We use a representative and cross-country comparable sample of manufacturing firms (EFIGE) to document patterns of interaction among firm-level internationalization, innovation and productivity across seven European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom). We find strong evidence of positive association among the three firm-level characteristics across countries and sectors. We also find that the positive correlation between internationalization and innovation survives after controlling for productivity, with some evidence of causality running from the latter to the former. Our analysis suggests that export promotion per se is unlikely to lead to sustainable internationalization because internationalization goes beyond export and because, in the medium-to-long term, internationalization is driven by innovation. We recommend coordination and integration of internationalization and innovation policies 'under one roof' at both the national and EU levels, and propose a bigger coordinating role for EU institutions.We are grateful to three anonymous referees. We also thank Marco Manacorda, Catherine Thomas, Myriam

This paper studies the effect of bundling products and services on the export performance of firms. Using a unique sample, we document several facts about German small and medium enterprises (SMEs). First, bundling is a relatively rare activity, which is unevenly spread across sectors. Second, SMEs that bundle products and services are more productive than those selling products and services separately. Third, these firms tend to be more internationally oriented. While most of the existing literature focuses on large firms, we contribute to the literature by uncovering a robust positive relation between product-service bundling and exporting in SMEs. Importantly, the competitiveness-enhancing effect of bundling goes beyond manufacturing, affecting non-manufacturing firms also. To mitigate endogeneity concerns, we exploit the panel structure of the data and implement several (doubly robust) propensity score matching techniques.

This paper studies the effect of bundling products and services on the export performance of firms. Using a unique sample, we document several facts about German small and medium enterprises (SMEs). First, bundling is a relatively rare activity, which is unevenly spread across sectors. Second, SMEs that bundle products and services are more productive than those selling products and services separately. Third, these firms tend to be more internationally oriented. While most of the existing literature focuses on large firms, we contribute to the literature by uncovering a robust positive relation between product-service bundling and exporting in SMEs. Importantly, the competitiveness-enhancing effect of bundling goes beyond manufacturing, affecting non-manufacturing firms also. To mitigate endogeneity concerns, we exploit the panel structure of the data and implement several (doubly robust) propensity score matching techniques.

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