The hypothesis underlined in this paper is that apart from infant mortality there is another relevant phenomenon taking place within new-born Small Business Enterprises (SBEs) in the period immediately after entry; namely that the smaller ones among them, having entered with a marked sub-optimal...

According to Gibrat's Law of Proportionate Effect, the growth rate of a given firm is independent of its size at the beginning of the examined period. This paper investigates whether Gibrat's Law holds for new entrants in a given industry: that is for new small firms in the early stage of their...

According to Gibrat's Law of Proportionate Effect, the growth rate of a given firm is independent of its size at the beginning of the period examined. In contrast to the previous literature on the subject, this paper seeks to test the Law by taking account of both the entry process and the role...

According to Gibrat's Law of Proportionate Effect, the growth rate of a given firm is independent of its size at the beginning of the period examined. While earlier studies tended to confirm the Law, more recent research generally rejects it. This paper reconciles these two streams of...

According to Gibrat' Law of Proportionate Effect, the growth rate of a given firm is independent of its size at the beginning of the period examined. In contrast to the previous literature on the subject, this paper seeks to test the Law by taking account of both the entry process and the role...

We analyse both the theoretical and empirical side of the issue of R&D spillover. Each firm`s R&D costs are increasing in the amount of the information transmitted to the other firms , and we account for the possibility that the firms control spillovers. We consider both Cournot-Nash and...

The aim of this paper is to analyze the evolution of the size distribution of young firms within some selected industries, trying to assess the empirical implications of different models of industry dynamics: the model of passive learning (Jovanovic 1982), the model of active learning (Ericson...

The aim of this paper is to analyze the survival patterns of a group of family firms which have already spent at least twenty-five years in the market. To this end, we use the Kaplan-Meier product limit estimator supplemented with qualitative information gathered by direct observation and...

The aim of this paper is to test whether patent-based indicators are still reliable measures of innovativeness in light of organizational changes in the field of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection and the regulatory reforms already under way respectively at the U.S. Patent and...

This paper analyses the impact of subsidies to promote Italian joint ventures (JVs) with firms in LDC and transition economies. The empirical analysis is carried out on a unique dataset of 172 JVs interviewed during 1998 by means of a closed-answer qualitative-quantitative questionnaire. The...