This publication focuses on business dynamics across eight countries (Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, United Kingdom) and over time, building upon the evidence collected in the framework of the OECD DynEmp project for 22 countries. It provides new evidence on firms' heterogeneous responses to shocks (notably the recent financial crisis) in order to evaluate how policies and framework conditions across different firms and countries can foster both employment and productivity growth.