Die deutsche Handwerksordnung regelt die Unternehmensgründung in handwerklichen Berufen durch die Vorgabe verpflichtender Qualifikationsstandards. Im Jahr 2004 wurde der Marktzugang im Handwerk durch eine Novellierung der Handwerksordnung dereguliert, sodass für mehr als die Hälfte aller...

The 'doing-using-interacting mode' of innovation (DUI) is considered an important component of innovative activity. It describes informal innovative activities and thus complements the 'science-technology-innovation mode' (STI) based on research and development. While empirical measurement of...

Südniedersachsen steht regionalökonomisch vor großen Herausforderungen. Um diesen zu begegnen, hat es eine strategiegeleitete Entwicklung hin zu einer stärker koordinierten Regional- und Innovationsförderung umgesetzt. Die Analyse dieses Prozesses leitet Thesen für innovations- und...

Experiments are an important governance instrument to support niche development, promote niche-regime interaction, challenge existing regimes and manage transition pathways for sustainable development. However, policy and regulatory learning of experiments are under-explored in the transition...

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations provide normative orientation for many national and regional governments as well as actors from industry and other parts of the civil society. There is growing consensus that the corresponding transformation processes needed...

We use a field experiment on energy billing in a German region to evaluate the effect of two behavioral nudges (consumption feedback and social comparison) on electricity consumption. Similar experiments have revealed significant treatment effects, yet theindividual variance has proven to be...

The Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship (KSTE) considers determinants of knowledge diffusion as well as their impact on entrepreneurial activities and growth. Extending the KSTE, the role of incumbent firms for the broad diffusion of new knowledge has been emphasized. For those firms,...

Die Handwerksordnung (HwO) ist die rechtliche Grundlage des handwerklichen Sektors in Deutschland. In Folge ihrer Novellierung im Jahr 2004 entfiel für die Hälfte der von der HwO regulierten Berufe die Meisterpflicht als Vorbedingung zur Unternehmensgründung. Während die...

Following the 'death of distance' postulate, digitization may reduce or even eliminate the penalty of firms being located in rural areas compared with those in urban agglomerations. Despite many recent attempts to measure digitization effects across space, there remains a lack of empirical...

Voluntary certification systems potentially reduce search costs in markets with imperfect information. Service markets with many heterogeneous firms – such as the crafts market – are prone to information imperfections and can therefore potentially benefit from such informational mechanisms....