The paper aims to show how policy makers can stimulate firms' cooperation with research organisations in innovation. We argue that the administration of an R&D subsidy can be effective. Furthermore, this should be more so for extra-regional than intra-regional cooperation. The firms' propensity...

We analyse how the joint adoption of ICT practices and environmental innovation affect the labour productivity of firms. We study complementarity in innovation adoption, with respect to the specific research hypotheses that the higher thediffusion and radicalness of ICT and EI, the higher might...

The aim of this paper is to analyse the link between flexible pay systems (FPS) and labour productivity, with a close look at wage premium determinants as elements disclosing specific managerial strategies. The analysis was conducted on a sample of more than 500 manufacturing firms located in...

This work explores the effects of cross-border relocation of production on the skill composition of Italian manufacturing firms. Its aim is to assess if the firms’ strategy to offshore production activities towards cheap labor countries determines a bias in the relative employment of skilled...

The paper investigates the extent to which the adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by firms affects the likelihood of adopting environmental innovations (EI). We also test empirically whether various types of ICT adoption and other innovation practices (R&D,...

In this paper we discuss and arise several critics to the National Agreement signed on the 21st November 2012 by trade unions (except the larger Italian trade unions CGIL) and employers associations on productivity and competitiveness, called "Linee programmatiche per la crescita della...

Along the line of the Porter hypothesis, firm’s might react to and challenge environmental policy in a forward looking way. This needs a full restructuring of firm’s assets, technologies and competencies. We empirically show through a bivariate probit analysis of environmental...

Since 2008 the economic crisis has reduced income and drastically brought down employment levels, and the recovery promised in 2014 will not reabsorb unemployment, particularly in Europe. The ILO and IMF have forecast a jobless recovery. Nevertheless, economic policy in Europe will remain in...

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine the relationships between working conditions, innovation activities and industrial relations in two local production systems located in the northern Italy, exploiting data collected through ad‐hoc surveys in 2004 and 2006. Design/methodology/approach –...