This paper investigates the structural and strategic determinants of firm growth using a unique data set covering French firms with between 10 and 250 employees and active from 1997 through 2007. On the basis of the proposition that firm growth is not a purely random process, we consider a...

Policies for stimulating technological development and innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises can be divided into three groups. Supply-side policies aim at increasing firms' incentives to invest in innovation by reducing costs. Demand-side policies are public actions to induce...

This study investigates the impact of internal and external research and development (R&D) on the innovation performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in India and Pakistan. Micro-level data was obtained for 3,492 Indian and 696 Pakistani SMEs from the World Bank's Enterprise...

This work investigates how the export status of the firm influences the patterns of growth at different age classes. We address this research question resorting to a novel set of data that links together the universe of Italian firms and detailed data on export transactions. We find that the...

We explore how financial constraints distort the entry decisions among otherwise productive entrepreneurs and limit growth of promising young firms. A model of liquidity-constrained entrepreneurs suggests that the easing of credit constraints can induce more entry of firms with greater long-run...

We explore how financial constraints distort the entry decisions among otherwise productive entrepreneurs and limit growth of promising young firms. A model of liquidity-constrained entrepreneurs suggests that the easing of credit constraints can induce more entry of firms with greater long-run...

There is increasing awareness that customers and suppliers serve as key external information sources for the innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, existing research on the influence of customer participation (CP) and supplier participation (SP) remains inconsistent....

The relationship of firm size and age to its growth and survival differs according to whether size is measured by sales or employment. Using a large and representative dataset of Greek firms over the period 1999-2014, we find the following patterns. Controlling for age, there is a strong...

A set-aside restricts participation in procurement contests to targeted firms. Despite being widely used, its effects on actual competition and contract outcomes are ambiguous. We pool a decade of US federal procurement data to shed light on this empirical question using a two-stage approach. To...

This study analyses properties of fast growing small and medium sized firms, known as gazelles. Using balance sheet information for the 2000-2008 period, we show that a small fraction of companies is responsible for a large share of new jobs created in the business sector. For instance, the top...