Using a unique data set from the Czech Republic for 1994-2003, this study examines the relationship between a firm's liquidity constraints and its supply linkages with multinational corporations (MNCs). The empirical analysis indicates that Czech firms supplying MNCs are less credit constrained...

The paper focuses on the question whether enterprises that engage in innovation cooperation with external partners are more innovative and thus more productive than non-cooperating firms. A comparison between East and West Germany is being made. It shows that cooperating enterprises in East and...

Small firms are important to all economies. This is especially true with the rise of the information and communication technologies (ICTs), as the technical characteristics of information goods lower entry barriers for small firms seeking to take advantage of the growing global demand for ICTs....

Although firms increasingly rely on interfirm collaboration to explore new technological opportunities, few studies have examined the ways in which this collaboration form is governed. In this paper, we attempt to increase our understanding of governing explorative R&D alliances. First, we argue...

This paper is concerned with examining the implications of inter-organisational relationships for human resource management (HRM). To date much of the literature on human resource management has been inwardly focussed on the organisation and its employees. Yet increasingly complex organisational...

With scientific research growing increasingly multidisciplinary in nature, team playing and communication skills have become critical in the achievement of scientific breakthroughs. This study adds valuable evidence to the oft-cited 'productivity puzzle' in the sciences by comparing the work...

There is growing evidence that firms increasingly adopt open innovation practices. In this paper we investigate the impact of two such external knowledge acquisition strategies, buy and cooperate, on firm's product innovation performance. Taking a direct (productivity) approach, we test for...

The paper targets the relationship between growth of cooperation and later growth of innovation at the regional level. Patent data for German regions and eleven subsequent years is used to identify collaborative activity as well as the innovative output in each region. The results confirm to...

In this paper we focus on proximity as one of the main determinants of international collaboration in pharmaceutical research. We use various count data specifications of the gravity model to estimate the intensity of collaboration between pairs of countries as explained by the geographical,...

This paper studies the joint effects of inter-firm collaboration and electronic business on firm profitability primarily in Finnish manufacturing. It is found that deeper forms of inter-firm collaboration boost financial performance but that high e-business intensity might even strain...