The Antecedents of New R&D Collaborations with Different Partner Types: On the Dynamics of Past R&D Collaboration and Innovative Performance

56 Pages Posted: 29 Nov 2017

See all articles by René Belderbos

René Belderbos

University of Leuven (KUL) - Department of Managerial Economics, Strategy and Innovation; Maastricht University - Department of Organization & Strategy

Victor A. Gilsing

Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) - Eindhoven Center for Innovation Studies (ECIS); Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Rotterdam School of Management (RSM); Ministerie van Economische Zaken

Boris Lokshin

Maastricht University, School of Business and Economics

Martin A. Carree

University of Maastricht - Department of Organization & Strategy

Sastre Juan Fernández

Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) - Ecuador

Date Written: October 2017

Abstract

We examine firms’ propensity to adapt their R&D collaboration portfolio by establishing new types of R&D collaboration with different kinds of partners (suppliers, customers, competitors and universities & public research institutions). We argue that existing R&D collaboration with one of the two value chain partners (suppliers or customers) is associated with the formation of new R&D collaboration with the other value chain partner to ensure temporal alignment in innovation within the value chain. In contrast, issues related to governance and unintended knowledge spillovers suggest that ‘horizontal’ R&D collaboration with competitors only spurs R&D collaboration with other partner types if such competitor R&D collaboration has been discontinued earlier (‘delayed temporal alignment’). We posit that persistent prior R&D collaboration with institutional partners is an antecedent to the establishment of new R&D collaboration with industrial partners, and that discontinuation of a particular type of R&D collaboration is likely to lead to a restart of such R&D collaborative effort. Strong prior innovative performance is expected to increase the probability that firms establish R&D collaborations with new partner types, except for R&D collaboration with competitors, since the most innovative firms may fear leakage of proprietary knowledge to rivals. We find broad support for these predictions in a large panel of Spanish innovating firms (2004-2011). Our findings highlight that it is not just the configuration of R&D collaborations with existing partner types that predicts tie formation with new partner types, but also the intertemporal pattern of prior R&D collaboration and managerial discretion provided by past innovation success.

Suggested Citation

Belderbos, Rene and Gilsing, Victor A. and Lokshin, Boris and Carree, Martin A. and Juan Fernández, Sastre, The Antecedents of New R&D Collaborations with Different Partner Types: On the Dynamics of Past R&D Collaboration and Innovative Performance (October 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3076881 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3076881

Rene Belderbos (Contact Author)

University of Leuven (KUL) - Department of Managerial Economics, Strategy and Innovation ( email )

Naamsestraat 69
Leuven, B-3000
Belgium
+32 16 32 6912 (Phone)
+32 16 32 6732 (Fax)

Maastricht University - Department of Organization & Strategy ( email )

P.O. Box 616
Maastricht, 6200 MD
Netherlands

Victor A. Gilsing

Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) - Eindhoven Center for Innovation Studies (ECIS) ( email )

P.O. Box 513
NL-5600 MB Eindhoven
Netherlands
+040 247 4435 (Phone)

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) ( email )

P.O. Box 1738
Room T08-21
3000 DR Rotterdam, 3000 DR
Netherlands
+31 10 4081945, 4081980 (Phone)
+31 10 4089015 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://web.eur.nl/fbk/dep/dep2/Staff/people/vgilsing

Ministerie van Economische Zaken ( email )

Bezuidenhoutseweg 20
Den Haag, 2594 AV
Netherlands
+31 70 354 3771 (Phone)
+31 70 379 7788 (Fax)

Boris Lokshin

Maastricht University, School of Business and Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 616
Maastricht, 6200 MD
Netherlands
+31 43 388 3697 (Phone)
+31 43 325 4893 (Fax)

Martin A. Carree

University of Maastricht - Department of Organization & Strategy ( email )

P.O. Box 616
Maastricht, 6200 MD
Netherlands

Sastre Juan Fernández

Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) - Ecuador ( email )

La Pradera 7-174 y Diego de Almagro
Quito, Pichincha 000
Ecuador

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