The “sugar rush” from innovation subsidies: a robust political economy perspective

The governments of most advanced countries offer some type of financial subsidy to encourage firm innovation and productivity. This paper analyzes the effects of innovation subsidies using a unique Swedish database that contains firm level data for the period 1997–2011, specifically informa tion on firm subsidies over a broad range of programs. Applying causal treatment effect analysis based on matching and a diff-in-diff approach combined with a qualitative case study of Swedish innovation subsidy programs, we test whether such subsidies have positive effects on firm performance. Our results indicate a lack of positive performance effects in the long run for the majority of firms, albeit there are positive short-run effects on human capital investments and also positive short-term productivity effects for the smallest firms. These findings are interpreted from a robust political economy perspective that reveals that the problems of acquiring correct information and designing appropriate incentives are so complex that the absence of significant positive long-run effects on firm performance for the majority of firms is not surprising.     

Accounting and the Hope of Action

The paper discusses the role of hope in the construction of an accounting technology to realize a program, by looking at a process of choosing non-financial indicators in an effort to achieve healthier workplaces. By exploring the literature dealing with the concept of hope and by drawing on the debate on the relationship between accounting and action, we highlight the features of three hope-related concepts (hopelessness, naïve hope, and reflective hope). We also highlight how these concepts relate to different areas of uncertainty (validity, accuracy, and relevance) in the development of accounting technologies. Evidence collected through particiapant observation of a team involved in the construction of indicators offers empirical material to investigate the interplay between hopelessness, naïve hope, and reflective hope in relation to uncertainties concerning the link between accounting and action. Beyond analyzing how team members move from a naïve to a reflective hope in making the accounting–action link, the paper shows that among practitioners it is accepted that unintended consequences constitute the rule rather than the exception in the accounting–action link.     

Retail investor information demand – speculating and investing in structured products

We study the impact of retail investor information demand on trading in bank-issued investment and leverage structured products, which are specifically designed for retail investors. Stock-specific information demand positively predicts speculative trading activity. Furthermore, we find a positive relationship between market-wide information demand and order aggressiveness and order uncertainty for speculating and investing activity. Whereas information supply is associated with speculative long positions, information demand does not induce investors to be predominantly long or short. Finally, we do not find retail investor information demand to contribute to an upward price pressure on security prices. In contrast, information supply exerts negative price pressure. Overall, retail investor trading in individual stocks is much more strongly influenced by market-wide information demand instead of firm-specific information demand. This implies a low informational efficiency of retail investor speculation and investing activity.     

Democratizing innovation: The evolving phenomenon of user innovation

Almost 30 years ago, researchers began a systematic study of innovation by end users and user firms. At that time, the phenomenon was generally regarded as a minor oddity. Today, it is clear that user-centered innovation is a very powerful and general phenomenon. It is rapidly growing due to continuing advances in computing and communication technologies. It is becoming both an important rival to and an important feedstock for manufacturer-centered innovation in many fields. In this article, I provide an overview of what the international research community now understands about user-centered innovation. JEL classifications O32, O33     

Tax and spend or spend and tax? An empirical investigation for Austria

The aim of this contribution is to discriminate between the rivallingspend and tax andtax and spend hypotheses in order to check empirically the relationship between government spending and taxation decisions in Austria. For that purpose, the authors estimate a tri-variate structural VAR Model of Austria's public sector that, besides expenditures and revenues, includes aggregate income as an additional variable. They implement impulse-response functions and frequency domain techniques in order to identify the causal relation between government outlays and receipts. The budget making process is interpreted as an error correction model which allows to estimate to what extent revenues and expenditures are adjusted whenever the government sees its long run budget constraint violate. The empirical findings strongly support the spend and tax view that budget decision-making is significantly dominated by the expenditure side in Austria.We are gratefully indebted to Peter Weiss and three anonymous referees for many valuable comments and suggestion.     

The effects of flexible work practices on employee attitudes: evidence from a large-scale panel study in Germany

We explore the effects of flexible work practices (FWPs) on the work attitudes (job satisfaction and turnover intention) and non-work attitudes (leisure satisfaction and perceived health) of employees based on representative large-scale German panel data. Because unobserved individual characteristics can easily act as confounders, we estimate both pooled ordinary least squares models and individual fixed-effects models. Controlling for time-constant individual heterogeneity, we find that the three considered FWPs – flexitime, sabbaticals, and working from home – significantly increase job satisfaction and that sabbaticals and working from home (but not flexitime) significantly decrease turnover intention. In addition, sabbaticals but not flexitime or working from home significantly increase leisure satisfaction. The effects of FWPs on health are mostly weak and statistically insignificant. Models that do not control for such individual heterogeneity either underestimate the positive effects of FWPs or find detrimental effects. Our findings indicate that organizations in Germany can increase job satisfaction and decrease employee turnover intention by offering FWPs.     

新兴并购市场的崛起

过去五年里,企业合并急速增长。然而,不同于之前的合并浪潮,新兴市场的公司正发挥着日益重要的作用。事实上,全球控股收购的数量增长了6％,而新兴企业收购老牌公司的年增长速度则高达26％。虽然这些收购的动机有别于传统的并购活动,但不容置疑的是,新兴竞争对手在短期内确实对发达国家的公司造成了潜在威胁。