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SALISBURY, MD---When it comes to productivity and innovation in the work place, employees often make the best business owners, according to two case studies recently completed by faculty in Salisbury University’s Franklin P. Perdue School of Business.

Authored by Drs. Vera Street, Christy Weer and Frank Shipper, “KCI Technologies, Inc: Engineering the Future, One Employee at a Time” examines practices at the Maryland-based engineering firm with more than 900 employees throughout the Northeast, Southeast and Mid-Atlantic.

“Heavy Construction Systems Specialists,” co-authored by Dr. Olivier Roche and Shipper, looks at the Texas-based company, which provides high-tech software for firms dealing in road work and other heavy construction.

A third case study, focusing on The Employee Owned Company (TEOCO), a management consulting firm for telecommunications service providers, will be completed in 2011.

The studies were funded by an award of $7,000 from the Foundation for Enterprise Development (FED), part of the Beyster Institute, earlier this year. Based on Shipper’s history of research on employee ownership, he was awarded a Louis O. Kelso Fellowship later in the year.

The fellowship provided an additional $12,500 to pursue case studies of companies that have some form of broad-based employee ownership. Funding for the fellowship comes from the Employee Ownership Foundation.

The current case studies have appeared on the CNBC Web site and shared space with studies from Ohio State and Rutgers Universities on the FED Web site. The full studies are available online at the Aspen Institute’s Web site, .