Recent research has led to the empirical regularity that firm growth rate distributions are heavy tailed. This finding implies that a few firms experience spectacular growth rates and decline, but that most firms have marginal growth rates. The literature on high growth firms shows that high...

POSCO has played a major role in Korea’s economic development by supplying domestic manufacturers with high-quality, low-cost steel products. Despite its initial disadvantage and lack of resources such as capital, technology, and raw materials, it has emerged as a world-class steel maker in a...

This paper focuses on the role of managerial cognition as a source of heterogeneity in firm strategies and performance. We link differences in mental models to differences in decision rules and performance in a management simulation. Our results show more accurate mental models lead to better...

This paper follows two objectives: (i) It demonstrates the merits of the survey based approach to B2C eCommerce characteristics and company strategy, and (ii) it presents empirical evidence of the crucial importance of size and marketing investment in B2C eCommerce markets. It presents...

This paper addresses the key determinants of merger failure, in particular the role of innovation (post-merger performance) and technology (ex-ante selection) when firms decide to separate. After a brief review of the existing literature we introduce a model of process innovation where merged...

This paper is concerned with the relationship between innovative success of entrepreneurs and their prior knowledge at the stage of firm formation. We distinguish between different kinds of experience an entrepreneur can possess and find evidence that the innovative success subsequent to firm...

The aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of knowledge management on the innovation success of firms in Germany. Using a matching procedure on data from the German Innovation Survey of 2003 (“Mannheim Innovation Panel”), we pair firms applying knowledge management with twin firms with...

There is a large body of literature on the determinants of regional variation in new firm formation. In contrast there are few articles on the spatial differences in new firm survival. Using panel data we analyse both items for 74 western German regions over a ten-year period. The positive...