Hidden Champions (HCs) are firms unknown to the wider public, but global leaders in the niche markets they serve. This paper looks at distinctive features of these firms, focusing on their dynamic capabilities. Employing a unique data base on German firms, we identify a representative sample of...

Firms can use different sources of external knowledge for developing and implementing innovations. Some knowledge is provided deliberately by the source and constitutes intended knowledge spillovers, e.g., knowledge disclosed in publications or patent files. Other sources represent unintended...

Recent empirical evidence has shown that firm’s innovation behavior exhibits high persistency but not much is known about potential contingencies affecting the degree of persistence. This paper focuses on the role of the local knowledge environment and asks how local knowledge spillovers...

Firms use a variety of practices to disclose the knowledge generated by their R&D activities, including, but not limited to, publishing findings in scientific journals, patenting new technologies, and contributing to developing standards. While the individual effects of engaging in the listed...

We provide the first measurement of knowledge spillovers from venture capital-financed companies onto the patenting activities of other companies. On average, these spillovers are nine times larger than those generated by the R&D investment of established companies. Spillover effects are larger...

This paper is concerned with exploring the implications of replicability issues over the medical innovation process. Each research setting is characterized by a specific level of replicability, variability increasing with the complexity of the testing settings. The study introduces new measures...

In this paper it is tested which of the various alternative approaches for constructing knowledge spillover pools suggested in existing literature measures the extent to which a firm can costlessly receive external knowlegde best. Since knowledge spillovers are unmeasurable, a 'goodness of fit'...

Public financial support for firm-level Research and Innovation (R&I) can generate important socio-economic returns. This is especially true if firms use this support to develop radical innovation, defined as new-to-market goods and services. However, radical innovation is risky, and prone to...

We analyze whether an informal second channel for communication can improve the efficiency of knowledge transfer in an electronic network of practice. We explore this question by analyzing the effect of chat rooms in the well-known Q&A forum Stack Overflow. We identify the causal effect using a...