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.

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

The impact of regional and functional integration 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 user-producer interaction in the KIBS sector, functional and regional integration are particularly decisive for the firms’ post-entry development. Nevertheless, few existing studies are dealing with questions of entrepreneurship in the KIBS sector using micro firm data. This contribution gives an empirical analysis of the determinants of post-entry performance of KIBS in three German metropolitan regions. Due to the lack of suitable firm micro data, telephone interviews with 547 firm founders have been conducted. By applying multivariate estimation methods it can be shown that functional linkages to knowledge providers, customers and co-operation partners indeed matter for the performance of young KIBS. Regarding regional integration, however, especially a high diversification of spatial reach is proved to be crucial. JEL-Classification: D21, J23, L80, O30 Keywords: Employment growth; Entrepreneurship; Entry; Innovation; Knowledge-intensive business services; Post-entry performance

A U-Shaped Layout for a Manual Order Picking System

In manual order picking systems, order pickers walk or ride through a warehouse in order to collect items requested by customers. The performance of such a system is significantly dependent on its layout which determines the lengths of the order pickers\u27 tours and the corresponding picking times. Whereas for classic warehouse layouts all picking aisles are arranged in parallel to each other, in the warehouse layout presented here the picking aisles are arranged around a U-shaped central aisle. This layout has been developed for order picking systems in which slow-moving items are prevalent. A new routing strategy for such a warehouse is presented and an analytical expression for the expected tour length per picking order is derived. By comparing this estimation with those of routing schemes in classic warehouse layouts, it is demonstrated in which situations such U-shaped layouts allow for operating warehouses more efficiently