Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0 
Author-Name: Bartz, Wiebke
Author-Email: w.bartz@fs.de
Author-workplace-name: Centre for Development Finance, Frankfurt School of
	 Finance and Management
Author-Name: Mohnen, Pierre
Author-Email: mohnen@merit.unu.edu
Author-workplace-name: UNU‐MERIT, Maastricht University
Author-Name: Schweiger, Helena
Author-Email: schweigh@ebrd.com
Author-workplace-name: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Title: The role of innovation and management practices in determining firm
	 productivity in developing economies
Abstract: In this paper, we compare the impacts of management practices and 
	 innovation on productivity, using data from a unique firm-level survey 
	 covering 30 mostly developing countries in Eastern Europe and Central 
	 Asia in the period 2011-2014. We adapt the well-established three-stage 
	 model by linking productivity to innovation activities and management 
	 practices. Results suggest that both returns to innovation and returns 
	 to management practices are important drivers of productivity in 
	 developing economies. However, productivity in lower-income economies is 
	 affected to a larger extent by management practices than by innovation 
	 while the opposite holds in higher-income economies. These results imply 
	 that firms operating in less favourable business environments can reap 
	 large productivity gains by improving the quality of management 
	 practices, before engaging in innovation through imitating and adapting 
	 foreign technologies.
Keywords: innovation, management practices, productivity, developing countries 
Classification-JEL: M21, O12, O32
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 20160616
Number: 2016-034
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2016/wp2016-034.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2016034