Narrow Results

Using firm-level data from 7165 firms from Indian manufacturing, this paper explores the effects of firm age and size on its inclination to invest in research and development (R&D). The paper addresses the inadequately answered question on the choice between in-house R&D and technology purchase from foreign firms. To the best of author’s knowledge, this is the first study to examine the impact of age, size and technology transfer on firm’s inclination to invest in R&D for the manufacturing sector in India. Our results suggest that young firms are more likely to invest in R&D. A firm’s exports further increase its propensity towards R&D. Contrary to the previous results, we show that young and small firms possibly use in-house R&D as a complementary input with purchased foreign technology. Thereafter, policy prescriptions are drawn.

This research examines the effects of green supply chain (SC) practices including recycling techniques, green logistics (G2), environmental protection trainings and programs, and green manufacturing. A data sample of 339 manufacturing firms was collected from the industrial area of Punjab, Pakistan. By using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), the findings indicated that except GL, the remaining green practices (GP) have significant and positive association with the organizational performance. In addition, GL have insignificant effect on firms’ performance due to government non seriousness, no financial subsidies on green technologies, heavy import duties, scarcity of green technologies/vehicles in Pakistan and that most firms import green vehicles from European and Western countries which incur huge costs into SC system in terms of long lead time. This study will help the policymakers and SC managers to understand the problems and current situation of GSCM in the manufacturing firms of Pakistan. Further, we also discuss research limitations, areas for future research.

In this study, we address the effect of innovation strategy and an innovative working climate on financial performance in the Norwegian wood industry. Innovation strategy embodies four dimensions: the degrees to which innovation in the form of products, processes, and business systems are embedded in the management values and priorities as well as the degree of expenditure in R&D. An innovative working climate is exemplified by team cohesion, supervisory encouragement, resources, autonomy, challenge, and openness to innovation. Previous studies have indicated a lack of research in traditional manufacturing firms on both innovation strategy and a supportive working climate. Our survey was answered by 241 CEOs. The connectional model was tested with structural equation modelling, and all hypotheses received support. This result implied that innovation strategy and an innovative working climate enhanced financial performance in traditional manufacturing firms.

Firms increasingly rely on business model innovation as a means to face challenges of a world in transition. We identify the conscious integration of products and services, i.e., product service systems, as a valuable strategy to radically innovate product-focused business models. Applying an exploratory multiple case study approach, we uncover five distinct kinds of services that specifically help firms to innovate their business model. These are (1) business consulting, (2) comprehensive services, (3) educational services, (4) financing services, and (5) information management services. The influence of these services on three components of business model innovation (value propositions, value chain architectures, and revenue streams) is discussed. In total, our study emphasizes that integrating specific services with products is an important driver for business model innovations.

Based on their perceptions, more than three quarters of Moroccan manufacturing firms have identified access to finance as one of the major constraints affecting their performance. However, compared to a number of emerging countries, Moroccan firms appear relatively undercapitalized and more reliant on external finance. These two findings seem contradictory and have very different policy implications. The purpose of this paper is to provide a rigorous understanding of the rationale behind financial choices made by Moroccan firms, and assess the severity of financial constraints they effectively face. The paper uses a panel dataset covering 550 non-listed manufacturing firms over the period 1998ȓ2003 and investigates both long-term and short-term measures of leverage with the objective of understanding the factors that shape "debt-equity choice" as well as "debt maturity structure".

Our analysis reveals the existence of a negative relationship between asset tangibility and both aggregate leverage and short-term debt ratio. However, no clear cut relationship between asset tangibility and long-term debt is uncovered. Small firms tend to increase their debt instead of opening their capital to outside investors and larger firms seem to rely much more on their retained earnings for their long-term financial needs. For short-term debt, size does not appear to matter. The impact of growth is positive on short-term leverage and irrelevant for long-term leverage. Finally, profitability exerts a positive effect on long-term leverage and a negative one on short-term leverage.