Leo Sleuwaegen

Does Foreign Direct Investment Crowd Out Domestic Entrepreneurship

In analyzing firm entry and exit across Belgian manufacturing industries, this paper presents evidence that import competition and foreign direct investment discourage entry and stimulate exit of domestic entrepreneurs. These results are in line with theoretical occupational choice models that predict foreign direct investment would crowd out domestic entrepreneurs through their selections in product and labor markets. However, the empirical results also suggest that this crowding out effect may be moderated or even reversed in the long-run due to the long term positive effects of FDI on domestic entrepreneurship as a result of learning, demonstration, networking and linkage effects between foreign and domestic firms.

Growth of firms in developing countries, evidence from Cote d'Ivoire

The paper presents evidence in support of a particular growth process of firms that is consistent with a missing middle in the size distribution of manufacturing firms in African countries. Firm growth is explained by size and age effects as a result of efficiency exploiting through scale enlargements and learning, but is strongly moderated by reputation effects and formal legitimation which facilitate access to output markets and resources. Complementing the model with data on growth obstacles as perceived by the owners of firms, medium sized firms are found to be strongly hurt by insufficient access to infrastructure and financial services.

International relocation: firm and industry determinants

This article is the first to explore the determinants of international relocation of a firm. It is found that labour intensive firms in a highly industrialized and open economy such as Belgium tend to relocate more to other countries than their highly productive capital intensive counterparts. Access to a global network, firm size, and the rate of innovation have a positive effect on the probability of relocation. Uncertainty has a negative impact on the probability of relocation. The positive effect of firm size and profitability on the relocation decision is clearly distinct from its effect on the exit decision of a firm.

Innovation expenditures and the role of government in Belgium

Abstract Unlike suggestions from earlier research on the Schumpeterian hypothesis, it is argued and shown that sales and employment are not simply substitute size measures to test the R&D behaviour of foreign and domestic companies operating in Belgium further suggests that government sponsored R&D has not substituted for privately funded R&D. Foreign companies are found to behave differently and to do less R&D the more they pay for externally supplied technology.

Innovative strategic groups in multinational industries

Abstract Differences in innovative strategies between groups of domestic and multinational enterprises are analyzed within a two stage game model, that incorporates the asymmetries in transaction costs between the two species of enterprises. Nash and cooperative behaviour is shown to result in different equilibrium R&D strategies, with the multinational companies doing typically more R&D for larger markets and domestic companies focusing on specific market segments. Survey data from companies operating in eleven high-tech multinational industries in Belgium provide support for these strategic differences and show how they are related to company performance.

INTERNATIONAL RELOCATION OF PRODUCTION: WHERE DO FIRMS GO?

The flexible relocation of capacity across countries by multinational enterprises has become an important source of concern. Using a unique sample of relocating firms in Belgium, we find that wages and market potential of host regions are important determinants for the location choice. Considering firm characteristics, we show that large firms have a higher propensity to relocate to remote countries. Public aid only plays a decisive role in the investment decision for relocations to adjacent countries, suggesting a potential harmful role in distorting competition. More proactive policies in line with changing comparative location advantages should be implemented to accommodate relocations.

The formation of the European Common Market and changes in market structure and performance

Abstract This paper examines the effects of the formation of the Common Market on changes in seller concentration and price-cost margins in the member states. Using NACE 3-digit industry data for West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands, the paper first seeks to identify the effect of the removal of intra-EC tariffs on changes in national concentration. The paper than tests the hypothesis that concentration measured at the EC-wide level is becoming a relevant structural variable which affects the national price-cost margin.

Internationalization Strategy and Performance of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

Focusing on the timing and geographical scope of import and export activities of Belgian small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), the paper analyzes the importance, structural features and performance implications of firms that recently started to export following the geographical configuration of their international trade operations and their year of establishment. The analysis allows us to separate firms that started to export in the period 1998-2005 into four distinct groups: born internationals, i.e. firms which were established less than five years before their first year of exporting and exporting to less than five countries in the same region (regional focus), born globals; young firms but with a more internationally diversified export portfolio, born again globals, i.e. firms similar to born globals but established longer than five years before their first exports and traditional internationalizers, firms established more than five years before their first export operations characterized by a narrow geographical scope of their exports. We find SME export growth to be driven by a small group of born global firms, accounting for 60 per cent of the total increase in SME exports between 1998 and 2005. Analyzing the structural feature of the different types of firms, we find born globals to be more productive and characterized by a higher R&D spending and intangible asset intensity compared to other types of traders. We next test if the typology matters for the observed export performance differences across firms over time. We find that born globals grow faster in terms of export sales, have a stronger commitment to export markets and are more likely to continue exporting. Born globals also have the highest failure rate, traditional internationalizers the lowest. These findings suggest strong risk/return tradeoffs among the strategies chosen by the different types of firms. Performing a dynamic analysis of changes in trade configurations of firms over the observation period, we investigate how these changes have an impact on performance. Specific attention is paid to firms that stop importing/exporting. Especially firms that move from being exporters to become two-way traders, i.e. also starting to import goods from other countries show the most marked increases in turnover and productivity. The final part of the study analyzes the relationship between export and import activities to particular countries following the sequence in which they occur. We find that the probability to start importing from a country is 4 times higher for firms already exporting to that country than for trading SMEs without prior export experience in that country.

Foreign ownership and productivity dynamics

In analyzing the distinctive contribution of foreign subsidiaries and domestic firms to productivity growth in aggregate Belgian manufacturing, this paper shows that foreign ownership is an important source of firm heterogeneity affecting productivity dynamics. Foreign firms have contributed disproportionately large to aggregate productivity growth, but more importantly reallocation processes differ significantly between the groups of foreign subsidiaries and domestic firms.

Cascading contingent protection and vertical market structure

Cascading contingent protection may occur when protection of an upstream industry transfers injury to the downstream industry and increases the likelihood that this industry asks and receives protection. This paper shows that the political economy of cascading contingent protection can be represented by a sequential bidding game in expected payoffs where the upstream industry acts as a Stackelberg leader. A simple model of competition in, and vertical linkage between, an upstream and downstream industry is developed to examine in which type of industries cascading contingent protection is most likely to occur. Analysis of welfare effects shows that the circumstances which make cascading protection more likely to occur, also make it more likely that it has serious negative welfare consequences.