Tobias Stucki

Development and utilization of energy-related technologies, economic performance and the role of policy instruments

The present study investigates the effects of energy-related technologies on economic performance at firm level. We distinguish clearly between adoption and use of energy-related technologies (process innovation in the broad sense) and product innovation in energy-related fields. We take into consideration four energy-related policy instruments (and expected demand for energy-related new products and services). We investigate the possibility of indirect effects of policy on performance via adoption or innovation by interacting adoption and innovation variables with policy instrument dummies. We test our hypotheses not only for the pooled data but also separately for the three countries (Austria, Germany, Switzerland) that are taken into consideration in this study. We find a positive direct effect of investment expenditures for energy-related technologies on labour productivity and a positive indirect effect of energy taxes via investment in energy-related technologies. We find neither direct nor indirect effects of product innovation in energy-related products on labour productivity. No differences among the three countries could be detected.

The relative importance of human resource management practices for innovation

ABSTRACT Human resource management (HRM) practices are generally expected to stimulate a firms innovation performance. However, which of these practices really pay off? Based on a unique dataset that includes detailed information for both a firms innovation activities and a broad set of HRM practices, we find that primarily new workplace organization practices seem to enhance a firms innovation activities. Flexible practices of working time management and incentive payment schemes show only small effects on both innovation propensity and innovation success. Further training does only affect innovation success, but not innovation propensity. Overall, we find a stronger linkage between HRM practices and innovation propensity than with innovation success. Further, we find that innovation propensity increases, first, with the number of combinations of HRM practices adopted by a firm but not with the number of combinations of HRM practices from different groups of HRM practices adopted by a firm.

Dividing the Pie: The Determinants of Labor’s Share of Income on the Firm Level

This paper is the first to study the factors determining labor’s share of income on the level of the individual firm, employing an unusually informative panel data set. The empirical examination is concerned with Switzerland which stands out as one of the very few developed countries with a stable labor share. Broadly confirming results from previous cross-country and industry-level studies, we find that the main factor decreasing the labor share in the estimation period is the increase in the share of workers using ICT in the firm. The main reasons why Switzerland’s labor share remained almost constant are its relatively slow-rate of technological progress and shifts towards industries with above-average labor shares.

The 'New Firm Paradigm' and the Provision of Training: The Impact of ICT, Workplace Organization and Human Capital

SummaryThe paper analyzes the relevance of the three constituent elements of the ‘new firm paradigm’, i.e. ICT, workplace organization and human capital, as determinants of a firm’s provision of training. We concentrate on apprenticeship training, which in German-speaking countries is a widespread practice of skill formation. Econometric studies dealing with a firm’s provision of apprenticeships so far did not pay much attention to the influence of a shift towards the new paradigm. We find that apprenticeship training is an appropriate way of skill formation in advanced economies, but this may not be the case in leading-edge segments of the economy.

The Impact of ICT Usage, Workplace Organisation and Human Capital on the Provision of Apprenticeship Training: A Firm-Level Analysis Based on Swiss Panel Data

Firstly, we investigated the determinants of a) the propensity of Swiss firms to provide apprenticeship training, and b) the intensity of training (measured by the employment share of apprentices). We primarily were interested in the relevance as explanatory factors of the three constituent elements of the “new firm paradigm†that emerged in the course of the last twenty years: intensive usage of ICT; redesign of workplace organisation; shift from lower to higher skills. We found that the skill composition of the workforce (including further training), ICT intensity and, to a lesser extent, workplace organisation are important drivers of apprenticeship-based skill formation, with stronger effects on training propensity than on training intensity. Secondly, we analysed the relationship between apprenticeship training and firm performance. It turned out that productivity and apprenticeships (training propensity or intensity) are negatively correlated. The study is relevant for training policy in advanced economies where the new firm paradigm plays a large and growing role.

Do mergers and acquisitions among small and medium-sized enterprises affect the performance of acquiring firms?

This article investigates the post-merger performance effects resulting from mergers and acquisitions (M&As), drawing on a representative sample taken from all Swiss M&As occurring between 2006 and 2008, the majority of which took place between small and medium-sized firms (SMEs). Using this data, the study was able to investigate the impact of M&As on differing measures of economic performance, and also on innovation for the post-merger period of 2008–2010. The study found positive statistically significant performance effects arising from M&As for three of five critical performance indicators utilized. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that growth is a principal motive for external mergers, while efficiency is more influential on internal mergers.

Dividing the Pie

The authors are the first to study the factors determining labor’s share of income on the level of the individual firm, employing an unusually informative panel data set. The empirical examination is concerned with Switzerland, which stands out as one of the very few developed countries with a stable labor share. Broadly confirming results from previous cross-country and industry-level studies, the authors find that the main factor decreasing the labor share between 2001 and 2010 was the increase in the firm’s share of workers using information and communication technology. The main reasons why Switzerland’s labor share remained almost constant are the counteracting effects of a relatively slow rate of technological progress in 1980 to 1995 and sectoral reallocation toward industries with above-average labor shares.

Determinants of Internationalisation – Do they Differ among Sectors and Business Functions?: Evidence from Firm-level Data

The relevance of services FDI strongly increased over the last two decades. As goods and services differ with respect to important characteristics, one may expect that the determinants of internationalisation are not identical in manufacturing and the service sector. However, there is practically no firm-level research contrasting the two sectors in this respect. In order to fill this gap, we seek to identify for manufacturing and services, firstly, the determinants of a firm’s propensity to go international (exports and/or foreign direct investment) and, secondly, the factors determining the complexity of a firm’s direct foreign activities in terms of business functions. We find that an OLI-based model can be used to explain not only the propensity to go international but also differences between two specific forms of direct foreign investment for both the manufacturing and the service sector.

Determinants of Green Innovation: The Impact of Internal and External Knowledge

Based on a comprehensive data set comprising 13 countries, 22 industries and a period of 30 years we investigate the impact of internal and external knowledge pools of both green and ‘other than green’ technologies on green patent activities. It turned out that the internal green knowledge stock is positively related to green patent activities with a considerably large marginal value. The country’s green knowledge stock and the green knowledge stock of the same industry in other countries are also positively related with industries’ green patent activities, although with a significantly lower marginal value. External ‘other than green’ knowledge stocks are negatively related with green inventions. The considerable greater marginal value for internal green knowledge stock indicates that a free-riding position on green technology investments of other industries in the same country or the same industry in other countries does not seem to be very promising in terms of green inventions. The negative marginal effect of external ‘other than green’ knowledge stocks and the positive marginal value of external green knowledge stocks indicate that country level policy measures to promote green knowledge formation would provide additional positive effects for green inventions on an industry level.

The adoption of green energy technologies: The role of policies in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland

ABSTRACT We contribute to the existing research about policy-induced technology adoption in several ways. First, we suggest a new survey design to measure the energy-related policy environment. Second, we simultaneously estimate the policy effects for the adoption propensity and the adoption intensity simultaneously and, third, we compare the policy effects in the three countries, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Based on a representative sample of firms for all three countries we find that policies essentially promote the adoption of technologies and they are practically ineffective for the intensity, which poses a great challenge to future policy designs. Voluntary agreements or demand-related factors are among the most important drivers for the adoption propensity of green energy technologies. Given the current institutional framework in the surveyed countries, subsidies are more effective in Austria, taxes are more effective in Germany, and demand-related factors are relatively more effective in Switzerland.