Innovative activities have been considered mandatory for surviving in a dynamic market environment, inter alia in the machinery industry. Nothing has received as much attention as innovation, which has been pinpointed as the fundamental driving force for economic growth and welfare as well as a...

The Netherlands can be seen as one of the best healthcare systems in Europe. However, ICT application in hospitals in this country is somewhat behind the Nordic countries, with many hospitals 'stuck' in the stage of search and 'being interested' without a subsequent move to testing and actual...

The literature on trust, control and knowledge creation in seems to be moving towards a consensus. Trust is necessary to create an open atmosphere for knowledge creation while control acts as a safeguard against malfeasance. Networks that neglect either one often create less knowledge, such as...

We measure technical efficiency in R&D of Italian regions with the aim of understanding whether the variation in transport infrastructure endowment across regions might be the cause of efficiency disparities. We use a semi-parametric method where in the first step we estimate bootstrapped...

Firms display persistent differences as regards both internal and external characteristics, and these differences correspond to asymmetries in the performance of firms with regard to productivity level and growth as well as innovativeness. This paper focuses on one internal characteristic and...

The increasing openness of economies and the phenomenon of globalization has led to know-how and innovation becoming the key factors for business in terms of competitiveness. Thus, the fact that the activities and services are increasingly innovative means that the construction of innovation is...

This paper provides some empirical evidence of the impact of two policy measures, aiming at supporting innovative activity of small and medium firms in Piedmont. Both measures use European Structural Funds, but are managed at a regional level. Measure 2.1b, a concessional loan aiming at...

Information technology has become a very important issue in citizens' relations. It started with e-commerce followed by e-business and ended by e-government. Firms and consumers use internet to provide information and perform many of their business actions. During the last years Governments also...

In this paper we focus on one type of externality, namely knowledge spillovers. Empirical studies on effects of knowledge spillovers in Europe have normally focused on localized effects, either on total factor productivity or knowledge production in terms of patent output. The purpose of this...

This paper focuses on the efficiency of innovation intermediary organizations and also reviews the connections of intermediaries with regional and local actors emphasizing the human side of innovation. In the beginning I define the organizations and the innovation process as a special market,...