Understanding co-operative innovative activity: evidence from four European countries

We investigate co-operative innovative activity in four major European countries, France, Germany, Spain and the UK, using internationally comparable firm-level data for manufacturing and service sectors. We examine the roles of knowledge flows, cost- and risk-sharing and public financial support in firms’ decisions to collaborate. Our results suggest that firms which place greater value on external information flows are more likely to co-operate with the research base than with other firms and that firms facing appropriability problems are more likely to co-operate with the research base and with upstream and downstream firms than with direct competitors. We find evidence for Spain to suggest that firms collaborate to overcome risks and financial constraints. We also find that receipt of public support is positively related to undertaking collaborative innovation. In line with the focus of policy, this relationship is strongest for co-operation with the research base.

[1]  Laura Abramovsky,et al.  Increasing innovative activity in the UK? Where now for government support for innovation and technology transfer? , 2004 .

[2]  J. Olsen,et al.  The European Commission , 2020, The European Union.

[3]  R. Veugelers,et al.  Stable R&D Cooperation with Spillovers , 1995 .

[4]  Keith W. Glaister,et al.  Strategic Motives For International Alliance Formation , 1996 .

[5]  Richard Schmalensee,et al.  R and D Cooperation and Competition , 1990 .

[6]  Michael L. Katz,et al.  An Analysis of Cooperative Research and Development , 1986 .

[7]  A. Jacquemin,et al.  Cooperative and Noncooperative R&D in Duopoly with Spillovers , 1988 .

[8]  Teresa García-Marco,et al.  Firms' motivations for cooperative R&D: an empirical analysis of Spanish firms , 2001 .

[9]  M. Katz,et al.  R&D Cooperation and Competition , 1990 .

[10]  D. Third.  OECD/Eurostat . Oslo Manual-Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Technological Innovation Paris, France: , 2005 .

[11]  D. Mowery,et al.  Technological overlap and interfirm cooperation: implications for the resource-based view of the firm , 1998 .

[12]  Ulrich Kaiser.  An empirical test of models explaining research expenditures and research cooperation: evidence for the German service sector , 2002 .

[13]  A. López,et al.  Determinants of R&D cooperation: Evidence from Spanish manufacturing firms , 2008 .

[14]  Laura Abramovsky,et al.  Geographic Proximity and Firm-University Innovation Linkages: evidence from Great Britain , 2009 .

[15]  R. Veugelers,et al.  R&D Cooperation and Spillovers: Some Empirical Evidence , 1998 .

[16]  B. Cassiman,et al.  Product market objectives and the formation of research joint ventures , 1999 .

[17]  Reinhilde Veugelers,et al.  On the design of stable joint ventures , 1994 .

[18]  R. Lambert,et al.  Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration: Final Report , 2003 .

[19]  Beverly B. Tyler,et al.  Evaluating technological collaborative opportunities: A cognitive modeling perspective , 1995 .

[20]  Max Keilbach,et al.  Concubinage or Marriage? Informal and Formal Cooperations for Innovation , 2005 .

[21]  Yannis Katsoulacos,et al.  Endogenous spillovers and the per-formance of research joint ventures , 2003 .

[22]  E. Muller,et al.  Research Joint Ventures and R&D Cartels , 1992 .

[23]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  Innovation and Learning: The Two Faces of R&D , 1989 .

[24]  Fr¬¥ed¬¥erique Sachwald,et al.  Co-operative R&D: why and with whom?: An integrated framework of analysis , 2003 .

[25]  M. Carree,et al.  Heterogeneity in R&D cooperation strategies , 2004 .

[26]  B. Tether.  Who co-operates for innovation, and why: An empirical analysis , 2002 .

[27]  R. Narula,et al.  Innovating through strategic alliances: moving towards international partnerships and contractual agreements , 1999 .

[28]  Tobias Schmidt,et al.  Knowledge Flows and R&D Co-Operation: Firm-Level Evidence from Germany , 2005 .

[29]  J. Hagedoorn.  Understanding the rationale of strategic technology partnering: Nterorganizational modes of cooperation and sectoral differences , 1993 .

[30]  Mariko Sakakibara,et al.  HETEROGENEITY OF FIRM CAPABILITIES AND COOPERATIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION OF MOTIVES , 1997 .

[31]  Aurelia Modrego Rico,et al.  Public financing of cooperative R&D projects in Spain: the Concerted Projects under the National R&D Plan , 2001 .

[32]  S. Negassi,et al.  R&D co-operation and innovation a microeconometric study on French firms , 2004 .