Intellectual capital model for family firms

The intellectual capital-based view of the firm along with the literature about family firms serve as the basis for the present paper, which seeks to elaborate an intellectual capital model that can be applied to family firms. More precisely, our study identifies the main intangibles usually owned by family firms classifying those intangibles into human capital, structural capital and relational capital. In addition, the paper provides empirical evidence and gives examples of these intangibles through the analysis of external data from international family firms. The research question that we are trying to answer is: Which intangibles are owned by family firms for the mere fact of being family firms? Knowing the nature of the intangibles inherent to family firms can help improve their management, making the most of the intellectual capital owned by these firms when it comes to exploit their knowledge strengths.     

Human capital and trademarks: Evidence from higher education expansion in China

This paper investigates how human capital affects trademark applications at the firm level. We adopt a difference-in-differences strategy to examine the impact of human capital on trademark applications, taking advantage of a unique natural experiment in China that expanded higher education enrollment substantially in 1999. We find firms in industries with higher human capital intensities filed for more trademarks after 2003 than they did in prior years. We then investigate the mechanism through which human capital enhancement causes more trademark applications. We find that firms in industries with higher human capital intensities tend to invest more in R&D and worker training programs. We next find that firms that spend more on R&D and training programs tend to develop more new products. We also find firms that have more new products file for more trademark applications. The main policy implication of our empirical results is that encouraging human capital enhancement can generate more innovative products and trademarks.     

Driving innovation: Public policy and human capital

Human capital, the set of skills, knowledge, capabilities and attributes embodied in people, is crucial to firms’ capacity to absorb and organize knowledge and to innovate. Research on human capital has traditionally focused on education and training. A concern with the motivationally-relevant elements of human capital such as employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and willingness to change in the workplace (all of which have been shown to drive innovation), has often been overlooked in economic research and by public policy interventions to date. The paper addresses this gap in two ways: First, by studying firms’ human resource systems that can enhance these elements of human capital, and second, using the results of this research as a springboard for a public policy program targeted at elements of human capital that have been ignored by traditional education and training interventions. Using a sample of 1070 employee-managers in Ireland, we apply a series of probit regressions to understand how different human resources systems influence the probability of employee-managers reporting the motivationally-relevant elements of human capital. The research: (1) Finds that respondents in organizations with certain human resource systems are more likely to report motivationally-relevant elements of human capital. Specifically, employee-managers in organizations with proactive work practices and that consult with their employee-managers increase the predicted probability of reporting that they are satisfied with their job, willing to change, and are committed to the organization; (2) Highlights the need to consider the role of policy interventions to support the motivationally-relevant elements of human capital; (3) Proposes a new policy program offer to support the motivationally-relevant elements of human capital in order to increase firms’ innovation activity.     

The role of academic inventors in entrepreneurial firms: sharing the laboratory life

While science-based entrepreneurial firms are a key feature of the modern economy, our insights into their organization and productivity remain limited. In particular, our understanding of the mechanisms through which academic inventors shape entrepreneurial firms established to commercialize their scientific ideas is based upon a traditional perspective that highlights the importance of human capital. Based on a study of biotechnology firms and their academic inventors, this paper examines the extent and mechanisms through which academic scientists contribute not only human capital but also social capital to entrepreneurial firms. The paper makes two contributions to our understanding of the academic-firm interface: First, it establishes that the social capital of academic scientists is critical to firms because it can be transformed into scientific networks that embed the firm in the scientific community through a variety of mechanisms. Second, the paper argues that an academic inventor’s career plays a critical role in shaping his social capital, thus scientific careers mediate the networks and potential for embeddedness that an academic inventor brings to a firm. Specifically, the foundations of an academic’s social capital can be traced to two sources: The first element that the firm may leverage is the academic’s local laboratory network—a network to current and former students and advisors established by the inventor through his laboratory life. The second form of social capital is a wider, cosmopolitan network of colleagues and co-authors established through the social patterns of collaboration, collegiality and competition that exemplify scientific careers. These findings suggest that scientific careers are central in shaping an academic’s social capital which can be translated into critical scientific networks in which entrepreneurial firms become embedded.     

Social capital as a driver of local knowledge exchange: a social network analysis

The objective of this paper is to take an in-depth look, from a network perspective, at the role that social capital plays in improving knowledge exchange between organizations. To do this, we consider the three dimensions of social capital: the structural dimension, as measured by the position of firms bridging structural holes; the relational dimension, as gauged by the level of trust and friendship in each relationship; and the cognitive dimension, as estimated by the presence of a shared culture. We also evaluate the level of organizational and human capital present in terms of the firms in the network. Empirical evidence has been gathered from the Madrid Science Park in Spain by applying the social network analysis methodology. The results show that the three dimensions of social capital play a significant role in increasing knowledge exchange in this network, while human and organizational capital differences are only significant for a sub-sample.     

风险投资持股对股价崩盘风险的影响研究

本文基于倾向配对PSM方法,切入风险考察的创新视角,系统分析了风险投资持股及其属性特征对被投资企业股价崩盘风险的影响效应及其机理。研究发现:风险投资持股显著降低了被投资企业的股价崩盘风险。其次,风险投资的控制属性会强化风险投资持股与被投资企业股价崩盘风险之间的负向关系;而联合属性会弱化风险投资持股与被投资企业股价崩盘风险之间的负向关系。最后通过机理分析发现,风险投资持股通过抑制股价崩盘风险的内因(管理层信息披露操纵倾向)而非外因(信息不透明度)对股价崩盘风险产生了显著的抑制作用。总体而言,本文证实了风险投资持股符合"监督"而非"逐名"的推测。     

风险投资背景对企业技术创新的影响研究

风险投资是为科技企业和创新活动融通资金的重要渠道。本文对我国中小板上市公司的实证研究发现,无论从研发投入还是从专利数量上来看,有风险投资参与的企业在技术创新上的表现要显著好于无风险投资参与的企业。进一步的回归分析发现,在资本背景和经验背景不同的情况下,风险投资对企业技术创新的影响不同。政府背景风险投资的参与、公司背景风险投资的参与以及混合资本背景风险投资的参与与企业研发投入呈负相关关系。风险投资机构的经验越丰富对企业研发投入的影响越积极。     

明星科学家能否提升转制科研院所的双重绩效？—以广东省为例

科研院所改革的重点在于加快科技成果转化,明星科学家成为影响改制目标实现的“第一要素”。以广东省科研院所改革为背景,本文探索了明星科学家在组织创新与经济效益中的作用效果,并分析了项目式与平台式改革模式的调节效果,研究发现：明星科学家对组织双重绩效均有显著的正向影响,并且对创新绩效的促进效果高于经济绩效；政府财政科技项目在明星科学家与创新绩效关系中起正向调节作用,而创新平台在明星科学家与科研院所创新绩效、经济绩效关系中均起到正向调节作用。研究结论将为科研院所的人才体系优化与资助模式改革提供参考依据。     

University spin-out companies and venture capital

The creation of university spin-out companies that create wealth is a major policy objective of governments and universities. Finance is a catalyst of this wealth creation yet access to venture capital is a major impediment faced by these companies. In this article we adopt a finance pecking order perspective to examine the problems faced by those university spin-out companies seeking to access venture capital. We triangulate evidence from spin-out companies, university technology transfer offices and venture capital firms in the UK and Continental Europe to identify the problems and to suggest policy developments for these parties as well as government. We compare perceptions of high-tech venture capital firms that invest in spin-outs with those that do not, and also consider VCs’ views on spin-outs versus other high-tech firms. Our evidence identifies a mismatch between the demand and supply side of the market. In line with the pecking order theory, venture capitalists prefer to invest after the seed stage. However, in contrast to the pecking order theory, TTOs see venture capital as more important than internal funds early on. We develop policy implications for universities, technology transfer offices, academic entrepreneurs, venture capital firms and government and suggest areas for further research.     

The venture capital market and technological innovation

This paper was stimulated by assertions that technological innovation in the United States by new or small firms is being delayed or altogether stifled by an inadequate supply of capital for such firms. Analysis of available data on the performance and activities of public venture capital sources and information supplied by knowledgeable people in the field provided little support, on strictly economic grounds, for the argument that a major problem exists. The data, however, are extremely thin and inadequate to suport recommendations for major policy changes.     

Employees' entrepreneurial human capital and firm performance

We introduce a new measure of human capital, defined as employees' former involvement in entrepreneurship. Such entrepreneurial human capital (EHC) complements traditional human capital measures accumulated through work experience and education. Using detailed longitudinal register data, we track the previous years of entrepreneurial experience for the population of employees in Swedish private sector firms. We provide evidence that higher EHC among employees is associated with significantly higher levels of firm productivity. The baseline result implies that a 10 % increase in employees being former entrepreneurs increases firm-level productivity by 3.9 %. Additionally, we provide evidence that heterogeneity in employees' previous entrepreneurial experience (e.g., the reason for entering and exiting entrepreneurship, type of venture, length of entrepreneurial experiences, and relatedness of technology) influences the impact of EHC on productivity. The results are shown to be robust to various estimation techniques, alternative definitions of EHC, and other performance measures.     

高管团队人力资本特征对企业风险投资引进策略的影响

本文认为高管团队作为企业战略的制定者和执行者,其人力资本特征必然会对企业引进风险投资的策略产生重要影响。本文以我国中小板上市公司中有风险投资融资背景的企业为样本展开实证研究,结果发现:高管团队受教育水平越高,企业越可能在发展早期引入风险投资,并且更青睐经验丰富、资源广泛的混合背景风投而非民营风投;高管团队年龄越大,越排斥分轮融资策略;高管团队中政府背景高管占比较高时,企业更可能引进政府背景风投,而且更愿意采用分轮融资策略;管理层持股比例越高,越会对在发展早期引入风投以及采用分轮融资策略产生显著的负面影响。本研究对丰富高管团队理论和风险投资相关研究具有较大贡献。     

企业的社会资本与技术合作

目前，随着企业间技术合作的不断发展，如何通过提高社会资本来加强企业间的技术合作已成为学术界和企业界探讨的一个热门话题。本文以浙江省第一头转基因羊的难产为案例，利用社会资本的有关理论，指出成功的技术合作有赖于良好的社会资本，而我国企业要提高国际竞争力，建立良好的社会资本并加强企业间(包括与国外跨国公司)的技术合作是必由之路。     

Patents, venture capital, and software start-ups

This paper analyzes the relation between the patenting behavior of startup firms and the progress of those firms through the venture capital cycle. Linking data relating to venture capital financing of software startup firms with data concerning the patents obtained by those firms, we find significant and robust positive correlations between patenting and several variables measuring the firm's performance (including number of rounds, total investment, exit status, receipt of late stage financing, and longevity). The data also show that (1) only about one in four venture-backed software firms acquired even one patent during the period of the study; (2) patenting practices very considerably among the sub-sectors of the software industry; and (3) the relationship between patent metrics and firm performance depends less on the size of the patent portfolio than on the firm's receipt of at least one patent.     

Scientists’ collaboration strategies: implications for scientific and technical human capital

“Scientific and technical human capital” (S&T human capital) has been defined as the sum of researchers’ professional network ties and their technical skills and resources [Int. J. Technol. Manage. 22 (7-8) (2001) 636]. Our study focuses on one particular means by which scientists acquire and deploy S&T human capital, research collaboration. We examine data from 451 scientists and engineers at academic research centers in the United States. The chief focus is on scientists’ collaboration choices and strategies. Since we are particularly interested in S&T human capital, we pay special attention to strategies that involve mentoring graduate students and junior faculty and to collaborating with women. We also examine collaboration “cosmopolitanism,” the extent to which scientists collaborate with those around them (one’s research group, one’s university) as opposed to those more distant in geography or institutional setting (other universities, researchers in industry, researchers in other nations). Our findings indicate that those who pursue a “mentor” collaboration strategy are likely to be tenured; to collaborate with women; and to have a favorable view about industry and research on industrial applications. Regarding the number of reported collaborators, those who have larger grants have more collaborators. With respect to the percentage of female collaborators, we found, not surprisingly, that female scientists have a somewhat higher percentage (36%) of female collaborators, than males have (24%). There are great differences, however, according to rank, with non-tenure track females having 84% of their collaborations with females. Regarding collaboration cosmopolitanism, we find that most researchers are not particularly cosmopolitan in their selection of collaborators—they tend to work with the people in their own work group. More cosmopolitan collaborators tend have large grants. A major policy implication is that there is great variance in the extent to which collaborations seem to enhance or generate S&T human capital. Not all collaborations are equal with respect to their “public goods” implications.     

Founders’ human capital and the growth of new technology-based firms: A competence-based view

In this paper, we analyze empirically the relation between the growth of new technology-based firms and the human capital of founders, with the aim of teasing out the “wealth” and “capability” effects of human capital. For this purpose, we take advantage of a new data set relating to a sample composed of 506 Italian young firms that operate in high-tech industries in both manufacturing and services. In accordance with competence-based theories, the econometric estimates show that the nature of the education and of the prior work experience of founders exerts a key influence on growth. In fact, founders’ years of university education in economic and managerial fields and to a lesser extent in scientific and technical fields positively affect growth while education in other fields does not. Similarly prior work experience in the same industry of the new firm is positively associated with growth while prior work experience in other industries is not. Furthermore, it is the technical work experience of founders as opposed to their commercial work experience that determines growth. The fact that within the founding team there are individuals with prior entrepreneurial experiences also results in superior growth. Lastly, we provide evidence that there are synergistic gains from the combination of the complementary capabilities of founders relating to (i) economic-managerial and scientific-technical education and (ii) technical and commercial industry-specific work experiences. We conclude that the human capital of founders of new technology-based firms is not just a proxy for personal wealth.     

Internet entrepreneurship: Social capital, human capital, and performance of Internet ventures in China

This article examines the interaction effects of social capital and human capital (experience) of entrepreneurs on the performance of Internet ventures. The empirical data are composed of the longitudinal surveys of 94 Internet ventures in Beijing, China. The study found that the interaction of social capital and Western experience of entrepreneurs has a positive effect on the survival likelihood of Internet firms whereas the interaction of social capital and startup experience of entrepreneurs has a negative effect on firm performance.     

环境风险、资本结构、成长性与高科技企业绩效

本文从环境变化的角度对高科技企业面临的风险进行量化,以长期债务比率作为高科技企业资本结构的代理变量,结合对高科技企业成长性的考察,就上述三个因素与高科技企业绩效的关系进行了实证研究,证实了环境风险和成长性对高科技企业绩效存在显著的影响。     

Spatial collocation and venture capital in the US biotechnology industry

Biotechnology firms operate in a high-risk and high-reward environment and are in a constant race to secure venture capital (VC) funds. Previous contributions to the literature show that the VC firms tend to invest locally in order to monitor their investments and to provide operating assistance to their target firms. Further, biotechnology is a knowledge-based industry that tends to exhibit spatial clusters, and the firms in such industries may collocate to benefit from gaining access to local markets for specialized inputs (e.g., skilled researchers) and from local knowledge spillovers and network externalities. If such gains exist, we expect that the collocated firms should exhibit positively correlated performance, including in their ability to attract venture capital funds. The purpose of this paper is to empirically measure the strength and spatial extent of the relationships among the amount of funds raised by proximate biotechnology firms. We model these relationships with a spatial autoregression (SAR) model, and we control for characteristics of the biotechnology firms and the VC firms that provide their funds as well as site-specific factors. Based on our fitted SAR model, we find that the amount of venture capital raised by a particular biotechnology firm is significantly influenced by the number of VC firms and the VC funding levels raised by biotechnology firms located within a 10-mile radius, but these relationships are not statistically significant beyond this range.     

基于STERGM的风险投资网络演化动力研究

风险投资网络演化与网络形成和网络解散密切相关。本研究利用CVSource数据库构建风险投资网络,从机构属性、二元关系、网络结构等多维度提出影响风险投资网络形成和网络解散的假设变量,采用分离时间指数随机图模型（STERGM）,探索我国风险投资网络的演化动力。研究发现,网络形成和网络解散的基础和演化驱动因子存在差异,网络形成是基于发现潜在伙伴的价值和匹配属性,而网络解散是基于对关系质量和未来价值的预期。具体而言,声誉、地理邻近性、结构嵌入和位置嵌入有利于网络关系的形成,且声誉和结构嵌入有利于网络关系持续;认知临近性和位置嵌入对网络关系解散有显著影响。研究结论有助于揭示风险投资网络演化的动力学机制。