employed. Further, the paper notes the low use of genuine risk capital to fund product innovation and raises the question as to what extent this reflects supply or demand side deficiencies. The role of public subsidies, in the form of grant funding, is also investigated with some tentative evidence pointing to the role grants play in validating technology or as leverage to access further funds.     

中小企业资金筹集的现状与对策

随着中小企业在我国经济发展中地位的不断提高,国家加大了对中小企业的扶持力度,其已经成为我国经济发展中一支最为活跃的力量.但是长期以来,资金筹集问题却一直困扰着中小企业的发展.本文通过讨论中小企业资金筹集的现状,从内部融资、直接融资和间接融资等不同的融资渠道进行分析,并提出了相应的对策.     

An empirical analysis of cross-security information asymmetry and the “pecking order” hypothesis

This paper suggests that any examination of the “pecking order” hypothesis must consider the possibility that a firm's level of information asymmetry is related to the type of security it issues. The empirical results show that, on average, firms issuing common stock exhibit higher information asymmetry levels (as proxied by financial analysts' earnings forecast errors) than do firms issuing debt. However, after controlling for information asymmetry, abnormal returns to common stock announcements remain significantly less than those of debt issues which supports the existence of a “pecking order” in capital procurement.     

The use of flexible employment arrangements: some new evidence from Greek firms

The present study attempts an examination of the extent to which Greek firms use flexible employment arrangements, the kind of jobs in which they are used and the factors affecting their use. It concentrates on three types of flexible work: temporary workers, independent contractors and subcontractors. Drawing upon data from a sample of seventy-five companies, it identifies factors affecting: a) firm's decision to use flexible forms of work or not and b) the percentage of flexible workers used.

The main findings indicate that different types of flexible worker are used by the same firm for the accomplishment of different kinds of job and are affected by different factors. Training costs and monitoring problems appear to be the most influential factors explaining the use of temporary workers, while low frequency of specialized tasks is the main factor affecting the use of independent contractors and often the recourse to subcontractors. Results from the Greek national context would add to existing evidence on this important issue.     

Work and pay in small Chinese clothing firms: a constrained negotiated order

Small clothing factories in China represent ideal conditions to find regimes characterised by market despotism. Yet studies of similar firms in other countries suggest that ‘negotiated paternalism’ is a better characterisation and that work relations have a large degree of cross‐national similarity. Using interview data from seven small case firms and 63 employees in 12 small clothing firms in Guangdong province, this article finds important parallels with other countries in terms of pay system and negotiated order. Workers could negotiate relatively high wages, albeit at the cost of very long hours. This situation reflected booming economic conditions, a non‐rationalised production system that left space for individual and informal collective bargaining, and close personal ties between workers and managers. Work relations in small firms are more nuanced than the sweatshop image allows, and extreme exploitation is more likely in Taylorised workplaces run by large corporations.     

Auditor choices and auditor reporting practices: evidence from Finnish small firms

Abstract

This paper examines whether book-tax conformity (i.e. reducing the gap between financial and taxable incomes) can restrain managers from opportunistically reporting financial profits and taxable income. Empirical work on this relation so far is limited and provides contradictory results. Using publicly available financial statements from 1994 to 2007 for 16,739 firms across 32 countries, I construct a new proxy for mandatory conformity and document that high book-tax conformity is associated with lower levels of earnings management and tax avoidance. These results persist even after controlling for firm characteristics and institutional factors, such as legal enforcement, investor protection, legal systems, capital market development, and the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Additional tests reveal that the deterrent effect of conformity on earnings management is more pronounced in code-law countries but does not differ between IFRS and non-IFRS adopters, and between developed and developing capital markets.     

互联网金融缓解小微企业融资难问题研究

融资难一直是制约小微企业发展的瓶颈。随着互联网金融的飞速发展和日渐完善,为小微企业融资提供了新的思路和途径。互联网金融可从提高参与主体信息的透明度、减少金融服务的交易成本、挖掘潜在小微企业金融服务的供需双方等方面,在缓解小微企业融资难上发挥独特作用。     

试析我国中小企业的融资困境与融资对策

一、我国中小企业的融资困境 虽然这些年来,我国中小企业融资问题已经被不断地得到重视,国家也相应采取了一些措施,如,四大国有商业银行已建立了中小企业信贷部;今后也可能建立专门的中小企业银行;为解决股权融资问题,建立风险投资基金及其它担保机构等等。特别是2003年,我国政府在积极颁布、实施《中小     

Multi-skilling in small and medium-sized engineering firms: evidence from Wales and Germany

A cross-national empirical study of forty-six engineering SMEs in Wales and two regions of Germany analyses the extent to which multi-skilling of staff is occurring, the underlying reasons for such developments, and how well placed firms are in relation to prevailing labour-market and training infrastructures strategically to develop hybrid occupations. We identify four types of skill accretion, only some of which presage net enhancements of the order of skills exercized. New quality assurance or continuous improvement programmes, and organizational restructuring, were the main reasons for multi-skilling. A majority of companies encouraged skill expansion on an ad hoc basis, yet strategic exploitation of multi-skilling incorporating comprehensive training support remained infrequent, especially in Germany. Nevertheless, a minority of the German multi-skilling leads to the award of innovative 'hybrid' qualifications fusing two skilled occupations. The breadth of German initial craft training both facilitates and inhibits potential for further multi-skilling in practice. In Wales, greater flexibility in occupational and training structures provides largely unrealized potential advantages over Germany in developing multi-skilling, especially as a means to resolve recurrent shortages of skilled workers. Welsh SMEs have preferred tentative, incremental, 'bolt-on' approaches to multi-skilling that facilitate only limited external transferability.     

Owner-managers,clusters and local embeddedness: small firms in the Sheffield (UK) metal-working cluster

The primary objective of this paper is to explore the ways in which the characteristics of owner-managers influence the extent to which their firms are embedded within local clusters of economic activity. Data are drawn from an interview survey of a random sample of small metal-working firms in Sheffield, UK. The data are analysed using non-parametric statistical methods to test bivariate relationships. Owner-manager attributes are found to have no influence on the extent of the use of local material supply networks but they do influence the extent of dependence on local markets. Owner-managers born and bred in the local region with limited formal education, working as an operative (rather than executive) prior to start up and with many years experience are more likely to rely on local markets. Owner-manager characteristics are also linked to participation in business networks. Those with most experience and those previously working for large firms are more likely to participate. It is concluded that owner-manager attributes can be important in explaining the level of embeddedness of small firms in a cluster of economic activity and that such attributes need to be built into theories of cluster behaviour.     

Knowledge combination in networks: evidence from the international venturing of four small biotech firms

Although international forms of venturing are critical for the sustained economic growth of small firms, this phenomenon remains surprisingly unexplored in international small business research. This study aims to contribute to this field by shedding light on the underlying factors of the international venturing of these firms. In this endeavor, the study rests on the assumption that knowledge combination in networks is a critical requisite for seizing business opportunities in foreign markets. Hence, the specific purpose of this study is to investigate how knowledge combination in networks underlies the international venturing of four small biotech firms. The findings demonstrate that international venturings are strongly shaped by proactive strategies of identifying and implementing knowledge combinations that span across internationally dispersed network relationships. The findings also reveal that different strategies of knowledge combination in networks are pursued depending on the nature of the venture (namely, international product ventures and international market ventures).     

Managing low‐skill workers: a study of small UK food manufacturing firms

Low‐wage work is of growing significance in the UK. This article tests the model of the low‐skills equilibrium (LSE) through a study of 27 small firms in a sector, food manufacturing, widely identified as being in an LSE. Three hypotheses are tested. (1) There will be a single, fixed equilibrium. We find more variety, reflecting the specific circumstances of firms. (2) An equilibrium is sustained by weak support institutions and a product market dominated by low value‐added goods. The expectation about institutions is supported, but the product market permitted some, albeit weak, opportunities to escape the LSE. (3) Skills will be low, and workplace regimes will be characterised by work intensification. Some firms were developing employee skills. Work intensification was rare, reflecting the absence of Taylorisation and the importance of face‐to‐face relationships. Overall, some firms had the will to escape the LSE, but weak institutional support and a ready supply of labour substantially reduced the incentives to do so.     

Pay determination in small firms in the UK: the case of the response to the National Minimum Wage

Pay determination in small firms is widely expected to follow the dictates of the market. Research on 81 firms in three competitive sectors finds, instead, loosely defined and variable pay structures. This variability is explained in terms of the interplay between labour and product markets, firms’ own choices, and ‘shocks’ such as the National Minimum Wage. This analysis thus contributes to developing institutional theories of labour markets and pay systems.     

The formation,relevance and public promotion of new technology-based firms

The following study shows the results of an investigation of two large samples of new technology-based firms from the point of view of their generation rate, their regional and sectoral clustering and the educational and professional background of their founders. The one sample includes approximately 2000 firms, the other 83.Since 1983, both the Federal Republic of Germany (F.R.G.) and individual states within the country have actively encouraged the founding of technology-based firms. The federal promotion programme and that of Baden- Württemberg support the inception of such firms with grants, credits and credit guarantees, and they generally aim at the establishment of an infrastructure favourable to new entrepreneurs.This paper briefly examines the public promotion programmes and outlines the rationale for their inception. Their is as yet inadequate scientific evidence as to both the effects and the cost-effectiveness of these programmes.     

The heterogeneous expectations hypothesis: Some evidence from the lab

This paper surveys learning-to-forecast experiments (LtFEs) with human subjects to test theories of expectations and learning. Subjects must repeatedly forecast a market price, whose realization is an aggregation of individual expectations. Emphasis is given to how individual forecasting rules interact at the micro-level and which structure they cocreate at the aggregate, macro-level. In particular, we focus on the question wether the evidence from laboratory experiments is consistent with heterogeneous expectations.     

The wage policy of firms: comparative evidence for the US and Germany from personnel data

The wage policy of a German firm and a US firm is subjected to a comparative analysis, focusing on the relation between wages and hierarchies. While previous studies have examined only one particular firm, this paper investigates two plants belonging to the same owners with similar production processes but in different institutional environments. Convex wage profiles over the hierarchy levels of both plants are found. The US plant shows considerably higher intensity of intra-firm competition in terms of higher intra-level wage inequality and annual promotion rate. In contrast, wages are more distinctly attached to hierarchy levels in the German firm, as shown by wage regressions. The results are discussed in relation to previous studies.     

浅谈计算机网络软件的功能与应用

21世纪是互联网的世纪,随着网络在中国的快速发展,网络应用展现出无限的前景。计算机网络软件作为计算机网络综合性能的重要评判标准,已经被作为工具广泛应用于各行各业。文章首先对计算机网络软件的功能与应用进行简单阐述,并对计算机网络存在的安全性问题进行分析,希望能够从更加全面的视角进行综合判断。     

The implications of the national minimum wage for training in small firms

This article investigates the extent to which small firms' training practices have altered since the introduction of the national minimum wage (NMW). Low pay is particularly widespread among small firms and they are thus likely to have been disproportionately affected by the NMW. Drawing on survey data collected from 258 establishments, the study provides information about training practices and identifies the steps that employers have taken to offset the impact of the NMW. The study also assesses the extent to which firms have made use of lower ‘development’ rates for young workers and new adult recruits, and whether this has been associated with an increase in training activity. The findings suggest that the NMW has provided a positive boost to training in some cases, although this has primarily come about as a result of efforts by firms to offset increases in labour costs, as opposed to take‐up of the development rate.     

The role of university-based industrial extension services in the business performance of small manufacturing firms: case-study evidence from Western New York

This paper investigates the role of university-based industrial extension services in the business performance of small manufacturing firms in an economically declining region of the United States (Western New York). The outreach initiatives of a specific University at Buffalo (UB) programme are described. Particular attention is given to the activities of UB's Centre for Industrial Effectiveness (CIE), an outreach unit with a mandate to improve the product and/or process development efforts of local manufacturing firms. Our data suggest positive returns on investment for firms that have sought technical support under CIE programmes. A key finding is that CIE's services typically entail the transmission of well-established procedures rather than radically new ways of doing things. A further finding is that firms that have used CIE to develop improved products have experienced stronger investment returns than their counterparts that have focused upon process development (although the returns are positive in both instances). More broadly, our data suggest positive correlations between levels of project investment and a variety of commercial outcomes, including sales growth, job-retention, and unit-cost reduction. The implications of these results for regional economic development policy are discussed. The paper also reviews some of the weaknesses that curtail the effectiveness of university-based centres such as CIE.     

The Peter Pan syndrome for small and medium-sized enterprises: Evidence from Korean manufacturing firms

This study examines whether government support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), aimed at stimulating their growth, achieves its intended goal. We argue that government subsidies create the incentive for SMEs to remain small in order to keep receiving such support and thus SMEs are reluctant to grow. We call this phenomenon the Peter Pan syndrome. Using a dataset of Korean manufacturing firms during the period of 2010–2012, we find that the Peter Pan syndrome indeed exists and that the likelihood of the Peter Pan syndrome is conditioned by factors that influence their incentive to remain as SMEs.