Do private banks act as hard-nosed bankers when firms get financially distressed compared to public banks that have the mandate to support regional economy? For German firms in the period 2000-2005, I find that the probability of leaving the market after financial distress is higher for firms...

In contrast to earlier field studies, we survey German public savings banks on their management of capital. We find that the most important determinants of the savings banks’ target capital ratio are risk aversion, the desired credit growth and profitability. Savings banks prefer to manage the...

The savings banks’ decision to distribute profits among their public owners is strongly regulated by law in order to guarantee their adequate funding via retained profits. However, the legal scope is reluctantly exhausted. In this study we examine the determinants of the savings banks’...

This paper analyses whether strategic motives for patenting influence the characteristics of companies' patent portfolios. We use the number of citations and oppositions to represent these characteristics. The investigation is based on survey and patent data from German companies. We find clear...

Wir diskutieren die Faktoren für eine erfolgreiche Umsetzung eines Systems des betrieblichen Vorschlagswesens und anderer Maßnahmen zur Stimulierung des Innovationserfolgs. Im Anschluss wird die Wirkung des betrieblichen Vorschlagswesens auf den Innovationserfolg empirisch überprüft. Als...