Frank Crowley

• PhD (University of Groningen)
• Lecturer at University College Cork

Purpose This paper examines the relationship between open innovation (measured by exploratory and exploitative linkages) and firm-level innovative activity in the offshore renewable energy (ORE) sector. Design/methodology/approach A unique, purpose-built survey that targeted firms operating in the ORE sector and its supply chain was used. The data...

Individual socio-demographic characteristics influence the composition of residential environments, employment considerations and transport-dedicated resources, all of which influence individual travel behaviours. To analyse these interrelationships, we employ generalised structural equation modelling using individual-level data from the 2016 Irish...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between an individual's social capital context and entrepreneurship using a multi-level modelling framework. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses data from 87,007 individual level observations across 428 regions in 37 countries. The data comes from the 2010 and 2016 Life in Tr...

Purpose This article examines the links between average city size, fiscal decentralisation, and national economic growth in 33 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Design/methodology/approach The data in this paper comprise an unbalanced panel dataset which contains economic growth indicators, average city size,...

Future automation and artificial intelligence technologies are expected to have a major impact on labour markets. There is a lack of analysis which considers the sub-national geographical implications of automation risk posed to employment. In this paper, we identify the proportion of jobs at risk of automation across all Irish towns, using the occ...

Purpose This paper examines the innovation behavior of family-owned firms versus non-family-owned firms. The role of internal family governance and the influence of external stimuli (competition) on innovation are also considered. Design/methodology/approach The data of 20,995 family and non-family firms across 38 countries are derived from the Wo...

The concept of sustainable retail development implies that retail centres should serve their communities economically and socially, while not degrading local environments. However, existing literature identifies that retail centres often create negative externalities, impacting the sustainable development of both the core and peripheries of city re...

Automation has the potential to transform entire agricultural value chains and the nature of agricultural business. Recent studies have emphasised barriers to adoption, as well as issues related to labour market and cultural outcomes of automation. However, thus far, very little attention has been afforded to the regional variations in the potentia...

Population shrinkage has gained attention from academics and policymakers in recent years, due to the long-term implications the phenomenon has for public service delivery and the viability of urban and rural communities. We visualise the socio-temporal evolution of population shrinkage and growth, utilising a spatially rectified dataset containing...

Tolerance of others on grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion and sexuality is an important component of social capital but has received scant attention in the social capital well-being literature. We examine the components of social capital and their relationship with life satisfaction using data from the Life in Transition Survey in Eu...

Automation is expected to have strong implications for labour-saving technologies. We calculate the proportion of jobs at high risk of automation across European regions using data from the 2018 Labour Force Survey (LFS). We examine the relationship between regional vulnerability to job automation, specialization, related (and unrelated) variety an...

Since late 2019, COVID-19 has devastated the global economy, with indirect implications for the environment. As governments’ prioritized health and implemented measures such as the closure of non-essential businesses and social distancing, many workers have lost their jobs, been furloughed, or started working from home. Consequently, the world of w...

What happens to firm-level research and development (R&D) when urban locations have more knowledge spillovers and are more entrepreneurial? This article explores the potential tension between knowledge spillovers, start-ups and innovation effort in existing firms. The relationship is empirically tested using Swedish firm-level data and municipality...

A key question regarding the COVID‐19 pandemic and the uncertainty around the implications of social distancing measures and remote working is how it will economically impact people and places differently. We generate two indices which capture: (i) social distancing potential; and (ii) remote working potential. This is accomplished using occupation...

Management practices are important drivers of firm productivity (Bloom et al., 2019). While differences in the formalisation and sophistication of management practices are evident in comparisons of foreign multinationals and domestic firms (Bloom et al., 2012, Bloom and Van Reenen, 2007a, Bloom and Van Reenen, 2010), a striking omission from many s...

Ireland's fee-paying schools consistently rank highly in Ireland's secondary school league tables. Evidence also notes that the alumni of fee-paying schools represent a large proportion of those in leadership positions in business, politics and the legal professions. This paper examines the factors that affect the decision of Irish households to en...

Innovation is essential for driving business survival, development, and growth. Today, managers within firms continuously search for new ways to gain competitive advantage. In many cases, this comes from the effective use of intangible assets such as workplace skills and abilities. Despite this, little is known about what types of skills are requir...

The focus of this paper is on the relatively under-researched area of the influence of management on innovation activities for firms in emerging economies. Many emerging economies adopt a strategy of outward-oriented development with the aim to enhance innovation performance through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and international trade. However,...

This article examines the links between firm innovation and firm productivity performance across a range of European economies, and in particular, we explore the differences between countries which are in transition from efficiency-driven to innovation-driven with those which are primarily innovation-driven economies. We employ an endogenous-switch...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore product/service innovation and discontinuation using the firm as a unit of analysis. A key objective of the paper is to compare the results between manufacturing and service firms. Design/methodology/approach A two-step production function approach is employed to examine first, a firm’s decision to...

Regional disparities exist due to the uneven impact of economic development. The World Bank’s World Development Report (2009) advocates that attempts to spread out economic activity will undermine growth. This study finds that policy-makers in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia favour subsidizing firms in less urbanized locations. However,...

This paper identifies which types of organisational HRM changes are most beneficial for firm innovation by using a treatment effects analysis and a large dataset of firms from emerging economies. The paper finds that organisational changes have a positive disruptive effect on firm product innovation outcomes. However, there is an organisational cha...

In 2015, the Regional Studies Association (RSA) celebrated 50 years and one of the keywords of this (hi)story is “impactful”. Having an impact requires to be able to bring research-based knowledge to policymakers moving out of the academic ‘Ivory Tower’ and engaging in policy debate, thus acknowledging the societal role of research. Yet, this requi...

This paper explores the relationship between the level of competition and innovation output for domestically focused businesses in emerging economies in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. It uses survey data from 5054 businesses from the fifth Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey. A multivariate probit estimation of the...

The ability of firms to maximise their innovative potential is fundamental to economic growth. The successful implementation of human resource management (HRM) practices is important for firm performance, and there is a growing understanding of the benefits to firms when HRM practices are applied together. We investigate if HRM practices are signif...

Innovation is of critical importance for business productivity and economic growth. Firm characteristics and economic geography have been identified as influential drivers of innovation output. More recently, scholars have investigated the influence of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) o...

This paper uses an endogenous switching technique which allows us to utilize micro-econometric data to construct counterfactual scenarios of the innovation-productivity relationship in Irish firms. A firm's innovation effort, capital intensity, firm size, location and its operating environment are key variables in explaining a firms' propensity to...

This paper estimates, using the most recent Irish Household Budget Survey of 2004/2005, a double hurdle model to determine the socio-economic and socio-demographic factors affecting participation and expenditure of Irish households on the national lottery. Of particular interest is the effect of income on the decisions of how much participants spen...

"Irish National Lottery Sports Capital Grant Allocations show a clear bias towards the geographical areas represented by the Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism and the Minister for Finance. This bias is the result of the procedures by which the funds are allocated." Copyright (c) 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation (c) Institute of Economic Af...