The construction industry is one of the largest sectors in the U.S. economy, yet little is known about the key macroeconomic parameters that affect its industry’s structure and performance. The main objectives of this research are 1) to analyze the macroeconomic performance of construction industry as a whole and at fourteen of its sub-sectors in terms of labor productivity, gross margin, and w...

It was not until the beginning of the 1990s that the effects of information and communication technology on economic growth as well as on the profitability of enterprises raised the interest of researchers. After giving a general description on the relationship between a more intense use of ICT devices and dynamic economic growth, the author identified and explained those four channels that had...

The aim of this paper is to test whether patent-based indicators are still reliable measures of innovativeness in light of organizational changes in the field of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection and the regulatory reforms already under way respectively at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO). For most high-tech industries, patents repres...

The aim of this paper is to test whether patent-based indicators are still reliable measures of innovativeness in light of organizational changes in the field of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection and the regulatory reforms already under way respectively at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO). For most high-tech industries, patents repres...

Theoretical analyses of the effects of works councils show ambiguous results. Therefore an empirical investigation of the issue is inevitable. The results so far are mixed, frequently a positive effect on productivity, but a negative one on profits is found. The problem of both theoretical and empirical studies is the assumption of firm homogeneity. To close this gap, we take into account firm ...

Purpose: Examination of the determinants of profitability in the U.S. domestic airline industry by considering operations strategy, productivity, and service measures, while focusing the attention on the effects of the 9/11 attack. Design/methodology/approach: We propose a series of hypotheses regarding the effect of operations strategy, productivity, and service before and after the 9/11 attac...

BACKGROUND The return on investment for information technology (IT) has been the subject of much debate throughout the history of management information systems research. Often referred to as the productivity paradox, increased IT investments have not been consistently associated with increased productivity. Understanding individual IT factors that directly contribute to business value should p...

Exports and Profitability: First Evidence for German Manufacturing Firms Using unique recently released nationally representative high-quality longitudinal data at the enterprise level for Germany, this paper presents the first comprehensive evidence on the relationship between exports and profitability. It documents that the positive profitability differential of exporters compared to non-expo...

OBJECTIVE To examine whether the nationwide smoking ban, imposed in 2007, had an impact on the profitability of Belgian restaurants. DATA AND METHODS Objective financial reporting data on 1613 restaurants were analysed with return on assets as the outcome measure. The data were collected from the Belfirst database and cover the period 2004-2009. To assess the impact of the smoking ban, a diff...