Knowledge Compensation in the German Automobile Industry

Uwe Cantner (1) , Jens Krüger (2) , Kristina von Rhein (3)

1 Economics
2 Economics
3 Max Planck Institute of Economics

In studies looking at firm survival over the industry life cycle knowledge is one of the most important determinants. Different kinds of knowledge, namely post-entry experience, pre-entry experience, and knowledge acquired by innovative activity positively influence the sur-vival chances. This paper investigates how the kinds of knowledge are able to compensate each other. Therefore, a statistical survival analysis is performed for the German automobile industry (1886-1939) which applies an estimation approach that links instrumental variables with the Cox regression. The results highlight that innovative activity is able to compensate for lacking post-entry experience, supporting Schumpeterian creative destruction.

Mots clés: Social Sciences & Humanities

Uwe Cantner, Jens Krüger, Kristina von Rhein. Knowledge Compensation in the German Automobile Industry. Applied Economics, 2009, pp.1. ⟨10.1080/00036840902762738⟩. ⟨hal-00582273⟩