TY - JOUR A1 - Baumann, Julian A1 - Kritikos, Alexander T1 - The link between R&D, innovation and productivity: Are micro firms different? JF - Research Policy N2 - We analyze the link between R&D, innovation, and productivity in MSMEs with a special focus on micro firms with fewer than 10 employees; usually constituting the majority of firms in industrialized economies. Using the German KfW SME-panel, we examine to what extent micro firms are different from other firms in terms of innovativeness. We find that while firms engage in innovative activities with smaller probability, the smaller they are, for those firms that do make such investment, R&D intensity is larger the smaller firms are. For all MSMEs, the predicted R&D intensity is positively correlated with the probability of reporting innovation, with a larger effect size for product than for process innovations. Moreover, micro firms benefit in a comparable way from innovation processes as larger firms, as they are similarly able to increase their labor productivity. Overall, the link between R&D, innovation, and productivity in micro firms does not largely differ from their larger counterparts. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - MSMEs KW - R&D KW - Innovation KW - Productivity Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2016.03.008 SN - 0048-7333 SN - 1873-7625 VL - 45 SP - 1263 EP - 1274 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Audretsch, David B. A1 - Kritikos, Alexander A1 - Schiersch, Alexander T1 - Microfirms and innovation in the service sector JF - Small business economics N2 - In the context of microfirms, this paper analyzes whether the link between the three aspects involving innovative activities—R&D, innovative output, and productivity—hold for knowledge-intensive services. With especially high start-up rates and the majority of employees in microfirms, knowledge-intensive services (KIS) have a starkly different profile from manufacturing. Results from our structural models indicate that KIS firms benefit from innovation activities through increased labor productivity with highly skilled employees being similarly important compared to R&D for creating innovation output in microfirms. Moreover, the firm size advantage of large firms found for manufacturing almost disappears in KIS, with start-ups and young firms having a higher probability of initiating innovation activities and of successfully turning knowledge into innovation output than mature firms. KW - microfirms KW - MSMEs KW - R&D KW - service sector KW - innovation KW - productivity Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-020-00366-4 SN - 0921-898X SN - 1573-0913 VL - 55 IS - 4 SP - 997 EP - 1018 PB - Springer Science + Business Media B.V. CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bouncken, Ricarda B. A1 - Ratzmann, Martin A1 - Tiberius, Victor A1 - Brem, Alexander T1 - Pioneering strategy in supply chain relationships BT - how coercive power and contract completeness influence innovation JF - IEEE transactions on engineering management N2 - Today, firms pursuing a pioneering strategy are often engaged in supply chain relationships to benefit from external resources and to improve their innovation. However, this effort can be impeded by power asymmetries in such relationships and especially by the execution of coercive power by their partner firm. Contracts could potentially reduce this risk of opportunistic behavior. Our survey study on 778 small to medium-sized enterprises in the European packaging and medical equipment industries examines how coercive power of the partner and the contractual arrangement between firms moderate the pioneering strategy's innovation outcomes in the short and long run. Our results confirm the negative effect of coercive power on innovation performance in both the short and long term. However, the compensating effect of rather complete contracts differs temporally. Whereas, contract completeness protects against higher dependence at the beginning of the collaboration, their effect diminishes over time. In contrast, rather incomplete contracts enhance the innovation performance in the long term, possibly complemented with trust. KW - alliances KW - coercive power KW - contracts KW - pioneering strategy KW - R&D KW - supply chain Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2020.3019965 SN - 0018-9391 VL - 69 IS - 6 SP - 2826 EP - 2841 PB - IEEE CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Giotopoulos, Ioannis A1 - Kritikos, Alexander A1 - Tsakanikas, Aggelos T1 - A lasting crisis affects R&D decisions of smaller firms BT - the Greek experience JF - The Journal of technology transfer N2 - We use the prolonged Greek crisis as a case study to understand how a lasting economic shock affects the innovation strategies of firms in economies with moderate innovation activities. Adopting the 3-stage CDM model, we explore the link between R&D, innovation, and productivity for different size groups of Greek manufacturing firms during the prolonged crisis. At the first stage, we find that the continuation of the crisis is harmful for the R&D engagement of smaller firms while it increased the willingness for R&D activities among the larger ones. At the second stage, among smaller firms the knowledge production remains unaffected by R&D investments, while among larger firms the R&D decision is positively correlated with the probability of producing innovation, albeit the relationship is weakened as the crisis continues. At the third stage, innovation output benefits only larger firms in terms of labor productivity, while the innovation-productivity nexus is insignificant for smaller firms during the lasting crisis. KW - small firms KW - large firms KW - R&D KW - innovation KW - productivity KW - long-term crisis Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-022-09957-7 SN - 0892-9912 IS - 48 SP - 1161 EP - 1175 PB - Springer Science+Business Media CY - Dordrecht ER -