Organizing Knowledge to Compete : Impacts of Capacity Building Programs on Firm Organization
A growing literature aiming at explaining differences across firms in productivity and access to global export markets has focused on the internal organization of firms. This paper contributes to this literature by evaluating the impact of a progra...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/04/26224155/organizing-knowledge-compete-impacts-capacity-building-programs-firm-organization http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24214 |
| Summary: | A growing literature aiming at
explaining differences across firms in productivity and
access to global export markets has focused on the internal
organization of firms. This paper contributes to this
literature by evaluating the impact of a program that
focuses on enhancing competitiveness of small and medium
enterprises in Brazil by providing coaching and consulting
on management and production practices. Specifically, the
paper tests whether the program induces treated firms to
reorganize knowledge by adding more layers of different
skills and competencies to their workforces. Using a unique
firm-level dataset, the number of layers of the firms are
compared before and after the program. The impact of the
program is identified by relying on an instrumental variable
approach, exploiting the quasi-experiment roll-out of its
implementation, which was carried out at different times
across Brazilian regions. The analysis finds that the
program had an effect and that this effect is heterogeneous.
The program is particularly effective in promoting the
reorganization of firms with initially fewer layers. The
results confirm another finding of the literature, namely
that in re-organized firms inequality of wages increases, as
firms pay higher wages in added higher layers than in
pre-existing ones. Finally, these results are used to
discuss how the change in firms' organization is
positively correlated with export performance. |
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