Exploring determinants of company‐university R&D collaboration in Spain

Abstract

Purpose This paper sets out to examine the factors that influence Spanish manufacturing and service firms to cooperate with universities on R&D. Design/methodology/approach A LOGIT regression model is used to verify the importance of certain variables, selected and constructed according to the literature review, to the decision to cooperate with universities. An empirical study is carried out using data from the Spanish 2000 Community Innovation Survey (CIS). The sample of study is 3,964 innovative manufacturing and service firms. Findings Firm size, spillovers, R&D intensity and operating costs influence both manufacturing and service firms in the same way in their decision to cooperate with universities on R&D activities. However, the variables relating to strategic and legal protection of innovations, as well as belonging to a foreign group have been shown to affect manufacturing and service companies differently. Research limitations/implications The analysis of the cooperation decision from the transaction cost economics approach is limited to operational costs and risks because of the type of data supplied by the CIS. A second limitation relates to the inability to use more recent data as, to date, the only CIS microdata published are from the year 2000. Practical implications The empirical results allow one to identify the characteristics of Spanish manufacturing and service firms that cooperate with universities. Originality/value The paper has explored the differences between manufacturing and service companies relating to the determinants of establishing R&D cooperation agreements with universities.

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