Unternehmer koennen eine aktive Rolle in ihren eigenen Unternehmen spielen: Sie sind dann gleichzeitig Eigentuemer, Fuehrungskraft und stehen in der operativen Verantwortung. Fuer das UEberleben der Unternehmen sind Innovationen essentiell: Ohne Innovation entsteht kein Produkt. Wie sich...

Im Zuge der Globalisierung und Beschleunigung des Wettbewerbs wird die schnelle und kostenguenstige Entwicklung von Produkten bis zur Marktreife zunehmend zu einem zentralen Wettbewerbsfaktor. Dies gilt im besonderen Masse fuer die pharmazeutische Industrie, in der die Ausgaben fuer Forschung &...

A turnaround in the way we convert and consume energy is the key to successful climate change mitigation. Taking a micro-economic perspective, in order to put the necessary changes into practice corporations in the energy sector need not only have a long-term vision of the developments necessary...

This paper develops a theory of outside ownership where such an ownership arrangement mitigates an external finance problem. Part of the gains from outside ownership accrue to asset owners which determines the asset value. The theory provides a context to analyze asset ownership and asset values...

Trade and growth theories predict a mutual causation of innovation and exports. We test empirically whether innovation causes exports using a uniquely rich German micro dataset. To overcome the potential endogeneity, we need to identify variations in innovations that are exogenous to export...

In relativ kurzer Zeit haben Open Source-Projekte als selbst organisierte, informale (Arbeits-)Netzwerke freiwillig Arbeitender, die durch eine rechtlich spezifische Lizenz ein „oeffentliches Gut“ erstellen, neben kommerzieller Software eine hohe Bedeutung erlangt. In dieser Arbeit wird die...

Self regulation is a mechanism of quality vigilance that is frequently used in credence good industries. The providers in these markets generally form a Self Regulated Organization (SRO), composed by some members of the industry, whose main job is to convince consumers through an active...

It is widely speculated that the adoption of a technology takes off to be self-sustaining if it reaches the critical mass. However, the sponsors of competing technologies may engage in strategic maneuvering in the adoption process. Indeed, this paper shows that in the de facto standardization...

New technology is usually expensive and it takes time for manufacturers to make the technology more accessible. In the stereo industry, the first Super Audio Compact Disk (SACD) player made by Sony, SCD-1, sold for $5,000 in 1999; in 2002 the cheapest of Sony's new SACD players, SCD-CE775, had a...

This paper is concerned with the general question of the provision of information by financial intermediaries to their customers. Specifically, it analyzes the different ways the market can be organized and its effects on pricing and the level of information investors obtain. We find that market...