What drives environmental practices of SMEs? Hoogendoorn, Brigitte; Guerra, Daniela; van der Zwan, Peter
Small business economics,
04/2015, Letnik:
44, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The objective of this paper is to develop a better understanding of what drives small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to engage in environmental practices, and whether the drivers differ across ...types of practices. Two types of environmental practices are distinguished: practices related to production processes (greening processes) and practices related to products and services (greening product and service offerings). Despite a growing literature on socially responsible behavior of large firms, the role of SMEs remains underexposed. This neglect is remarkable given the substantial impact of SMEs on the economy and the natural environment. By using unique data for almost 8,000 SMEs across 12 sectors in 36 countries, we study the influence of firm characteristics on SMEs' environmental behavior. Our results suggest that different characteristics have dissimilar influences on both types of environmental practices such as the type of customers served. Stringent environmental legislation encourages firms to actively take on environmental activities, but only in case of green products and services. Moreover, the dominant idea that small firms are reluctant to invest in environmental practices is clearly more nuanced: firm size matters most for engagement in greening processes. Finally, SMEs active in tangible sectors and that receive financial support are more involved in either type of environmental practices.
In recent years, there has been a steady increase in the number of own-account workers (the self-employed without employees), including freelancers, in many developed economies. Despite the ...importance of the group of freelancers for modern economies, little is known about the perceived benefits of freelancing. We use six waves of the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study (“Understanding Society”, 2009–2015) to investigate subjective well-being levels of freelancers in terms of satisfaction with life, work, leisure time, income and health. Although freelancing jobs are uncertain and temporary, our cross-sectional (pooled ordinary least squares (OLS)) and longitudinal (fixed-effects) analyses reveal that freelancers are on par regarding life satisfaction with other own-account workers, employers (self-employed workers with employees) and wage workers. The most striking result is that freelancers are significantly more satisfied with their leisure time than other own-account workers, employers and wage workers. Also, freelancers score significantly higher in terms of work satisfaction than wage workers, but do not exceed other own-account workers and employers in terms of work satisfaction. Freelancers are equally satisfied with their health as other own-account workers and employers. In sum, the analysis of several subdomains of life reveals much how different groups of self-employed workers score regarding their overall subjective well-being.
The scholarly literature often distinguishes between so-called opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship and between “pull” and “push” motivations. Despite the pervasive use of this terminology, ...empirical analyses are mostly based on a single country. The present paper contributes by investigating business owner survey data for the United States and 32 countries in Europe and Asia. We analyze the differences between business owners motivated by opportunity and necessity in terms of their (1) socioeconomic characteristics, (2) personality, and (3) perceptions of entrepreneurial support. Descriptive statistics reveal that the two groups of business owners have very different profiles along these three dimensions. Moreover, multinomial logit regressions indicate that the determinants of business ownership (versus paid employment) differ for opportunity and necessity business ownership. A specific result of the present study (covering all 33 countries) is that the probability of being an opportunity versus a necessity business owner is higher for male, younger, wealthier, proactive, and optimistic business owners. Furthermore, those who prefer being a business owner and those who have more favorable perceptions of financial start-up support are more likely to be an opportunity versus a necessity business owner.
Using macro-level data for 32 European countries, the present paper explores developments in the education distributions among solo self-employed workers and employer entrepreneurs in the ...non-agricultural economy over the period 1997–2014. Our dynamic analysis reveals that over this period, the number of solo self-employed workers, but particularly the high-educated solo self-employed, has increased considerably in Europe. This trend is even more pronounced for female solo self-employment. The education distribution of the solo self-employed is thus shifting quickly towards higher levels of education. Moreover, our static analysis based on 2014 reveals that, for the higher-developed countries within Europe (Western Europe including Scandinavia), solo self-employed and employer entrepreneurs are on average equally highly educated. We also find that the solo self-employed in Western Europe are considerably higher educated than their counterparts in the rest of Europe. In general, our results underline the rapidly increasing importance of, particularly high-educated, solo self-employed workers in modern, highly developed economies.
The promotion and support of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is an essential component of policies designed to help improve Europe's economic performance. A crucial issue is whether SMEs ...face difficulty obtaining bank loans. Using pre-crisis survey data from 2005 and 2006 for nearly 3,500 SMEs (firms with fewer than 250 employees) in the European Union (EU), we investigate the determinants of perceived bank loan accessibility at the firm level and at the country level. Based on hierarchical (multi-level) binomial logit regressions, our findings show that the youngest and smallest SMEs have the worst perception of access to bank loans. The SMEs in nations with concentrated banking sectors are more positive about loan accessibility. In addition, a high fraction of foreign-owned banks is associated with improved perception of loan accessibility in the EU 15 but not in the EU 10.
•Longitudinal data (1984–2012) from the German Socio-Economic Panel are used.•Wellbeing consequences of a switch from paid work to self-employment are analyzed.•Switching to self-employment does not ...lead to changes in life satisfaction.•Increases in work satisfaction (up to 5 years after switching) are observed.•Switching leads to large and persistent decreases in leisure satisfaction.
The aim of this study is to provide an explanation for the finding in earlier studies that the self-employed are, on average, more satisfied with their work than the paid employed are, although they are not more satisfied with their life in general. Fixed-effects regressions are performed with German Socio-Economic Panel data (1984–2012) to investigate how a labor market switch from paid employment to self-employment influences life, work, and leisure satisfaction. The results indicate that switching to self-employment benefits work satisfaction but not life satisfaction. The benefits for work satisfaction are pronounced and relatively persistent but accompany large and persistent decreases in leisure satisfaction. Life satisfaction for the switchers to self-employment is consequently on par with the life satisfaction of the non-switchers. Contrasting the switch to self-employment (out of paid employment) with the switch to paid employment (out of self-employment) shows that the detrimental effect on leisure satisfaction distinguishes a switch to self-employment from a switch to paid employment. In conclusion, the results explain why increases in life satisfaction are generally absent for individuals switching to self-employment and why undetermined evidence has been found in previous studies in terms of gains in life satisfaction.
This paper investigates whether and how a recent entrepreneurial exit relates to subsequent engagement. We discriminate between six levels of engagement including none, potential, intentional, ...nascent, young and established entrepreneurship. We use individual-level data for 24 countries that participated in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor during 2004, 2005 and 2006 (some 350,000 observations). Our findings indeed show that a recent exit decreases the probability of undertaking no entrepreneurial activity, whereas it substantially increases the probabilities of being involved in all other engagement levels. Investigating the conditions under which an exit increases engagement in entrepreneurial activities, we find that the probability of entrepreneurial engagement after exit is higher for males, for persons who know an entrepreneur and for persons with a low fear of failure. Educational attainment does not seem to be relevant. Moreover, there exists large cross-country variation in the probability of entrepreneurial engagement after exit.
► We investigate why women’s self-employment rates are consistently lower than those of men. ► A distinction is made between the preference for self-employment and actual involvement in ...self-employment. ► We test for mediation and moderation effects using a representative dataset covering more than 8000 individuals from 29 countries. ► Women’s low self-employment rates are largely explained by a lack of willingness to become self-employed. ► The remaining gender effect may point at the existence of gender-based obstacles.
This paper investigates an essential aspect of the entrepreneurial personality: why women’s self-employment rates are consistently lower than those of men. It has three focal points. It discriminates between the preference for self-employment and actual involvement in self-employment using a two (probit) equation model. It makes a systematic distinction between different ways in which gender influences the preference for and actual involvement in self-employment (mediation and moderation). It includes perceived ability as a potential driver of self-employment next to risk attitude, self-employed parents and other socio-demographic drivers. A representative data set of more than 8000 individuals from 29 countries (25 EU Member States, US, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) is used (the 2004 Flash Eurobarometer survey). The findings show that women’s lower preference for becoming self-employed plays an important role in explaining their lower involvement in self-employment and that a gender effect remains that may point at gender-based obstacles to entrepreneurship.
Gender differences at five levels of entrepreneurial engagement are explained using country effects while controlling for individual-level variables. We distinguish between individuals who have never ...considered starting up a business, those who are thinking about it, and nascent, young, and established entrepreneurs. We use a large international dataset that includes respondents from 32 European countries, three Asian countries, and the United States. Findings show that cross-country gender differences are largest in the first and final transitions of the entrepreneurial process. In particular, some European transition economies are characterized by relatively low propensities of women to convert start-up considerations into startup activities and low survival rates of businesses started by women.
We test a new model where the entrepreneurial decision is described as a process of successive engagement levels, i.e. as an entrepreneurial ladder. Five levels are distinguished using nearly 12 000 ...observations from the 2004 'Flash Eurobarometer survey on Entrepreneurship' covering the 25 European Union member states and the United States. The most surprising of the many results is that perception of lack of financial support is no obstacle for moving to a higher entrepreneurial engagement level whereas perceived administrative complexity is a significant obstacle. We also show that the effect of age on the probability of moving forward in the entrepreneurial process becomes negative after a certain age implying that if entrepreneurial engagements are not taken early enough in life they may well never be taken.
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