Global value chains, innovation and firms’ performance during the crisis

This paper studies the determinants of companies’ performance during the crisis based on their short-term (sales changes) and medium-term (exit) reaction, using firms’ data from the EFIGE survey and combining them with balance-sheet statistics. The results show that vulnerability to the crisis depended on a company’s position within a GVC and modes of international operation. While exporters were more affected than nonexporters during the first crisis, their survival rates were not lower five years later. Moreover, more sophisticated internationalization modes increased firms’ resilience in the first and second waves of the crisis. The paper also investigates the mediating role of intangible assets and financial constraints in the relationship between internationalization and companies’ response to the crisis. While intangible assets were very important for preventing a drop in sales for internationalized firms immediately after 2008, they amplified the probability of firms’ exit five years after the crisis in weaker European countries (Spain and Italy). At the same time, financial constraints increased companies’ probability of exit. Innovation prevented a drop in firms’ sales and firms’ exit.