The aim of this article is to investigate the differences between specific motives of R&D investment in foreign locations with respect to the factors influencing the likelihood of foreign R&D and to the impact of foreign presence on the parent firms' innovativeness and productivity. An...

We evaluate nowcasts and one- to four-quarter-ahead forecasts of Swiss full time equivalent jobs from 1998-2011, comparing forecasts of the KOF Swiss Economic Institute and of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs with the outcome of the reference series. Both forecasts are biased downward,...

The paper complements entry mode research by dealing with the choice of alternative modes of governance in the specific case of foreign R&D and its impact on a parent firm's performance. Firstly, we identify the factors that determine whether a firm locates abroad any R&D activities, and, if it...

In this paper, the parent firms' choice of FDI locations is analyzed based on a unique firm-level dataset for Swiss MNEs. The data allows a detailed characterization of parent companies, their foreign subsidiaries and the two-way trade flows between parent companies and foreign affiliates. In...

Firstly, we investigated the determinants of a) the propensity of Swiss firms to provide apprenticeship training, and b) the intensity of training (measured by the employment share of apprentices). We primarily were interested in the relevance as explanatory factors of the three constituent...

The paper aims at a joint analysis of inter-firm and intra-firm diffusion of technology, taking as an example E-selling and E-purchasing. The analysis is based on an encompassing model of diffusion, drawn from the literature, which is extended by considering technology-specific obstacles and...

The aim of this paper is, firstly, to contribute to the understanding of innovation patterns in services. To this end, firms which are similar in terms of a large set of innovation indicators were grouped into clusters. For the Swiss case, it was possible to identify five clusters which exhibit...

The literature on the internationalisation of firms has paid little attention to SMEs. SME-oriented studies are predominantly descriptive or illustrating theoretical arguments, and those dealing with services are mostly confined to specific industries. The paper aims at correcting some of these...

The paper aims at explaining empirically the diffusion of E-commerce based on two largescale sample surveys conducted in the Swiss economy. The paper adds to previous work in two ways: firstly, we estimate separate models for E-selling and E-purchasing, and, secondly, we distinguish between...

This paper attempts to at least partially redress a paucity of current literature on the joint analysis of inter and intra firm diffusion of innovations within as well as across countries. In particular, by using two datasets derived from independent countryspecific surveys, it undertakes an...