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What types of firms tend to be more innovative: A study on Germany

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  • Stephan Brunow

    (Institute for Employment Research (IAB))

  • Valentina Nafts

    (Institute for Employment Research (IAB))

Abstract

Innovation is a key driver of technological progress and growth in a knowledge-based economy. There are various motives for individual firms to innovate: improving quality secures market leadership, introducing new products leads the firm into new markets, adopting new technologies could be seen as a catch-up strategy within an industry or an improvement of the firm’s own products when the technology adopted is based on ideas from other industries. Firms can perform innovation activities in one or more of these areas or in none of them. We therefore raise the question of what types of firms tend to be more innovative, i.e. which firms innovate in more of these areas. For this purpose we employ firm-level survey data and combine it with administrative data from Germany’s social security system. An ordered logit model is estimated using a variety of characteristics which describe the workforce employed and other firm-related variables, the regional environment where the firm is located, as well as industry and region fixed effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephan Brunow & Valentina Nafts, 2013. "What types of firms tend to be more innovative: A study on Germany," Norface Discussion Paper Series 2013021, Norface Research Programme on Migration, Department of Economics, University College London.
    • Handle: RePEc:nor:wpaper:2013021
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    Cited by:

    1. Dettmann, Eva & Fackler, Daniel & Müller, Steffen & Neuschäffer, Georg & Slavtchev, Viktor & Leber, Ute & Schwengler, Barbara, 2019. "Fehlende Fachkräfte in Deutschland - Unterschiede in den Betrieben und mögliche Erklärungsfaktoren : Ergebnisse aus dem IAB-Betriebspanel 2018," IAB-Forschungsbericht 201910, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    2. Stephan Brunow & Uwe Blien, 2015. "Agglomeration effects on labor productivity: An assessment with microdata," REGION, European Regional Science Association, vol. 2, pages 33-53.
    3. Stephan Brunow & Luise Grünwald, 2014. "Exports, agglomeration and workforce diversity: An empirical assessment of German establishments," Norface Discussion Paper Series 2014008, Norface Research Programme on Migration, Department of Economics, University College London.
    4. Lucian-Florin Onișor, 2015. "Marketing and Business Development between Idea, Scientific Discovery and Innovation," International Conference on Marketing and Business Development Journal, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 1(1), pages 29-39, July.
    5. Brixy, Udo & Brunow, Stephan & D'Ambrosio, Anna, 2017. "Ethnic diversity in start-ups and its impact on innovation," IAB-Discussion Paper 201725, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    firm innovation; labor diversity; ordered logit;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

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