Research at ZEW Mannheim

In a combined effort with the business information agency Creditreform, the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) conducted a quarterly survey among service providers for the information society during 2002 and 2011. Regularly, close to 1.000 companies reported the development of their enterprises and outlined their expectations for the following quarter. The survey focused exclusively on ICT intensive service industries, given that information and communication technologies are predominantly used in the service sector, where they form a regular and essential part of the daily routine. Alongside questions addressing the expected economic development of the service providers for the information society, the survey further requested information on investments in ICT and the latter’s diffusion. Moreover, the ZEW inquired about background information, such as the number of employees and their respective qualifications, apprenticeship and additional in-service training possibilities, as well as the innovativeness of the firm.

Changes in the industrial classification system required a novel design of the survey. The publications regarding survey of the service providers for the information society can be accessed through the archive.

Information on the subsequent project can be found under economic survey of the information industry.

Selected Publications

Articles in Refereed Journals

Meyer, Jenny (2011), Workforce Age and Technology Adoption in Small and Medium-Sized Service Firms, Small Business Economics Volume 37, Issue 3, 305 - 324. Download

Meyer, Jenny (2010), Does Social Software Support Service Innovation?, International Journal of the Economics of Business Vol 17, No. 3, 289-311.

Müller, Elisabeth and Alexandra Spitz-Oener (2006), Managerial Ownership and Company Performance in German Small and Medium-Sized Private Enterprises, German Economic Review 7(2), 233-247.

Bertschek, Irene and Ulrich Kaiser (2004), Productivity Effects of Organizational Change: Microeconometric Evidence, Management Science Vol.50, No.3, 394-404. Download

Kaiser, Ulrich and Friedhelm Pfeiffer (2001), Collective Wage Agreements and Firms' Employment Policies, LABOUR: Review of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations 10 (3), 319-341.

Kaiser, Ulrich (1998), Die Wirkung wirtschaftspolitischer Ereignisse auf Erwartungen über den Starttermin der Europäischen Währungsunion, ifo-studies 2/1998, 103-120.

Articles in Non-Refereed Journals

Kaiser, Ulrich (1999), Die ZEW/Creditreform Konjunkturumfrage bei unternehmensnahen Dienstleistern, Allgemeines Statistisches Archiv (Rundschau) 83,, 447-451.

Monographs, Contributions to Edited Volumes

Meyer, Jenny (2009), Older Workers and the Adoption of New Technologies in ICT-Intensive Services, in: Michael Kuhn and Carsten Ochsen Demografischer Wandel - Hintergründe und Herausforderungen, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden, 85-119.