ZEW Discussion Papers

Globalization has set new paradigms, especially in the business world. Breakthroughs in technology (telecommunications, logistics, the internet) and ideology (most notably economic and political trends in China…

Regions with biotechnology-specific knowledge seem to have best chances to attract potential entrepreneurs to establish a biotechnology-firm. Furthermore, regional oriented technology policy is supposed to…

This paper studies the influence of the benefits of control on the capital structure and the growth of private companies for a sample of 8,964 UK companies with limited liability observed for up to 5 years. It…

The German biotechnology industry missed the accession of this key technology in the 1980s. Policy makers make different efforts to overcome shortcomings and recent gaps. Public funding schemes have been…

The paper empirically analyses the effect of R&D activities, human resource and knowledge management, and the organisation of knowledge sharing within a firm on the absorptive capacity of innovative firms for…

This paper tests some of the predictions of recent advances in trade theory that have focused on different trade patterns of firms within the same sector. Helpman, Melitz and Yeaple (2005) develop a model in…

This paper investigates whether firms innovate persistently or discontinuously over time using an innovation panel data set on German manufacturing and service firms for the period 1994–2002. We find that…

The choice of the appropriate sales mode belongs to the firm’s most important strategic decisions after entering into a foreign market. Thus, it is important that the selected foreign sales mode best suits a…