Taxonomies of patterns of innovation give a dominant role to large firms, and are often based on empirical studies that exclude micro firms. This paper proposes an empirical taxonomy of the innovative firms at the bottom of the size distribution, based on a new survey of 1,234 small firms and micro firms in the Netherlands, in both manufacturing and services. These firms differ not only in thei...

The removal of high levels of protection combined with substantial real devaluations has changed the environment in which Ghanaian manufacturing firms have operated in the 1990s. The changes in output, composition and productivity, which have occurred over this period, are examined in this paper. Survey evidence for the growth of the sector is shown to be consistent with data from sales tax ret...

The manufacturing function can be a formidable weapon to achieve competitive superiority. Through three case studies, this paper observes the manufacturing strategy practices in select Indian organizations. The common aspects and differences between the example organizations are highlighted. A model is proposed linking the manufacturing competitive priorities and the action plan pursued by thes...

Do tougher environmental regulations cause firms to flee the country? Although several studies document the impact of environmental regulation on domestic production, the question of whether firms increase foreign manufacturing in response to new domestic regulation has remained unanswered. Consequently, our understanding of the efficacy of environmental policy is limited, as is our understandi...

Information and knowledge are important prerequisites for innovation activity in firms. One important means of acquiring complementary knowledge are innovation networks. Depending on their absorptive capacity and knowledge base, firms develop different abilities to access and utilise external knowledge. These abilities might also be linked to firm size. Although size as such is not a decisive c...

Comprehensive firm-level data for Polish manufacturing show that in state-owned firms the large drop in net employment since the start of the transition in 1990 has been driven by a jump in the job destruction rate; job creation, by contrast, is located disproportionately in the private sector. Small firms are more dynamic than large firms, but even after controlling for size, private firms hav...