Publications of the Research Unit Digital Economy

  1. Refereed Journal // 2017

    Does Social Media Increase Labour Productivity?

    Social media applications such as wikis, blogs or social networks are being increasingly applied in firms. These applications can be used for external communication and internal knowledge management. Firms can…

  2. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 17-007 // 2017

    Digital Design Protection in Europe: Law, Trends, and Emerging Issues

    Digital designs – that is, designs for display on electronic screens – have recently burst onto the intellectual property (IP) stage. While in the U.S. a smattering of legal studies have recently addressed the…

  3. ZEW Documentation No. 17-01 // 2017

    The ZEW ICT Survey 2002 to 2015: Measuring the Digital Transformation in German Firms

    Modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been proliferating through the entire business sector over recent decades. This increasing digitalization is having a substantial impact on economic…

  4. Refereed Journal // 2017

    ICT and Global Sourcing - Evidence for German Manufacturing and Service Firms

    This paper analyses the relevance of information and communication technologies (ICT) for firms’ probability of global sourcing of inputs. Using firm-level data from Germany in 2009, which include mainly small…

  5. Refereed Journal // 2017

    IT Outsourcing - A Source of Innovation? - Microeconometric Evidence for Germany

    Does IT outsourcing really influence firms' process innovativeness? We investigate this question with a distinguished view on manufacturing and service sectors. Previous studies suggest firms sourcing out IT…