Financial Constraints and Other Obstacles: are they a Threat to Innovation Activity?

Summary  In this paper we examine the importance of financial and other obstacles to innovation in the Netherlands using statistical information from the CIS 3.5 innovation survey. We report results on the effect of these obstacles on the firms’ decision to abandon, prematurely stop, seriously slow down, or not to start an innovative project. These results are compared with those from other studies in the Netherlands and other countries. We end with a discussion of policy measures that have been taken to overcome, or at least attenuate these obstacles, such as R&D tax incentives, venture capital financing and policy mix packages.      

Perceived risk and the earthquake insurance purchase decision: a commentary on a paper by Lennart Sjöberg

Sjöberg in his 1994 report entitled 'Perceived risk vs. demand for risk reduction' has argued that 'risk perception' involves two separable components: the probability that an event will occur and the consequences of this event. Based on three empirical studies, Sjöberg concluded that one of these two factors is far more important than the other: that the perceived severity of consequences is a better predictor of demand for mitigation than the perceived probability of harm or risk. This paper focuses on the second of the three reported studies involving the adoption of home insurance in Sweden. The empirical analysis reported here, based on survey research in California, supports the conclusion that perceived probability of occurrence continues to be an important factor in the decision to purchase voluntary hazards insurance.     

Ranking Economics Journals Using Data From a National Research Evaluation Exercise

This paper describes an algorithm for creating a ranking of economics journals, using data from the 2014 UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise. The ranking generated by the algorithm can be viewed as a measure of the average quality of the papers published in the journal, as judged by the REF Economics and Econometrics sub‐panel, based on the outputs submitted to the REF.     

Quo Vadis MRIO? Methodological, data and institutional requirements for multi-region input-output analysis

In order to understand wider sustainability impacts of consumption and to successfully promote and implement sustainable consumption and production policies, there is a need to capture the whole life-cycle impact of products and services across international supply chains. Multi-region input-output (MRIO) databases are a well described and suitable foundation for global sustainability analyses addressing a wide range of policy and research questions. In this paper we reflect on the reasons for the recent boom in MRIO compilation, summarise the current state of development and discuss future options for MRIO analysis. We list in detail the requirements for efficient and effective MRIO research and propose systemic and institutional changes. We deliberately try to go beyond existing ambitions for MRIO compilation and thus intend to stimulate discussion and to lay out the options for the future of MRIO research.     

Exit and Survival in a Concentrating Industry: The Case of Daily Newspapers in the Netherlands

This paper studies the effects of aggregate, industry-, and firm-specific factors on the exit hazard rates in the market for daily newspapers in the Netherlands from 1950 to 1996. We present a brief overview of the exit literature. On the basis of the existing empirical evidence, we decided to specify and estimate exponential and piecewise constant hazard rate models. We find that exit hazard rates of daily newspapers depend on the circulation size, ownership, and number of incumbents. Moreover, the effects are time-dependent. We do not find any significant effect of macroeconomic factors.     

Innovation management in service firms: a research agenda

This article suggests an agenda for further research on innovation management in service firms. It investigates differences and similarities between issues identified by previous academic research and issues brought up by practitioners within the area of innovation management in service firms. The results show that there are some major differences; for instance, researchers stress a need for formalized processes for development work, while practitioners focus on facilitating innovation in everyday operations. The main conclusion is that in order to bridge the gap between research and practice we would encourage further research on innovation in service firms to (1) conduct micro studies of innovation work, (2) view innovation in the context of everyday operations and (3) focus on co-workers’ innovative potential.