The increasing commercialization of university discoveries has initiated acontroversy on the impacts for future scientific research. It has been argued that anincreasing orientation towards commercialization may have a negative impact onmore fundamental research efforts in science. Several...

We analyze financial constraints for R&D, where we account for heterogeneityamong investments which has been neglected in previous literature. According toeconomic theory, investments should be distinguished by their degree ofuncertainty, e.g. routine R&D versus cutting-edge R&D. Financial...

Do academic scientists bring valuable human capital to the companies they found or join? If so, what are the particular skills that compose their human capital and how are these skills related to firm performance? This paper examines these questions using a particular group of academic...

Real options investment theory predicts current investment falls asuncertainty about market returns increases. In the case of R&D investment,which is usually considered an irreversible form of investment, this effectshould be quite pronounced. This paper tests the real options predictionabout...

The literature suggests that public research and development (R&D) subsidies mayreduce market failures affecting private R&D investment caused by incompleteappropriability of knowledge and financial constraints due capital marketimperfections. Drawing on the theory of investment under...

Credit ratings are commonly used by lenders to assess the default risk, because every credit is connected with a possible loss. If the probability of a default is above a certain threshold, a credit will not be provided. The purpose of this paper is to test whether credit ratings contribute...

Successful innovative activity is a major contribution to the intangible capital of firms. Although its importance is generally acknowledged, the contribution to companies? profits is a priori unclear. We present the results of an empirical study on the effects of the patent stock on...

The present paper first discusses theoretically the different incentives of manager- versus owner-controlled firms for investment into innovative activity. In addition, the role of debt financing is analyzed. Subsequently the results from an empirical study on the determinants of innovative...

This paper presents the results of an empirical test concerning the auction model of Gilbert and Newbery (1982). The study uses data on German companies in order to analyze expenditures for technology licenses. Aside of standard control variables the motives for innovation expenditures are also...

We estimate the effects of R&D on firms' credit ratings and on financial distress. The main purpose is the comparison of firms in Western Germany and Eastern Germany as a transitional economy. Innovative activity has a positive impact on firm value proxied by ratings in Western Germany, but a...