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This paper examines the impact of different types of innovation on the business performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) using a multi-dimensional analytical approach. Based on a wide sample of Spanish SMEs, our results highlight the existence of positive impacts of innovation on financial and operational dimensions of business performance, and the significant differences in these impacts depending on the type of innovation and the performance indicator considered. Our findings are relevant for managers and innovation decision-makers when designing innovation strategies to foster the business performance of SMEs. Additionally, the multi-faceted nature of the link between innovation and business outcomes in SMEs reveals that making the right innovation decision is crucial in securing the desired performance outcomes in a context of limited resources for innovation.

This paper analyses the involvement of small firms in international trade activities by identifying the comprehensive impact of innovation. Specifically, we study how innovation introduced by these firms determines the entrepreneurial decision-making process regarding whether to engage in exporting and/or importing. Our results confirm the interrelation of firms’ exporting and importing decisions and consequently, these two decisions should be jointly estimated when analysing the influence incurred by the introduction of alternative types of innovation (product, process, and organizational/managerial innovation) on said decisions. Furthermore, findings show complementarity between types of innovation to be relevant in explaining export and import decisions made by SMEs. Specifically, cumulative effects as a result of combining product and process innovation, as well as of product, process and organizational innovation, are highly significant in explaining export decisions, while in the case of imports, the combination of product and organizational innovation is shown to be significant. These findings lead to major policy and managerial implications regarding the promotion of SMEs’ participation in international trade flows through alternative innovation strategies.

This paper analyses the role of gender of the chief executive officer (CEO) on the propensity to introduce innovations using a sample of 1405 Spanish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We examine whether there are significant differences between female- and male-led businesses in terms of their propensity to innovate, and whether these differences may be explained by factors related to the attributes of the CEO concerning risk tolerance, self-confidence, education level and cooperative behaviour. In particular, this study tests if the linkages between these managerial attributes and the propensity to innovate are influenced by the gender of the CEO. Using a multivariate probit model (triprobit), we further investigate the role of gender on the CEO decision to simultaneously introduce product, process and organisational innovations. Our main results indicate that there are not significant differences in the propensity to introduce innovations between male- and female-run businesses when considering innovation at an aggregated level, that is, innovating in any of the three types of innovations considered. However, we obtain a higher propensity of male CEOs to introduce process innovations, as compared to their female counterparts. No significant differences by gender are found for product and organisational innovations. Additionally, results of the multivariate probit model indicate that the three innovation decisions are interdependent and should be jointly analysed. This study contributes to the scant literature regarding gender impact on firm’s innovativeness with novel empirical evidence for SMEs.

The relationship between entrepreneur’s gender and business performance has been studied in existing literature assuming that it is a straight-forward direct relationship. Instead, in this study we examine how gender affects business performance through the introduction of innovations. Our aim is to explore the differences between men-led and women-led businesses as regards the performance results they obtain from innovating. We use a sample of 1376 Spanish small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to analyse the effect of entrepreneur’s gender on business performance considering the mediating effect of innovations, that is, the possibility that gender indirectly influences business performance by affecting the introduction of innovations. Using econometric techniques, we estimate discrete choice models to investigate the relationship amongst gender, innovations and performance. Our main results show that men-led SMEs are more likely to achieve superior performance from innovations, and particularly, from their higher propensity to implement process innovations, in comparison to women-led SMEs. One limitation of our study is that data is cross-sectional, so that caution is needed regarding the causal interpretation of results. We contribute to uncover the role of gender on SMEs performance and the need to incorporate a policy gender perspective when dealing with enhancing SMEs innovativeness and performance.

In this paper we provide the first estimate of the intertemporal substitution for leisure in Spain, accounting for the impact of human capital accumulation. This would allow uncovering whether the intertemporal labour supply of Spanish workers is affected by human capital. Our empirical strategy consists of estimating the equation for the intertemporal substitution of leisure with and without accounting for human capital, what allows to detect hypothetical estimation biases associated to omitting the impact of human capital. To that end, we build a pseudo-panel data set combining the Spanish Family Expenditure Survey and the Labour Survey over the period 1987–1997. While the model that ignores human capital accumulation provides an estimate of the intertemporal elasticity of substitution for leisure about 0.25, comparable to previously available estimates for Spain and other economies, the model with human capital provides an estimate about 0.5, what confirms the existence of a bias in the former estimates. Finally, this bias is larger for the younger cohorts than for the older ones.

Long-term cocaine consumption is associated with brain structural and functional changes. While the animal literature on cocaine use and dependence has traditionally focused on the striatum, previous human studies using voxel-based morphometry have reported reduced volumes of gray matter in several brain areas, but not in the striatum. Brain magnetic resonance imaging was performed with 20 cocaine-dependent patients and 16 healthy age-, education- and intelligence-matched control men. The cocaine-dependent group had lower gray matter volumes in the striatum and right supramarginal gyrus compared to controls. Within the cocaine-dependent group, years of cocaine use were inversely associated with the volume of the bilateral middle frontal gyrus, left superior frontal gyrus, parahippocampus, posterior cingulate, amygdala, insula, right middle temporal gyrus and cerebellum. These results show that cocaine dependence is associated with reduced gray matter volumes in the target structures of the dopaminergic system. These findings are the first to suggest reduced gray matter in the striatum by means of voxel-based morphometry in human users, thereby linking human results to animal models of addiction. In addition, the relationship between years of use and gray matter volumes in numerous brain regions are consistent with these volume reductions arising as a consequence of the cocaine use. ► Cocaine dependence is associated with reduced gray matter volumes in the striatum. ► Gray matter volume of the amygdala is reduced with years of cocaine use. ► The study links structural changes in cocaine addicts with previous animal research.

Background To prospectively analyze the efficacy of uromune® in the prevention of uncomplicated recurrent urinary tract infections at 3 and 6 months, and according to gender and menopause. Methods From September 2011 to December 2017 uromune® was administered sublingually every 24 h along 3 months to 784 patients with history of three or more uncomplicated urinary tract infections in the 12 months prior to the first visit. The variables analyzed with statistical package system for science version 15.0 were age, gender, number of urinary tract infections with positive urine culture in the first consultation, and 3 and 6 months after the end of treatment. The results with positive urine culture were registered at 3 and 6 months after the end of the treatment according to gender and also in the menopausal group with respect to pre-menopausal women. Results Mean age was 73.5 years. 82.7% were women and 94.3% menopausal. The number of episodes of urinary tract infections in the 12 months prior to uromune® were 3 in 37.2%, 4 in 28.1%, 5 in 19.5%, 6 in 9.6%, 7 in 4%, 8 in 1.4%, 9 in 0.1% and 10 in 0.1%. Three months after uromune® 44.1% had 0 urinary tract infections and 27.6% had 1. After 6 months the results were 0 urinary tract infections in 32.3% and 1 in 32.4%. Women had 0 urinary tract infections after 3 months in 45.4% and 1 in 28.5%. At 6 months the female had 0 episodes in 32.7% and 1 in 33.2%. Menopausal women had 0 urinary tract infections at 3 months in 46.5% and 1 in 28% and at 6 months scored 0 episodes in 33.6% and 1 in 32.9%. Conclusions Uromune® was highly effective to reduce the number of episodes of urinary tract infections at three and six months of follow-up. Uromune® reduced the number of episodes to zero or one in 71.7 and 64.7% at three and six months with minimal side effects. The best results were observed in women over 50 years old. Sublingual immunoprophylaxis with uromune® could be the treatment of first choice in the prevention of uncomplicated recurrent urinary tract infections according to the sample analyzed.

This article introduces the special issue on Entrepreneurship and the Business Cycle, comprising articles presented at the workshop Good Times Bad Times: Entrepreneurship and the Cycle, held at the University of Valencia in November 2011. The workshop was organized to share insights about the under-researched issue of the interplay between entrepreneurship and cyclical dimensions of entrepreneurship.

This paper analyses the sources of persistence in conducting R&D activities by SMEs. The data used are a panel of Spanish manufacturing firms drawn from the Survey of Business Strategies, for the period 1990-2011. We estimate discrete time proportional hazard models accounting for firm observed and unobserved heterogeneity. Our results are consistent with a process of learning associated with the accumulation of R&D capital and with a self-sustained effect of engagement in R&D activities. In addition, we obtain that persistence in R&D in SMEs is also related to the success-breeds-success, sunk costs and demand-pull hypotheses. Finally, our findings also uncover some interesting differences in the underlying drivers of R&D persistence of SMEs as compared to their larger counterparts.

The dopaminergic system provides the basis for the interaction between motivation and cognition. It is triggered by the possibility of obtaining rewards to initiate the neurobehavioral adaptations necessary to achieve them by directing the information from motivational circuits to cognitive and action circuits. In drug addiction, the altered dopamine (DA) modulation of the meso-cortico-limbic reward circuitry, such as the prefrontal cortex (PFC), underlies the disproportionate motivational value of drug use at the expense of other non-drug reinforcers and the user's loss of control over his/her drug intake. We examine how the magnitude of the reward affects goal-directed processes in healthy control (HC) subjects and abstinent cocaine dependent (ACD) patients by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a counting Stroop task with blocked levels of monetary incentives of different magnitudes (€0, €0.01, €0.5, €1 or €1.5). Our results showed that increasing reward magnitude enhances (1) performance facilitation in both groups; (2) left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity in HC and left superior occipital cortex activity in ACD; and (3) left DLPFC and left putamen connectivity in ACD compared to HC. Moreover, we observed that (4) dorsal striatal and pallidum activity was associated with craving and addiction severity during the parametric increases in the monetary reward. In conclusion, the brain response to gradients in monetary value was different in HC and ACD, but both groups showed improved task performance due to the possibility of obtaining greater monetary rewards.