Several empirical works have shown the robust and positive relation between growth and innovation at macroeconomic level and between firm economic performance and innovation at microeconomic level. However, the economists have had less opportunities to study such linkages during severe global...

The shifting of labour demand towards relatively more skilled workers has been a hot issue in the economic field for many years. A consolidated explanation for the upskilling phenomenon is that technological-organisational changes have driven the labour demand with detrimental consequences for...

The EU 2020 strategy relies on innovation as the core driver of economic dynamics. The present Forum discusses the strategies established by the European Commission and the member states for the intensifi cation of innovative activities. Analyses of often neglected aspects of innovation policy,...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the link between flexible pay systems (FPS) and labor productivity, also looking at which factors drive firms to adopt such wage schemes. Design/methodology/approach The analysis is conducted on an original sample extracted from a firm-level survey...

This paper is an empirical analysis of the interaction between the dynamics of demand, productivity and employment in nine industrial countries, viz. The United States, Canada, Japan, West Germany, France, Italy; the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Belgium, from 1960-1990. Its theoretical...

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine the relationships between working conditions, innovation activities and industrial relations in two local production systems located in the northern Italy, exploiting data collected through ad‐hoc surveys in 2004 and 2006. Design/methodology/approach –...

The paper aims at ‘embedding’ the outsourcing firm by considering it as a four-fold unit of analysis: i.e. as an organizational, production, industrial and innovation unit. Theoretical correlations between outsourcing decisions and outsourcing variables are formulated and then tested with...