Submitted by Erika Demachki (erikademachki@gmail.com) on 2017-06-29T21:17:36Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Gustavo Abrantes Condeixa - 2016.pdf: 3193344 bytes, checksum: 7b93bf3023bf4922198bf2823e501815 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2017-07-10T10:38:52Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Gustavo Abrantes Condeixa - 2016.pdf: 3193344 bytes, checksum: 7b93bf3023bf4922198bf2823e501815 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T10:38:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Gustavo Abrantes Condeixa - 2016.pdf: 3193344 bytes, checksum: 7b93bf3023bf4922198bf2823e501815 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-05-18 / High growth is a phenomenon that occurs for a small group of companies and, it is related to fast growth caused by new jobs creation or superior growth compared to other companies. Researchers and public politics makers showing interest for companies with high growth is motivated by the fact that those companies are perceived as important factors for a dynamic economy and, job creation. They are also known for creating and diffusing new technologic knowledge, contributing for regional development. To analyze the relation between science, technology and innovation's regional indicators, as well as the entrepreneurship indicators of high growth in the Brazilian states, the collected data composed a cross-section within the 27 Brazilian federation states, between the years of 2008 and 2012, having its explanatory variables grouped into four indicators of ST&I that corresponds to ST&I infrastructure, ST&I Human Resources, Investment in R&D and Innovation. Stacked data was utilized and the estimated method adopted was the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS).To better adjust the proposed model the dependent variable TEAC general was segregated for the Service, Industry and Commerce sectors.16 logistics regression specifications was studied in reference to the four proposed equations, segregated in function of the four dependent variables mentioned. The results shown in this work demonstrate the existence of a low correlation between ST&I and TEAC general. It also suggests that the activities sector is an important component in relation between ST&I and TEAC, although the ST&I indicators present larger impact for Industry Sector's TEAC. Another significant result was that a better human resources qualification results in better TEAC. To prove the theory, it was verified a strong correlation among people hired with bachelor's degree while a person holding a master or Ph.D. degree didn't present significance to the study. / O Alto Crescimento é um fenômeno que ocorre em um número pequeno de empresas, estando relacionado a um crescimento acelerado, proporcionando uma expressiva geração de novos empregos. Esta condição, aliada a outros fatores, imprime uma importância estratégica ao fenômeno do alto crescimento tanto para pesquisadores quanto para decisores políticos. Diante desta importância, a presente pesquisa buscou compreender quais fatores se mostram determinantes na criação de empresas de alto crescimento. Optou-se por focar na análise da relação entre os indicadores regionais de Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (CT&I) e a taxa de empreendedorismo de alto crescimento (TEAC) nos estados brasileiros por meio de uma crosssection para as 27 unidades da federação do Brasil, entre os anos de 2008 a 2012, cujas variáveis explicativas foram agrupadas em quatro indicadores de CT&I, as quais correspondem à Infraestrutura para CT&I; aos Recursos Humanos para CT&I; ao Investimento em P&D; e à Inovação. Com o objetivo de melhor ajustar o modelo proposto, a variável dependente TEAC geral foi segregada entre os setores de Serviço, Indústria e Comércio. Para a obtenção dos resultados apresentados neste trabalho, foram utilizados dados empilhados, sendo o método de estimação adotado o de Mínimos Quadrados Ordinários (MQO). Como resultado, este trabalho demonstrou que a relação entre os indicadores regionais de CT&I e a TEAC de forma geral apresentou uma baixa correlação. Contudo, quando analisados os efeitos relativos aos setores segregados, verificou-se que os resultados estão diretamente relacionados ao setor ao qual a empresa está baseada, confirmando também que as diferenças de crescimento podem ocorrer em função da segmentação do setor. Também é verificado um maior impacto proveniente da relação entre os indicadores regionais de CT&I para a TEAC do setor da indústria, sugerindo que empresas que possuem maior relação com inovação podem ser mais beneficiadas com investimentos regionais em CT&I. Finalmente, a contratação de pessoal com nível superior também se mostra como um elemento favorável à promoção do alto crescimento.

Introduktion: Tillväxt inom företag har noggrant studerats inom företagsekonomin. Forskningsfältet är väldigt heterogent och orsaker till varför tillväxt inom företag sker, skiljer sig åt anmärkningsvärt företag sinsemellan. Denna studie ska undersöka den fortsatta tillväxten hos ett urval gasellföretag. Tidigare studier inom fältet har huvudsakligen fokuserat på gasellföretagens tillväxt fram tills att de definieras som gasellföretag, inte perioderna efter hög tillväxt. Syfte: Denna studie vill därför undersöka den fortsatta tillväxten hos 652 gasellföretag i Sverige, under tidsperioden 2005 – 2015, samt vilka faktorer som tycks påverka tillväxten. Teori: Studien är huvudsakligen baserad på ett spritt urval av forskning inom tillväxtfältet, från tidigt 1900-tal och framåt. T.ex. Gibrat, Delmar &amp; Davidsson, Birch etc. Valet av undersökta variabler, som antas ha samband med tillväxt, har noggrant valts utefter denna litteratur.   Metod: En longitudinell panelstudie har genomförts där ett antal företagsspecifika variabler har samlats in och använts i ett antal multivariata analyser, där tillväxt agerat som beroende variabel. Tidigare studier om gasellföretag och tillväxt inom företag har fungerat som ett fundament och riktlinje för studien. Företagspopulationen är baserad på en lista av gasellföretag från 2005 skapad av den svenska näringslivstidningen Dagens Industri. Slutsats: Faktorer som gasellföretagens ålder och koncerntillhörighet påverkar deras fortsatta tillväxt. Även faktorer så som storlek, bransch och geografisk marknad antas i viss grad ha en påverkan på gasellföretagens tillväxt under mätperioden. / Introduction: Firm growth has been carefully studied in the field of business administration &amp; economics. The area is very heterogeneous and the cause of firm growth seem to differ substantially. This paper aims to investigate the growth of longtime gazelle firms. Earlier studies in the research area has mainly focused on the time up towards firms gain their reputation as gazelles. Purpose: This study therefore aims to investigate the further growth of 652 gazelle firms in Sweden, during the time of 2005 – 2015, and what variables which seem to influence their growth. Theory: The study is mainly based on a widespread sample of research in the field of firm growth, reaching from the early 20th century and towards. The selection of investigated firm variables, which is thought to correlate with firm growth, has been carefully selected on this basis. Method: A longitudinal panel has been conducted where a few firm specific variables has been collected and used in a series of multivariate analysis, where growth has acted a dependent variable. Earlier studies regarding gazelles and firm growth has acted as a fundament and guideline and the population is based on a list of gazelle firms conducted by the Swedish magazine Dagens Industri from year 2005. Conclusion: Factors such as the gazelle firms age and governance is thought to have an impact on their relative and absolute growth. Also factors such as initial size, industry and geographical market/origin seem to some degree have an impact on gazelle firms’ growth. / <p>Gällande förfrågningar om data som använts för studien kontakta antingen: munkert.j@gmail.com eller fhovlandahman@gmail.com </p>

The growth of the Swedish Computing and Communicationsindustry is studied in this thesis. Growth is seen as a dynamicprocess moved by the entry, expansion, contraction and exit offirms. The analysis is founded on the theory of the ExperimentallyOrganised Economy, which views the economy as an experimentalprocess. The entire thesis is organised around the problem ofresource allocation and the issue of growth through theintroduction of new combinations into the economic system,using the terminology of Schumpeter (1911). Competence blocsdetermine the efficiency of the economic process, i.e., theextent to which it leads to sustained economic growth ratherthan stagnation. Change is a fundamental feature of theeconomic process, firms have to be flexible to survive and theeconomic system must promote flexibility to grow. Many trials,or experiments, are required to discover and select "winning"firms and technologies. Hence, the turnover (i.e., entry andexit) of firms is supposed to have positive effects on growth.Theory, furthermore, predicts that new and small firms are moreentrepreneurial and innovative and that they, therefore, willgrow faster than old and large firms. The empirical results show that firm growth decreases withfirm age, decreases with firm size, increases with firmindependence, decreases with government ownership and thatindustry growth increases with firm turnover. Moreover, thesmallest firms have been the major job contributors during the1993-1998 period investigated empirically. It is also shownthat employment growth is facilitated by a sustained high entryof firms. Lastly, many policies, several of which were introduced inthe late 1960s and early 1970s, have selectively supportedlarge firms in mature industries. Hence, they have exercised arelatively negative influence on exactly the types of firmsthat have been shown to contribute to growth. These policieshave also made the Swedish economy less flexible. It is arguedthat this partly explains the slow economic growth in Swedencompared to other OECD countries since the 1970s. Aninteresting question is where Sweden would have been today witha different policy orientation. Keywords:The Experimentally Organised Economy;Competence Blocs; Industrial dynamics; Industrialtransformation; Firm age, Small-firm growth; Turnover of firms;Computing and Communications industry; IT industry;Institutions.

The main purpose of this study is to enhance the analysis of the impact of R&amp;D expenditure on firms’ growth. This study adopts an OLS regression for a data sample of 46 firms listed on Nasdaq Stockholm for the 2006-2019 period. We present models with R&amp;D expenditure and R&amp;D intensity as the main mechanisms of firm growth, defined as sales growth in this study. Furthermore, firm size, firm age and sector belonging determining the R&amp;D and sales growth relationship are also investigated. We find that R&amp;D intensity has a statistically significant negative impact on firm growth, while R&amp;D expenditure does not show a statistically significant relationship to firm growth. Thus, the results of this paper suggest that devoting a higher proportion of your sales to R&amp;D activities does not translate into firm growth.

The aim of this study is to investigate the relation between venture capital and the number of high growth firms. Previous research has covered the relation at the firmlevel where the positive effect of venture capital on innovation, firm growth and economic growth has been established. However, the research field have been lacking a more aggregated approach. With a fixed effects panel regression with the number of high growth firms as the dependent variable and the amount of venture capital as the key independent variable, this study is conducted at the country-level with a panel of 20 countries. The study yield no significant results except the positive effect of GDP per capita. The conclusion is that the data available today is not ready for this level of aggregation as it captures to much noise with regards to other factors affecting firm growth in a country. Growth in employment might also be an outdated proxy to measure firm growth as today's modern firms are not as dependent on a large number of employees to scale as in the past. / Målet med denna studie är att undersöka relationen mellan riskkapital och snabbväxande företag. Tidigare studier har undersökt relationen på företagsnivå där riskkapitalets positiva effekt på innovation, firmatillväxt och ekonomisk tillväxt har påvisats. Dock har forskningsfältet saknat ett tillvägagångssätt på en mer aggregerad nivå. Med en fixed effects-modell applicerad på paneldata med en beroende variabel bestående av antalet snabbväxande företag och en oberoende variabel bestående av mängden riskkapital, undersöks relationen på landnivå med ett urval av 20 länder. Studien visar inga signifikanta resultat bortsätt från kontrollvariabeln BNP per capita som är positiv och signifikant. Slutsatsen i arbetet är att den data som finns tillgänglig idag inte är mogen för studier på en aggregerad landnivå då brus i form av andra faktorer som påverkar snabbväxande företag i ett land fångas upp. Företagstillväxt mätt i tillväxt i antalet anställda i ett företag kan även vara en föråldrad metod. Dagens moderna företag präglade av affärsmodeller som inte kväver arbetskraft för att skala upp verksamheten på samma sätt som företag traditionellt gjort historiskt.

This thesis provides an understanding of how new audit regulation affect firm growth and how audits affect the cost of capital. To investigate the effect of audit reforms on employment growth, we exploited a Swedish reform made in November 2010 that gave certain firms the option to opt out of previously imposed statutory audits. We find that firms which fulfilled the requirements for voluntary auditing, compared to a control group of similar firms that did not, increased their employment growth rate by 0.39%. Furthermore, the reform was also exploited to investigate if audited financial statements add value for firms in the private debt market. We find that firms with audited financial statements, on average, save 1.26 percentage points on cost of debt compared to firms with unaudited financial statements. Thus, the reform creates a possibility for firms that have the ambition to grow in employment to do so by not auditing, and those who want to grow by investments in capital to do so by reducing the cost of such investments by auditing. However, the current ceiling of the reform is also likely to force some firms to operate at sub-optimal levels, those without having the option to opt out of audit even though they might not accrue any benefit from auditing, at least in the short-run. One can argue that is partly due to how institutions evolve, generally slower than other actors in the society do.

[pt] A inovação impulsiona o crescimento econômico e se conecta com o ciclo evolutivo das firmas, que lançam novos produtos em uma busca contínua pela melhoria do desempenho. Com o advento da inovação aberta, mais firmas passaram a complementar sua base de conhecimentos e a abastecer o processo inovador com fontes externas. Entretanto, quando a inovação é desenvolvida, parte dos novos conhecimentos também se torna pública por meio dos knowledge spillovers, potencialmente beneficiando outras firmas. A relação entre o desempenho inovador e as fontes externas de conhecimento, como a colaboração da firma com seus parceiros, foi amplamente estudada em mercados desenvolvidos. Contudo, o mesmo não se observa para os knowledge spillovers, especialmente no caso de países menos avançados em relação a inovação. Este estudo analisou em que medida os conhecimentos externos fornecidos pela colaboração com parceiros, e, em especial, pelos knowledge spillovers da indústria, afetam o desempenho inovador de produto e o crescimento das firmas. Foi proposto um modelo conceitual para mensurar a contribuição relativa dessas fontes, bem como o impacto exercido pelo porte das firmas sobre as relações estudadas. A análise foi conduzida para uma amostra de 913 firmas de manufatura colombianas, com dados extraídos da pesquisa sobre inovação EDIT, para o período de 2011 a 2016. As hipóteses foram testadas utilizando a técnica de modelagem de equações estruturais. Para entender o impacto do porte das firmas foi empregada a análise multigrupo. Os resultados apoiaram a maioria das hipóteses e forneceram alguns insights. Os efeitos positivos da colaboração da firma sobre o desempenho inovador de produto foram corroborados, revelando que ambientes escassos em recursos, como o da Colômbia, incentivam a colaboração independentemente do porte da firma. Quanto aos efeitos positivos dos knowledge spillovers da indústria sobre o desempenho inovador de produto, o suporte foi dependente do porte da firma. Para as pequenas e médias empresas (PMEs), esses efeitos não apenas foram confirmados, como se provaram superiores aos da colaboração com parceiros. Esse achado evidenciou que os knowledge spillovers da indústria são a fonte mais relevante na explicação do desempenho inovador de produto das PMEs colombianas, mesmo quando a colaboração da firma também é significativa. No caso das grandes empresas (GEs), a contribuição direta dos knowledge spillovers da indústria sobre o desempenho inovador de produto não foi significativa, possivelmente relacionada a sua maior abundância interna de recursos. Já para o efeito moderado pela capacidade absortiva, a contribuição foi negativa, possivelmente indicando que as perdas de conhecimentos geradas pelos outgoing spillovers estão prejudicando o desempenho inovador de produto das GEs. O estudo também corroborou que o crescimento das firmas de ambos os portes é positivamente influenciado pelo seu desempenho inovador. Entretanto, os resultados para os knowledge spillovers da indústria sugerem que as PMEs colombianas podem estar se comportando oportunisticamente, pegando carona excessiva nos investimentos em P&D das GEs, o que pode reduzir os incentivos dessas últimas em seguir investindo em inovação. Espera-se que os achados desse estudo contribuam com os esforços da Colômbia em criar melhores condições para que a inovação prospere. / [en] Innovation drives economic growth and connects with the firms evolutionary cycle that launches new products in a continuous quest for performance improvement. With the advent of open innovation, more firms have begun to complement their knowledge base and to fuel the innovative process with external sources. However, when innovation is developed, part of the new knowledge also becomes public through knowledge spillovers, thus potentially benefiting other firms. The relation between innovation performance and external knowledge sources, such as the firm s collaboration with partners, has been extensively studied in developed markets. However, the same is not observed for knowledge spillovers, especially in the case of countries that are less advanced with respect to innovation. This study analyzed the extent to which external knowledge provided by the collaboration with partners and especially the industry knowledge spillovers affect product innovation performance and firm growth. A conceptual model was proposed to measure the relative contribution of these sources as well as the impact of the firm size on the studied relations. The analysis was conducted on a sample of 913 Colombian manufacturing firms with data extracted from EDIT innovation research for the period 2011 to 2016. The hypotheses were tested using the structural equation modeling technique. To understand the impact of firm size on the model relationships, a multigroup analysis was carried out. The results supported most hypotheses and provided some interesting insights. The positive effects of the firm collaboration on product innovation performance were corroborated, revealing that resource-scarce environments, such as Colombia, encourage collaboration regardless of the size of the firm. As for the positive effects of industry knowledge spillovers on product innovation performance, support was contingent on the firm size. For small and medium enterprises (SMEs), not only were these effects confirmed but also proved to be superior to those of collaboration with partners. This finding makes it evident that knowledge spillovers are the most relevant source in explaining the product innovation performance of Colombian SMEs, even when the firm collaboration is also significant. In the case of the large enterprises (LEs), the direct contribution of the industry knowledge spillovers on product innovation performance was not significant, possibly due to their greater internal abundance of resources. For the effect moderated by the absorptive capacity, the contribution was negative, possibly indicating that the knowledge losses generated by outgoing spillovers are detrimental to the innovation performance of these firms. The study also corroborated that the growth of firms of both sizes is positively influenced by their innovation performance. However, the findings for industry knowledge spillovers suggest that Colombian SMEs may be behaving opportunistically, excessively free-riding on R&D investments of LEs which may reduce the incentives for the latter to keep investing in innovation. It is hoped that these findings will contribute to Colombia s efforts to create better conditions for innovation to thrive.

The thesis focuses on those factors which affect firm growth in the setting of the Chinese transition economy, such as size, age, entrepreneurship, resources, and environment. As regards the complexity of the business expansion mechanism, an interdisciplinary approach combining the fields of economics and management is adopted. Using fieldwork methods, new data were gathered in face-to-face interviews with 83 owner-managers of the Chinese privately owned firms in P. R. China in 2004, as well as in follow-up telephone interviews in 2006. The unique body of qualitative and quantitative data in terms of firm operation, human resources management, finance, technology and innovation, enterprise culture and competitive environment, were collected by a specially designed survey instrument, and enabled a number of new hypotheses to be tested in both economic and managerial aspects. With respect to the modern developments of Gibrat’s Law (1931) and Jovanovic’s Learning Theory (1982) in economics, the effects of two “stylized factors”, namely size and age, along with a vector of firm-specific, environmental and selection bias variables, on firm growth, were examined in Heckman’s (1979) two-step selection model with the correction for sample selection bias and heteroscedasticity. The results indicated that the “stylized facts” that smaller and younger firms grew faster were also valid in the setting of China. This thesis also explored managerial factors contributing to firm growth – viz. entrepreneurship theory, resource-based view in strategic management, and contingency theory in organizational behaviour. A variety of statistical methods were utilized to operationalize entrepreneurial orientation (EO), intangible assets (IA), and contingency factors (e.g. structure, environment, strategy, etc), and econometric models were estimated to examine their relationship with firm dynamics. The evidence suggested that IA might be more capable of facilitating firm growth than EO. However, when both were disaggregated into a lower level of attributes, the influences on growth may vary. Further, contingency theory, originally proposed for the case of larger firms in the west, was also validated in this study on the Chinese sampled firm. The combination of organizational forms and contingency configurations presented a higher power to explain business expansion. It implied that “the good fit” of contingency factors influenced firm dynamics only in a moderate way, whereas “the badness of fit” in configuration could engender either the highest or lowest firm growth, subject to their organizational structures.

Cette thèse de doctorat représente un effort visant à contribuer à la littérature sur le système d'alerte précoce traitant de la prévision de la crise de la dette souveraine et de la compréhension des comportements d’investissement et de croissance des PME dans le contexte de la crise financière mondiale. Le chapitre 1 adresse les crises de la dette à travers un échantillon d'économies émergentes dans la poursuite d'un modèle d'alerte précoce efficace et précis basé sur trois techniques différentes d'exploration de données. Les chapitres 2 et 3 mettent l'accent sur les mécanismes qui sous-tendent l'investissement et la croissance des PME d'un pays en voie de développement dans le contexte de la CFM. Le chapitre 2, réalisé en collaboration avec Majda Seghir, explore le comportement d'investissement des PME en Serbie relatif à la disponibilité des flux de trésorerie générés en interne dans le cadre de la CFM. Il relie cette sensibilité au niveau de contraintes financières comme approximé par les variables telles que la taille de l'entreprise, la structure de propriété, l'effet de levier et la tangibilité de leurs actifs. Finalement, le chapitre 3, travail conjoint avec Michael Stemmer, s'appuie sur l'idée derrière le chapitre 2 pour étudier l'effet des contraintes financières sur la croissance des PME serbes en utilisant le cadre GMM. Nous opposons nos résultats à une économie avancée en faisant une comparaison avec des entreprises belges. / This doctoral thesis represents an effort aimed to contribute to Early Warning System literature dealing with prediction of sovereign debt crisis and understanding of investment and growth behavior of SMEs inthe setting of the global financial crisis. Chapter 1 deals with debt crises over a sample of emerging economies in pursuit of an efficient and accurate early warning model based on three different datamining techniques. In Chapters 2 and 3 the focus is on the mechanisms behind investment and growth of SMEs in a developing country in the context of GFC. Chapter 2, joint work with Majda Seghir, exploresthe investment behavior of SMEs in Serbia with regard to the availability of internally generated cash flowin the context of GFC. It relates this sensitivity to the level of financial constraints as proxied by variables such as firm’s size, ownership structure, leverage and tangibility of their assets. Finally, Chapter 3, done in collaboration with Michael Stemmer, builds on the idea behind Chapter 2 to investigate the effect of financial constraints on growth of Serbian SMEs using GMM framework. We contrast our results with anadvanced economy by running a comparison with Belgian firms.

This dissertation focuses on the formation, growth and discontinuance of business populations and firms in Sweden during the 20th century. It addresses some key issues in the domain of economic and social sciences, and in particular entrepreneurship and small business research: if and when firms grow, stagnate and decline, as well as how long firms survive and when they are likely to disband. Previous research has primarily analyzed these questions from a short time frame. Further, an individual or firm-oriented focus is commonly assumed. In that, alternative or complementary explanations to the growth and survival of firms may be disregarded. In contrast to much previous research, this dissertation assumes a micro-to-macro, longitudinal and demographic population approach. The period of investigation is over one hundred years. In addressing the growth and survival of firms, it takes into account the impact of firm-specific structural factors (such as firm age and size), generation (cohort) effects, as well as the influence of macroeconomic, exogenous factors. Further, the relationship between managerial/ownership succession and firm performance is also addressed. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal databases are employed in the dissertation. Its main empirical material consists of unique longitudinal data on new business firms, traced at the firm level from their birth to their termination. More specifically, seven birth cohorts – generations – of approximately 2,200 firms founded in 1899, 1909, 1912, 1921, 1930, 1942 and 1950 are included. The main findings show that ownership/management succession in firms had a quite weak correlation with firm performance and survival. At least at an aggregate level, and with some exceptions, it is debatable if the loss and replacement of owner-managers in small and in larger firms have any observable effects on firm performance. Furthermore, macroeconomic phenomena influence the conditions of individual firms as well as populations/aggregates of businesses. Both the growth and termination of firms and firm populations are found to be related to real economic (environmental) conditions; e.g. favorable macroeconomic conditions implied that firms grew in size. At the same time, under certain circumstances, the influence of structural variables (firm age and size) – as suggested in much previous research – is found to be of importance. As concerns firm growth, as well as firm termination, the economic environment and structural factors interact. These findings challenges individual or firm-level research that mainly focus on personal traits and behaviors in explaining firm success and failure. Other previous assumptions are also challenged when taking a longer time perspective into consideration. For decades, organization and business research have acknowledged a liability of newness and of size for business firms. While this might be true under some conditions, this liability of newness is falsified in the study: the termination behavior of some firm generations did not correspond with these assumptions. Thus, the perspectives and methodology applied in the dissertation complement earlier approaches in entrepreneurship and small business research.