تجزیه و تحلیل عملکرد از NTBFs در صنایع دانش بر: شواهد از بخش سلامت انسان

This study aims to shed some light on the differences in performance between New Technology-Based Firms (NTBFs) and others in a knowledge intensive industry, in this case the Human Health (HH) sector. With that purpose in mind, this work involves applying a new model for performance assessment to a representative sample of firms pertaining to the Human Health sector in the Valencia region of Spain. Application of several statistical techniques confirms the presence of an NTBF effect which ascribes a more favorable performance profile to the NTBF group. The analysis also reveals significant disparities at the territorial level between the core of the region and the rest. The Biomedicine branch appears to be a good business opportunity for investors and entrepreneurs but the differences in performance with the other two sectors are not statistically significant.

Nowadays, entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to innovate arise as key assets in any knowledge-intensive industry, in turn becoming major factors in the definitive consolidation of so-called new economy or new productive models. These models are, by and large, welcome all over the world but especially in Southern European countries like Spain. To make significant progress in knowledge-intensive industries, these countries need to create, in a relatively short time span, thousands of new companies. This major challenge demands an enhancement in entrepreneurial spirit among young and talented people, including researchers, and training them in the tools and skills required to create and lead new innovative firms, or New Technology-Based Firms (NTBFs). Innovativeness, recent foundation, technology orientation and high growth potential are typical features of these companies. The emergence of these new ventures turns out to be of primary concern and a key requirement in the gradual renewal of the economic base in many European regions. Within this context, learning as much as possible about the performance and expectations of the different types of firms operating in knowledge-intensive industries is particularly timely and relevant. Here lies precisely the main purpose of this study: to delve into performance indicators of the New Technology-Based Firms, which literature and many experts claim is the most suitable category of companies to operate in knowledge-intensive sectors. The actual intention of this study is to contribute to the existing literature by gathering new findings about the performance differences of NTBFs as compared with other firms. This study wishes to throw light on the performance areas where these differences are either likely or unlikely to be present. Consequently, the overall purpose is more than to solely determine the profile of NTBFs, already put forward in earlier research. Only recently the literature starts to pay attention to performance analysis in NTBFs with some examples of empirically-based studies addressing performance-related issues in this category of firms. This study also addresses the issue of possible performance differences due to two factors; first, the firm's location in either core or peripheral territories; and second, its membership in different subsectors within the same knowledge-intensive industry. Up to now most studies dealing with NTBFs focus on differences between NTBFs and other firms pertaining to non-intensive R&D sectors. As a consequence, some studies targeting knowledge industries take for granted that all the companies are, by definition, NTBFs. On the contrary, this study contests that assertion and goes one step further by opening up the possibility of discerning performance differences within industries intensive in R&D activities: the so-called knowledge-intensive industries. If these differences do emerge, these findings would form the basis of a theoretical contribution to the emerging literature surrounding NTBFs. Firms operating in knowledge-intensive industries distinguish themselves on the basis of several traits, including their size, their R&D intensity and their innovative capacity. In short, only those relatively recent firms, which are small in size and endowed with a distinctive innovative capacity, fall into the NTBF category. Many firms operating in knowledge-intensive industries are simply technology-users with low, if any, innovative capacity. Consequently, they fall outside this definition and become non-NTBFs. This study contains empirical fieldwork in one country, Spain, in a single knowledge-intensive industry, the Human Health sector. Most Spanish companies pertaining to this industry simply provide specialized services or tailored products to other firms while their investment in R&D activities and their innovative capacity remain low. As a result, the NTBFs in this industry and in many other knowledge-based industries represent just a portion of the overall entrepreneurial population. The purpose of this study is to discriminate between the behavior and performance of true NTBFs and others, which are mostly technology-user service-oriented firms. At this point, the study's main research questions emerge. Does the nature of the NTBF matter to performance in knowledge-intensive industries? What traits do NTBFs share in R&D intensive industries? Which subsectors in the Human Health industry hold the best chances for growth, hence becoming attractive to investors and entrepreneurs? Does the location in the region's core territory matter in terms of the performance of the firms operating in the Human Health industry? The study suggests a performance analysis model whose conception involves a broad view which centers on quantitative and objective measures. The accounting reports that firms submit on a compulsory basis to the Spanish Business Register provide the relevant data, entailing 10 original variables and making up 3 axes. This study is in search of those economic performance variables with a differentiated behavior, in a typical knowledge-intensive sector: the Human Health industry.

The results arising from this empirical study confirm that an NTBF effect exists even within R&D intensive industries. This effect implies that the NTBFs (i.e., the most innovative and R&D dependent firms) certainly grow more in terms of turnover and employment, whereas other performance variables such as their size, productivity and profitability show no differences from the non-NTBF group. The NTBFs also tend to pay upper-tier salaries to their employees. This last result possibly stems from their capacity to offer products and services with higher added value than non-NTFBs. Consequently, the main conclusion of this study states that firms with greater R&D expenditure and broader innovation capacity, or the NTBFs, tend to outweigh the others in terms of growth but not in other economic performance indicators. These findings are in keeping with recent empirical studies which link increasing R&D intensity with an increase in growth but not with greater profitability. The empirical findings reveal the complete lack of a subsector effect. Although the descriptive figures report a higher growth in terms of turnover and employees in the Biomedicine subsector, these differences are not statistically significant. To determine whether or not this subsector is the right choice for investors or entrepreneurs requires a deeper analysis of economic figures and of the different business models running in Biomedicine firms. Finally, the companies in the Human Health sector of the Metropolitan Area of Valencia, the region's core location, tend to display higher growth and productivity rates, despite paying more to their employees. This area benefits from several advantages that appeal to firms pertaining to knowledge-intensive sectors, including the presence of two large and prestigious universities, the regional government headquarters, the highest concentration of potential investors and the finest transport facilities. With regard to possible limitations, this study relies on a cross-sectional dataset of firms operating in the Human Health sector of the Valencia region in 2008. Access to panel data over an extended time period would enrich the findings of this study and would facilitate the establishment of controls for macroeconomic indicators and other year-related effects. Performance volatility and survival rates are highly significant traits of NTBFs so, in principle, a longitudinal study, despite being far more complex, would be the most suitable method for verifying the variance of firm performance over a certain period of time. Another point worth bearing in mind is the fact that 77.0% of all firms in the Biomedicine sector are NTBFs in comparison with around one third in the other sectors. A possible link between the NTBF effect and the Biomedicine subsector is derived from this figure. To discern the potential connection between the NTBF effect and a Biomedicine effect would be the object of further research. A final issue worth addressing in the future is the discussion of the structural relationship between firm traits and firm performance.