Suchergebnisse

Governments all over the world support innovation activities in private companies with several different programs. Typical measures are R&D subsidies, consulting services, incubator facilities, opportunities for networking, and subsidized loans. From an economic perspective, public support for innovations may help to compensate for market failure. But government support encounters the risk of being neither effective nor efficient. Furthermore, the ability of a company to successfully apply for public innovation support programs depends on the amount of administrative resources it already is equipped with, i.e. its size and its existing relationships with research institutions. In this paper, we look at public support for private companies in one specific German region, the Ruhr area. We use a sample of 74 companies, all of which engage in R&D activities and have already filed patents. Our findings show that firms need a minimum company size to be able to successfully apply for public innovation support. Furthermore, we show that an existing cooperation with research institutions makes access to public support measures easier. We also find that public innovation support indeed improves the patent position of companies.

In this paper, we develop a multi-stage formative measurement model to investigate which factors constitute the corporate brand of a start-up as seen from within the firm (corporate identity) and as perceived from outside (corporate image). Furthermore, we propose a structural model for brand building in start-ups, i.e. the causal relation between corporate identity and corporate image. We test this model empirically for a sample of 311 German start-ups. The study proves the importance of well-balanced and timely corporate branding activities in new ventures. It shows that internal branding activities are at least as important as those communication measures that are directly targeted at external audiences like customers and investors.

Die Erforschung der Corporate Governance, also der geeigneten Organisation von Leitung und Kontrolle in Unternehmen, hat eine lange Tradition in der Betriebswirtschaftslehre. Dieses Special Issue widmet sich in vielfältiger Weise dem Thema der geeigneten Corporate Governance in mittelständischen oder öffentlichen deutschen Unternehmen

AbstractPersonally meaningful and positive leisure pursuits are powerful mechanisms for adolescent development. Elements and characteristics of leisure experiences contribute directly to the development of identity, autonomy, competence, initiative, civic duty, and social connections.

Youth programs are prime contexts for the intentional facilitation of positive development. However, not all youth programs achieve positive outcomes equally. In order to promote the identification and dissemination of the characteristics and processes of effective youth programs, increased focus needs to be given to program evaluation. This article briefly reviews the main tenets of evaluation science in order to provide practitioners a roadmap for conducting their own evaluations. This includes an overview of different types of evaluations and key issues to consider when constructing an evaluation strategy such as targeting outcomes and developing program logic models.