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This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of national and international R&D support programmes on firms’ technology scouting, defined as firms’ use of external knowledge sources.

Drawing on a unique data set on R&D support programmes for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in both manufacturing and service sectors across 28 European countries, this study reports treatment effects estimated by the copula-based endogenous switching model, which takes into account unobserved firm heterogeneity.

Empirical results indicate that R&D support programmes have heterogeneous effects on technology scouting. In particular, a crowding-out effect arises in the case of informal sources of external knowledge, whereas additional effects are reported for formal, strategic sources.

For informal sources of external knowledge, a random distribution of R&D measures would have a substantially larger effect rather than using current selection criteria.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the policy effects on technology scouting applying a copula-based endogenous switching model. Most cross-sectional empirical studies use matching estimators, although their main disadvantage is the selection on observables.

This study investigates the impact of cooperation with external partners on the intensity of product innovation as well as its commercial success. The focus is on firms located in the Eastern European countries that are seldom a subject of empirical innovation studies. The theoretical framework takes into account that moderate and modest innovator countries, which comprise the sample, have distinct innovation ecosystems relative to advanced economies.

The study uses data from the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) that was conducted in 2013–2014 and covering the period of the past three years. Product innovation is measured through its intensity (a number of product innovation) and through its commercial success (innovative sales). A set of hypotheses are tested using a negative binomial estimator (for the number of product innovation) and a tobit estimator (for innovative sales) estimated in Stata statistical software.

Empirical findings show that vertical cooperation has a positive effect on the intensity of innovation activities. In contrast, the authors find no evidence that horizontal cooperation or cooperation with science partners (universities and research centres) increase innovation intensity or its commercial success. Besides vertical cooperation, for a commercial success, it is equally beneficial for firms to use their own innovative ideas. These results taken together suggest that closed innovation and cooperation with customers and suppliers are critical determinants of product innovation in Eastern European firms.

The study contributes to expanding the research on knowledge management and open innovation in less advanced economies.

There is a dearth of empirical research on the impact of external knowledge search on innovation performance in different categories of service firms. This study explores the effectiveness of the breadth of external search on product and process innovations in German firms. In particular, the author modelled a non-linear relationship between the breadth of knowledge and product and process innovations.

Drawing on the Mannheim Innovation Panel (MIP) data for the German service firms in the period 2014–2016, the author reported findings from a bivariate probit model which took into account mutual interdependence between product and process innovations. Moreover, the model was separately estimated for knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) and other services. For comparative purposes, the author also estimated the model for manufacturing firms.

Empirical findings uniformly indicated an inverted U-shaped effect of the breadth of knowledge on both product and process innovations. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that using up to three knowledge sources increases the probability of a joint implementation of product and process innovations. These findings hold for both KIBS firms and other services. However, those service firms that focussed on a single type of innovation experienced diminishing returns to external knowledge when exploiting more than one source of knowledge. These results indicated that a simultaneous introduction of different types of innovation required diverse knowledge sources. In contrast, when focussing on a single type of innovation, service firms experienced diminishing returns when multiple sources were used. However, this finding was only partially found for manufacturing firms. Accordingly, this study’s findings provided support for the demarcation approach, insofar as the breadth of knowledge had a heterogenous impact on innovation in manufacturing relative to service firms.

Previous studies on the breadth of knowledge search mostly examined its influence on innovation performance without separately analysing manufacturing and service firms. The present study focussed on service firms that were further divided into KIBS and other service firms. By investigating potentially non-linear relationships between knowledge breadth and product and process innovations, it illustrated how different innovation strategies were affected by a diverse pool of external knowledge sources.

This paper aims to report the results of an investigation into the relationship between corporate boards and the likelihood of a firm being convicted of an environmental offence in the United Kingdom (UK).

The study uses binary logistics regression analysis to model the relationship between corporate boards and the likelihood of a firm being convicted of an environmental offence in the UK, controlling for firm size, financial leverage and profitability.

The results suggest that the likelihood of a firm being convicted of an environmental offence increases with board size but decreases with the presence of a woman on the board. No support is found for the authors’ hypotheses about the proportion of outside directors and the presence of a lawyer on the board. Marginal effects’ results also show that adding one member to the board increases the chance of a firm being convicted for an environmental offence by 4.2 per cent, while having a woman on the board decreases the likelihood of a firm being convicted of an environmental offence by 31.8 per cent.

The sample size of 55 firms is small which could affect the generalisability of the study.

The study uses proprietary data obtained from the UK Environmental Agency to provide evidence for the first time how corporate boards affect the chances of a listed firm being convicted of an environmental offence in the UK.

The digital platform (DP) develops through a network capability that combines technological infrastructure and resources to provide goods or services. This article investigates how institutions influence the development of the DP entrepreneurship ecosystem (EE) in a developing economy context.

An exploratory qualitative approach based on interviews with 33 DP business executives in Nigeria was the chosen research method. The interview method took the form of face-to-face, telephone and zoom video meetings, depending on the respective preferences of the participants. The research philosophy is based on interpretivism. Hence, the collected data were analyzed thematically and interpreted to make sense of the business executives' perspectives about the DP landscape as well as its institutional enablers and barriers.

The findings reveal institutional elements that are either too underdeveloped or weak to nurture an effective DP system resulting in high cost of doing business. A key cultural challenge is obtaining an honest workforce and managers. Also, there is lack of effective policies, weak regulation, multiple taxation and foreign competition, which affects local digital firms. Although cultural diversity has several merits, differences in cultural values and languages create marketing and promotion challenges. Moreover, the low level of digital literacy between Generation Z, Millennials and others, such as Baby Boomers and Generation X, poses a significant challenge concerning customer segmentation.

Research on digital technologies, the complexity of platform architectures and institutional logic has attracted interest in recent years. This article explored the institutional logic influencing the development of DP ecosystem (providing knowledge about EE in a developing world context). Despite the institutional challenges, there are multiple opportunities for Nigerian DP sector to flourish in the fast-growing economy.

The value of this article is related to how micro-, meso- and macro-institutional forces combine to support or become barriers to the development of the DP ecosystem, especially in developing economies where digitalization is creeping into every business sector and society.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how both technological and non-technological innovations influence export intensity in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In addition, the authors report results for each firm-size category of micro-, small and medium firms, and thus reflect SME heterogeneity.

The research methodology is based on the analysis of the Eurobarometer 2014 data set from 28 EU Member States, Switzerland and the USA covering the period 2011–2014. To statistically test the three defined research hypotheses on individual and joint effects of both types of innovation, a multiple treatment model was estimated. The advantage of this empirical strategy is that it takes into account the endogeneity of both technological and non-technological innovations. Moreover, the authors employ the production approach or the direct test of complementarity between technological and non-technological innovations.

Empirical findings indicate that technological innovations positively affect export intensity in small and medium firms, whereas non-technological innovations exert no influence on export intensity, regardless of the firm size. Moreover, the results from the direct test suggest no evidence of the complementary effects of technological and non-technological innovation on export intensity.

The authors infer that SMEs would benefit more from public support targeting both exports and innovations than micro-firms, as the sunk costs of exports are too high for the latter. However, public support aimed at reducing fixed costs of exports could be particularly beneficial for micro-firms.

The research fills a literature gap on the joint impact of technological and non-technological innovations on export intensity while taking into account the endogeneity of innovation activities and SME heterogeneity.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of tax planning activities on the firm value of FTSE 100 firms. We employ static and dynamic panel regression analyses on a sample of 70 companies drawn from the UK FTSE 100 over a five-year period (2006–2010). Empirical evidence suggests that tax planning activity as measured by the proxies based on reported accounting information has a negative impact on firm value. Moreover, the results from the Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) models suggest significant dynamics in firm value, i.e., the current firm value is positively affected by the past firm value. The findings imply the need for a full review of the adequacy and relevance of tax accounting disclosure and therefore have policy implications for accounting standard setters.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the empirical relationship between microsavings and the financial performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

The approach in this paper is decidedly empirical, and employs data obtained from Microfinance Information eXchange (MIX). The data set consists of 350 microfinance MFIs domiciled in 36 Sub-Saharan African countries for the period covering 1998–2012.

The panel estimation results consistently show that there exists a negative and statistically significant relationship between microsavings and the financial performance of MFIs in SSA. This is perhaps surprising, albeit rational considering the exceedingly elevated operating expenses that ascend from mobilizing and managing microsavings, ceteris paribus, that could erode firm profitability. The paper draws policy implications from these important findings.

Even though generalized method of moment estimation technique was employed and robustness checks, the issue of endogeneity cannot be eliminated entirely.

Microfinance industry is one of the fastest growing segments of the financial sector in SSA. The industry is increasingly becoming the core of financial inclusion in the region where two-thirds of the adult population lack access to formal financial services. Therefore, gaining an in-depth understanding of the role microsavings play in the financial performance of MFIs can contribute to the growth of the industry.

This study is timely considering the significant growth in the number of microsavings – there are currently twice as many microsavings accounts in SSA as there are microcredits. More importantly, based on 400 MFIs, that reported data to MIX in 2016, the total microsavings stood at about US$11bn against an aggregate loan portfolio of about US$10.5bn. The remarkable growth of microsavings in SSA, from less than US$100m in 2000 to US$11bn in 2016, is the main motivation of undertaking this study.