Relying on a unique and arguably representative sample of transaction e-commerce companies, this paper takes a closer look at whether and how companies could be profitable on-line. This analysis clearly demonstrates that a non-trivial set of winners are emerging, which combine both strong...

Based on an original data set with information of a representative portfolio of among the largest 304 R&D investing companies over the 2003-2006 period, the overall analysis, except in a few cases, gives some robust evidence of a positive relationship between top R&D-investing companies and...

Based on an original and recent sample representative of the largest R&D corporations in the EU, this paper aims at investigating in a quantitative way the main factors explaining: (i) the decision of firms to increase their R&D investment effort in the near future; (ii) the main drivers...

This paper explores the existence and importance of financing constraints for R&D investments in large EU and US manufacturing companies over the 2000 – 2007 period. The main results obtained by estimating error-correction equations suggest that the sensitivity of R&D investments to cash flow...

Innovation in the European Union remains weak according to a number of key ‘input’ indicators, especially R&D investment by the business sector, and there are relatively few signs of progress. From a firm-level perspective, Europe’s innovation gap relative to the US results from an...

This study investigates how corporate R&D evolves in the light of the contemporary economic crisis. We investigate what empirical evidence from past downturns suggests, discuss the relevant literature and perform an empirical analysis of recent business survey data (collected during 2009). We...

This paper aims to assess the impact of both geographic and industrial diversification of economic activities on the productivity performance of large European R&D Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). Based on the worldwide subsidiaries of these firms, we measure the performance of the firms...

The EU's stagnation on many innovation indicators led to a number of efforts to spur a turnaround. One of most visible projects has been the Horizon 2020 strategy, which devotes unprecedented levels of funding to the promotion of R&D and innovation. But does this strategy address the right...

Innovation in the European Union remains weak and there are relatively few signs of progress. In this policy contribution, Reinhilde Veugelers and Michele Cincera give evidence to show that compared to the US, the EU has fewer young firms among its leading innovators and the primary driver of...

This paper aims at assessing the relationship between the possible existence of financial constraints and the decisions of Belgian private firms as regards their investments in both capital and R&D investments over the last decade. The main system GMM estimates from the error-correction...