Firms increasingly look outside their organizational boundaries to identify partners that can improve the effectiveness of R&D projects. The strategy for using partners, however, varies significantly across projects. In some, partners are used primarily to lower development costs and/or...

Are efficiency improvements in the use of natural resources the key for sustainable development, are they the solution to environmental problems, or will second round effects - so-called rebound effects - compensate or even overcompensate potential savings, will they fire back? The answer to...

Are efficiency improvements in the use of natural resources the key for sustainable development, are they the solution to environmental problems, or will second round effects –so-called rebound effects- compensate or even overcompensate potential savings, will they fire back? The answer to...

Managers entrusted with new product development (NPD) have to seek the optimal balance between prior competencies and learning activities to generate successful products. Yet prior NPD research has largely taken a positivistic view of learning despite an inkling that too much learning can lead...

We investigate whether appointing a middle management level affects startups' innovation performance. Additional hierarchical levels are often suspected to restrict innovative activities. However, founders' capacities for information processing and resource allocation are usually strongly...

Is leadership changing in an increasingly digitalised work environment? This question arises in corporate practice, societal debates, and in business management research. The evolution of digital technologies changes working environments considerably and creates new challenges for executives. So...

We present a dynamic model in which an employee of a firm searches for business projects in a changing environment. It is costly to induce the employee who found a successful project in the past period to search for a new project. Past success can therefore result in profitreducing corporate...

How should executives lead organisations and their employees in an increasingly digitalized business environment and what skills are needed to succeed? Although the evolution of digital technologies considerably changes working environments in organisations and creates new challenges for...

This study was prepared by Nadine Fabritz while she was working at the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in the Department for Human Capital and Innovation. It was completed in June 2014 and accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Department of Economics at the University of Munich in October...