The Use of Trademarks in Empirical Research: Towards an Integrated Framework

This paper represents an early attempt to develop an integrated framework linking empirical studies that make use of trademark statistics. Despite its youth, this field of scholarly activity has already accumulated a critical mass of papers that allow us to draw first general conclusions about the trademark lifecycle and its impact on organisational functioning. Based on a systematic review of 64 articles with some elements of empirical trademark analysis, five broad research areas have been identified, namely: the determinants of trademark deposits; the relationship between trademarks and innovation processes; the role of trademarks in differentiating product offerings; the strategic use of trademarks; and the impact of trademarks on firm performance. Within each category, a more detailed aggregation of articles has also been proposed. Overall, the analysis has shown that the performance-based perspective currently dominates the research landscape, with studies on trademark deposits and the trademark-innovation link to follow. At the same time, there is still little known about micro-foundations of a company's trademarking behaviour; the use of trademarks and other intellectual property rights in a complementary way and its effect on value transference; as well as the performance implications of differentiation strategy. This paper considers these and other findings to outline directions for future research

Ethics and taxation : a cross-national comparison of UK and Turkish firms

This paper investigates responses to tax related ethical issues facing busines

The adoption of social enterprise software

Social enterprise software is a highly promising software application for firms, though it is still in an infancy state. It offers rapid real-time information transfer based on business collaboration tools or instant messaging. The software collects and processes customer data from surveys, consumer feedback, reviews, blogs or social networks. This enables firms to build up detailed customer profiles potentially anticipating upcoming trends. We analyze the determinants of social enterprise software adoption based on the literature on the adoption of new technologies. In our analysis, we control for factors like firm size, intensity of information and communication technology, human capital and international competitive situation. Exploiting recent German firm-level data and a model controlling for sample selection, the results reveal that firms with highly qualified workers, a large share of young employees and international business activity are more likely to adopt social enterprise software. Larger and more ICT-intensive firms and recent innovators also have a higher propensity to use social enterprise software. In addition, firms belonging to the service sector are more eager to implement social enterprise software applications than manufacturing firms. --enterprise software,social software,social enterprise software

On Productivity Measurement and Interpretation: Some Insights on Italy in the European Context. LEQS Paper No. 142/2019 March 2019

Over the period 1995–2016, the Italian performance in terms of productivity was poor in historical terms and in comparison with its main international partners. This issue goes beyond Italy, with declining productivity growth observed, from the second half of the nineties, in several other advanced economies. Possible explanations for the slowdown include factors such as lower capital investment by firms, decreased competition, excessive regulation, and capital misallocation. The diffuse slowing rates of measured productivity growth has also raised questions on whether GDP and output current compilation methods are adequate (i.e. the mis-measurement hypothesis). The “ICT revolution” has created new ways of exchanging and providing goods and services as result of increased connectivity. These developments challenge the way economic activity is traditionally measured. There are also measurement problems associated with estimating output and input volumes especially related to the quality of price indexes for some products and services. These problems have an impact on productivity estimates and might impair international comparability. In this paper, we intend to investigate what the core problems in productivity measurement and interpretation are in the European context, with a specific focus on Italy

The Impact of Functional Integration and Spatial Proximity on the Post-entry Performance of Knowledge Intensive Business Service Firms

Knowledge intensive business service firms (KIBS) are an important element of modern economies and thus attracting increasing interest in scientific research. In the existing literature it is argued that due to the important role of knowledge, innovation and userproducer interaction in the KIBS sector, functional integration and spatial proximity are particularly decisive for a firm’s development. Nevertheless, due to the absence of suitable micro data there is a lack of studies empirically analysing the impact of functional integration and regional proximity using micro firm data. Based upon newlyconducted firm micro data in three German metropolitan regions, this paper supplements the literature by giving a multivariate empirical analysis of the determinants of post-entry performance of KIBS. The results of the estimation of firm growth equations show that functional linkages to knowledge providers, customers and co-operation partners indeed matter for the performance of young KIBS. Regarding spatial proximity, however, especially a high diversification of geographical reach is proved to be crucial.Employment growth, Entrepreneurship, Entry, Firm growth, Innovation, Knowledge intensive business services, Post-entry performance

Determinants of Innovative Activity in Newly Founded Knowledge Intensive Business Service Firms

Innovative activity is performed to a considerable extent in the service sector, namely within the socalled knowledge intensive business services (KIBS). Nevertheless, little is known about the determinants of innovative activity in these firms. In the present paper, some of these determinants are examined on the basis of a recently created dataset of 547 newly founded German firms (KIBS Foundation Survey 2003). The results show that the access to knowledge through cooperation and networking is an important factor determining innovative activity in the KIBS sector, whereas, surprisingly, neither managerial characteristics nor spatial proximity have general influence.

Toward A Model of International Compensation and Rewards: Learning From how Managers Respond to Variations in Local Host Contexts

Managers and researchers recognize that the tensions created by the interplay of globalization and national environments influence the behaviors of multinational enterprises (MNEs). In order to develop a model that is useful for understanding the effects of the global and local host environments on managerial compensation, we undertook a grounded theory building study of managers in several multinationals. We use the information gained to extend two contemporary perspectives of IHRM: national culture, and strategic alignment. We develop the idea that it is the relative degree of variation (flexibility) within the local host context that is critical to understanding managers\u27 ICRS decisions. We present a different, pragmatic experimentation view of managers\u27 ICRS decision making, which we believe offers insights into the effects of the interplay of the MNE pressures to create integrated global systems and the pressures generated within the local host environments