A contribuição do esforço inovativo para o desempenho exportador

Este trabalho tem como objetivo verificar se o esforço inovativo afeta positivamente a probabilidade de exportar de empresas manufatureiras dos países do Mercosul, quais sejam, Argentina, Brasil, Paraguai e Uruguai. Com este fim, foram estimados três modelos econométricos de resposta dicotômica em dados de corte transversal: o Probit; o Probit bivariado, para correção do problema de endogeneidade; e o modelo de seleção de Heckman, para correção de viés de seleção da amostra. Os microdados utilizados foram coletados da Enterprise Surveys, do Banco Mundial. Os resultados revelaram que a inovação afeta positivamente a probabilidade de as empresas da Argentina, do Brasil e do Uruguai tornarem-se exportadoras. As estimativas do modelo de seleção de Heckman revelaram-se inadequadas (sem viés de seleção) para a maioria dos países pesquisados.

Challenges to Formality from Formal Firms Behaving Informally: Evidence from Central America

This research explores the competitive environment for urban formal sector firms competing against peer formal sector firms behaving informally in Central America. Explored is the upper bound of the formal-informal continuum in a regional economic environment of persistent and widespread economic informality where formal firms may employ informal tactics to gain competitive advantage versus their formal competitors. The 2010 World Bank Enterprise Surveys form the basis for empirical analyses. The results suggest formal firms utilizing informal practices is widespread and is influenced by firm maturity, firm location, industry sector, firm legal status, firm organization, ownership composition, regulatory environment, international quality certification, web presence, entry into global markets, and firm size.

ACCESS TO FINANCE AND PERFORMANCE OF SERVICES SECTOR MSMEs IN NIGERIA

This study examines the subjective and objective effect of access to finance on the performance and growth of MSMEs in the services sector in Nigeria. The study used a cross-sectional dataset from the 2014 World Bank Enterprise Surveys database. The study employed the Ordinary Least Squares regression approach to investigate the effect of access to finance on the ability to create employment by MSMEs in the services sector in Nigeria. This study found that MSMEs face credit constraints as the majority (77.56%) of the sampled firms indicated access to finance as the main obstacle, although in different degrees (subjective effect). Also, the study found a negative and significant relationship between access to finance constraint and employment growths (objective effect). In light of these findings, the study recommends that the government should encourage financial institutions to create cheaper and more accessible credit for MSMEs, through favourable tax regimes or incentives in order to reduce the unemployment in the country. In addition, other policies that encourage a reduction in lending interest rate (such as a credit guarantee scheme) should be put in place so as to enable MSMEs to access more credit at a cheaper interest rate.

Obstáculos del sector manufacturero ecuatoriano y argentino: evidencia empírica desde las empresas innovadoras

Este trabajo presenta los obstáculos que perciben las empresas manufactureras de Argentina y Ecuador que innovaron en el producto y en el proceso en sus actividades empresariales. Se utilizó la base de datos de la Enterprise Surveys del Banco Mundial del 2017 a través de un análisis chi2 de Pearson y un modelo probit aplicados a una muestra de 103 empresas ecuatorianas y 644 empresas argentinas. La inestabilidad política, el financiamiento, las regulaciones laborales y la fuerza laboral inadecuada son limitaciones para las empresas argentinas. Los factores limitantes asociados a la innovación en el proceso son, en las empresas ecuatorianas, la corrupción; en el caso argentino son el crimen, el robo y el desorden y las regulaciones laborales.

Precarious Self-Employment in India: A Case of Home-Based Own Account Enterprises

A new thrust towards self-employment is seen in India where more than half of the labor class is fending for itself outside the ambit of any kind of employment. Global production networks (gpn s) have changed the structure of the labor market and extended precarity to almost every part of work and world. This has created a labor class that is neither proletariat nor bourgeois but a petty producer integrated in gpn s through mediators called ‘contractors.’ These producers are basically laborers who have been pushed out of the factory system and forced into self-employment. The paper has studied the trajectory of non-agricultural home-based Own Account Enterprises (oae s); a classic case of petty producers across gender and caste lines in various sectors of industry using state-organized enterprise surveys conducted in 2010–2011 and 2015–2016. It has found a vast majority of oae s earning less than half the proposed minimum wage (pmv)—a threshold similar to the idea of living wages rates. The most distressed oae s are in manufacturing, especially, textile, garment, leather, and chemical industries. The over emphasis on self-employment is shrinking the space for labor movement particularly in the global South.

Financial constraint, trust, and export performances: firm-level evidence from Africa

Several existing studies have documented a negative relationship between firm financial constraint and export activities but do not attempt to examine factors that could attenuate this relationship in Africa. In this paper, we examine the effect of financial constraint on exports in Africa and explore how the level of trust in countries where firms are located shapes this relationship. We combine the World Bank Enterprise Surveys with different measures of country-level personal and interpersonal trust computed from the Afrobarometer surveys of 19 African countries. Our results show that financial constraints negatively affect export activities. However, this negative effect is attenuated for firms that are located in trust-intensive societies. These findings are robust to different specifications. Interestingly, we find that small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa are more likely to be affected by financial constraints but also more likely to benefit from a higher level of both personal and interpersonal trust, while for larger firms only interpersonal trust matters.

How Do Women Managers Avoid Paying Bribes?

Previous studies have found that firms where women have greater influence are less likely to pay bribes than other firms. In this study, we ask how these firms avoid paying bribes. Using data from the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys, we find that firms run by women avoid meeting and interacting with government officials when they can. Female-managed firms, for example, are less likely to apply for construction and import licenses, less likely to meet with tax officials, and less likely to bid for government contracts than male-managed firms. However, female-managed firms are no less likely to say that officials sought bribes when they met with them than male-managed firms. This suggests the main way that firms with women in positions of power avoid paying bribes is by avoiding situations where officials might seek them.

Criação de Inovação Local por Subsidiárias Estrangeiras a partir de Vantagens Específicas do Ambiente Subnacional

Objetivo - O estudo objetiva examinar os efeitos dos fatores do ambiente subnacional brasileiro – a eficiência do ambiente competitivo subnacional e o embeddedness relacional em cada localidade subnacional - na criação de inovação local em subsidiárias estrangeiras. Método – A abordagem é quantitativa e a pesquisa baseia-se em dados primários coletados por meio de uma survey com 152 subsidiárias estrangeiras localizadas em treze Estados do Brasil e em dados secundários do World Bank Enterprise Surveys. Os dados são analisados por regressão linear múltipla. Principais resultados - Os resultados mostram que existe uma associação positiva e significante entre o ambiente competitivo subnacional e inovação local das subsidiárias. Entretanto, não é observada uma associação significativa entre o embeddedness externo subnacional e a inovação local. Além disso, os resultados mostram que as empresas que entram por meio de aquisições estão mais associadas à inovação local. Relevância/Originalidade - O estudo procura complementar o debate sobre o efeito do ambiente subnacional na inovação local das subsidiárias tendo como contexto o Brasil. A análise em nível subnacional considera a heterogeneidade institucional subnacional e revela variações que poderiam ser desconsideradas por uma análise de nível nacional. Contribuições teóricas/metodológicas: Embora existam indícios do impacto do ambiente institucional na estratégia e inovação, este estudo no âmbito brasileiro avança em dois pontos. Primeiro, os estudos existentes analisam mercados desenvolvidos e mercados emergentes, porém esses últimos de forma pontual e numa realidade asiática, que apresenta uma considerável diferença do mercado latino americano e brasileiro, destacando-se as peculiaridades do ambiente subnacional brasileiro. Segundo, contribui para os estudos de Geografia Econômica reforçando que cada ambiente subnacional tem suas particularidades, conforme demonstrado na natureza das questões subnacionais no Brasil.Contribuições sociais / para a gestão: Em termos gerenciais, o estudo chama a atenção para a importância do conhecimento da dinâmica competitiva subnacional quanto à participação da economia informal e estende implicações para políticas públicas.