In this paper we explore the relationship between innovative firms that patent technology related to Industry 4.0 and their economic performance. By applying the new patent cartography developed by the EPO that identifies firm's 4.0 patents, this is one of the first large-scale, systematic...

This paper provides in-depth insights into patenting activities intechnologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in Germanyand worldwide between the years 1990 and 2016. The descriptiveanalysis of these digital inventions at the current technological frontieryields several main findings....

This paper provides in-depth insights into patenting activities in technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in Germany and worldwide between the years 1990 and 2016. The descriptive analysis of these digital inventions at the current technological frontier yields several main...

Innovation is regarded as a key driver of productivity and market growth and thus has a great potential for increasing wealth. Surveying innovation activities of firms is an important contribution to a better understanding of the process of innovation and how policy may intervene to maximise the...

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected firms in all economies worldwide. We investigate the impact of the pandemic on firms’ innovation activities. Employing data from a representative sample of German firms, we find consistently with real options theory that negatively affected firms...

This paper develops a novel method to estimate production functions. Earlier papers rely on special assumptions about the functional form of production functions. Our approach efficiently estimates all parameters of any production functions with Hicks-neutral productivity without additional...