Firm Growth and Liquidity Constraints: A Dynamic Analysis

Using a large unbalanced panel data set of Portuguese manufacturing firms surviving over the period from 1990 to 2001, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether liquidity constraints faced by business firms affect firm growth. We use a GMM-system to estimate a dynamic panel data model of firm growth that incorporates cash flow as a measure of liquidity constraints and persistence of growth. The model is estimated for all size classes, including micro firms. Our findings reveal that smaller and younger firms have higher growth-cash flow sensitivities than larger and more mature firms. This is consistent with the suggestion that financial constraints on firm growth may be relatively more severe for small and young firms. Nevertheless, the same finding can be interpreted in a different way if we consider the more recent literature which interpret the higher investment/cash flow sensitivity of younger and smaller firm in absence of financial market imperfection as the outcome of these firms reaction to the fact that realisation of their cash flows reveals them the direction to go in presence of uncertainty of their growth prospect. Besides, firms that were small and young at the beginning of the sample period exhibited more persistent growth than those that were large and old. Finally, these results have significant policy implications.      

企业成长阶段及其划分标准:一个评论性回顾

企业成长阶段理论已有近半个世纪的发展历程,但关于成长阶段划分标准及阶段数目直到今天都还处于无休无止的争论之中。探讨相关文献中有关成长阶段理论的起源、各种划分标准及相应阶段数目做了一个评论性回顾,指出了各种标准的优点和缺点,以及今后应该解决的问题。     

服务业外国直接投资与天津市经济增长关系的实证分析

服务业外国直接投资(FDI)是当前跨国投资的主体,随着国内服务业市场的逐步开放,服务业外国直接投资对区域经济增长的作用不可低估。1990-2006年的数据表明,天津市服务业引进的外国直接投资发展迅速,并对天津市的经济增长起到了促进作用,发挥显著作用的路径为通过增加就业、引进软技术促进经济增长,而注入资金、优化产业结构、增加贸易等其他路径的作用并不显著。     

Exporting and productivity in business services: Evidence from the United States

Does exporting make firms more productive, or do more productive firms choose to become exporters? This paper considers the link between exporting and productivity for a sample of firms in US business services. We find that larger, more productive firms are more likely to become exporters, but that these factors do not necessarily influence the extent of exporting. This conforms with previous literature that there is a self-selection effect into exporting. We then test for the effect of exporting on productivity levels after allowing for this selection effect. We model both the relationship between exporting and productivity, and a simultaneous relationship between export intensity and productivity after allowing for selection bias. In both cases we find an association, indicating that productivity is positively linked both to exporting and to increased exposure to international markets.     

企业价值、盈利性与成长:中国上市公司控制类型的比较研究

本文以我国上市公司为例,对不同控制类型下企业价值、盈利性与成长进行了比较研究,试图发现控制类型对企业所追求的目标是否产生影响。研究结果表明,在不同的控制类型下,企业价值、盈利性与成长存在一定的差异。与国外业主控制型相似的法人控股的企业注重企业价值和成长性,而与经理控制型相似的国有绝对控股企业相对更加重视盈利性,这可能是不同的控制主体持股的目标不同所导致的。     

The great trade collapse and the Spanish export miracle: Firm‐level evidence from the crisis

We provide novel evidence on the microstructure of international trade during the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent global recession by exploring a rich firm‐level data set from Spain. The focus of our analysis is on changes at the extensive and intensive firm‐level margins of trade, as well as on performance differences (jobs, productivity and firm survival) across firms that differ in their export status. We find no adverse effects of the financial crisis on foreign market entry or exit, but a considerable increase in the export intensity of firms after the financial crisis. Moreover, we find that exporters were more resilient to the crisis than non‐exporters. Finally, while exporters showed a significantly more favourable development of total factor productivity after 2009 than non‐exporters, aggregate productivity declined substantially in a large number of industries in Spanish manufacturing. We also briefly explore two factors that might help explain the surprisingly strong export performance of Spain in the aftermath of the great trade collapse: improved aggregate competitiveness due to internal and external devaluation and a substitutive relationship between domestic and foreign sales at the firm level.     

Internationalization and performance: A contextual analysis of Indian firms

This paper explores the nature of the relationship between a firm's internationalization and performance (I–P) and provides interesting evidence on the moderating role of the firm's characteristics on this relationship. First, the paper investigates two modes of internationalization by firms: exports and foreign direct investment (FDI). The study anticipates the I–P relationship to be different for these two modes owing to the differences associated with market-seeking and strategic asset/resource-seeking motivations among internationalizing Indian firms. Drawing on these differing motivations, the study theorizes a positive linear I–P relationship with export intensity and a negative linear I–P relationship with FDI activity and finds strong support for the latter. Second, the study argues for the contextual nature of the I–P relationship and attempts to integrate the role of organizational characteristics such as business group affiliation, firm size, and firm age in influencing the I–P relationship. The study finds that business group affiliation and firm age positively moderate the I–P relationships, which signifies deeper institutional, resource-based, and legitimizing effects. These results are indicative of the need for greater mid-range theorizing to forge a more robust understanding of the role various organizational characteristics play in influencing the I–P relationship.     

Invariances and Diversities in the Patterns of Industrial Evolution: Some Evidence from Italian Manufacturing Industries

This work explores and compares some basic properties of corporate growth process at both aggregate manufacturing level and disaggregated sectoral levels. Using an extensive dataset on Italian manufacturing firms, we investigate which properties of firm growth dynamics are robust under disaggregation. We compare the results obtained with three different definitions of firm size, namely total sales, number of employees and value added. Our analysis suggests that while different sectors are characterized by significant differences in firm size distributions, in the degrees of concentration and in the autoregressive structure of the growth processes, there are also regularities which hold across all of them, such as the approximate unit root nature of the growth process and the power exponential shape of the growth rates density. Together, these “stylized facts” suggest challenging puzzles on the drivers of corporate growth and the resulting industrial structures.     

两类投资对经济增长的贡献性研究──对美国的分析

本文认为,社会上的资本要素可分为固定资产和智力资本两类,社会经济增长就是由这两类资本来推动的。固定资产投资和智力资本投资对经济增长的贡献不同,从世界范围看,知识经济时代的来临使得智力资本对国民经济的贡献越来越大,而我国的经济增长总体上还依赖于固定资产投资,尚未进入知识经济时代。文章就美国智力资本投资与固定资产投资对经济增长的贡献进行了相关分析、回归分析和因果关系分析,指出美国智力资本投资对经济增长的贡献高于固定资产投资的贡献,智力资本成为促进经济增长的主要推动力。     

公司特征、行业特征和并购战略类型的实证研究

This paper studies 148 related and 169 unrelated acquisition cases conducted by Chinese listed firms from 2001 to 2004 and explores firm and industry characteristics of these firms prior to their acquisition. Results show that there are significant pre-acquisition differences between firms pursuing related acquisition and firms pursuing unrelated acquisition in terms of firm performance, business risk, firm size, proportion of state shares and degree of diversification profile. Except for differences in internal capital as represented by undistributed profit per share, there is no significant difference in other aspects of available resources and industry performance. Translated and revised from Guanli Shijie 管理世界 (Management World), 2007, (3): 130–137     

Entrepreneurship,Innovation and Economic Growth: Evidence from GEM data

Studies on the impact of technological innovation on growth have been largely mute on the role ofnew firm formation. Using cross-sectional data on the 37 countries participating in GEM 2002, this paper uses an augmented Cobb–Douglas production to explore firm formation and technological innovation as separate determinants of growth. One area of interest is the contrast between different types of entrepreneurial activities as measured using GEM Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) rates – high growth potential TEA, necessity TEA, opportunity TEA and overall TEA. Of the four types of entrepreneurship, only high growth potential entrepreneurship is found to have a significant impact on economic growth. This finding is consistent with extant findings in the literature that it is fast growing new firms, not new firms in general, that accounted for most of the new job creation by small and medium enterprises in advanced countries.     

Factors impacting on whether and how businesses respond to early warning signs of financial and economic turmoil: Jamaican firms in the global crisis

Much of the debate surrounding the recent global crisis is focused on respective governments’ policy responses to the financial and economic downturn. Much less attention has been placed on the manner in which private sector businesses responded to the crisis. This study analyses the results of a survey of 284 Jamaican businesses conducted in the first quarter of 2009. It identifies the responses to the crisis that were viewed as most likely at that stage, and uses logistic regression techniques to analyse the factors most likely to precipitate different types of responses. International transmission mechanisms, basic business characteristics, and managers’ experiences with and expectations of changing conditions in the finance, output and input markets were investigated as explanatory variables. The results presented are important, as the early response of businesses to economic and financial crisis often determines the extent of the ultimate outcome on the livelihoods of individuals in a country.     

The impact of local and external university knowledge on the creation of knowledge-intensive firms: evidence from the Italian case

This paper investigates how far in space university knowledge goes to breed the creation of knowledge-intensive firms (KIFs), depending on the nature (either codified or tacit) and quality of this knowledge. We consider the impact of knowledge codified in academic patents and scientific publications and tacit knowledge embodied in university graduates on KIF creation in Italian provinces in 2010, while distinguishing between local university knowledge created by universities located in the same province and external university knowledge created by universities located outside the province. Our econometric estimates indicate that the positive effects of scientific publications and university graduates are confined within the boundaries of the province in which universities are located. Conversely, the creation of new KIFs in a focal province is positively affected by both local and external university knowledge codified in academic patents, even though the positive effect of this external knowledge rapidly diminishes with geographic distance. Furthermore, the above effects are confined to high-quality universities; low-quality universities have little effect on KIF creation.     

我国贸易条件恶化与贫困化增长

本文首先测算了我国的年度贸易条件,并使用贸易条件调整的实际国内生产总值作为指标,研究了我国国际购买力的变动情况,进而得出我国国民财富的的总体状况。随后使用居民实际人均消费支出作为经济福利的指标,运用显示偏好弱公理分析了国民经济福利的变动情况,并通过与实际国内生产总值变化率的对比,判定了我国经济是否存在贫困化增长。研究结果表明,尽管贸易条件不断恶化,迄今为止我国经济并没有出现贫困化增长。     

A comparison of revenue growth at recent-IPO and established firms: The influence of SG&A, R&D and COGS

A dynamic view of the resource based theory (RBT) examines how a firm builds its resources over time, considering variations in resources' growth rates while the firm attempts to grow. Accordingly, we consider the elasticity of accumulated resources to assess conditions where these resources might serve as substitutes for rather than complements to COGS during periods of growth. We specify a production function that links aggregate resource allocation among SG&A, R&D and COGS expenses to a firm's revenue. This function yields a set of hypotheses on the elasticity of SG&A and R&D, and the productivity of COGS, while controlling for the revenue growth rate. We test these hypotheses on a dataset of 64 randomly selected firms that recently underwent an IPO, and a comparable set of 64 established public firms from four high-technology sectors. Results show that the accumulated stocks of resources can serve as substitutes for rather than complements to COGS, and the manner in which recent-IPO firms allocate and use resources differs from their established counterparts. We discuss the implications of associated elasticity and productivity results.     

企业成长理论视角下的企业并购动因分析——基于蒙牛收购雅士利案例

基于企业成长理论的视角分析蒙牛收购雅士利的动因显示:蒙牛收购雅士利是一次双赢的收购案。并购作为企业重要且普遍的成长方式之一,是其实现成长和战略发展的一种外部途径,可有效解决企业存在的问题,发挥企业家精神,实现纵向一体化下的协同作用。目前,蒙牛在发展自身奶粉品牌上存在短板,同时面临着管理和需求上的约束,而雅士利也面临着管理和竞争的瓶颈,遏制了向行业的进军。蒙牛对雅士利兼并重组后,应加快资源整合与互补,实施多元化经营战略,真正培育起自己的品牌,加快国产奶粉行业整体升级的速度。     

Entrepreneurial orientation,market orientation,network ties,and performance: Study of entrepreneurial firms in a developing economy

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO), market orientation (MO) and network ties are typically modeled as separate antecedents of performance. However, the boundary conditions for such models are under-explored, as is their applicability to developing economy settings. Accordingly, drawing on institutional and social capital theories, the current paper argues that the performance benefits of EO and MO are complementary, and vary across different levels of social and business network ties. Using primary data gathered from entrepreneurial firms operating in Ghana, the study findings indicate that aligning high levels of EO and MO improves business performance, and particularly so when social and business network ties are well developed, since under these latter conditions, the performance benefits of aligning EO and MO are greatest.     

Trade liberalization,free trade agreements,and the value of firms: Stock market evidence from Singapore

We examine the effects of the United States–Singapore Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on the value of firms listed in the Singapore Exchange using event study analysis. Despite the predictability of the FTA negotiations, we find that one event – the removal of the last obstacle to the free trade deal in January 2003 – increases the value of firms in some industries by 1–11% on average. These results indicate that trade liberalization and FTAs do increase the value of firms.     

江苏省对外贸易与经济增长的关系:基于投入产出方法的研究

本文利用投入产出分析方法,计算了江苏省2002年对外贸易对GDP与各产业部门增加值的贡献。结果表明:江苏省对外贸易和对内贸易对GDP的贡献率出口大于进口;省外调出大于省外调入。省外调出与出口对GDP的贡献率相差不大,省外调入与进口对GDP的贡献率也是相差不大。     

The Effect of Enhancing Workers’ Employability on Small and Medium Enterprises: Evidence from Spain

In this paper, we analyse the effect of promoting workers’ employability on labour productivity. To this end, we adapt a simple efficiency-wage model that includes the employer’s decision on the provision of opportunities for enhancing workers’ employment prospects in a context of job insecurity. We show that (i) by facilitating workers’ employability, the firm increases its labour productivity; and (ii) the higher the job uncertainty the higher the productivity gains due to the increase in employability. One of the advantages of our model is that it is simply enough to allow us to formulate two testable hypotheses, namely (i) the increase of jobs’ potential to enhance workers’ employability results in higher level of workers’ effort, and (ii) the provision of employability is more profitable for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) than for large firms. More precisely, SMEs should obtain higher effort levels from employees by fostering workers’ employability than large firms. We provide some evidence supporting these hypotheses from a highly representative sample of Spanish manufacturing firms. This research has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, project SEJ2004-07242-C03-02.