Narrow Results

In spite of their significance, the analyses of public subsidies for startups have been scant in the scientific literature. The focus has been more on justifying or arguing against the state's intervention through the granting of subsidies. The main aim of these public policies is to create companies by disadvantaged groups. Looking at the data we observe that the aim was achieved. Given this evidence, this paper analyzes how public programs that promote the creation of companies affect those companies' survival and net profits over a period of five years. Using a bivariate probit econometric model for a sample of businesses in a particular region of Spain, the results do not reveal the existence of differences, in terms of survival and profits, between companies created with and without public subsidies. The results do not support the arguments for or against the effectiveness of public programs, because subsidized companies neither survive longer nor have less net profits than unsubsidized companies.

The study empirically investigates types of microenterprises (MEs) resorting to microfinance institutions (MFIs) for their financial needs in the slums of Mumbai, India. The study is based on a primary survey of MEs, located in two different types of slums, namely "declared" and "undeclared," in Mumbai including the largest slum, "Dharavi," in India, Asia. Empirical results show that the MEs from the undeclared slums mainly depend on the MFIs. Apart from this fact, it has also been observed that MEs operating from private places and started their operation less than five years ago depend on the MFIs to meet their financial requirements. The other MEs are either depending on informal money lenders or their own resources for running their enterprises.

Retailing dominates the informal environment where activities occur in private and public spaces. Notwithstanding the contributions from informal retailing entrepreneurs (IRE), a paucity of research remains on the complex entrepreneur-environment exchange and in particular, the relationship between retailing entrepreneurs and the informal environment in Caribbean economies. This qualitative study aims to explore the informal retailing environment between 2003 and 2018 for informal sector start-ups in the Caribbean, specifically Barbados. Guided by Gnyawali and Fogel’s Integrative Model of Entrepreneurial Environments, content analysis of newspaper articles unveiled insights about the country’s environmental conditions pertaining to (a) government policies and procedures, (b) socioeconomic conditions, (c) entrepreneurial and business skills, (d) financial assistance, and (e) non-financial assistance and its impact on new enterprise creations. The study’s results imply that the Barbadian IRE have not been embraced fully, which reduces the likelihood of new informal venture creations testing the market and the potential for more IRE transitioning to the formal market. Empirical findings infer that efficient market functioning requires clear policies and procedures and fewer barriers limiting people from pursuing business opportunities, making the environment more conducive to new business start-ups.

The purpose of this study is to explore the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and growth potential of microenterprises. To test the research hypotheses, multiple regression and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were used. Multiple regression was used in explaining how well EO predicts microenterprises growth potential. MANOVA compares the groups and indicates whether the mean differences between the groups on the combination of dependent variables are likely to have occurred by chance. Our study contributes to the literature by exploring the growth potential of the existing microenterprises and explains its relationship to owners’ EO in both urban and rural informal sectors.

The purpose of this study is to assess the three-factor production functions describing the dependence of the small enterprises (SEs) and microenterprises, which include turnover on the wages of their employees, investments in fixed capital and the entrepreneurial capital of a particular region. The authors propose the indicator that characterizes the level of entrepreneurial capital — the number of employees of large enterprises located in the respective regions. This study is based on the empirical spatial data specifying the activities of employees in all SEs and microenterprises, as well as a number of large enterprises. The official statistical information includes observations on business activity of 1,449 SEs and microenterprises in 80 Russian regions in 2015. The research determines the factors influencing the turnover of enterprises, proves the high quality of the source data approximation using the three-factor production functions and confirms the need for an increased number of small and microenterprises for the Russian regions’ economy. The authors discover tools for the evaluation of production functions, which are of academic and practical importance. They can be used in studies of the regions’ entrepreneurial sectors, for monitoring the efficiency of resource use, and the rationale for the entrepreneurship development programs.

Firm-level data spanning from 1994 to 2012 is used to investigate the apparent stagnation of Mexican microenterprises. The existence and nature of constraints are studied by estimating the empirical probability of a business’s success. A performance index is defined based on firm levels of capital stock and monthly profits. The predicted values are used to classify all microenterprises into one of three categories: upper, middle, or lower segment. Overall, the study identifies evidence of constrained productivity and capital misallocation, as well as the plausibility of cost-effective interventions. Specifically, microenterprises from the middle segment face substantial external constraints and their total share increased from 16 to 22 percent over time. The monthly marginal returns average 30 percent across lower-segment firms and 1 percent across those in the upper segment. Finally, the differences in monthly profits among segments are explored using the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method.

Efficiency is a crucial determinant of economic development, especially among microenterprises, which tend to be the prevalent economic units. This article estimates the efficiency of both formal and informal microenterprises in Mexico in the context of NAFTA (North American Free Trade). The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method is used to explain the factors behind the observed differences. Additionally, a detailed analysis with a decomposition by quantiles is provided. Formal microenterprises are found to be more efficient than their informal counterparts, with a narrow difference in 1994 widening by 2012. At the same time, the efficiency level declined for both groups of microenterprises over time. Two main conclusions are derived. First, microenterprise size distribution and the characteristics of the private sector influence the success of trade liberalization policies. Second, the overall decrease in efficiency, regardless of whether microenterprises are formal or informal, supports recent studies suggesting that economic, institutional and social constraints limit firm performance.