The paper investigates whether scale effects, market structure, and regulation determine the poor productivity performance of the European business services industry. We apply parametric and nonparametric methods to estimate the productivity frontier and subsequently explain the distance of...

Using data from 11 EU countries, the paper investigates the impact of scale economies on labour productivity in European business services. Moreover, it analyses whether the incidence of scale sub-optimality is related to characteristics of the market or to national regulation characteristics....

We propose a model where both R&D and ICT investment feed into a system of three innovation output equations (product, process and organizational innovation), which ultimately feeds into a productivity equation. We find that ICT investment and usage are important drivers of innovation in both...

Organizational complementarities are an essential factor in the process of creating business value from information technology (IT) investments. Organizational change (OC) is an important complementarity. This paper investigates complementarities between IT capital and OC initiatives of the...

E-business systems are increasingly considered as important examples of ICT related innovations embodied in software applications, the adoption of which is essential for capturing the potential fruits of several ICT externalities. For analysing the importance of this type of embodied...

European business services has witnessed about two decades of virtual productivity stagnation. The paper investigates whether this is caused by weak dynamic market selection. The time pattern of scale-related inefficiencies is used as an indicator for the effectiveness of market selection. We...

The paper proposes a new way of analysing the efficiency of dynamic market selection, based on the persistence of scale economies. The persistence of scale-related inefficiencies is used as an indicator for the effectiveness of market selection. We use a DEA method to construct the productivity...

The paper proposes a new way of analysing the efficiency of dynamic market selection, based on the persistence of scale economies. The new methodology is used to investigate the causes of stagnating productivity growth in EU business services. An efficient market ensures that more productive...

Many empirical studies have confirmed the positive impact of innovation on productivity at the firm level. The focus tends to be either on R&D driven techno-logical innovation on the one hand, or on organisational changes complemented by ICT on the other. To investigate the effect of different...