Extent and Evolution of the Productivity Gap in Eastern Germany

Since the German re?unification in 1990, Eastern Germany is a transition economy. After a phase of catching up of productivity with respect to Western Germany from 1991 to 1996, the growth rates in the producing sector have dropped below the Western German ones since 1997. This study investigates whether this macroeconomic picture holds at the microeconomic level. For the special case of Eastern Germany, I suggest to identify productivity gaps by a comparison with Western Germany as a ?productivity benchmark?. Applying an econometric matching procedure allows to study the productivity gap at the firm level in detail. Besides labor and capital, other factors like innovation or firm ownership are taken into account. The macroeconomic facts are broadly confirmed: a significant gap still remains in recent years. Moreover innovators in Eastern Germany perform worse than their Western German pendants and firms owned by Western German or foreign companies perform better than Eastern German owned ones. --Productivity Gap,Eastern Germany,Non-parametric Matching

Does professional knowledge management improve innovation performance at the firm level?

The concept of knowledge has gained in interest since industrialized economics have induced a shift in importance from labor, capital and natural resources towards intellectual resources. This study investigates how the management of knowledge influences the innovation performance of a firm. While former studies mainly focused on knowledge management cycles, we distinguish different types of knowledge management techniques. It turns out that there is a difference between three knowledge management techniques and their influence on product and process innovation. The ability to source external knowledge positively affects the firm's introduction of new products and products new to the market. For obtaining cost reductions it is effective to stimulate employees to share knowledge. The availability of a codified knowledge management policy also positively affects the cost reduction possibilities of a firm. These results indicate that it is important for a firm to carefully select the tools of knowledge management in function of the kind of technical innovation it wants to proceed. --Knowledge management,innovation performance

The effects of public R&D subsidies on firms' innovation activities: the case of Eastern Germany

This study analyzes the effects of public R&D policy schemes on the innovation activities of firms located in Eastern Germany. The main question in this context is whether public funds stimulate R&D activities or simply crowd out privately financed R&D. Empirically, we investigate the average causal effects of all public R&D schemes in Eastern Germany using a non?parametric matching approach. Compared to the case where no public financial means are provided, it turns out that firms increase their innovation activities by about four percentage points. --Public Innovation Subsidies,Non?parametric Matching

License Expenditures of Incumbents and Potential Entrants: An Empirical Analysis of Firm Behavior

This paper presents the results of an empirical test concerning the auction model of Gilbert and Newbery (1982). The study uses data on German companies in order to analyze expenditures for technology licenses. Aside of standard control variables the motives for innovation expenditures are also taken into account. We differentiate between firms which intend to secure their present position in the market (incumbents) and those intending to enter a new market (challengers). In line with the prediction of the auction model, it turns out that incumbents show higher expenditures for technology licenses than potential entrants. --Innovation,Licenses,Incumbent versus entrant,Limited Dependent Variables

Do R&D subsidies matter? Evidence for the German service sector

In recent times the service sector is often called the driving force of today?s economies. This paper analyses the innovative activities of German service firms. We investigate whether firms that receive public subsidies for innovation projects engage more in innovative activities than others. Additionally, we test the hypothesis that innovative firms are more likely to get public grants in the future. Empirically, it turns out that public grants raise the firms? privately financed innovative activities. The more grants a firm has received in the past, the more it invests in current innovation projects. Furthermore, innovating firms are more likely to have future access to public grants. Additionally, the share of university graduates of firms' total employees is an important factor for future participation in public R&D schemes. --Innovation,Public R&D Subsidies,Service Sector,Policy Evaluation

Biomedical academic entrepreneurship through the SBIR program2.

This paper considers the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program as a policy fostering academic entrepreneurship. We highlight two main characteristics of the program that make it attractive as an entrepreneurship policy: early-stage financing and scientist involvement in commercialization. Using unique data on NIH supported biomedical researchers, we trace the incidence of biomedical entrepreneurship through SBIR and describe some of the characteristics of these individuals. To explore the importance of early-stage financing and scientist involvement, we complement our individual level data with information on scientist-linked and non-linked SBIR firms. Our results show that the SBIR program is being used as a commercialization channel by academic scientists. Moreover, we find that the firms associated with these scientists perform significantly better than other non-linked SBIR firms in terms of followon venture capital funding, SBIR program completion, and patenting.Academic entrepreneurship; Characteristics; Data; Firms; Information; Innovation;

The design paradox: the contribution of in-house and external design activities on product market performance

This paper explores the contribution of design activities on product market performance of Belgian companies. While there is mounting evidence that design can be seen as a strategic tool to successfully spur sales of new product developments at the firm level, the topic of design innovation has not been linked to the open innovation concept yet. In this paper we empirically test whether design activities conducted in-house differ in their contribution to new product sales from externally acquired design. Using a large crosssection of manufacturing and service firms, we investigate the effects on sales of products new to the market and of imitation or significantly improved products of the firm. At first glance, we find the paradox that externally acquired design is not superior to in-house design activities. This effect is robust to several modifications of the model specification. As earlier literature on new technological developments in high-tech sectors, we argue, however, that external design may not affect the sales of market novelties as the “market news” may spill-over quickly to rivals through common customers and suppliers including external designers. --Design,R&D,Collaboration,Open Innovation,Product Market Performance

Small firm innovation performance and employee involvement.

It is known that small firms rely mainly on the CEO’s individual knowledge for developing innovations. Recent work suggests that this approach is inefficient since it underutilizes other employees’ knowledge. We study to which extent using CEOs, managers and non-managerial employees’ ideas enhances small firms’ innovation performance. A Heckman selection model on 305 small firms shows that not only CEO’s and managers’, but also non-managerial employees’ ideas contribute to innovation performance. However, contributions depend heavily on the individuals’ area of expertise and on whether product or process innovation is desired. Our findings enrich the current view on the entrepreneurial team, but also warn against the implementation of one-size-fits-all employee involvement programs in small firms.employee involvement; upper echelon; non-managerial employees; innovation performance; small firms;

An empirical test of the asymmetric models on innovative activity: who invests more into R&D - the incumbent or the challenger?

The theoretical discussion concerning the question whether the incumbent or the (potential) entrant invests more into R&D has attracted considerable interest. This paper reports the results of an empirical study on this question using data of about 3500 German firms over the years 1992 to 1995. The survey explicitly asks the firms for their motives to undertake innovative activity. It is thus possible to take account of intended, not just completed, market entry. It turns out that the challenger invests more into R&D in order to enter a new market than the incumbent. Thus, the patent racing model by Reinganum and others seems to characterize innovative activity more accurately than the competing auction model of Gilbert and Newbery. We use a heteroscedastic tobit as well as a tobit model with selectivity in order to deal with the econometric problems of double censoring. --Innovative Activity,Patent Races,Uncertainty,Incumbent versus Entrant,Tobit with Selectivity

License expenditures of incumbents and potential entrants : an empirical analysis of firm behavior.

This paper presents the results of an empirical test concerning the auction model of Gilbert and Newbery (1982). The study uses data on German companies in order to analyze expenditures for technology licenses. Aside of standard control variables the motives for innovation expenditures are also taken into account. We differentiate between firms which intend to secure their present position in the market (incumbents) and those intending to enter a new market (challengers). In line with the prediction of the auction model, it turns out that incumbents show higher expenditures for technology licenses than potential entrants.Behavior; Companies; Data; Firms; Incumbant versus entrant; Innovation;