This paper examines the diversity of linkages of firms to science and their effect on innovation performance for a sample of Belgian firms (CIS-3). While at the sectoral level links to science are highly related to the R&D intensity of the sector, we show that there is considerable heterogeneity...

This paper analyzes how advertising can be used to mislead rivals in an oligopoly environment with demand uncertainty. In particular, we examine a two-period game in which two firms each sell a differentiated product whose attractiveness vis-à-vis the competitor's product is unknown. In each...

In this paper, we explore the relationship between innovation activity, productivity, and exports, using a panel of Spanish manufacturing firms for 1990-1998. Our results -based on non-parametric tests- suggest that firm innovation status is critical in explaining the positive...

This paper re-examines the innovation-productivity nexus on the basis of a paired comparison between Catalonia's food and auto sectors. The sectoral studies expose a set of productivity enhancement mechanisms that do not involve innovation in the sense of anything new to the world, that are...

Exporting firms are typically the more productive firms in an economy. Based on this observation, policy makers typically enact policies to stimulate exportation by domestic firms. In this chapter, we argue that firms make productivity enhancing investments and as a result the more productive...

The competitiveness of a country is the result of the competitiveness of its firms. The competitiveness of firms is partly determined by how their business models interact with the environment to produce offerings with added value. This chapter contributes to the reflection on Catalonia's...