Collaboration strategies and technological innovation: a contractual perspective of the relationship between firms and technological centers

Alex Rialp (), Josep Rialp () and Lluís Santamaria
Additional contact information
Lluís Santamaria: Departament d’Economia de l’Empresa. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

No 101, Working Papers from Departament Empresa, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Abstract: In this paper, a theoretical framework for analyzing the selection of governance structures for implementing collaboration agreements between firms and Technological Centers is presented and empirically discussed. This framework includes Transaction Costs and Property Rights’ theoretical assumptions, though complemented with several proposals coming from the Transactional Value Theory. This last theory is used for adding some dynamism in the governance structure election. As empirical evidence of this theoretical explanation, we analyse four real experiences of collaboration between firms and one Technological Center. These experiences are aimed to represent the typology of relationships which Technological Centers usually face. Among others, a key interesting result is obtained: R&D collaboration activities do not need to always be organized through hierarchical solutions. In those cases where future expected benefits and/or reputation issues could play an important role, the traditional more static theories could not fully explain the selected governance structure for managing the R&D relationship. As a consequence, these results justify further research about the adequacy of the theoretical framework presented in this paper in other contexts, for example, R&D collaborations between firms and/or between Universities or Public Research Centers and firms.

Keywords: Collaboration; Technological Innovation; R&D; Technological Center. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2001-03, Revised 2001-03
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in Working Papers at the Department of Business, March 2001 pages 1-36

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.uab.cat/servlet/BlobServer?blobtable=Do ... 275&blobnocache=true Revised version, 2001 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 No Encontrado (http://www.uab.cat/servlet/BlobServer?blobtable=Document&blobcol=urldocument&blobheader=application/pdf&blobkey=id&blobwhere=1345650479275&blobnocache=true [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.uab.cat/servlet/BlobServer?blobtable=Document&blobcol=urldocument&blobheader=application/pdf&blobkey=id&blobwhere=1345650479275&blobnocache=true)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bbe:wpaper:0101

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Departament Empresa, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Departament Empresa ().