small business

This paper aims at understanding the determinants of Italian small- and medium-sized enterprises’ competitiveness. By developing a conceptual model, the authors identify the sources of competitiveness of Italian SMEs. The model is tested using a unique database which collects data, for the year 2004, over a sample of 2,600 SMEs.

This paper analyzes the concept of barriers to entry. It explains that the concept is a static one and explores the inadequacy of the concept in a world with sunk costs, adjustment costs and uncertainty.

This paper studies fixed-rate and adjustable-rate loans to see how small firms manage their exposure to interest rate risk. The author concludes that the "fixed versus adjustable" dimension of financial contracting helps small U.S. firms ameliorate interest rate risk, and discuss the implications for risk management theories and the credit channel of monetary policy.

On the basis of focused interviews with managers of foreign parent banks and their affiliates in Central Europe and the Baltic States, the development of small-business lending by foreign banks is analysed. It is found that the acquisition of local banks by foreign banks has not led to a persistent bias in these banks credit supply towards large multinational corporations. Instead, increased competition and the improvement of subsidiaries lending technologies have led foreign banks to gradually expand into the SME and retail markets.

Findings indicate there were an estimated 4.3 million business enterprises in the UK at the start of 2004. This compares with an estimated 4.0 million business enterprises in the UK at the start of 2003.

Overall findings indicate that Between 1985 and 2000, female-owned sole proprietorships grew at a faster rate than those owned by men. Business earnings and activities are different among male and female business owners.

Various theories have been advanced for why employees leave incumbent firms to found firms in the same industry, which we call spinoffs. The authors review the accumulating evidence about spinoffs in various high-tech industries, highlighting the central role often played by disagreements.

Despite recent innovations that might have reduced banks’ reliance on brick-and-mortar branches for distributing retail financial services, the number of U.S. bank branches has continued to increase steadily over time. This paper assesses the implications of these developments by examining a series of simple branch performance measures and asking how these measures vary, on average, across institutions with different branch network sizes.

This paper is a primer on corporate performance, corporate governance, and their interrelationships and measurement systems, with particular focus on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Four theories of corporate governance are explained, along with literature findings on the relationship between corporate governance and corporate performance, with reference to both works on large firms and works on SMEs.

In this paper, the authors use a treatment model correcting for potential selection bias to evaluate the performance effect of Business Links assistance on small firms in England.