Barriers to Innovation among Spanish Manufacturing SMEs

Innovation is widely recognized as a key factor in the competitiveness of nations and firms. Small firms that do not embrace innovation within their core business strategy run the risk of becoming uncompetitive because of obsolete products and processes. Innovative firms are a perquisite for a dynamic and competitive economy.
This paper reports on the results of a study that examined barriers to firm innovation among a sample of 294 managers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Spain. The study examined the relation between (1) product, process, and management innovation and (2) 15 obstacles to innovation, which can limit a firm's ability to remain competitive and profitable. Findings of the study show that barriers have a differential impact on the various types of innovation; product, process, and management innovation are affected differently by the different barriers. The most significant barriers are associated with costs, whereas the least significant are associated with manager/employee resistance. Additionally, the results demonstrate that the costs associated with innovation have proportionately greater impact on small than on larger firms.
The findings can be used in the development of public policy aimed at supporting and encouraging the innovation among SMEs in Spain. Government policies that encourage and support innovation among all firms, especially small firms, can help countries remain competitive in a global market. Public policy that encourages innovation can enable firms to remain competitive and survive, both of which have direct implications for employment and a country's economic viability. The results may also be insightful for managers who are attempting to encourage innovation. Understanding barriers can assist managers in fostering an innovative culture by supporting new ideas or by avoiding an attitude that creates resistance to new ideas.     

Effects of Macroeconomic Policies on Sectoral Prices

The effect of macroeconomic policies on the relative pricesof internationally traded and domestic goods has been the subjectof extensive study. Analysis of the way in which these policiesthen affect prices at the sectoral level is complicated by theheterogeneity of sectoral production: even the prices of singleproducts usually are determined by both domestic and tradedcomponents. We present a framework which first traces the influenceof macropolicy on the relative prices of exports, imports, andhome goods. It then accounts for each sector's degree of "tradability,"which is based on the importance of trade in sectoral income,and the influence of macroeconomic policy on sectoral prices.To illustrate the use of this approach, it is applied to a simulationof trade liberalization in Argentina. Our results suggest thateconomywide policies had substantial negative effects on boththe real exchange rate and the incentives to agricultural exports.     

Los procesos α-estables y su relación con el exponente de autosimilitud: paridades de los tipos de cambio dólar estadounidense,dólar canadiense,euro y yen

In this research we analyze the performance of the exchange rates of USA Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Euro and Yen; we estimate the basic statistics, α-stable parameters, we performed tests of goodness fit Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Anderson-Darling and Lilliefors; we estimate self-similarity exponents and we performed t y F tests, ruling that the series of the exchange rates are multi-fractal; we estimate confidence intervals of the exchange rates and we conclude that the estimated α-stable distributions are more efficient than the gaussian distribution to quantify market risks and the series are self-similar; by the ? index we infer the risk of events and we indicate that exchange rates are anti-persistent, have mean reversión, short-term memory, negative correlation and high risk in the short and medium term; the estimation and validation of α-stable distributions and the exponent of self-similarity are important for pricing and the creation of innovative investment instruments by financial engineering, risk management and derivatives pricing.     

Seeking an innovation structure common to both manufacturing and services

Service Business - In accordance with the numerous researchers who have stated the need for an integrated and holistic theory of innovation, this article attempts to determine similarities between...     

How Does the Market Value Corporate Sustainability Performance?

This study provides empirical evidence on how corporate sustainability performance (CSP), as proxied by membership of the Dow Jones sustainability index, is reflected in the market value of equity. Using a theoretical framework combining institutional perspectives, stakeholder theory, and resource-based perspectives, we develop a set of hypotheses that relate the market value of equity to CSP. For a sample of North American firms, our preliminary results show that CSP has significant explanatory power for stock prices over the traditional summary accounting measures such as earnings and book value of equity. However, further analyses suggest that we should not focus on corporate sustainability itself. Our findings suggest that what investors really do is to penalize large profitable firms with low level of CSP. Firms with incentives to develop a high level of CSP not engaging on such strategy are, thus, penalized by the market.     

Are success and survival factors the same for social and business ventures?

Despite the growing interest in social entrepreneurship, there exist gaps in research that compares traditional business-oriented entrepreneurship with the social kind. This study attempts to fill the gap by answering the following questions: Are there significant differences between the survival chances of business and social ventures? and Do the traits of the entrepreneur and the firm play the same role as success factors for both types of venture? Hypotheses are tested using data collected from 2,179 firms. The results show that significant differences exist between social and business-oriented entrepreneurship in the form and intensity of the independent variables related to survival.     

Entrepreneurial attributes of human capital and contingency factors in the culinary tourism

This article analyses fuzzy and crisp set qualitative comparative analyses (QCA) as an original method to model culinary tourism success and a number of entrepreneurial attributes of human capital and contingency factors. Human capital factors were general business training, specific training in food and drink hospitality, and previous experience as a business owner. Contingency factors were size of business (number of employees), restaurant location, and gender of the business owner. Restaurant success was measured by whether these restaurants had waiting lists.