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Successful high-technology industries enhance productivity, competition, and consumer choice. To support their innovating activities, these firms need access to finance. Given the uncertain nature of innovation, along with the high associated cost, many firms turn to equity financing. Using novel survey data for 153 indigenous equity and 141 indigenous non-equity financed high-tech firms, we examine what determines how these firms raise equity finance (i.e., independent and corporate venture capital, business angel, government-sponsored) and non-equity finance (i.e., personal investment, family and friend investment, debt finance). We find that debt finance is negatively associated with equity financing in high-tech firms. Moreover, in our sample of high-tech firms, we find that innovating firms, export-oriented firms operating in niche markets, and firms with high levels of human capital have a greater probability of being equity financed.

This paper examines differences in the hazard rates of young, established and mature firms during the financial crisis, using microdata from more than 300,000 Irish firms. The findings confirm that firm size at the time of the crisis had the largest impact on the probability of exit. The liability of smallness was pronounced in mature cohorts. Industry conditions had a considerable effect on the hazard rate of young cohorts, as opposed to mature counterparts. Interestingly, agglomeration raised the hazard rates of younger cohorts only. By contrast, attributes of the labour force of the region largely influenced the hazard rates of more established firms. Firms founded before the crisis were significantly less likely to exit in the aftermath of the crisis, in comparison with firms founded just before or during the crisis, whereas more mature firms seem to be more sensitive to the economic cycle.

Today, firms are faced with a number of environmental challenges, such as global warming, pollution control and declining natural resources. While there is increasing pressure to deliver environmentally friendly products and services, little is known about what drives the many different types of environmental innovation, or how such pursuits' impact firm performance. Using a sample of 2181 firms, this paper examines the factors that drive nine different types of eco-innovation in Ireland, and assesses how such innovations impact firm performance. We find that, while demand-side, supply-side and regulatory drivers impact on the likelihood of a firm engaging in eco-innovation, the relative magnitudes of these impacts vary across the types of eco-innovation considered. Moreover, we find that only two of the nine types of eco-innovation positively impact firm performance. The results point to regulation and customer pressure as viable mechanisms through which firms can be encouraged to eco-innovate. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

PurposeRecent reports argue that eco‐innovation is the key to realising growth. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors which drive eco‐innovation and test if eco‐innovating firms perform better than non‐eco‐innovating firms. The paper provides insights into the role government regulation can play in directing and stimulating eco‐innovation.Design/methodology/approachThe approach utilised by this paper is empirical in nature. Using a sample of 2,181 firms, gathered as part of the Irish Community Survey 2006‐2008, the authors estimate a modified innovation production function in order to assess the impact of regulation, consumer expectations and voluntary agreements on the performance of eco‐innovation, subsequently a knowledge augmented production function is estimated to assess the impact of eco‐innovation on firm performance.FindingsThe findings suggest that regulation and customer perception can explain a firm's decision to engage in eco‐innovation. Eco‐innovation is also found to be more important than non‐eco‐innovation in determining firm performance.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the limited availability of accounting data this paper uses turnover per worker as the measure of firm performance. As a result, it is not possible to assess the impact of eco‐innovation on firm costs.Social implicationsThe finding that regulation drives eco‐innovation, and that there is no trade‐off between eco‐innovation and higher profit margins for innovating firms, suggests that regulators and policy makers can stimulate growth and create a greener society.Originality/valueThis paper provides an empirical analysis of the Porter and van der Linde's theory of environmental regulation and firm performance using novel real world data from over 2,000 Irish businesses.

Using firm level data from the Irish Community Innovation Survey 2008–2010 we analyse the importance of eight skill sets for the innovation performance of firms. We distinguish between radical and incremental innovation. Our results suggest that there is substantial heterogeneity in the importance of skills for different types of innovation and that some skills are best sourced from outside the firm while others are best developed in-house.

In a small firm, access to information is linked with strategic awareness, a growth orientated mindset, and better performance. The advent of communication technologies has significantly changed the amount of information available, how it is being accessed, and the cost of collecting and using this information. To exploit this resource, individuals, firms, and governments must be e-ready. In this chapter, the authors examined the technological sophistication of a sample of mature small and medium sized enterprises in Scotland and analysed whether there is a link between this, some other firm-specific factors, and an entrepreneur’s succession choice. The evidence suggests while firms located in urban and suburban areas have access to ICT and may benefit from e-government services targeted at assisting them through the transfer process, older more rural firms have limited access and will only benefit if government policy is directed towards providing ICT access and making them e-ready.

We think strategically whenever there are interactions between our decisions and other people’s decisions. In order to decide what we should do, we must first reason through how the other individuals are going to act or react. What are their aims? What options are open to them? In the light of our answers to these questions, we can decide what is the best way for us to act. Most business situations are interactive in the sense that the outcome of each decision emerges from the synthesis of firm owners, managers, employees, suppliers, and customers. Good decisions require that each decision-maker anticipate the decisions of the others. Game theory offers a systematic way of analysing strategic decision-making in interactive situations. It is a technique used to analyse situations where for two or more individuals the outcome of an action by one of them depends not only on their own action but also on the actions taken by the others (Binmore, 1992; Carmichael, 2005; McMillan, 1992). In these circumstances, the plans or strategies of one individual depend on their expectations about what the others are doing. Such interdependent situations can be compared to games of strategy. Games can be classified according to a variety of categories, including the timing of the play, the common or conflicting interests of the players, the number of times an interaction occurs, the amount of information available to the players, the type of rules, and the feasibility of coordinated action. Strategic moves manipulate the rules of the game to a player’s advantage. There are three types of strategic moves: commitments, threats, and promises. Only a credible strategic move will have the desired effect. In strategic games, the actions of one individual or group impact(s) on others and, crucially, the individuals involved are aware of this. By exposing the essential features of one situation we can find a hitherto hidden common core to many apparently diverse strategic situations. The aim of this article is to examine the key lessons, which these games can teach us.