The rise of Fast Ethernet as the dominant standard for high speed connection in the Local Area Network industry is chosen to analyse the relevance of increasing returns and network externalities in determining the speed of standard diffusion. Although it was not the first standard to emerge,...

We investigate the relationship between product innovation and firm survival for a sample of 121 firms in a high-tech industry. We find that location near the technological frontier is an important determinant of fim survival. Firms located near the frontier are also more likely to be acquired...

Technical change can affect existing products very rapidly and at an uneven pace depending on the type and on the age of an industry. In young and fast growing industries, the process of technological change usually entails a series of improvements in existing products that affect their...

We study the impact of demand on innovation. By focusing on a sample of small- and medium-sized enterprises in several industries and European countries, we analyse how demand stimulates innovation by providing economic incentives and reducing uncertainty. Considering the size of the market as a...

Do the additionality effects of R&D tax credits vary across sectors? The paper presents a microeconometric analysis of this question for three countries: Norway, Italy and France. We use a panel of firm-level data from three waves of the Innovation Surveys carried out in these countries,...

We investigate the relationship between product innovation and firm survival for a sample of 121 firms in a high-tech industry. We find that location near the technological frontier is an important determinant of firm survival. Firms located near the frontier are also more likely to be acquired...

We investigate whether the form of exit is triggered by the form of entry and technical expertise, an exercise which has been persistently missing in the literature, for a sample of 121 firms in the LAN switch industry. We find that pre-entry experience, technical expertise, and intangible...

It is well known that not all innovations are patented, but the exact volume of innovative activities undertaken outside the coverage of patent protection and, relatedly, the actual propensity to patent an innovation in different contexts remain, to a major degree, a matter of speculation. This...