This article is aimed at analyzing the motivations on the part of firms to invest in websites. What are the drivers behind such investments? In order to address this issue, we have considered two alternative theoretical frameworks. The first relies upon resourcebased theory; the approach herein...

This article investigates the relationships between Information Technologies (IT), new organizational practices and workers? contextual performance in the European context. Our empirical results are based on data about more than 11 000 employees from 16 European countries in 2005 and more...

This article investigates the relationship between Internet and computer use, new organizational practices and workers’ contextual performance in the European context. Our empirical results are based on data about more than 11,000 employees from 16 European countries in 2005 and more than...

The diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) associated with the diffusion of new work practices since fifteen years has raised concerns about the impact of these changes on productivity. Some recent studies underline a positive impact of ICT and of new work practices on...

Recent studies underline a positive impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and new work practices on firms' productivity. In order to obtain productivity gains, firms need to provide workers with sufficient incentives and to encourage motivations. Our econometric results,...

This paper raises the question of the relationship between innovation and productivity conditional to ICT use and R&D activities during the innovation process. Concretely, we wonder whether R&D activities and ICT use considered as innovation inputs play a role in determining the probability of...

In explaining economic phenomena, economic analysis concentrates on selected influences and fixes the host of other factors under a ceteris paribus clause. This view, which goes back to Alfred Marshall (1842-1924), is developed in the first part of the book. Aggregation is viewed as a particular...

Life annuities provide a guaranteed income for the remainder of the recipient’s lifetime, and therefore, annuitization presents an important option when choosing an adequate investment strategy for the retirement ages. While there are numerous research articles studying annuities from a...

Even 50 years after Modigliani/Miller’s irrelevance theorem, the basic question of how firms choose their capital structure remains unclear. This survey paper aims at summarizing and discussing corresponding recent developments in empirical capital structure research, which, in our view, are...

There has been a wide-spread misconception based on the imprecise wording of Art. 52 of the European Patent Convention (EPC) that the protection of business methods by patents is prohibited in Europe. This paper investigates the legal framework set by patent laws with respect to the...