This article analyses the determinants of individuals' choice for self-employment and entrepreneurial success in Cote d'Ivoire. Entrepreneurial activity is found to be undertaken by individuals who succeed in increasing their entrepreneurial abilities and reducing the risk of starting a business...

This paper examines the effects of international standards certification (ISC) on both productivity and sales performance for firms from a wide set of countries exhibiting different degrees of institutional development. Against a large dataset of manufacturing firms operating in 59 countries we...

National framework conditions directly affect the productivity of firms, but also moderate returns on their technological efforts. Although this has long been recognised, there is a dearth of quantitative analyses that openly consider this hypothesis. Using a data set of 15 425 manufacturing...

Using World Bank ICS 2000–2002 data from Brazilian manufacturing firms, this paper identifies innovation strategies of firms – in particular internal development (“technology make”) and external acquisition (“technology buy)” – and their effect on successful process and product...

Using firm-level data from five developing countries--Brazil, Ecuador, South Africa, Tanzania, and Bangladesh--and three industries--food processing, textiles, and the garments and leather products--this article examines the importance of various sources of knowledge for explaining productivity...

Using firm data, this study investigates the various sources of firm learning, investment and linkages, and their importance for product innovation in Tanzania. The analysis reveals important differences in innovation strategies for foreign and local firms. Foreign innovative firms have stronger...