This study analyzes the use of design and the position of the design function in Finnish manufacturing firms. We also study the impact of design on companies business performance. The paper is based on a survey directed to the member companies of the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) in...

This paper documents the relationship between foreign ownership and firm survival forenterprises in Germany using unique tailor-made new representative data that mergeinformation from surveys performed by the Statistical Offices, from administrative datacollected by the Tax Authorities and from...

Does competitive pressure foster innovation? In addressing this important question, priorstudies ignored a distinction between discrete innovation aiming at entirely new technologyand continuous improvement consisting of numerous incremental improvements andmodifications made upon the existing...

A recent survey of 54 micro-econometric studies reveals that exporting firms are moreproductive than non-exporters. On the other hand, previous empirical studies show thatexporting does not necessarily improve productivity. One possible reason for this result isthat most previous studies are...

This study analyses the dynamics of productivity growth at the micro level in Finnish manufacturing industries. It is shown that productivity-enhancing restructuring (so-called “creative destruction”) has played a crucial role especially since the mid-1980s. Empirical evidence is provided...

In this paper we analyze the evolution of firm financial efficiency in the Czech Republic. Using a large panel of more than 400,000 Czech firm/years we study whether firms fully utilize their resources, how firm financial efficiency evolves over time, and how firm financial efficiency is...

This study analyzes trends in specialization of the Finnish industry since the 1980s. Low technology industries, such as pulp and paper, have had traditionally a large proportion of the Finnish industrial output. During the recent decades their share of output has decreased significantly and...

The report analyses the impacts of globalization on competitiveness of national economies, industries and firms. The focus is in mechanical and electrical engineering and machinery. Global division of labor has significantly changed over the past few decades when the large emerging economies...

This paper aims to establish how the innovative activity in Finland has changed over time in the transition from a resource-driven economy to a knowledge-driven economy. The paper first takes a historical perspective on innovation and industrial activity in Finland through a descriptive...

Using data collected from a panel of 6,205 civilian manufacturing firms located in the Central, Volga, North Caucasus, Northern and Western Siberian regions of Russia, this paper examines the hypotheses that in the first stage of the transition process (1) Russian industry exhibited a low labor...