Lars Persson - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Lars Persson

Small Business Economics, 2013

ABSTRACT Research on entrepreneurship has flourished in recent years and is evolving rapidly. Thi... more ABSTRACT Research on entrepreneurship has flourished in recent years and is evolving rapidly. This article explores the history of entrepreneurship research, how the research domain has evolved, and its current status as an academic field. The need to concretize these issues stems partly from a general interest in defining the current research domain and partly from the more specific tasks confronting the prize committee of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. Entrepreneurship has developed in many sub-fields within several disciplines—primarily economics, management/business administration, sociology, psychology, economic and cultural anthropology, business history, strategy, marketing, finance, and geography—representing a variety of research traditions, perspectives, and methods. We present an analytical framework that organizes our thinking about the domain of entrepreneurship research by specifying elements, levels of analysis, and the process/context. An overview is provided of where the field stands today and how it is positioned relative to the existing disciplines and new research fields upon which it draws. Areas needed for future progress are highlighted, particularly the need for a rigorous dynamic theory of entrepreneurship that relates entrepreneurial activity to economic growth and human welfare. Moreover, applied work based on more careful design as well as on theoretical models yielding more credible and robust estimates seems also highly warranted.

Small Business Economics, 2013

Research on entrepreneurship has flourished in recent years and is evolving rapidly. This article... more Research on entrepreneurship has flourished in recent years and is evolving rapidly. This article explores the history of entrepreneurship research, how the research domain has evolved, and its current status as an academic field. The need to concretize these issues stems partly from a general interest in defining the current research domain and partly from the more specific tasks confronting the prize committee of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. Entrepreneurship has developed in many sub-fields within several disciplines-primarily economics, management/business administration, sociology, psychology, economic and cultural anthropology, business history, strategy, marketing, finance, and geography-representing a variety of research traditions, perspectives, and methods. We present an analytical framework that organizes our thinking about the domain of entrepreneurship research by specifying elements, levels of analysis, and the process/context. An overview is provided of where the field stands today and how it is positioned relative to the existing disciplines and new research fields upon which it draws. Areas needed for future progress are highlighted, particularly the need for a rigorous dynamic theory of entrepreneurship that relates entrepreneurial activity to economic growth and human welfare. Moreover, applied work based on more careful design as well as on theoretical models yielding more credible and robust estimates seems also highly warranted.

International Journal of Industrial Organization, 2001

This paper proposes an approach to modeling endogenous merger formation, employing ideas on coali... more This paper proposes an approach to modeling endogenous merger formation, employing ideas on coalition formation from cooperative game theory. The model constitutes a generalization of the traditional IO criterion for whether firms have incentives to merge. The model suggests that in concentrated markets, mergers are conducive to market structures with large industry profits, and thus points to a potential conflict

We develop a theory of commercialization mode (entry or sale) of entrepreneurial inventions into ... more We develop a theory of commercialization mode (entry or sale) of entrepreneurial inventions into oligopoly, and show that an invention of higher quality is more likely to be sold (or licensed) to an incumbent due to strategic product market effects on the sales price. Moreover, preemptive acquisitions by incumbents are shown to stimulate the process of creative destruction by increasing the entrepreneurial effort allocated to high-quality invention projects. Using detailed data on patents granted to small firms and individuals, we find evidence that high-quality inventions are often sold, and that they are sold under bidding competition.

We develop a theoretical oligopoly model to study how international differences in profit and cap... more We develop a theoretical oligopoly model to study how international differences in profit and capital gains taxes affect incentives for foreign acquisitions. We find that reductions in foreign profit taxes tend to trigger inefficient foreign acquisitions, while reductions in foreign capital gains taxes may trigger efficient foreign acquisitions. Moreover, foreign acquisitions can increase domestic tax revenues. The reason is that in the bidding competition between foreign firms, all benefits from the acquisition, including tax advantages, are competed away and are captured by the domestic seller which, in turn, pays capital gains tax on the proceeds. Technical issues in the tax code, such as the treatment of goodwill deductibility, are also shown to crucially affect the pattern of foreign acquisitions.

We analyze incentives to develop entrepreneurial ideas for venture capitalists (VCs) and incumben... more We analyze incentives to develop entrepreneurial ideas for venture capitalists (VCs) and incumbent firms. If VCs are sufficiently better at judging an idea's value and if it is sufficiently less costly to patent high than low value ideas, VCs acquire valuable ideas, develop them beyond the ...

Small Business Economics, 2013

ABSTRACT Research on entrepreneurship has flourished in recent years and is evolving rapidly. Thi... more ABSTRACT Research on entrepreneurship has flourished in recent years and is evolving rapidly. This article explores the history of entrepreneurship research, how the research domain has evolved, and its current status as an academic field. The need to concretize these issues stems partly from a general interest in defining the current research domain and partly from the more specific tasks confronting the prize committee of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. Entrepreneurship has developed in many sub-fields within several disciplines—primarily economics, management/business administration, sociology, psychology, economic and cultural anthropology, business history, strategy, marketing, finance, and geography—representing a variety of research traditions, perspectives, and methods. We present an analytical framework that organizes our thinking about the domain of entrepreneurship research by specifying elements, levels of analysis, and the process/context. An overview is provided of where the field stands today and how it is positioned relative to the existing disciplines and new research fields upon which it draws. Areas needed for future progress are highlighted, particularly the need for a rigorous dynamic theory of entrepreneurship that relates entrepreneurial activity to economic growth and human welfare. Moreover, applied work based on more careful design as well as on theoretical models yielding more credible and robust estimates seems also highly warranted.

Small Business Economics, 2013

Research on entrepreneurship has flourished in recent years and is evolving rapidly. This article... more Research on entrepreneurship has flourished in recent years and is evolving rapidly. This article explores the history of entrepreneurship research, how the research domain has evolved, and its current status as an academic field. The need to concretize these issues stems partly from a general interest in defining the current research domain and partly from the more specific tasks confronting the prize committee of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. Entrepreneurship has developed in many sub-fields within several disciplines-primarily economics, management/business administration, sociology, psychology, economic and cultural anthropology, business history, strategy, marketing, finance, and geography-representing a variety of research traditions, perspectives, and methods. We present an analytical framework that organizes our thinking about the domain of entrepreneurship research by specifying elements, levels of analysis, and the process/context. An overview is provided of where the field stands today and how it is positioned relative to the existing disciplines and new research fields upon which it draws. Areas needed for future progress are highlighted, particularly the need for a rigorous dynamic theory of entrepreneurship that relates entrepreneurial activity to economic growth and human welfare. Moreover, applied work based on more careful design as well as on theoretical models yielding more credible and robust estimates seems also highly warranted.

International Journal of Industrial Organization, 2001

This paper proposes an approach to modeling endogenous merger formation, employing ideas on coali... more This paper proposes an approach to modeling endogenous merger formation, employing ideas on coalition formation from cooperative game theory. The model constitutes a generalization of the traditional IO criterion for whether firms have incentives to merge. The model suggests that in concentrated markets, mergers are conducive to market structures with large industry profits, and thus points to a potential conflict

We develop a theory of commercialization mode (entry or sale) of entrepreneurial inventions into ... more We develop a theory of commercialization mode (entry or sale) of entrepreneurial inventions into oligopoly, and show that an invention of higher quality is more likely to be sold (or licensed) to an incumbent due to strategic product market effects on the sales price. Moreover, preemptive acquisitions by incumbents are shown to stimulate the process of creative destruction by increasing the entrepreneurial effort allocated to high-quality invention projects. Using detailed data on patents granted to small firms and individuals, we find evidence that high-quality inventions are often sold, and that they are sold under bidding competition.

We develop a theoretical oligopoly model to study how international differences in profit and cap... more We develop a theoretical oligopoly model to study how international differences in profit and capital gains taxes affect incentives for foreign acquisitions. We find that reductions in foreign profit taxes tend to trigger inefficient foreign acquisitions, while reductions in foreign capital gains taxes may trigger efficient foreign acquisitions. Moreover, foreign acquisitions can increase domestic tax revenues. The reason is that in the bidding competition between foreign firms, all benefits from the acquisition, including tax advantages, are competed away and are captured by the domestic seller which, in turn, pays capital gains tax on the proceeds. Technical issues in the tax code, such as the treatment of goodwill deductibility, are also shown to crucially affect the pattern of foreign acquisitions.

We analyze incentives to develop entrepreneurial ideas for venture capitalists (VCs) and incumben... more We analyze incentives to develop entrepreneurial ideas for venture capitalists (VCs) and incumbent firms. If VCs are sufficiently better at judging an idea's value and if it is sufficiently less costly to patent high than low value ideas, VCs acquire valuable ideas, develop them beyond the ...