Organizing Knowledge to Compete : Impacts of Capacity Building Programs on Firm Organization

Cruz, Marcio ; Bussolo, Maurizio ; Iacovone, Leonardo

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: SKILLS;    LIMITED;    EMPLOYMENT;    EXPORT MARKETS;    AVERAGE COSTS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7640
RP-ID  :  WPS7640

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

A growing literature aiming atexplaining differences across firms in productivity andaccess to global export markets has focused on the internalorganization of firms. This paper contributes to thisliterature by evaluating the impact of a program thatfocuses on enhancing competitiveness of small and mediumenterprises in Brazil by providing coaching and consultingon management and production practices. Specifically, thepaper tests whether the program induces treated firms toreorganize knowledge by adding more layers of differentskills and competencies to their workforces. Using a uniquefirm-level dataset, the number of layers of the firms arecompared before and after the program. The impact of theprogram is identified by relying on an instrumental variableapproach, exploiting the quasi-experiment roll-out of itsimplementation, which was carried out at different timesacross Brazilian regions. The analysis finds that theprogram had an effect and that this effect is heterogeneous.The program is particularly effective in promoting thereorganization of firms with initially fewer layers. Theresults confirm another finding of the literature, namelythat in re-organized firms inequality of wages increases, asfirms pay higher wages in added higher layers than inpre-existing ones. Finally, these results are used todiscuss how the change in firms' organization ispositively correlated with export performance.