International engagement is often expected to improve firm performance. Especially for small technology-oriented firms, export activities may be important, being regarded as one way to amortise these firms? high product research and development costs. This paper examines the relationship between...

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...

Gregariousness is an important aspect of human life with implications for labour market outcomes. The paper examines, to the best of our knowledge for the first time for Germany, gregariousness and social interaction at the workplace and associated wage differentials. Our empirical findings with...

The paper provides evidence concerning incidence and sources of nominal wage rigidity in services and manufacturing, using a new and large employer survey on wage and price setting behaviour for Germany. We observe that wage freezes are more frequent in services than in manufacturing, whereas...

The paper analyses the theoretical and empirical relationship between employment, skill structure and innovation in East and West German manufacturing firms. The econometric part builds on firm data from the Mannheim Innovation Panel 1993, 1994 and 1995. In the German industrial sector,...

Für die Bundesrepublik und insbesondere für Baden-Württemberg mit seiner hohen Industriedichte und dem großen Anteil innovativer Unternehmen ist das Verständnis der wirtschaftlichen Zusammenhänge zwischen Beschäftigung, Qualifikation und technischem Fortschritt von zentraler Bedeutung....

Flexible work arrangements such as allowing employees to work at home are used in firms, especially since information and communication technologies have become so widespread. Using individual-level data from 10,884 German employees, this paper analyses the determinants of working at home as a...

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...

This paper examines the management practices of German firms with obligations under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) based on six structured in-depth interviews with managers of firms from different industries and based on survey data. The paper sheds light on management and trading...

Using firm-level data from the German manufacturing sector, we estimate a dynamic, structural model of the firm's decision to invest in R&D and quantify the cost and longrun benefit of this investment. The model incorporates and quantifies linkages between the firm's R&D investment, product and...