Persistence of innovative activities in times of crisis: the case of the Basque Country

By drawing on a large sample of Spanish manufacturing and service sector firms, the changes in firms' innovation expenditures that have taken place since the onset of the 2008 economic crisis are analysed, as is the relationship between such changes and the location of the company. Special focu...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:European planning studies 2016-10, Vol.24 (10), p.1863-1883
Main Authors: Holl, Adelheid, Rama, Ruth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Basque people
Economic analysis
Economic conditions
Economic crisis
Employment
Expenditures
innovation investment
Innovations
Location
Probability
R&D
Regions
Research & development
resilience
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:By drawing on a large sample of Spanish manufacturing and service sector firms, the changes in firms' innovation expenditures that have taken place since the onset of the 2008 economic crisis are analysed, as is the relationship between such changes and the location of the company. Special focus is placed on firms in the Basque Country. Compared to other Spanish regions, the Basque Country differs in terms of its fiscal status, its earlier experience of crises, its innovation performance and its greater focus on innovation-related policies. Our results show that the impact of the crisis on firms' innovation expenditures in the Basque Country has indeed differed from that in comparable Spanish regions. Even after controlling for sectoral differences and for detailed characteristics at the firm level, firms with R&D employment in the Basque Country showed a significantly lower probability of abandoning innovation activities and even a somewhat higher probability of increasing their innovation efforts. This regional effect is especially significant for small and medium-sized enterprises.
ISSN:0965-4313
1469-5944
DOI:10.1080/09654313.2016.1204426