In this paper, to begin with, we define soft information as qualitative, subjective information produced by banks through the establishment of long-term lending relationships. We then highlight the importance of soft information for cooperative and social banks in the screening, pricing and...

This paper compares the loans granted to male and female entrepreneurs by a French microfinance institution (MFI). The sample period is split in two: before and after the MFI implemented France's regulatory EUR 10,000 loan ceiling. In the first period, the MFI does not co-finance projects with...

This paper explores the “resource curse” problem as a counter-example of creative performance and innovation by examining reliance on capital and physical resources, showing the gap between expectations and ex-post actual performance became clearer under conditions of economic turmoil. The...

This study relies on a Cobb-Douglas production function to assess the relationship between the development of innovation capabilities by firms and their labor productivity. Intra-organizational capabilities relate to firms’ corporate culture and work organization, generation of innovative...

In this article, we offer a new way of exploring relationships between three different dimensions of a business operation, namely the stage of business development, the methods of creativity and the major cultural values. Although separately, each of these has gained enormous attention from the...

This paper uses a very large sample of French SMEs to study growth of family owned firms. Firms range from total-family to minority control. The estimated relationship accounts for firm characteristics of size and, age, sector, and financial solvency. The results show that firms with greater...

This paper provides evidence showing that collaborative agreements in the IT industry contribute to decrease the R&D intensity of the largest firms. This is particularly true for acquisitions (as opposed to alliances, consortia and joint ventures) and for the mixed agreements (i.e. with a sales,...