This survey examines the empirical literature on the relationship between public R&D subsidies and private R&D investment over the past five decades. The survey reveals a considerable heterogeneity of empirical results that cannot be explained fully by methodological issues. We aim to provide further explanations of the possible causes of that heterogeneity. In particular, we emphasise a set of issues that, in our view, are critical to understanding the potential effect of public R&D subsidies on private R&D spending. Special attention is paid to the dynamic aspects and composition of firm R&D, the constraints faced by the firm (such as financial constraints), and the amount and source of public subsidies. None of these issues have been investigated in depth. We formulate a set of research assumptions to guide future empirical research in this field.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this study is to gain new insight into the true nature of the relationship between product diversification and performance, as well as to explore the roles the home country environment and time can play on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach -The study reviews a large part of the research that has addressed the relationship between product diversification and performance over the last four decades.Findings -This study identifies the main views (models) that can help scholars to adequately understand, both theoretically and empirically, the potential effect of product diversification on performance: the premium diversification model; the discount diversification model; and the U-inverted model. The study confirms a wide diversity of results. Drawing from the institutional-based view, it is argued that a significant part of this heterogeneity stems from the effect of two factors that have often been ignored: the home country environment and time period. The review of recent empirical research seems to provide some support for the central argument that the value firms achieve through product diversification may be contingent both on the specific home country environment (environmental dependency) and time period (time dependency) under study. Originality/value -This study yields an alternative explanation to the inconsistency in findings that goes beyond strictly theoretical and methodological reasons. It shows that the arguments related to different views (or models) need to be considered "environment-dependent" and "time-dependent". It concludes by proposing a framework to guide future research.

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The main purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of 'strategic moves' (or strategic change) on the likelihood of organizational survival in a population of firms which has undergone radical transformations in its environment. To this end, we propose and test two competitive hypotheses which are the result of two other theoretical perspectives about the consequences of strategic change: the adaptation view (classic strategic management and dynamic capabilities) and the ecological approach. While from the former, in general, it is assumed that strategic change has a positive effect on the likelihood of organizational survival, from the ecological approach, it is frequently argued that attempts at reorganization in general and strategic change in particular tend to be associated with an increase in the likelihood of organizational extinction. The sample used to test the two proposed hypotheses is the Spanish bank population over the period 1983-97. The results confirm the positive and significant effect of strategic moves (or strategic change) on the likelihood of organizational survival, in line with the conclusions of the adaptive perspective and other empirical research carried out in different settings. This paper introduces two important methodological innovations: (a) the definition and measurement of 'strategic moves' (or strategic change) by using a new cluster algorithm, the MCLUST; and (b) the control of the non-observable heterogeneity using panel data models for 'probit' regression.