计量经济分析 = Econometric analysis

Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

(1991). Applied Linear Regression Models. Journal of Quality Technology: Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 76-77.

Applied Linear Regression Models

Evaluating Model Fit

The paper presents multivariate analysis of the relationship of SME growth with the acquisition of external business advice, whilst controlling for the influence of SME characteristics of age, manufacturing/services, high technology, innovator, level of skill of the workforce, exporter and number of competitors. The relationship of external business advice with SME performance is statistically significant for only a small number of sources and fields. Obtaining external advice in fields such as business strategy and staff recruitment is associated with positive firm performance. The main positive relationships of advice and performance are dominated by private sector sources such as lawyers, suppliers, customers and business friends/relatives. Collaborative arrangements with suppliers nationally/internationally have a strong positive relationship with employment and turnover growth; collaboration with local suppliers has a strong positive relationship with growth in profitability. There is little evidence of statistically significant relationships between government-backed providers of business advice such as Business Link and firm performance.

SME Growth: The Relationship with Business Advice and External Collaboration

This article uses Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimation techniques of a large-scale survey to examine the effect of firms’ innovation activities on their growth performance. The survey, covering ...

Small Firm Innovation, Growth and Performance: Evidence from Scotland and Northern England

This paper reports new survey results on the extent, sourcing and impact of external business advice to SMEs in Britain. The survey, covering 2547 respondents, is the largest and most definitive assessment to date. Its results demonstrate the very wide extent of external advice: used by 95% of respondent SMEs, an increase from 85.8% in a similar survey in 1991. The analysis of the survey assesses sources of advice in terms of the level of trust that exists between the supplier and the SME client. The market appears to be strongly segmented and dominated by high trust specialist sources (accountants, lawyers), customers, suppliers and business friends. Business associations and government-backed sources play an important but lesser role. The recent government initiative of Business Link has, however, established an important market, used by 27% of respondents. Impact assessments confirm the significance of high trust private sector suppliers for the most crucial supplies of advice. Variations in use occur ...

The use of external business advice by SMEs in Britain

This study adopts a multi-level theoretical framework to examine data from 496 entrepreneurs in Ghana. Seven types of innovation activity are analysed against three categories of variables: the characteristics of the entrepreneur, the internal competencies of the firm, and firm location. Across all respondents, the incidence of incremental innovation was far greater than novel innovation. The extent of innovation was related to the education level of the entrepreneur. Firm size and involvement in exporting were positively related to innovation, but firm growth is less systematically so. Innovation was greater in firms located in conurbations compared to firms located in large and small towns. We conclude with suggestions for policy to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in Ghana.

Entrepreneurship and innovation in Ghana: enterprising Africa

This paper presents the results of ordered logit regression models of the problems faced by 500 entrepreneurs from six regions of Ghana against the characteristics of the entrepreneurs and their businesses and whether these were systematically related to a list of 37 factors that they perceived as limiting their ability to achieve their objectives in the period 2002–2005. The results show that the education, but not the sex or age of the entrepreneurs were related to business barriers. Family Businesses, growing businesses, those providing training and those which did not spend money on R&D were more likely to encounter business barriers. The findings of the research also revealed that in general firms in conurbations were more likely to encounter barriers.

Paul Robson

Papers

SME Growth: The Relationship with Business Advice and External Collaboration

Small Firm Innovation, Growth and Performance: Evidence from Scotland and Northern England

The use of external business advice by SMEs in Britain

Entrepreneurship and innovation in Ghana: enterprising Africa

The Barriers to Growth in Ghana