- 18 Apr 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
How Are Small Businesses Adjusting to COVID-19? Early Evidence From a Survey
This survey of 5,819 small businesses in the United States shows that the pandemic has already caused massive dislocation among small businesses. Many businesses think they will not be able to survive if the crisis persists for the coming months. The immediacy of new funding will likely impact medium-term outcomes.
- 13 Apr 2020
- Coronavirus
Small Businesses Are Worse Off Than We Thought
A survey of small-business owners shows that lack of liquidity and skepticism of government programs are compounding COVID crisis recovery efforts. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 24 Mar 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Free Riding in Loan Approvals: Evidence From SME Lending in Peru
Using data from a large Peruvian bank trying to expand credit access to small and medium enterprises, this study shows that competing lenders use one another’s loan approvals as an input into their own approval process. Such “free riding” has great impact on market outcomes and might warrant policy intervention.
- 20 Mar 2020
- Coronavirus
How Small Businesses Can Survive the Coronavirus Outbreak
COVID-19 will put many small businesses on life support. Karen G. Mills, who has been advising policymakers on aid options, offers guidance to owners on the brink of ruin. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 20 Mar 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
In the Shadows? Informal Enterprise in Non-Democracies
With the informal economy representing a third of the GDP in an average Middle East and North African country, why do chronically indebted regimes tolerate such a large and untaxed shadow economy? Among this study’s findings, higher rates of public sector employment correlate with greater permissibility of firm informality.
- 22 Apr 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Immigrant Entrepreneurship in America: Evidence from the Survey of Business Owners 2007 & 2012
How do businesses created by immigrants differ from those of natives? This study using the 2007 and 2012 Survey of Business Owners records finds that while immigrant-owned businesses have a modestly different industry composition than native-owned businesses, there are ten-fold differences across states in terms of the share of businesses owned by immigrants.
- 20 Nov 2017
- Research & Ideas
How Independent Bookstores Have Thrived in Spite of Amazon.com
Ryan Raffaelli set out to discover how independent bookstores managed to survive and even thrive in spite of competition from Amazon and other online retailers. His initial findings reveal how much consumers still value community and personal contact. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 16 Oct 2017
- Research & Ideas
The Most Successful Startups Have Hands-On Founders
Research by Rembrand Koning and colleagues says the best-performing startups are those where the founder is hands-on with people management. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 12 Oct 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
The Decline of Big-Bank Lending to Small Business: Dynamic Impacts on Local Credit and Labor Markets
Between 2008 and 2014, the Top 4 banks sharply decreased their lending to small business. This paper examines the lasting economic consequences of this contraction, finding that a credit supply shock from a subset of lenders can have surprisingly long-lived effects on real activity.
- 31 Jul 2017
- HBS Case
It’s Hard to Fix the Family Business Without Offending the Family
Navigating complex relationships and understanding unwritten processes are among the many challenges of transitioning a family-owned business to the next generation. Len Schlesinger, Michael Raiche, and Roger Zhu discuss the dilemmas of a small Vietnamese restaurant in the case study “Pho Hoa Dorchester.” Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 22 Dec 2016
- Op-Ed
The Small Business Administration is a Model for How to Drive Economic Growth
Responding to a recent editorial in the Washington Post, Karen Mills argues that the Small Business Administration is an effective public-private partnership model that fuels economic growth, access, and opportunity for all Americans. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 02 Nov 2016
- Op-Ed
Government and Financial Tech Can Fix Cash Woes for Small Businesses
Cash flow is a major concern for small businesses, which, on average, hold only 27 days’ reserve. Karen Mills looks at how "fintech" and government policies can pull companies off the cash flow edge. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 17 Oct 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Self-Employment Dynamics and the Returns to Entrepreneurship
Why do workers turn to entrepreneurship when many entrepreneurs appear to earn less than what they could earn in paid employment? This is the first paper to characterize how the value of resolving uncertainty about entrepreneurial earnings varies over the lifecycle after adjusting for tax differences between entrepreneurs and paid workers. Findings suggest that helping people learn about their potential earnings in entrepreneurship, either by learning from other's experiences in self-employment or by experimenting themselves, can improve the efficiency of sorting workers across sectors.
- 10 Jan 2011
- Research & Ideas
Is Groupon Good for Retailers?
For retailers offering deals through the wildly popular online start-up Groupon, does the one-day publicity compensate for the deep hit to profit margins? A new working paper, "To Groupon or Not to Groupon," sets out to help small businesses decide. Harvard Business School professor Benjamin G. Edelman discusses the paper's findings. Key concepts include: Discount vouchers provide price discrimination, letting merchants attract consumers who would not ordinarily patronize their business without a major price incentive. These vouchers also benefit merchants through advertising, simply by informing consumers of a merchant's existence via e-mail. For some merchants, the benefits of offering discount vouchers are sharply reduced if individual customers buy multiple vouchers. As a marketing tool, discount vouchers are likely to be most effective for businesses that are relatively unknown and have low marginal costs. Closed for comment; 59 Comment(s) posted.
Coronavirus Could Create a 'Bankruptcy Pandemic'
An expected explosion in bankruptcy proceedings over the coming months could overwhelm the courts, says Stuart Gilson. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.