II. Allgemeine und angewandte statistik

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Complementarity in R&D Cooperation Strategies

This paper assesses the performance effects of simultaneous engagement in R&D cooperation with different partners (competitors, clients, suppliers, and universities and research institutes). We test whether these different types of R&D cooperation are complements in improving productivity. The results suggest that the joint adoption of cooperation strategies could be either beneficial or detrimental to firm performance, depending on firm size and specific strategy combinations. Customer cooperation helps to increase market acceptance and diffusion of product innovations and enhances the impact of competitor and university cooperation. On the other hand, smaller firms also face diseconomies in pursuing multiple R&D cooperation strategies, which may stem from higher costs and complexity of simultaneously managing multiple partnerships with different innovation objectives.The empirical analysis for this paper has been performed at CEREM/Statistics Netherlands. We thank Bert Diederen of CEREM for his assistance. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies of Statistics Netherlands. We thank two anonymous referees, the editor (Lawrence White), Bonnie Beerkens, Geert Duysters, Katrin Hussinger, and Pierre Mohnen for helpful comments on earlier drafts     

Central bank independence: Only part of the inflation story

Summary Central bank independence: Only part of the inflation story The idea that countries with an independent central bank perform better on price stability is very popular and confirmed by studies investigating the issue empirically. Yet, using the Barro-Gordon model we show that the gains from a more independent central bank are not fixed. They are larger in countries with unstable governments, not committed to fixed exchange rates, and in countries were left-wing parties hold a strong position. The effect of increasing central bank independence is also shown to depend on the level of the natural unemployment rate and the slope of the short-term Phillips curve.We are grateful to Eric Pentecost and two referees of this journal for valuable comments on an earlier version of the paper. Any remaining errors are ours.     

Effective Elements to Establish an Ethical Infrastructure: An Exploratory Study of SMEs in the Madrid Region

The purpose of this study is to identify the elements that can be implemented to achieve an ethical infrastructure, in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The ethical infrastructure is considered as a set of formal and informal systems, leadership, climate and culture, related to ethical issues. The research was carried out through interviews and focus groups with managers from 28 companies in Madrid, all signatories to the Global Compact. The identified key elements in SMEs are leadership, informal managerial and formal communication. This study also explores different factors that influence the effectiveness, implementation, and sustainability of the ethical infrastructure in SMEs, discovering some factors that can act as both accelerators and barriers such as pressure from customers. Additional findings regarding the concepts of ethics and corporate social responsibility in SMEs, dilemmas and characteristics of the culture and climate are also presented.