Start-up Barriers Research Articles

Competition, innovation, and the number of firms

Theories of endogenous markups, firm entry, and innovation consistently predict a positive relationship between barriers to competition and firm-level innovation, in stark contrast to a large empirical literature that documents a negative relationship. I argue that this puzzle can be resolved by considering two distinct types of barriers – barriers to starting a firm, and barriers to competing in a product market. Barriers to starting firms discourage startups, resulting in higher markups, higher market shares, and more innovation. Barriers to product-market entry also increase market shares within each market, and thereby encourage innovation. But firms also enter fewer markets, which discourages innovation. On net, market-entry barriers decrease firm-level innovation and the number of competitors per market, while increasing the number of firms per industry. To test the implications of the theory, I consider an episode of product market deregulation (the Single Market Programme in the E.U.), and find that lower market-entry barriers indeed resulted in fewer firms. Interpreted through the lens of the model, I estimate that productivity increased by 8.4% in deregulated industries, and show that this estimate would be 30% lower if deregulation was mistakenly modeled as lowering firm startup costs. Across countries, I provide evidence that market-entry barriers are quantitatively much more important than startup barriers. As evidence for the central mechanism in the model I show that across countries, higher market-entry barriers are associated with fewer products per firm.

Convergence analysis of the entrepreneurship start-up barriers

In a majority of the existing research on entrepreneurship start-up, the three primary enjoy barriers of 'cost', 'time', and 'procedures' were analysed. Thus, we examine whether country differences in these start-up barriers existing in 2003 have been reduced by 2015. We deploy Sigma and Gamma convergence methods to answer these questions for 132 countries. Results indicate that all three barriers are converging toward dispersion reduction and catch-up process at the annual rates ranging from −3.37% to −0.49%. Also, speeds of convergence vary significantly by the subgroups of countries by incomes and regions. Implications of these findings will be discussed.

Convergence analysis of the entrepreneurship start-up barriers

Convergence analysis of the entrepreneurship start-up barriers

Sustainable Entrepreneurship: The Role of Perceived Barriers and Risk

Entrepreneurs who start a business to serve both self-interests and collective interests by addressing unmet social and environmental needs are usually referred to as sustainable entrepreneurs. Compared with regular entrepreneurs, we argue that sustainable entrepreneurs face specific challenges when establishing their businesses owing to the discrepancy between the creation and appropriation of private value and social value. We hypothesize that when starting a business, sustainable entrepreneurs (1) feel more hampered by perceived barriers, such as the institutional environment and (2) have a different risk attitude and perception than regular entrepreneurs. We use two waves of the Flash Eurobarometer survey on entrepreneurship (2009 and 2012), which contains information on start-up motivations, start-up barriers, and risk perceptions of approximately 3000 (prospective) business owners across 33 countries. We find that sustainable entrepreneurs indeed perceive more institutional barriers in terms of a lack of financial, administrative, and informational support at business start-up than regular entrepreneurs. Further, no significant differences between sustainable and regular entrepreneurs are found in terms of their risk attitudes or perceived financial risks. However, sustainable entrepreneurs are more likely to fear personal failure than regular entrepreneurs, which is explained by their varied and complex stakeholder relations. These insights may serve as an important signal for both governments and private capital providers in enhancing the institutional climate.

Convergence Analysis of the Entrepreneurship Start-Up Barriers

In a majority of the existing research on entrepreneurship start-up, entry “cost”, “time”, and “procedures” were analyzed as the primary barriers against a greater rate of new business start-ups. We examine whether the country differences in the start-up barriers existing in 2003 have been reduced and if so, how fast. We deploy the convergence framework to answer these questions for 132 countries. Results of our analysis indicate that all three start-up barriers for 132 countries are converging toward a reduction of dispersion as well as a catch-up process during the period of 2003- 2015. However, significant variations are found in the convergence processes for the subgroups of countries by incomes and regions. Implications of our findings will be discussed.

Barriers to Business Start-up among Tanzanian University Graduates: Evidence from the University of Dar-es-salaam

This article assesses barriers to business start-ups among university graduates by drawing evidence from the University of Dar-es-salaam. A cross-sectional research design was used with a sample comprising 308 graduates and 10 key informants. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire and key informant interview checklist and were analysed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) whereby confirmatory factor analysis was performed using Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Pearson’s chi-square was used to test whether graduates who had not studied entrepreneurship and those who had studied entrepreneurship reported different start-up barriers. It was found that inappropriate teaching methods, lack of business experience, deficiencies in the university programmes, commitments on extended families and bureaucratic tendencies had greater contribution to hindering business start-ups. It was concluded that entrepreneurship study influenced the way graduates perceived the barriers; it was observed that graduates who studied entrepreneurship reported different start-up barriers from those reported by their counterparts. The results were statistically significant at p-value < 0.05. Higher learning institutions should adopt competent based curricula in order to impart necessary business skills to students and use the business apprenticeship approach while students are still on studies.

Do South African townships lack entrepreneurial spirit?

It is often assumed that the black population of South Africa lack entrepreneurial spirit and an entrepreneurial culture. A survey conducted in the Walmer Township in Port Elizabeth explored the entrepreneurial spirit and culture in terms of entrepreneurial activities, perceived start-up barriers, entrepreneurship climate, and general cultural factors relating to entrepreneurship. The sample comprised of 309 black adults living in Walmer Township. The results revealed surprisingly high entrepreneurial activity in the form of informal business ventures. Furthermore, the level of entrepreneurial aspirations turned out to be higher than expected. Many of the township inhabitants regard the township as having a favourable entrepreneurial climate, and support basic pro-entrepreneurial values. On the other hand, the respondents identify considerable start-up barriers for entrepreneurs. They seem to prefer being employed than self-employed. Moreover, they have low trust in people. Additional findings confirm that the township can be qualified as a ‘low trust culture’.

Where do we go with Union Catalogues?

The United Kingdom boasts union catalogues for its major research libraries, journal holdings, archives and, most recently, for its public library collections. For researchers wanting to locate material across the UK, such aggregations have long served as a first stop for researchers wanting to find the right material and also provided a showcase for our formidable research collections. In the global networked environment, search engines and social networks can fulfil much of the functionality of union catalogues and have become the natural places to which our users go for search and discovery, even in academic situations. Right now, there is a ‘disconnect’ between the data describing our collections and the places users first turn to start their searches. This can be fixed by exposing descriptive data to wider audiences beyond the silo of the local catalogue, but data publishing is a fast moving area with little obvious short-term institutional-level gain and some start-up barriers. Publishing library data to the open web at the level of a national aggregation would utilize existing skill sets and infrastructure, minimize risk and maximize impact.

Unethical Practices in Scholarly, Open-Access Publishing

IntroductionThe scholarly publishing industry has witnessed the appearance of numerous scholarly, open- access publishers, an innovation that has made many thousands and even millions of scholarly articles available for free over the Internet. open- access movement has benefitted from the goodwill of countless authors, organizations, funding agencies, and open- access repositories. Unfortunately, as with any large- scale innovation, there has emerged a cadre of racketeers, distributed worldwide, who seek to exploit the open- access (OA) model for their own financial gain. These unscrupulous publishers abuse the authorpays model of open access publishing only for their own profit, engaging in dishonest, deceptive, and unethical practices, and mocking the goodwill of those who promote scholarly, open- access publishing. This article identifies and examines unethical practices in scholarly, open- access publishing, limiting its focus to those publishers employing the gold model.Etiology of the Unethical PracticesOne of the sources of the current problem is the common belief or assumption that all open- access publishing is meritorious, benevolent, and wellintentioned, a belief promoted by librarians and others backing the open- access movement. Many academic librarians blindly and comprehensively promote scholarly, open- access publishing, which means they are partially promoting publishers committing unethical practices.The nature of gold open- access publishing means that those who promote the model must qualify their recommendations. In the traditional scholarly publication model, the market served to prevent or eliminate publishers that engaged in unethical practices; that market control is non- existent in the openaccess model, especially given the minimal startup barriers and low operating costs of open- access publishing. For example, no library would pay for a journal known to be bogus, but bogus journals that are free are unbounded by the startup cost barrier. And because publishers are masters of deception, it is easy for them to fool submitting authors into thinking they are legitimate. Moreover, in the online environment it is especially easy for an unethical publisher to appear legitimate. Also, the very nature of the author- pays model is a conflict of interest; the more articles a gold OA publisher accepts, the more money it earns.Reading a bibliography, vita, or list of published works, it is hard to identify journals from unethical titles they use mimic those of legitimate journals and begin with phrases such as Journal of.... This sideby- side placement of both legitimate and illegitimate journals is a loss, for no longer can one assume that an unfamiliar but legitimate sounding journal is in fact legitimate; further investigation is required, creating new burdens for those engaged in the evaluation of scholarly activities or in judging research grant applications.Other StudiesThe problem of fraudulent open- access publishers is a relatively new one, and few authors have covered it. review journal Charleston Advisor has published several of this writer's reviews of these In 2009, it pub - lished this writer's review of Bentham Open (Beall, 2009). In 2010, the journal published a collective review of nine publishers, and it is in this review that this author coined the term predatory open- access publishers. We use the term 'predatory' cautiously, primarily in an attempt to initially categorize a certain class of Open- Access, scholarly publishers with like characteristics (Beall, 2010a, pp. 14-15). A later update to this article examined three additional publishers this author identified as (Beall, 2010b). Writing in 2011, this author reviewed the Texas- based publisher Internet Scientific Publications (Beall, 2011).The 2010 version of the International Mathematical Union's Best Current Practices for Journals (2011) alludes to publishers, saying, The proliferation of poorly run mathematical journals is becoming an increasing burden to the community. …

A simple and effective fertility preservation laboratory technique: retrieval of germinal vessicle oocytes from whole ovary tissue followed by in vitro maturation

OBJECTIVE: Assisted reproductive technology (ART) centers interested in offering investigational fertility preservation services may find start-up barriers prohibitive. In addition to the extra demands placed on physician and laboratory resources, the technology involved may be perceived as being too complicated. In vitro maturation of germinal vessicle oocytes retrieved from whole ovary specimens may be a good entry point into experimental protocols. Here we report the development of a simple system to preserve fertility for women who are undergoing oophorectomy before completion of childbearing.

Start-Up Barriers in Germany: A Review of the Empirical Literature

The paper summarizes what is known about start-up barriers in Germany. A particular emphasis is given to bureacracy, market failure and psychologocial factors.

Field experiment of enhanced coalbed methane-CO2 in the upper Silesian basin of Poland

A field experiment of carbon dioxide (CO2) storage in underground coal seams with simultaneous (enhanced) production of coalbed methane production was set up and performed in the upper Silesian coal basin in Poland. The main aim of this project was to investigate the technical and economic feasibility of this type of CO2 storage under European conditions. An existing coalbed methane well was cleaned up, repaired, and put back into production in May 2004 to establish a baseline production. A new injection well was drilled 150 m (492 ft) away from the production well. This distance was chosen to establish a breakthrough of the injected CO2 into the production well to learn as much as possible from the operations. Initial injection of CO2 occurred in August 2004 in three seams of Carboniferous age in the depth interval between 900 and 1250 m (3117 and 4101 ft). Several actions were taken to establish continuous injection, which was eventually reached in April 2005 after stimulation of the reservoir by a frac job. In May 2005, approximately 12–15 t/day were injected in continuous operations. Compared to baseline production, the production of methane increased significantly because of the injection activities. Recovery of methane is, however, low, which is probably related to low diffusion rates into and out of the coal. Nevertheless, a total of 692 t of CO2 are stored in the reservoir, most likely because of adsorption of CO2 on the coal. The results provide good hope for successful future upscaling of the operations, although further research is required. The realization of an onshore pilot for CO2 storage can possibly help to overcome start-up barriers of future CO2 storage initiatives in Europe.