Productivity effects of organizational change: microeconometric evidence

This paper analyzes the relationship between investment in information and communication technologies (ICT), non-ICT-investment, labor productivity and workplace reorganization. Firms are assumed to reorganize workplaces if the productivity gains arising from workplace reorganization exceed the associated reorganization costs. Two different types of organizational change are considered : introduction of group-work and flattening of hierarchies. Empirical evidence is provided for a sample of 411 firms from the German business-related services sector. We develop and estimate a model for labor productivity and firms' decision to re-organize workplaces that allows workplace reorganization to affect any parameter of the labor productivity equation. Our general and flexible methodology allows to properly take account of strategic complementarities between the input factors and workplace reorganization. The estimation results show that changes in human resources practices do not significantly affect firms' output elasticities with respect to information and communication technologies (ICT), non-ICT-capital and labor although most of the point estimates of the individual output elasticities and of the control variables for observable firm heterogeneity are larger if workplace reorganization is realized. We therefore apply Kernel density estimation technique and demonstrate that for firms with organizational change the entire labor productivity distribution shifts significantly out to the right if workplace reorganization takes place, indicating that workplace reorganization induces an increase in labor productivity that is attributable to complementarities between the various input factors and workplace reorganization. By contrast, firms without organizational change would not have realized significant productivity gains if they had reorganized workplaces. --workplace reorganization,ICT-investment,labor productivity,endogenous switching regression model,Kernel density estimation

Wissensvermittlung versus Legitimationsfunktion : warum engagieren Unternehmen IT-Berater?

Ein Berater erfüllt einerseits die Rolle des Wissensvermittlers, andererseits kann er die Funktion übernehmen, bestehende Probleme und geplante Maßnahmen verschiedenen Interessensgruppen gegenüber zu legitimeren. Dieser Artikel zeigt empirische Evidenz für die Rolle des IT-Beraters auf Grundlage eines Unternehmensdatensatzes für das verarbeitende Gewerbe und für ausgewählte Dienstleistungssektoren in Deutschland. Hierzu wird erstens die subjektive Einschätzung von Unternehmen zu den Motiven einer Inanspruchnahme IT-bezogener Beratung repräsentativ ausgewertet. Zweitens werden die Bestimmungsfaktoren der Nachfrage nach Beratung ökonometrisch analysiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass für die Inanspruchnahme externer IT-Beratung die Rolle des Beraters als Wissensvermittler im Vordergrund steht. Insbesondere erklären die IT-Intensität und die Nutzung komplexer Software sowie vergangene IT-basierte und beratungsintensive Ereignisse die Inanspruchnahme von IT-Beratung. Letzteres Ergebnis deutet darauf hin, dass Berater zur Nachfrageschaffung nach Beratungsdienstleistungen beitragen. Die Legitimationsfunktion kommt bei Aktiengesellschaften zum Tragen

IT, Organizational Change and Wages

In this paper we analyze the impact of information technology and organizational changes on wages using individual level data for 1998/1999. The average impact of IT use on wages turns out to be five to six percent, however, the effects differ across different IT components. Unless employees use IT at the workplace, they do not share in the gains from organizational changes in form of higher wages. Outsourcing additionally requires a high qualification of employees in order to result in positive wage effects. --Information technology,organizational change,wage equations

More bits - more bucks? Measuring the impact of broadband internet on firm performance

The paper provides empirical evidence for the causal impact of broadband Internet on the economic performance of German firms. Performance is measured in terms of labour productivity and realised process and product innovations. The analysis refers to the early phase of DSL expansion in Germany from 2001 to 2003, when roughly 60 percent of the German firms already used broadband Internet. Identification relies on instrumental variable estimation taking advantage of information on the availability of DSL broadband at the postal code level. The results show that broadband Internet has no impact on firms' labour productivity whereas it exhibits a positive and significant impact on their innovation activity. --labour productivity,innovation,broadband Internet

IT outsourcing - A source of innovation? Microeconometric evidence for Germany

Do firms sourcing out IT services redirect their resources to innovation activity? We attempt to answer this question by analysing a firm-level data set comprising 1453 firms from the German manufacturing and services sectors. Using different measures of IT outsourcing (ITO), the econometric estimations reveal a significant and U-shaped relationship between ITO and product innovation activity of manufacturing firms, and a significant and hump-shaped relationship between ITO and process innovation activity of services firms. A propensity score matching analysis takes account of reverse causality; the results underpin the relevance of ITO for services firms' realisation of process innovation

Do Older Workers Lower IT-Enabled Productivity? Firm-Level Evidence from Germany

The paper provides empirical evidence for the question whether firms' ITenabled labour productivity is affected by the age structure of the workforce. We apply a production function approach with heterogenous labour to firmlevel data from German manufacturing and services industries. We find that workers older than 49 are not significantly less productive than prime age workers, whereas workers younger than 30 are significantly less productive than prime age workers. Older workers using a computer are significantly more productive than older non-computer users. The positive and significant relationship between labour productivity and IT intensity is not affected by the proportion of older workers

Do Older Workers Lower IT-Enabled Productivity? Firm-Level Evidence from Germany

The paper provides empirical evidence for the question whether firms’ ITenabled labour productivity is affected by the age structure of the workforce. We apply a production function approach with heterogenous labour to firmlevel data from German manufacturing and services industries. We find that workers older than 49 are not significantly less productive than prime age workers, whereas workers younger than 30 are significantly less productive than prime age workers. Older workers using a computer are significantly more productive than older non-computer users. The positive and significant relationship between labour productivity and IT intensity is not affected by the proportion of older workers.Labour productivity; information technology; older workers

B2B or Not to Be: Does B2B E-Commerce Increase Labour Productivity?

We implement an endogeneous switching-regression model for labour productivity and firms' decision to use business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce. Our approach allows B2B usage to affect any parameter of the labour productivity equation and to properly take account of strategic complementarities between the input factors and B2B usage. Empirical evidence from 1,394 German firms shows that firms using B2B e-commerce have a significantly higher output elasticity with respect to ICT-investment and produce significantly more efficiently than firms that do not use B2B. Firms' labour productivity is enhanced by using B2B. --Business-to-business e-commerce,labour productivity,endogenous switching regression model,survey data

Konjunkturelle Stimmung bei den Unternehmen in der Informationswirtschaft leicht verbessert

Von der eingetrübten konjunkturellen Stimmung im dritten Quartal 2011 hat sich die Informationswirtschaft im vierten Quartal wieder etwas erholt. Der ZEW-Stimmungsindikator Informationswirtschaft steigt um fünf Punkte auf einen Wert von 61,6

The Adoption of Business-to-Business E-Commerce: Empirical Evidence for German Companies

Although in its infancy, one promising application of Internet technology for firms is so-called Internet commerce or electronic commerce. This paper analyses the determinants of B2B (business-to-business) adoption borrowing from the literature on the adoption of new technologies and considering factors like firm size, corporate status, human capital and international competitive situation. An ordered probit model is applied to a data set containing about 3,000 enterprises from the German manufacturing industry and the German services sector in the year 2000. We find positive and significant effects of firm size, the share of highly qualified employees and the export share. An IT-intensive production process enhances the probability of a broad use of B2B e-commerce. An important influence on the use of B2B is the bandwagon effect, implying that firms are more likely to use this new Internet application if others within the same industry likewise do it. We find no significant effects of firm age and of the fact that a firm belongs to a group of companies as measures of a firm's flexibility and financial power