Cooperative Innovation: In Quest of Effective Partners. Evidence from Italian Firms

In recent years, rapid technological change, shorter product life cycles and globalization have deeply transformed the current competitive environment. These changes are inducing firms to face stronger competitive pressures which push them to develop new products, improve production processes or implement new technologies. Thus, firms need to continually acquire new knowledge and innovate. At the same time, entrepreneurs have become aware that technological innovation is less and less dependent on an isolated effort of an individual firm. For small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), R&D cooperation with sources of external knowledge is becoming increasingly essential for fostering innovation activities. Using firm-level data from the Community Innovation Survey for the years 2006-2008 (CIS 2008) and applying a Heckman probit model with sample selection, we analyze the determinants of cooperative innovation for the different types of partners (competitors, customers, suppliers, universities and government laboratories). Results show that internal and external R&D acquisitions, public financial support, as well as belonging to a scientific sector or to a business group are significant determinants of choice in collaborations, although with different magnitude across various types of collaborations