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Open research questions in Firm Innovation and Growth

183 gap statements mined from Firm Innovation and Growth papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 2,120 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • The need to control for unobservable factors that affect both AI and the manufacturing industry's GVC position. The challenge of measuring the manufacturing industry GVC position using export data from the UN Comtrade database.

    Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Manufacturing Industry Global Value Chain Position · 2024 · DOI

  • The lack of empirical evidence on the impact of AI on the manufacturing industry's GVC position. The need for policy implications for the promotion of AI with respect to China's manufacturing industry GVC position.

    Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Manufacturing Industry Global Value Chain Position · 2024 · DOI

  • The lack of empirical research on the impact of AI on technological innovation in strategic emerging industries. The need to explore the mechanism by which AI affects technological innovation. The importance of analyzing the heterogeneity of AI's effects on different industries and regions.

    Artificial Intelligence and Technological Innovation: Evidence from China’s Strategic Emerging Industries · 2024 · DOI

  • However, little is known about how enterprises evolve portfolios within this regulated market.

    Innovation trajectory of Software as a Medical Device: Evidence from the US FDA-approved products · 2026 · DOI

  • Data on newly founded companies, their founders, business activities, and innovation and market strategies is scarce, posing challenges for both research and evidence-based policymaking.

    The IAB/ZEW Start-Up Panel · 2025 · DOI

  • Innovation is a presumed channel through which finance affects productivity, yet there is limited research testing the relationship between finance and innovation in the food manufacturing sector.

    Access to Finance and Innovation in the Canadian Food Processing · 2025 · DOI

  • The lack of understanding of the relationship between growth rates and company sizes. The need to develop effective methods for selecting firms supported as HGFs within the framework of industrial policy.

    A Nonlinear Approach to Forecasting Rapid Firm Growth · 2026 · DOI

  • The analysis is limited to only permanent firms, which may not be representative of the entire population of firms. The study only includes firms that have been in operation for at least 20 years. The results may be affected by the exclusion of companies that had been in operation for less than 20 years.

    A Nonlinear Approach to Forecasting Rapid Firm Growth · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should examine the impact of external factors on cost behaviour. Future research should examine the cost behaviour of SMEs in other industries.

    COST STICKINESS IN CROATIAN MANUFACTURING SMES: EVIDENCE FROM PANDEMIC AND POST-PANDEMIC PERIODS · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of research on the cost behaviour of Croatian manufacturing SMEs. There is a need for new methodological approaches to examining cost behaviour.

    COST STICKINESS IN CROATIAN MANUFACTURING SMES: EVIDENCE FROM PANDEMIC AND POST-PANDEMIC PERIODS · 2026 · DOI

  • MSME bakeries face challenges in adapting to changing consumer needs and market trends. The study highlights the challenge of scaling beyond the micro and small level in the bakery industry. MSME bakeries operate in a resource-constrained environment, which underscores the importance of innovation as a growth mechanism.

    Innovation Dynamics and Business Growth in Philippines’ Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprise Bakeries: The Moderating Role of Entrepreneurial Experience in Product and Process Innovations · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should explore factors such as digital transformation and technological adaptation to develop a better understanding of how innovation drives business growth. The study suggests that future research should investigate the role of other market factors in influencing the relationship between product innovation and business growth.

    Innovation Dynamics and Business Growth in Philippines’ Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprise Bakeries: The Moderating Role of Entrepreneurial Experience in Product and Process Innovations · 2026 · DOI

  • The interpretations of the results have yielded the following recommendations and direction of future research: Small scale business owners should design training programs to enhance creativity so as to help shape the behavior needed to be a successful small scale industry owner.

    An examination of the determinants of business growth among small scale hardware enterprises:A case study of the central business district of Lusaka · 2026 · DOI

  • Few studies have considered a spatial approach to unveil regional dependencies among economies. Prior studies have not accounted for the heterogeneity of SMEs in CEE countries. The paper identifies a gap in the existing literature by studying the impact of digitalisation and innovation on SMEs in CEE countries.

    Digitalisation, Innovation, and Performance of SMEs in Central and Eastern Europe: A Spatial and Distributional Analysis · 2026 · DOI

  • The agricultural sector is characterized by high price fluctuations, climate-related risks, and pronounced seasonal variations. Limited access to capital and market fluctuations pose challenges for agricultural enterprises.

    Internal determinants of sales revenue growth in agricultural enterprises: A strategic management approach · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of understanding of the extent to which internal financial and strategic factors contribute to the dynamics of sales growth in agricultural enterprises. The study addresses this gap by examining the impact of internal factors on sales revenue growth in the agricultural sector of Serbia.

    Internal determinants of sales revenue growth in agricultural enterprises: A strategic management approach · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper needs to address the issue of outliers in the data. The study requires a robust methodology to empirically assess the effect of digital justice on corporate labor income share.

    The Impact of Digital Justice on the Corporate Labor Income Share: Empirical Evidence from Listed Companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-Share Markets · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of understanding of the effects of digital washing on firm value. The need to examine the mediating role of ESG performance in the relationship between digital washing and firm value.

    The Effect of Digital Washing on Firm Value: The Mediating Role of ESG Performance · 2026 · DOI

  • These findings enrich the literature by clarifying the effects of digital washing; moreover, they provide updated empirical evidence from the ASEAN-4 and Vietnam, where research on digital washing remains scarce.

    The Effect of Digital Washing on Firm Value: The Mediating Role of ESG Performance · 2026 · DOI

  • Many MSMEs have not optimally utilized existing features on marketplaces. There is a lack of understanding of the influence of the marketplace on MSMEs.

    THE INFLUENCE OF THE MARKETPLACE IN INCREASING THE COMPETITION OF MICRO, SMALL, AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (MSMES) · 2026 · DOI

  • The existing literature has not fully examined the impact of high-end talent agglomeration on regional innovation efficiency. There is a need to analyze regional heterogeneity and heterogeneity across innovation actors.

    How Does the Agglomeration of High-End Talent Affect Regional Innovation Efficiency? · 2026 · DOI

  • It highlights the need for empirical evidence to guide policy interventions in developing economies.

    Economic drivers of GDP per capita growth in Tanzania: the role of start-up costs, industrial employment, and technological cooperation · 2026 · DOI

  • In addition to the penalized estimator, we analyze the corresponding de-sparsified sparse-group LASSO estimator, showing that it is asymptotically unbiased while properly accounting for censoring, MIDAS approximation error, and heavy-tailed covariates, and that its asymptotic variance is affected by censoring, which has not been previously studied in the literature.

    High-dimensional censored MIDAS logistic regression for corporate survival forecasting · 2026 · DOI

  • This study extends Penrose’s theory beyond manufacturing to knowledge-intensive professional service firms, a theoretically compatible yet relatively underexplored context.

    Testing the Penrose effect in knowledge-intensive professional service firms: evidence from Japanese patent law firms · 2026 · DOI

  • Further research could explore the mechanisms through which digital justice alters corporate labor income share, - Additional studies could examine the impact of digital justice on other economic…

    The Impact of Digital Justice on the Corporate Labor Income Share: Empirical Evidence from Listed Companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-Share Markets · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Firm Innovation and Growth

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Little is known about how enterprises evolve portfolios within this regulated market (“Innovation trajectory of Software as a Medical Device: Evidence from the US…”, 2026); (2) The lack of understanding of the relationship between growth rates and company sizes (“A Nonlinear Approach to Forecasting Rapid Firm Growth”, 2026); (3) Future research should examine the impact of external factors on cost behaviour (“COST STICKINESS IN CROATIAN MANUFACTURING SMES: EVIDENCE FROM PANDEMIC AND…”, 2026); (4) Future research should explore factors such as digital transformation and technological adaptation to develop a better understanding of how innovation drives business growth (“Innovation Dynamics and Business Growth in Philippines’ Micro, Small, and…”, 2026); (5) There is a lack of understanding of the extent to which internal financial and strategic factors contribute to the dynamics of sales growth in agricultural enterprises (“Internal determinants of sales revenue growth in agricultural enterprises: A…”, 2026). 183 gap statements have been mined from Firm Innovation and Growth papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 2,120 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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