Ricerc@Sapienza

This study sheds light on the relationship between business diversification and innovation. A diversification strategy is both a driver of sunk costs and strategic slack. Strategic slack is a valuable reserve of knowledge, usable to foster innovation. Using linear models, we explore the interplay between research and development (R&D) and organisational slack in large and diversified companies listed on the Euronext 100 Index. We consider the diversification pattern over time, and its interactions with the following three categories: sunk costs, slack resources, and R&D.

The purpose of this paper is to provide new insights into mechanisms for successful implementation of social innovation and survival of social start-ups. Despite the increasing interest in the social dimension of sustainability-oriented innovations and the recognition of new firms among key drivers of innovation, social start-ups are still understudied in the literature. Aiming at a comprehensive understanding of challenges, tools and practices carried out by social start-ups, the research employs a multiple case study for theory development.

This paper explores the main drivers of firms’ external competitiveness in times of crisis. We focus on the aftermath of the Great Recession (2008–2015) and present evidence based on a comprehensive survey of Italian companies (the MET dataset). Overall, our results highlight not only the strict correlation between internationalization and innovative activities but also a positive change of attitude of Italian firms towards these strategies.

In this work we exploit a long-in-time panel of Spanish manufacturing firms observed during the period 1990–2012 to examine the long-run contribution of innovation persistence to sales growth and market share dynamics. We examine two main research questions. First, do persistent innovators grow more than other firms? Second, do persistent innovators show more persistent growth patterns over time compared to other firms?

This article takes advantage of a newly available survey on the Italian industry to analyze the behavior of global value chains (GVCs) in the aftermath of the Great Recession. We design a comprehensive taxonomy of GVC participation modes and explore their impact on firms' innovativeness and performance. Our findings highlight relevant heterogeneities in how GVC participants fared the crisis.