|
on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
| By: | Elena Cefis; Mihaela-Livia Ghita |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether involvement in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) triggers distinct patterns of innovative behaviour across firms situated at different points on the firm size distribution. Firms use more and more M&As as mechanisms to bridge the gap between where they are and what they want to achieve in terms of innovation and performance. We explore the different impact of M&A activity on the likelihood that firms begin to innovate using an unique dataset combining innovation and economic firm-level data from two different sources: the 4 waves of Community Innovation Survey and the Business Register, for the Dutch manufacturing sector. The analysis is carried out at different size classes. The results show that both new entry and persistence in innovative activities are fostered by M&A involvement. Medium firms are the ones showing the highest probabilities of entering /persisting in innovative activities after M&As. For small firms, M&As do not ease the overcome of “the innovative threshold”; on the contrary they seem to increase the probability of exiting innovative status in the post-merger period. |
| Keywords: | Mergers and acquisitions; innovation; small and medium enterprises; transition probabilities; probit models |
| JEL: | L11 L25 D21 C14 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:0809&r=tid |
| By: | Koellinger, Ph.D (Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), RSM Erasmus University) |
| Abstract: | This article analyzes the relationship between the usage of Internet-based technologies, different types of innovation, and performance at the firm level. Data for the empirical investigation originates from a sample of 7,302 European enterprises. The empirical results show that Internet-based technologies were an important enabler of innovation in the year 2003. It was found that all studied types of innovation, including Internet-enabled and non-Internet-enabled product or process innovations, are positively associated with turnover and employment growth. Firms that rely on Internet-enabled innovations are at least as likely to grow as firms that rely on non-Internet-enabled innovations. Finally, it was found that innovative activity is not necessarily associated with higher profitability. Possible reasons for this and implications are discussed. |
| Keywords: | information technology;e-business;innovation;firm performance;profitability |
| Date: | 2008–05–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:eureri:1765012469&r=tid |
| By: | Andrea R. Lamorgese (Bank of Italy, Department for Structural Economic Analysis) |
| Abstract: | This paper formalizes one mechanism through which diversification in the production of research & development across firms located in a city dampens volatility in the local labor market, improves the incentives to perform research & development and smooths the aggregate business cycle fluctuations of a city. This is done by adapting the standard multi-sector quality ladder model (Grossman and Helpman 1991) in order to allow for heterogeneity across firms, thus taking into account knowledge spillovers across heterogenous sectors, knowledge accumulation, pecuniary externalities and segmented labor markets. As a result, according to the local degree of diversification in research & development, sectoral technological shocks have an influence on the current choice of research & development and the location of production, and in turn on local business cycles and the life cycle of the city: diversification in research & development allows innovations in different sectors of the city to arrive at different points in time, thus avoiding to put pressure on the local labor markets and keeping wage discipline. This permits firms located in the city to perform enough research & development and possibly beat outside competition in discovering and manufacturing new products, thus growing -at the aggregate city level-through less volatile cycles. |
| Keywords: | quality ladder with heterogeneity across firms, labor pooling economies, knowledge spillovers, diversification, schumpeterian growth in the city |
| JEL: | I31 I32 D63 D31 E32 O31 R23 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_667_08&r=tid |