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The paper analyses the phenomenon of coopetition in the conditions of a large cluster of companies from the furniture industry in the vicinity of Kñepno. It covers a two-stage analysis. The first stage defines the general characteristics of the coopetition potential for the cluster on the basis of the authors' previous research. In this respect, the methodology of J. Cygler was used. At the second stage, using the case study approach, three companies of different market and assets potential were assessed in detail. The study proved that, when assessing the character of business relations at the level of the furniture production cluster, particular entities can be classified in different categories of use in business practice, covering innovations in coopetition relations.

This paper analyzes how life-cycle unemployment of former apprentices depends on the size of the training firm. We start from the hypotheses that the size of training firms reduces long-run cumulated unemployment exposure, e.g. via differences in training quality and in the availability of internal labor markets, and that the access to large training firms depends positively on young workers' ability and their luck to live in a region with many large and medium-sized training firms. We test these hypotheses empirically by using a large administrative data set for Germany and find corroborative evidence.

This paper analyzes how life-cycle unemployment of former apprentices depends on the size of the training firm. We start from the hypotheses that the size of training firms reduces long-run cumulated unemployment exposure, e.g. via differences in training quality and in the availability of internal labor markets, and that the access to large training firms depends positively on young workers' ability and their luck to live in a region with many large and medium-sized training firms. We test these hypotheses empirically by using a large administrative data set for Germany and find corroborative evidence.

Based on an improved and extended database, the Establishment History Panel, we extend the analysis of Fritsch & Weyh (2006) by investigating the development of employment in German start-up co-horts for the period 1976 to 2004. We confirm the typical pattern of an initial increasing and then soon decreasing number of employees in start-up cohorts. Furthermore, we provide some of the first evidence for the ”liability of aging” phenomena in Germany. Older firms face a relatively high risk of failure. Although only the largest 25% of the surviving entries grow in terms of employment, after 25 years the number of employees in these relatively large businesses strongly declines.

We analyze the development of employment in start-up cohorts, which is the direct gross employment effect of the new businesses. The data is for West Germany and covers the 1984- 2002 period. While total employment in the cohorts remains above the initial level in manufacturing, we find a pronounced decline of employment below this level in the service sector. Only a small fraction of the firms create a considerable amount of jobs. The contribution that the start-up cohorts of the 1984 - 2002 period made to total employment in 2002 is nearly three times as high in services as in manufacturing. Der Aufsatz untersucht die Beschäftigungsentwicklung einzelner Gründungskohorten und damit den direkten Beschäftigungseffekt der neuen Betriebe. Die Analyse bezieht sich auf Westdeutschland im Zeitraum 1984-2002. Während im Industriesektor die standardisierte Beschäftigungsentwicklung über den Beobachtungszeitraum von 18 Jahren positiv bleibt, fällt sie im Dienstleistungsbereich bereits ab dem ersten Jahr nach der Gründung fast monoton. Nur ein kleiner Teil der Betriebe schafft in wesentlichem Umfang neue Arbeitsplätze. Der Anteil der Gründungskohorten der Jahre 1984 - 2002 zu den Beschäftigten 2002 ist im Dienstleistungssektor fast dreimal so hoch wie im Industriebereich.

The way in which people balance their work and family responsibilities is becoming increasingly prominent on the policy agenda. This paper uses an economic framework to explore the rationale for government policies to improve work/family balance. It finds that strongest economic grounds for government intervention are the effects that maternal work may have on children. The evidence, however, is not strong, and whether maternal employment helps or harms children depends to a large part on the nature and quality of the childcare the children receive while the parents are at work. A number of policies could be used to promote work/family balance, including leave, childcare, changes to working hours, efforts to improve the family-friendliness of organisational cultures and tax/benefit policies. The most significant factor affecting work/family balance appears to be the organisational culture of the firm. In general, if organisational culture is not, in fact family-friendly, family-friendly measures will have little effect.