@article{GiotopoulosKritikosTsakanikas2022, author = {Giotopoulos, Ioannis and Kritikos, Alexander and Tsakanikas, Aggelos}, title = {A lasting crisis affects R\&D decisions of smaller firms}, series = {The Journal of technology transfer}, journal = {The Journal of technology transfer}, number = {48}, publisher = {Springer Science+Business Media}, address = {Dordrecht}, issn = {0892-9912}, doi = {10.1007/s10961-022-09957-7}, pages = {1161 -- 1175}, year = {2022}, abstract = {We use the prolonged Greek crisis as a case study to understand how a lasting economic shock affects the innovation strategies of firms in economies with moderate innovation activities. Adopting the 3-stage CDM model, we explore the link between R\&D, innovation, and productivity for different size groups of Greek manufacturing firms during the prolonged crisis. At the first stage, we find that the continuation of the crisis is harmful for the R\&D engagement of smaller firms while it increased the willingness for R\&D activities among the larger ones. At the second stage, among smaller firms the knowledge production remains unaffected by R\&D investments, while among larger firms the R\&D decision is positively correlated with the probability of producing innovation, albeit the relationship is weakened as the crisis continues. At the third stage, innovation output benefits only larger firms in terms of labor productivity, while the innovation-productivity nexus is insignificant for smaller firms during the lasting crisis.}, language = {en} } @article{KritikosSchierschStiel2022, author = {Kritikos, Alexander and Schiersch, Alexander and Stiel, Caroline}, title = {The productivity shock in business services}, series = {Small business economics}, volume = {59}, journal = {Small business economics}, number = {3}, publisher = {Springer Science + Business Media B.V.}, address = {Dordrecht}, issn = {0921-898X}, doi = {10.1007/s11187-022-00625-6}, pages = {1273 -- 1299}, year = {2022}, abstract = {In Germany, the productivity of professional services, a sector dominated by SME, declined by 40 percent between 1995 and 2014. Similar developments can be observed in several other European economies. Using a German dataset with 700,000 firm-level observations, we analyze this largely undiscovered phenomenon in professional services, the fourth largest sector of the business economy in the EU-15, which provides important inputs to the economy and has experienced substantial growth in both output and employment since the turn of the millennium. We find that changes in the value chain explain about half of the decline and that increases in part-time employment account for another small part. Contrary to expectations, the entry of micro and small firms is not responsible for the decline, despite their lower productivity levels. Further, we cannot confirm the conjecture that weakening competition has led to an increase in the number of unproductive firms remaining in the markets and that this has led to a lower average productivity.}, language = {en} } @incollection{Kritikos2022, author = {Kritikos, Alexander}, title = {Personality and entrepreneurship}, series = {Handbook of labor, human resources and population economics}, booktitle = {Handbook of labor, human resources and population economics}, editor = {Zimmermann, Klaus F.}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, address = {Cham}, isbn = {978-3-319-57365-6}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_305-1}, pages = {1 -- 20}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Does personality matter? Is an individual who is open to experience more or less likely to become an entrepreneur? Is it better to score low or high in agreeableness for surviving as an entrepreneur? To the extent that personality captures one part of entrepreneurial abilities, which are usually unobservable, the analysis of traits and personality characteristics helps better understanding such abilities. This chapter reviews research on the relationship between personality and entrepreneurship since 2000 and shows that possessing certain personality characteristics will make it more likely that an individual will start an own business and hire staff. More specifically, with respect to the entry decision, research finds that nearly all so-called Big Five factors as well as several specific personality characteristics influence the entry probability into entrepreneurship. Further, entrepreneurs are more likely to hire, the higher they score in risk tolerance, trust, openness to experience, and conscientiousness. However, different factors such as low scores in agreeableness, the only Big Factor that does not affect entrepreneurial entry, influence entrepreneurial survival. And for some of characteristics that influence entrepreneurial entry, like high scores in the factor openness for experience or in risk tolerance, "revolving door effects" are found, explaining why some entrepreneurs subsequently exit again the market.}, language = {en} } @article{CaliendoGraeberKritikosetal.2022, author = {Caliendo, Marco and Graeber, Daniel and Kritikos, Alexander and Seebauer, Johannes}, title = {Pandemic depression}, series = {Entrepreneurship theory and practice}, volume = {47}, journal = {Entrepreneurship theory and practice}, number = {3}, publisher = {SAGE Publishing}, address = {Thousand Oaks}, issn = {1042-2587}, doi = {10.1177/10422587221102106}, pages = {788 -- 830}, year = {2022}, abstract = {We investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-employed people's mental health. Using representative longitudinal survey data from Germany, we reveal differential effects by gender: whereas self-employed women experienced a substantial deterioration in their mental health, self-employed men displayed no significant changes up to early 2021. Financial losses are important in explaining these differences. In addition, we find larger mental health responses among self-employed women who were directly affected by government-imposed restrictions and bore an increased childcare burden due to school and daycare closures. We also find that self-employed individuals who are more resilient coped better with the crisis.}, language = {en} } @techreport{CaliendoKritikosStier2022, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Caliendo, Marco and Kritikos, Alexander and Stier, Claudia}, title = {The Influence of Start-up Motivation on Entrepreneurial Performance}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {59}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57115}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-571152}, pages = {43}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Predicting entrepreneurial development based on individual and business-related characteristics is a key objective of entrepreneurship research. In this context, we investigate whether the motives of becoming an entrepreneur influence the subsequent entrepreneurial development. In our analysis, we examine a broad range of business outcomes including survival and income, as well as job creation, expansion and innovation activities for up to 40 months after business formation. Using self-determination theory as conceptual background, we aggregate the start-up motives into a continuous motivational index. We show - based on a unique dataset of German start-ups from unemployment and non-unemployment - that the later business performance is better, the higher they score on this index. Effects are particularly strong for growth oriented outcomes like innovation and expansion activities. In a next step, we examine three underlying motivational categories that we term opportunity, career ambition, and necessity. We show that individuals driven by opportunity motives perform better in terms of innovation and business expansion activities, while career ambition is positively associated with survival, income, and the probability of hiring employees. All effects are robust to the inclusion of a large battery of covariates that are proven to be important determinants of entrepreneurial performance.}, language = {en} } @techreport{BlockKritikosPriemetal.2022, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Block, J{\"o}rn and Kritikos, Alexander and Priem, Maximilian and Stiel, Caroline}, title = {Emergency-Aid for Self-employed in the Covid-19 Pandemic}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {55}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56268}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-562688}, pages = {41}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The self-employed faced strong income losses during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many governments introduced programs to financially support the self-employed during the pandemic, including Germany. The German Ministry for Economic Affairs announced a €50bn emergency-aid program in March 2020, offering one-off lump-sum payments of up to €15,000 to those facing substantial revenue declines. By reassuring the self- employed that the government 'would not let them down' during the crisis, the program had also the important aim of motivating the self-employed to get through the crisis. We investigate whether the program affected the confidence of the self-employed to survive the crisis using real-time online-survey data comprising more than 20,000 observations. We employ propensity score matching, making use of a rich set of variables that influence the subjective survival probability as main outcome measure. We observe that this program had significant effects, with the subjective survival probability of the self- employed being moderately increased. We reveal important effect heterogeneities with respect to education, industries, and speed of payment. Notably, positive effects only occur among those self-employed whose application was processed quickly. This suggests stress-induced waiting costs due to the uncertainty associated with the administrative processing and the overall pandemic situation. Our findings have policy implications for the design of support programs, while also contributing to the literature on the instruments and effects of entrepreneurship policy interventions in crisis situations.}, language = {en} } @techreport{GiotopoulosKritikosTsakanikas2022, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Giotopoulos, Ioannis and Kritikos, Alexander and Tsakanikas, Aggelos}, title = {A Lasting Crisis affects R\&D decisions of smaller firms}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {49}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55844}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-558442}, pages = {23}, year = {2022}, abstract = {We use the prolonged Greek crisis as a case study to understand how a lasting economic shock affects the innovation strategies of firms in economies with moderate innovation activities. Adopting the 3-stage CDM model, we explore the link between R\&D, innovation, and productivity for different size groups of Greek manufacturing firms during the prolonged crisis. At the first stage, we find that the continuation of the crisis is harmful for the R\&D engagement of smaller firms while it increased the willingness for R\&D activities among the larger ones. At the second stage, among smaller firms the knowledge production remains unaffected by R\&D investments, while among larger firms the R\&D decision is positively correlated with the probability of producing innovation, albeit the relationship is weakened as the crisis continues. At the third stage, innovation output benefits only larger firms in terms of labor productivity, while the innovation-productivity nexus is insignificant for smaller firms during the lasting crisis.}, language = {en} } @techreport{CaliendoGraeberKritikosetal.2022, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Caliendo, Marco and Graeber, Daniel and Kritikos, Alexander and Seebauer, Johannes}, title = {Pandemic Depression: COVID-19 and the Mental Health of the Self-Employed}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {46}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-54899}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-548999}, pages = {65}, year = {2022}, abstract = {We investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-employed people's mental health. Using representative longitudinal survey data from Germany, we reveal differential effects by gender: whereas self-employed women experienced a substantial deterioration in their mental health, self-employed men displayed no significant changes up to early 2021. Financial losses are important in explaining these differences. In addition, we find larger mental health responses among self-employed women who were directly affected by government-imposed restrictions and bore an increased childcare burden due to school and daycare closures. We also find that self-employed individuals who are more resilient coped better with the crisis.}, language = {en} }