Contrary to the assertion that the entrepreneur is instrumental in small business growth, the process of growth cannot be construed as automatic. Accordingly there is a need to examine the relationships between the personal characteristics, experience, knowledge, skills and motivations of the entrepreneur in determining the strategic direction of subsequent performance of the small firm. Intera...

The extensive reform measures introduced in the early 90s in India provide a unique opportunity to study policy experiments aimed at reducing barriers to entry and increasing product market competition. We use a rich, comprehensive, plant-level dataset for the period 1986-87 to 1994-95 to identify the effects of de-licensing, liberalization of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the reduction o...

The building blocks of our model are bounded-rational actors with specific sets of endowments: ’entrepreneurial spirit’, human capital and venture capital. The entrepreneurial behavior to found a firm is triggered by the individuals’ endowments, their social network and the evaluation of the economic situation. Bandwagon effects occur when high growth rates in emerging markets increase firm ent...

The view that small businesses create the most jobs remains appealing to policymakers and small business advocates. Using data from the Census Bureau’s Business Dynamics Statistics and Longitudinal Business Database, we explore the many issues at the core of this ongoing debate. We find that the relationship between firm size and employment growth is sensitive to these issues. However, our main...

This paper examines firms and the products they manufacture — and abandon — over time. We find strong relationships between product switching and a number of microand macroeconomic variables, including firm performance, aggregate manufacturing growth and product diversification. Most importantly, product switching is a very important — and active — margin of firm adjustment that is positively c...

This empirical study compares the advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) investment, the manufacturing infrastructure investment, and the interaction effect between these two types of investments using data from a sample of firms in Singapore and Sweden. The results suggest that the interaction of AMT investment and manufacturing infrastructure investment has a positive impact on the firm prof...