Main motivation behind this study is to evaluate relations between ICT, knowledge, management practices, innovation, human capital, organizational and structural changes in sample of manufacturing enterprises from Eastern European countries. The main questions behind this study are: 1) Does existence of new co-innovation productivity sources (usage of ICT, workplace organization and human capital) affect manufacturing enterprises performance in Eastern European countries? 2)What are the differences between Eastern European manufacturing enterprises?.
Our empirical descriptive and econometric analysis is based on data from Management, Organization and Innovation (MOI) Survey 2009, a joint initiative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank Group. The MOI survey was undertaken for the first time in 2008-2009, covering 1,800 manufacturing establishments with between 50 and 5000 employees. For the present study, we have included data from 11 countries: Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Germany as a developed country benchmark. Data from MOI survey was complemented by firm performance data from Bureau van Dijk’s Orbis database. For the econometric analysis ordinary least squares regression is used to explain the role of factors that are affecting productivity.
The results of the investigation will bridge the gap of insufficient academic research about Eastern European countries and extend existing research on firm-level labour productivity determinants. The model shows influence of ICT and complementarities on performance and development of enterprises and enable to compare the results at the international framework. Our findings can be useful to suggest new directions in public policy to improve productivity in Eastern European countries countries and in companies.