Firms' R&D cooperation strategies: the partner choice

Chiara Franco and Manuela Gussoni

Discussion Papers from Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the issue of ?rms' R&D cooperation strategies, examining the topic from the point of view of the partner choice. Literature has deeply analyzed the motivations inducing ?rms to form research joint ventures, instead, the investigation of partner selection strategies is disregarded even though it is one of the most critical decisions for a ?rm when forming an alliance. For this reason, by making use of data coming from the fourth Italian innovation survey (2002- 2004), we contribute to the the literature by estimating, through the use of a multinomial logistic model, the determinants that a?ect the ?rms' choice among di?erent types of potential R&D cooperation partners. We di?erentiate among three cooperation strategies that are: (i) cooperation with only market partners; (ii) with only science partners; and (iii) with both of them. Our ?ndings provide support to the hypothesis that di?erent variables determine di?erent partner choices according to the sector analyzed. In the manufacturing sector, for example, foreign multinational companies or export oriented ?rms prefer to cooperate only with market partners. In the services, ?rms receiving public subsidies for innovation prefer science cooperations to all the other cooperation arrangements leaving room for policy implications.

Keywords: R&D cooperations; partner selection; industry-university linkages; service sector. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 L10 L6 L8 O32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-09-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-cse, nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-pr~, nep-sbm and nep-tid
Note: ISSN 2039-1854
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pie:dsedps:2010/104

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