Firms that develop user innovations for their own use often find these innovations attractive to their competitors. Thus, the user innovator may consider vertical diversification, turning to manufacturing and selling its own innovation while keeping its original business as a user. The question...

Innovativeness of a start-up is regarded as a prerequisite to acquire venture capital. However, it is neither obvious how to conceptualize nor how to measure it. Even though start-up innovativeness is of high practical relevance, no empirical research on the topic exists. This article is a first...

We assume that in the world of business, higher risks are only taken when rewarded with higher expected returns. This supposition has been confirmed empirically using capital market data. However, accounting measures have yielded puzzling results: using the mean and variance of ROE as measures...

A decade after their introduction, approximately three-quarters of a million European Registered Community Designs (RCDs) have been filed, and recent court cases suggest firms regard them as important for competition. This paper reviews design protection in the European Union, discusses this...