In a first step, we developed based on existing theoretical and empirical literature a series of hypotheses with respect to the relative importance of possible determinants of exploration and exploitation of knowledge in collaboration with universities and tested them on Swiss firm data. In a...

There is growing evidence that firms increasingly adopt open innovation practices. In this paper we investigate the impact of two such external knowledge acquisition strategies, "buy" and "cooperate", on firm's product innovation performance. Taking a direct (productivity) approach, we test for...

Aim of this study is to combine micro-aspects of firm behaviour with macro-aspects of business development and identify market conditions (for example, price competition) and firm characteristics (for example, type of R&D partners) that enable a firm to have a procyclical, anti-cyclical or...

This study investigates the factors that determine the inter-firm and intra-firm adoption rates of energy-saving technologies. These factors can be on theoretical terms firm-specific rank effects, inducement effects, adoption barriers as well as order, stock and epidemic effects that are related...

Human resource management (HRM) practices are generally expected to stimulate a firm's innovation performance. However, which of these practices do really pay off? Based on a unique dataset that includes detailed information for both a firm's innovation activities and different types of HRM...

This paper investigates the post-merger performance effects of mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Our study is based on a representative sample that includes all Swiss M&As that took place in the period 2006-2008. In contrast to previous studies in this field most of our M&As took place between...