Investigating the role of diversification in the firm growth process, we build on Penrose’s (The theory of the growth of the firm. Oxford University Press, Oxford, <CitationRef CitationID="CR30">1959</CitationRef>) Theory of the Growth of the Firm to formulate hypotheses about growth of employment, assets and sales in the years before,...</citationref>

We focus on the relationship between age and diversification patterns of German machine tool manufacturers in the post-war era. We distinguish between ‘minor diversification’ (adding a new product variation within a familiar submarket) and ‘major diversification’ (expanding the product...

Plain English Summary David B. Audretsch was named a 2021 Clarivate Citation Laureate, together with four other colleagues in the field of economics. A Clarivate Citation Laureate is recognized as having a research record and impact commensurate with that deemed to be 'of Nobel class.' This...

Plain English Summary Publishing entrepreneurship research is not just important but challenging. Longstanding experts in the field can provide helpful advice. As borders between academic fields blur, research fields are increasingly global in their perspective, knowledge, and findings, thus...

SMEs' internationalization and innovation activities represent fundamental economic activities that are conducive to SMEs' individual success, but likewise contribute to the economic well-being of their home region and country. Therefore, understanding how some SMEs are innovative and...

The characterization of how entrepreneurial a region or country is, has generally been shaped by a narrow view of what actually constitutes entrepreneurship. In the case of Germany, this has led to a characterization of Germany as not being particularly entrepreneurial. Such a view is at odds...

The paper investigates the stability and change of regional economic activities in the long run. As the unit of analysis, we selected the machine tool industry in West Germany for the years 1953--2002. We spot a strong variance in the activities between different regions. These differences are...