Young Firms Research Articles

The impact of international patenting on corporate patenting activities: Evidence from Korea

This paper studies the impact of international patenting on corporate patenting activities, using a novel firm-level dataset from Korea. After making an overseas patent application for the first time, firms increase their overall patenting activity, both domestically and internationally, relative to similar firms that operate only in the domestic market for ideas. The improvement occurs in both cited and uncited patents, and these effects are persistent and grow over the 5-year period following international entry. Furthermore, young firms benefit more than mature firms from global engagement. Our findings suggest a role for policy.

How firms accumulate inputs: Evidence from import switching

We uncover new dynamic facts in Colombian manufacturing importers’ data. First, imported input switching, a firm’s simultaneous adding and dropping of foreign intermediates, is pervasive and a substantial fraction of firm’s imports. Second, larger firms switch more conditional on age, whereas younger firms switch more conditional on size. Third, the number of imported varieties increases with firm age. Fourth, inputs of lower expenditure are more frequently dropped. Fifth, firms that switch more, have larger sales growth. Analogous facts also hold for suppliers. We propose a dynamic model where firms accumulate foreign suppliers and choose which heterogeneously productive intermediates to import. A firm compares each input’s productivity across suppliers and keeps the best source, switching, lowering its unit cost, and growing in size. In the calibrated model, a 20% tariff reduction: (1) generates a 5.2% increase in welfare across steady states, and (2) upon impact only 76% of the gains accrue.

Start-ups and Its Development in India

India stands in a row of developing nations. The country needs more entrepreneurial base for the advancement of the Indian financial market. There has been a lift in the number of new businesses surfacing in the country ascribed to the technological and structural advancement in the nation. Start-ups are young firms or companies existence with a unique objective. The Start-ups in India today is in driving force of the economy compared to other Asian countries. Rooted in innovation, start-ups in India aim to exercise reduction in scarcity of existing products or create entirely new grade of goods and services. It is the good sign for the country as it is experiencing dynamic change among the business platform over the past two decades. First and the major need for start-ups in India is job creations, if there are more number of start-ups encouragements then there will be direct lead to more job creations and also it will become the reason for economic growth.

Productivity impacts of R&D and non-R&D modes of technological change for incumbents and entrants in a catching-up economy

Considering the importance of innovation activities, especially that of young firms, for aggregate productivity growth, the study, using Estonian Community Innovation Survey (CIS) data, compares the productivity implications of R&D, capital accumulation, and innovation output for entrants and incumbents and contrasts the findings to those for Germany, a representative developed economy. First, in contrast to the developed economies, the percentage of innovating firms is much larger than the percentage that invests in R&D, which indicates the prevalence of non-R&D, such as ‘doing, using, and interacting’ (DUI), mode of innovation. Second, contrary to findings for the developed economies, the impact of R&D on productivity for the entrants and incumbents does not differ. However, the impact of innovation output – many of which are a result of DUI mode – on productivity is much higher for the entrants. Third, despite the adverse sectoral composition typical of catching-up economies, Estonian incumbents, who are the primary carriers of ‘scientific and technologically-based innovative’ (STI) activities, are as good as German incumbents in translating R&D into productivity gains. Fourth, while embodied technological change through capital accumulation is found to be more effective than R&D for improving productivity, the effectiveness is higher for R&D performing firms. Our results suggest that certain policy recommendations for spurring productivity growth in developed economies may be unsuitable for catching-up economies.

How and when does founder polychronicity affect new venture performance? The roles of entrepreneurial orientation and firm age

This paper proposes a moderated mediation model to examine the relationship between polychronicity and venture performance. We argue that entrepreneurial orientation (EO) mediates the positive relationship between polychronicity and venture performance. The hypotheses were tested using time-lagged data from a sample of 249 ventures from Vietnam. Using structural equation modeling, our findings indicate that EO mediates the relationship between polychronicity and venture performance. Additionally, the results reveal the relationship between polychronicity and EO is moderated by firm age, and that this interaction effect is stronger for younger firms than older firms. Our theory-based arguments and findings help extend and provide support to the polychronicity-venture performance relationship, which highlights the significance of the effect polychronicity has on venture performance through founders polychronic proclivities.

Productivity Gains from Trade: Bunching Estimates from Trading Rights in China

Abstract This paper identifies productivity gains from trade by studying the manipulation behavior of firms in response to regulatory policies on international trade in China. Bunching estimates show that participation in international trade increases firm productivity. The productivity gains increase over time, indicating dynamic learning from trading. Further exploration shows no effects on R&D investment, product rationalization and markup. Young firms and nonstate-owned firms (non-SOEs) gain more from participating in trade. Workers share productivity gains through increased wages but not from increased employment.

Cloud Computing and Firm Growth

Abstract Cloud computing has shifted how firms access IT away from investment in fixed capital to pay-on-demand services that facilitate remote and simultaneous use. Using firm-level data we examine the impact of cloud adoption on firm performance and organizational geography with an IV approach that exploits cross-section and time-series variation in fiber broadband speeds as instruments. Cloud leads younger firms to increase revenue, employment, and productivity, whereas incumbent firms experience no scale effects and weaker productivity gains. Incumbents however undergo restructuring through establishment deaths and fewer births, while both types of firms experience geographic reorganization shifting farther from the headquarters.

Do firms benefit from public information services: Evidence from a tax hotline program in China

We investigate the effect of a public information service program in taxation on firms' effective corporate income tax rate (ECITR), taking advantage of a tax hotline program that lowers the cost of access to tax information. Using Chinese firm-level administrative data and exploiting a stacked difference-indifferences model, we find that firms experienced decreases in ECITR after the hotline adoption, and this effect is more pronounced for smaller firms and younger firms. This effect is driven by the hotline helping existing policies transmit more efficiently, and firms claim more tax credits. Furthermore, the tax windfall brought by the hotline has real impacts on firms by increasing their cash flow, investment, and returns on assets.

Cash Holdings and Marginal Value of Cash across Different Age Groups of U.S. Firms

Using a sample of 11,365 unique US firms over the period 1966 to 2021, this study examines the relationship between the age of a firm and its cash holdings. We categorize firms as young, mature, or old based on their age or years of operation. Our results show that firm age is one of the important determinants of cash holdings and that managers adjust cash holdings in response to changing financial needs and risks as firms age. We find that young firms tend to hold higher levels of cash than more established firms and that the marginal value of cash holdings is higher for younger firms. This is consistent with the notion that young firms are more focused on growth and investment and may have limited access to external financial resources. In contrast, mature and old firms tend to hold lower cash levels, possibly due to greater financial stability, increased creditworthiness, and a lower need to manage financial risks. Controlling for significant variables, we confirm our findings with the robustness tests. Taking care of the endogeneity issue, we still can confirm that firm age is negatively significant to the level and the marginal value of cash holdings.

Multinationals' profits in China: Impact of tax avoidance

Based on proprietary and hand-collected source country information on foreign-owned firms in China, this paper empirically explores the effect of the tax avoidance of multinational firms on the profit rate of foreign-owned firms. Foreign firms in China previously benefited from various preferential tax policies and had a lower effective tax rate compared to domestic firms. The results show that the increase in the difference between the statutory maximum tax rate in the parent country and the domestic tax rate will increase foreign firms' pretax profit margin. This effect is more pronounced for younger firms and wholly foreign-owned firms. Further tests indicate that the transfer pricing in export and import activity of foreign firms is an important channel for multinational firms to shift profits. In year 2008, the implementation of the new Enterprise Income Tax Law has unified the corporate tax rate for both domestic and foreign firms at 25 percent. The tax reform reduces the profit margin of foreign firms, especially those with larger tax rate differentials. This paper explains multinational firms' profit performance from the novel perspective of tax avoidance.

Examining the influence of specific IC elements on alliance formation of new ventures

PurposeIntellectual capital (IC) is essential to the success of new technology-based firms. However, young firms only possess some of the resources and capabilities needed to develop, produce and market their innovative products and services. Hence, many form alliances to access complementary resources. This paper investigates the signaling effect of technology-based start-ups’ stock of IC on alliance formation.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzes primary data concerning specific classes of IC and the alliances formed. Data were collected from founders of 233 technology-based new ventures in the USA. Hypotheses were tested via hierarchical linear regression.FindingsThis study demonstrates that firms' IC, in the form of founders with doctorates and patents, is positively related to the classes of alliances formed. These stocks of IC send signals about credibility to the market for alliance partners, enabling the firms to form alliances and gain access to complementary resources. The number of founders with doctorates was positively related to R&D alliances and alliance partners in a similar place in the value chain as the focal firm. In contrast, the number of patents was positively related to total alliances, production-oriented alliances and alliances considered upstream from the focal firm.Originality/valueThis paper collects retrospective data from founders of technology-based new ventures. The research contributes to the literature with its results that founder human capital and patent portfolios are essential for technology-based firms' innovation and growth. However, little research has investigated how firms' possession of IC facilitates alliance formation. This paper investigates this connection explicitly.

Do Credit Supply Shocks Affect Employment in Middle-Income Countries?

This paper studies the effect of bank credit supply shocks on formal employment in Mexico using a proprietary dataset containing information on all loans extended to firms by commercial banks during 2010–2015. We find large impacts on the formal employment of small and medium firms: a positive credit shock of 1 standard deviation increases yearly employment by 1.4 percentage points. The shares of uncollateralized credit and credit received by family firms, younger firms, and firms with no previous bank relationships also increase, suggesting that credit shocks may play a more prominent role for employment creation in credit-constrained settings. (JEL D22, G21, G32, J23, L25, M51, O16)

The effect of lead institutional investors on investment and capital structure of young firms: Evidence from Indian IPOs

We study the consequences of an exogenous event, a regulation that allows IPO firms to seek investment from lead institutional investors in India. We document a significant increase in IPO volume as a result of the regulation. Post-regulation, lead-investor backed firms experience a reduction in issuance cost, an increase in capital investments and a decrease in leverage. The effects on investments and leverage are significant for high growth and financially constrained firms. Financially constrained firms backed by lead investors raise 26.4% more equity than unconstrained firms. Our findings provide evidence that discretionary allocation of shares to lead institutional investors could reduce capital constraints.

Entrepreneurial Wealth and Employment: Tracing Out the Effects of a Stock Market Crash

ABSTRACTUsing the dispersion in stock returns during the financial crisis as a source of exogenous variation in the wealth of Norwegian entrepreneurs who held listed stocks, I show that adverse shocks to the wealth of business owners had large effects on their firms' financing, employment, and investment. The effects on investment and employment are driven by young firms, that obtain differentially less bank financing following an owner wealth shock. The effects on employment operate primarily through reduced hiring. My findings highlight that equity‐financing frictions and the procyclicality of entrepreneurial wealth are important channels that can amplify economic shocks.

Impact of macroeconomic factors on firm performance: Empirical evidence from India

Understanding the macroeconomic factors is essential for all firms operating in the economy. Investment decisions, financing decisions, and risk management of firms are influenced by the existing macroeconomic factors, thereby impacting their performance. This paper examines the effect of macroeconomic factors on the performance of Indian manufacturing firms. Two-step generalized method of moments model is applied in this investigation to analyze the effect of firm performance from the financial year 2004-05 to 2021-22. Firm performance is proxied by two accounting-based measures and a market-based measure, namely, return on assets, return on equity, and Tobin’s Q, respectively, while the macro-economic factor is proxied by annual gross domestic product growth rate. The empirical findings show that firm performance has a positive relationship with macroeconomic factors. In addition, the findings reveal that firm size, firm age, leverage, sales growth, and operating profit impact firm performance. The study further extends to examine the moderating effect of financing constraints (measured by firm size and age) on macroeconomic factors and firm performance. The results show that the effect is more pronounced on small and young firms as compared to large and mature firms. The study also evaluates the impact of macroeconomic factors on firm performance excluding the crisis periods (the financial crisis of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic) and finds the impact on the market performance to be insignificant during non-crisis periods. This study recommends that lenders, managers, and other stakeholders should take proactive policy measures for any anticipated adverse changes in macroeconomic factors on the performance of Indian firms. AcknowledgmentsThe financial and infrastructural support provided by FORE School of Management, New Delhi, India in completing this paper is gratefully acknowledged.

Global value chains and energy-related sustainable practices. Evidence from Enterprise Survey data

Participation in global value chains (GVCs) can affect the deployment of clean energy technologies and influence firm-level energy management. However, the sign of this influence is debated, especially for less developed economies, since GVCs can favor the absorption of more advanced technologies and the adoption of greener energy practices, but on the other hand they can help export polluting productions from countries with strict environmental regulations to weakly regulated developing countries. Drawing on Enterprise Surveys conducted in 2018–2020 on a large cross-section of firms operating in different industries and countries, and applying regression analyses and propensity score matching, this is the first firm-level study aiming to shed light on the relationship between firm participation in GVCs and the adoption of energy-related sustainable practices. In addition, the analysis allows for a heterogeneous impact of GVCs, conditional on firms' characteristics and external conditions, such as institutional quality. Overall, we find that participation in GVCs is positively associated with firm propensity to adopt green energy practices. For smaller and younger firms, operating in poorer institutional contexts, and/or less endowed in terms of human capital or financial resources, being engaged in GVCs has milder effects on the adoption of greener practices. By contrast, manufacturing companies located in high-income countries are those showing the strongest impact of GVCs on energy management.

Do geographic distances proxy a high probability of foreign divestment? Evidence from Japanese multinational firms

AbstractWe aim to provide an unambiguous explanation for the positive influence of the geographic distance between a firm's home and host country on divestment decisions of Japanese multinational firms’ outbound merger and acquisition (M&A). Our analysis of 868 acquisitions made by 496 firms in 45 countries and regions from 2005 to 2015 highlights the importance of drawing a clear distinction among various foreign divestment motives before inferring the impact of geographic distances rashly, especially whether it is failure‐driven or global business strategy‐driven. We further find that its impact hinges on parent firm‐ and deal‐level attributes, that is, geographic distance is less salient for large firms, young firms, and foreign operations under a complete control mode; however, the opposite was the case for firms with a high debt burden.

Venture Capital as a New Approach to Developing Early-stage Firms in Emerging Countries;

This study aims to extend our knowledge of the new approaches to entrepreneurial finance that inspire the development of early-stage firms in developing countries. The role of entrepreneurship is well understood internationally owing to its substantial influence on new employment creation, and productivity, and a seedbed for the emergence of innovative young firms. The survival and prosperity of the HGFs are unswervingly linked to access to sustained financing during their early-stage growth, nonetheless, access to funding remains the topmost worry for young firms. Yet VC financing has a competitive edge over banks burrowing, which cannot easily substitute for VC in its absence. We developed a multi-regression model to measure the results using survey data of 61 VC companies dealing with over 327 investment rounds from 2015-2021. The study confirms that VC investment has a dramatically flourishing prominence in nurturing early-stage firms with potential growth. Our study makes three major contributions to advancing this debate: First, our finding is expected to benefit the policymakers and civil society in the practice of creating new VC policies or altering existing ones to attract increased foreign VC investment in active countries and beyond. The government’s increased funding to the VC companies might lead to higher survival rates for new innovative industries as observed in the developed. Moreover, we discover that this research arena is recognized by a paucity of theoretical and empirical research underpinning VC’s proficiency in nurturing high-growth firms and innovative entrepreneurship.

Bank loans, trade credit, and liquidity shortages of small businesses during the global financial crisis

We investigate how small businesses responded to liquidity shortages during the financial crisis, focusing on heterogeneity between young and mature firms. With the sudden onset of the financial crisis, many small businesses faced declines in cash flows and liquidity shortages. Using over 4 million firm-year observations from Japan, we show that mature firms used bank loans more than young firms when facing liquidity shortages. This is consistent with previous studies indicating that banks offer liquidity provisions to firms with which they have close lending relationships. By contrast, trade payables did not largely increase for mature or young firms during the crisis. This suggests that mature firms relied on banks, not suppliers, for liquidity provision during the crisis. Furthermore, mature firms that experienced declines in cash flow during and after the crisis were likely to default and exit. This implies that credit allocation to mature firms is inefficient.

Finance, Managerial Inputs, and Misallocation

In standard macrofinance models, financial constraints mainly affect small or young firms but not large or old ones due to the self-financing mechanism, and the dispersion of marginal revenue product of capital (MRPK) of a firm cohort is less persistent than in the data. We extend a standard model by allowing firms to hire managers, and large firms hire disproportionately more managers, consistent with data. In our model, financial constraints and the dispersion of MRPK persist, and even large firms are likely to be constrained. The productivity loss from financial frictions is also substantially amplified. (JEL D24, D25, G32, L25, M10, O16, P31)