Abstract This paper tests the behavioral firm theory by examining exogenous economic shocks to explore whether switching to an innovative strategy is always reasonable. A quasi-experimental design – difference-in-difference – has been run on 1000 companies for 11 years to explore the consequences of strategic shifts towards innovations. It is found that companies that introduced innovations do not have any substantial differences from those that kept the ‘status quo’. However, those few companies that decided to follow a proactive strategy during crisis by introducing new R&D projects outperform their rivals in the medium-term. A nonlinear relation between the decision to switch to an innovative strategy and related performance suggests that returns to scale exist. Only those cases of innovative shifts that enable the growth of more than 50% in intangible assets on average and more than 30% in a recession appear to be successful and lead to higher performance for companies.

中文翻译：

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“创新还是灭亡？”：处于危机之中的公司

摘要本文通过考察外部经济冲击来检验行为公司理论，以探讨转向创新策略是否总是合理的。准实验设计（即差异差异）已经在1000家公司上运行了11年，以探索战略向创新转变的后果。发现引入创新的公司与保持“现状”的公司没有实质性差异。但是，少数几家在危机期间决定采用积极战略的公司通过引入新的R＆D项目在中期表现优于竞争对手。转向创新策略的决策与相关绩效之间存在非线性关系，这表明存在规模回报。