Knowledge and competence are increasingly regarded as the most critical resources of firms and economies. Much recent attention has focused, in particular, on the importance of 'tacit knowledge' for sustaining firms’ competitiveness, and its role in technological innovation and organisational...

This paper examines the factors that influence whether firms draw from universities in their innovative activities. The link between the universities and industrial innovation, and the role of different search strategies in influencing the propensity of firms to use universities is explored. The...

This paper investigates whether firms innovate persistently or discontinuously over time using an innovation panel data set on German manufacturing and service firms for the period 1994–2002. It turns out that innovation behaviour is permanent at the firm–level to a very large extent. Using...

The aim of this paper is to develop and implement an empirical model of firm behaviour. The data applied are patent applications taken out by 16 multinationals within telecommunications. The first dimension of the model deals with the strategic behaviour of firms. Second dimension deals with the...

The aim of this paper is to investigate how industrial development, manufacturing in particular, has been contributing to agrarian change. In order to address this issue, it analyzes the technical bases and structural specificities – i.e. time and scale constraints – of agricultural...

In the process of transferring scientific knowledge to industry the role of individual academics has received less attention than the other actors in this process. This paper aims to identify the characteristics of these key individuals, or gatekeepers, by analysing them within the context of...

This paper studies the geographical breadth of knowledge spillovers. Previous research suggests that knowledge spillovers benefit from geographical proximity in technologically active and rich regions more than elsewhere. An alternative view explains the geographical breadth of knowledge...

We present a model that links innovation effort to economic performance, along the lines of the Crépon et al (1998) model. However, in contrast to Crépon et al, that analyze R&D intensive manufacturing sectors, the present application examines the relationship between innovation and...

For academic spin-offs I analyze the length of time between the founder's leaving of academia and the establishment of his firm. Technology transfer can take place even years after leaving the mother institution. A duration analysis reveals that a longer time-lag is caused by the necessity of...

The recent decade has witnessed a strong expansion of work on the firm, both from a capabilities perspective and from a contractual perspective. These two bodies of theories are often thought to be fundamentally different, because their domains of applications are different...