Das Handwerk ist ein wichtiger Sektor der deutschen Volkswirtschaft. Die Erscheinungsformen handwerklicher Betriebe haben sich in den vergangenen Jahren aber entscheidend verändert. Während früher die mittleren Größenklassen dominierten, haben heute die Ränder an Bedeutung gewonnen. Dies...

Innovation is crucial to economic development. Innovation expenditures in Germany's business sector as well as public funding for science and research have been increasing in the past decade. However, the share of businesses with innovations - especially among the small- and medium-sized ones -...

Environmental innovations may contribute to both improving the environmental quality of products and increasing the resource efficiency of products and processes. In particular, energy and resource efficiency innovations (hereafter: EREIs) are seen as win-win opportunities. The German...