Publications

Choice versus necessity: understanding service diversification and firm performance in manufacturing (Journal of Business Research (2026) with Giuliana Battisti, Nigel Driffield, and Andreas Schroeder )

This study examines the effect of service-oriented manufacturing business models on firm performance and the drivers of the performance disparities across adopters. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, we identify necessary conditions for diversification into services, and also for translating this into performance. Using data from 15,732 UK manufacturing companies in the period 2010–2021, we demonstrate that service offering increases the productivity, profits, and turnover of manufacturing firms. The increase intensifies with the extent of the offering and is contingent on firm-specific resources related to implementing the business model innovation. The diversification strategy is more common in firms with large human capital resources, with financial difficulties, and those facing high levels of competition. It is less likely among firms with alternative options for diversification, such as internationalization.

Imports, FDI and Firm Performance (Review of International Economics, 2025)

This paper identifies the productivity gains from the number of inputs a firm chooses to import. Moreover, it analyses whether accounting for productivity gain from imported inputs changes the narrative around productivity gain from foreign direct investment. Using a firm-level dataset from Ethiopia, I find evidence of positive gains from combining domestic and imported inputs for both domestic and foreign-owned firms with the magnitude being larger for the latter. I also find limited evidence suggesting that accounting for productivity gains from imported inputs does affect gains from FDI. In our case, this indicates productivity gain from imported inputs and FDI are unrelated and there is neither substitutability nor complementarity between the two. Finally, I find a positive horizontal spillover and negative backward and forward spillovers.

Distributional Effect of Import Shocks on the British Local Labour Markets (Oxford Economic Papers, 2024)

This article investigates the causal effect of import shocks on wage distribution using individual-level data from the UK in the period 1997–2010. The analysis exploits regional variation in initial industrial structure and concentration for identification and applies a group IV quantile approach to estimate the effect of import shocks on workers at different parts of the wage distribution. The study finds that the effect of import shocks generated by increased import competition is concentrated on the middle of the wage distribution: while the import shocks negatively and significantly affect workers at the bottom-middle of the wage distribution, its effect on the very bottom and upper parts of the wage groups is insignificant. Moreover, the study finds that this labour market adjustment takes place through a reduction in the hourly wage rather than a decline in total hours worked.

Information Constraints and Technology Efficiency: Field Experiments Benchmarking Firms Website Performance (with Richard Kneller and Cher Li)

This study examines the role of peer-benchmarked information costs as a motivation to maintain the performance of digital technologies by firms. Leveraging two natural field experiments, we provided firms with bespoke reports that benchmarked their website performance against their peers. These distinct experimental frameworks enabled us to assess the salience of the information provided and the heterogeneity stemming from prior experience and potential for improvement. Our results suggest some modest effects from peer benchmarks on performance, although there is evidence of changes to the use of specific software tools that enhance website performance — key intermediate outcomes that serve as measurable indicators of efforts to change, aiming for longer-term performance gains.

Types of Inactivity and Depression among Older Individuals (with Bruce Hollingsworth and Eugenio Zucchelli, a book chapter in Recent Developments in Health Econometrics, 2025)

"Unpacking the triple nexus: environmental performance, economic performance and servitization – a systematic review and theoretical reflections” (with Menon, R. R., Bigdeli, Schroeder, A., Awais, M., Baines, T., Battisti, G., Driffield, N. L., Fouad, S. and Roeder, M.), Journal of Cleaner Production, 2024.

The manufacturing industry is facing a major challenge in balancing economic performance with environmental sustainability. To address this challenge, extant research has suggested that servitization could help align these objectives. However, the current evidence base is too scattered for policymakers to act on and support servitization in a targeted manner. Therefore, we conduct a systematic literature review to analyze over 120 research papers to establish the current understanding of the impact of servitization on the environmental and economic performance of a firm, and identify the contextual variables affecting this impact. The study identifies and critically appraises the body of literature that provides the current evidence base on the impact of servitization, the core areas of impact investigated and the methods that are used to establish this impact. Additionally, we conduct a thematic analysis of variables of impact to explore the theoretical perspectives that are used to explain the impact of servitization. Building on these theoretical perspectives we offer concrete propositions to further develop the research on the impact of servitization on environmental and economic performance.

Commuting and Residential Mobility: Evidence from the UK (work in progress)

This paper examines the effect of commuting on an individual's residential mobility preference using data from the UK household longitudinal study survey (Understanding Society). Together with the preference to move, the paper also assesses the impact of commuting on the expectation to move. For the identification strategy, I use a change in commuting time for those individuals who stay with the same employer and remain in the same place of residence. The paper finds that commuting increases the individual's intent to relocate and increases the expectation to move. The results contribute to the literature on the effect of commuting on residential choice and the subsequent labour market outcomes. Moreover, understanding the impact of commuting on individuals' preference to relocate has great policy implications, since the commuting and decision surrounding it are considered as the remedy to local economic problems.

Henningsen, A., Mpeta, D. F., Adem, A. S., Kuzilwa, J. A., & Czekaj, T. G. (2015). A meta-frontier approach for causal inference in productivity analysis: the effect of contract farming on sunflower productivity in Tanzania.