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In this paper, we empirically study the relationship between entrepreneurial culture and economic growth. Based on a micro based comparison of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, we develop a measure reflecting entrepreneurial attitude at the regional level. We subsequently relate this newly developed variable, ‘entrepreneurial culture,’ to innovativeness and economic growth in 54 European regions. Extensive robustness analysis suggests that differences in economic growth in Europe can be explained by differences in entrepreneurial culture, albeit mostly in an indirect way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the view of many students, business and engineering education in Europe today do not sufficiently take into account complex problems, tendencies of chaos and uncontrollable business behaviour, and the lack of mutual trust in business transactions. Additionally, universities seem to fail in creating leaders, instead focusing on educating future managers. Therefore, the student-run international organisation the European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management (ESTIEM) offers a whole series of educational activities and programmes in parallel to their own university courses. It is based on the concept of experiential learning. Through ESTIEM, we, students of Industrial Engineering Management, learn and practise working in teams with shared and rotating leadership among ourselves. These experiences are to be described in the paper in some more detail, as a model for university education in industrial engineering and management. Furthermore, the following questions will be tackled: What does leadership mean today? How are problems handled by leaders and managers in industry nowadays? How can leadership to solve complex problems be taught in the university? As a consequence, it is suggested to develop out of the ESTIEM programmes, a series of university-equivalent ESTIEM courses. In the long term, the goal might be to realise the vision of a genuine Europe-wide 'ESTIEM University' in its own right, similar to normal universities which will help in shaping new leadership generation in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing inflows of FDI and the increasing integration of domestic firms into International Production Networks (IPNs) set up by EU-15 partners have yielded a rise in trade in parts and components for Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). As a consequence, new patterns of localization of industrial activities have been observed in the region since the mid-1990s. In this paper, I propose a comprehensive model of trade and production which tries to explain cross-country variations of sectoral output by comparative advantages (Ricardo, Heckscher–Ohlin) and agglomeration forces (home market effect, market potential), with a focus on the role played by trade in middle products. The empirical implementation reveals that the higher is the involvement in IPNs the larger is the domestic share of regional output. Comparative advantages are a crucial determinant of localization as opposed to agglomeration forces. I argue that these results can be interpreted as an assessment of the predictive power of two alternative trade theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we estimate parametric input and output distance functions and discuss how to estimate a mixture/latent class model (LCM) involving the output and input distance functions in the context of multi-input and multi-output production technology. The proposed technique is applied to a panel data on European Railways (1971–1994). This model allows us to identify determinants of the efficiency orientation, thereby providing useful information that can help researchers to choose between the input and the output-oriented approaches. In addition, we develop cross-indices that can be used to compute input (output) technical inefficiency from the estimates of output (input) distance function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the firm-size distribution has shifted over the last two decades across a broad spectrum of European countries. The evidence suggests that a shift away from large firms and towards small business has taken place, particularly is the southern regions and in the high technology indutries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What was the contribution of intercontinental trade to the development of the European early modern economies? Previous attempts to answer this question have focused on static measures of the weight of trade in the aggregate economy at a given point in time, or on the comparison of the income of specific imperial nations just before and after the loss of their overseas empire. These static accounting approaches are inappropriate if dynamic and spillover effects are at work, as seems likely. In this paper, I use a panel dataset of 10 countries in a dynamic model that allows for spillover effects, multiple channels of causality, persistence, and country-specific fixed effects. Using this dynamic model, simulations suggest that in the counterfactual absence of intercontinental trade, rates of early modern economic growth and urbanization would have been moderately to substantially lower. For the four main long-distance traders, by 1800, the real wage was, depending on the country, 6.1-22.7 % higher, and urbanization was 4.0-11.7 percentage points higher, than they would have otherwise been. For some countries, the effect was quite pronounced: in The Netherlands between 1600 and 1750, for instance, intercontinental trade was responsible for most of the observed increase in real wages and for a large share of the observed increase in urbanization. At the same time, countries which did not engage in long-distance trade would have had real wage increases in the order of 5.4-17.8 % and urbanization increases of 2.2-3.2 percentage points, should they have done so at the same level as the four main traders. Intercontinental trade appears to have played an important role for all nations that engaged in it, with the exception of France. These conclusions stand in contrast to the earlier literature that uses a partial equilibrium and static accounting approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differences in entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurial attitude are substantial and persistent across nations and regions. However, studies on entrepreneurship that encompass regions and countries at the same time are lacking. This paper explains both national and regional differences in entrepreneurial attitude and activity for 127 regions in 17 European countries, based on Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data. We reveal the importance of institutional factors and economic and demographic attributes to variations in regional entrepreneurial attitude and activity. Our findings point at the relevance of distinguishing between components of entrepreneurial attitudes, i.e. fear of failure in starting business, perceptions on start-up opportunities and self-assessment of personal capabilities to start a firm. We find different determinants of these components, suggesting that they reflect different aspects of entrepreneurial attitude. In explaining regional prevalence rates of phases in entrepreneurial activity (nascent, baby business, established business) we find significant contributions of entrepreneurial attitude components. Urban regions and regions with high levels of nearby start-up examples show relatively high rates of early-stage entrepreneurship. A large number of start-up procedures does not discourage early-stage entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper compares the design and outcome of public subsidies to business across a number of industrialized countries. The comparison of the amount of subsidies shows that the share of GDP devoted to total public support is markedly lower in the USA than in Europe but the share of GDP devoted to support that improves economic performance is comparable. Implementing public support follows two models. The first model (Anglo-Saxon) model is primarily 'soft' in nature and decentralized. The second model is more interventionist and centralized. The former model seems to perform better especially in term of science and technology. However, the impact of public support policies remains seriously under-researched and more research is crucially needed to draw firm conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines empirically whether more stringent domestic environmental policies reduce the international competitiveness of environmentally sensitive goods (ESGs). Our time series evidence indicates that there are no systematic changes in trade patterns of ESGs in thelast three decades, despite the introduction of more stringent environmental regulations in most of the developed countries in the 1970s and 1980s. This observed phenomenon is then subjected to a multi-country econometric test using an extended gravity-equation framework. The test suggests that, overall, more stringent environmental regulations do not reduce total exports, exports of ESGs and exports of non-resource-based ESGs. Neither was there any evidence to support the hypothesis that new trade barriers emerge to offset the effects of more stringent environmental regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Up to now, business reengineering mainly was derived from pragmatic experiences rather than from theoretical considerations. The present paper reports about the perception of top managers of Swiss and German companies about the importance and realization of business reengineering processes. Furthermore, the consequences of business reengineering with respect to the strategy, structure, and culture of business companies will be analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study physiotherapy providers' prices in repeated competitive biddings where multiple providers are accepted in geographical districts. Historically, only very few districts have rejected any providers. We show that this practice increased prices and analyze the effects the risk of rejection has on prices. Our data are derived from three subsequent competitive biddings. The results show that rejecting at least one provider decreased prices by more than 5% in the next procurement round. The results also indicate that providers have learned to calculate their optimal bids, which has also increased prices. Further, we perform counterfactual policy analysis of a capacity-rule of acceptance. The analysis shows that implementing a systematic acceptance rule results in a trade-off between direct cost savings and service continuity at patients' usual providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Little comparative evidence is available on utilisation of cancer medicines in different countries and its determinants. The aim of this study was to develop a statistical model to test the correlation between utilisation and possible determinants in selected European countries.Methods: A sample of 31 medicines for cancer treatment that obtained EU-wide marketing authorisation between 2000 and 2012 was selected. Annual data on medicines' utilisation covering the in- and out-patient public sectors were obtained from national authorities between 2008 and 2013. Possible determinants of utilisation were extracted from HTA reports and complemented by contacts with key informants. A longitudinal mixed effect model was fitted to test possible determinants of medicines utilisation in Belgium, Scotland and Sweden.Results: In the all-country model, the number of indications reimbursed positively correlated with increased consumption of medicines [one indication 2.6, 95% CI (1.8-3.6); two indications 2.4, 95% CI (1.4-4.3); three indications 4.9, 95% CI (2.2-10.9); all P < 0.01], years since EU-wide marketing authorisation [1.2, 95% CI (1.02-1.4); p < 0.05], price per DDD [0.9, 95% CI (0.998-0.999), P < 0.01], and Prescrire rating [0.5, 95% CI (0.3-0.9), P < 0.05] after adjusting for time and other covariates.Conclusions: In this study, the most important correlates of increased utilisation in a sample of cancer medicines introduced in the past 15 years were: medicines coverage and time since marketing authorisation. Prices had a negative effect on consumption in Belgium and Sweden. The positive impact of financial MEAs in Scotland suggests that the latter may remove the regressive effect of list prices on consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study extends research on the day-of-the-week effect towards European real estate indices. We examine this anomaly for several European securitized real estate index returns between 1990 and 2003. Although the countries under analysis have unique country-specific patterns, we find that eight out of eleven European countries exhibit abnormally high Friday returns. Moreover, two different Europe indices also exhibit the Friday anomaly. The anomaly is robust with respect to extreme observations, alternative specifications and several well-known calendar effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research derives from an EU DG Enterprise (IPS Programme) project on bio-incubation, called Bio-Link. The Bio-Link project is innovative in three ways. First, it involves an international comparative analysis of biotechnology incubators of the kind that is rarely if ever done. Second, the incubator representatives are monitored and investigated by an academic partnership team. Third, there is a stated aspiration by the incubator companies to engage in co-incubation across borders. Co-incubation is, as far as we are aware, a new kind of boundary crossing innovation in which advanced start-up businesses are assisted to enter other national markets and/or benefit from specialised services or scientific, technological, or commercial knowledge absent in the home country but present in a partner country. Evidence from research on European, Israeli and North American bioincubators is included to compare, contrast and enable future judgements of incubator appropriateness to biotechnology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the industry specialization patterns and the trade theories in Europe. Overview of the sparse literature on specialization patterns; Evidence of increasing specialization; Identification of increased industrial geographical concentration.