Why do firms cooperate on R&D? an empirical study

Abstract

Past empirical studies of R&D cooperation were usually based on relatively small samples that are likely to be biased towards prominent cases of R&D cooperation. We analyse R&D cooperation in a large sample of firms which is representative of all manufacturing and service industries in the Netherlands. It turns out that R&D cooperation is a much more widespread phenomenon than is generally thought. In contrast to large parts of the literature, we find that firm size, market structure, R&D intensity, and high shares of product-related R&D have little impact on R&D cooperation between firms. R&D cooperation does not typically occur between big, high tech firms which operate in global markets but occurs at least equally frequently between smaller firms in medium and low tech sectors. Finally, we identify certain factors that enhance the probability that a firm will engage in R&D cooperation with certain types of partners.