R&D Cooperation between Firms and Universities: Some Empirical Evidence from Belgian Manufacturing

32 Pages Posted: 20 Aug 2003

See all articles by Bruno Cassiman

Bruno Cassiman

Harvard University - Business School (HBS)

Reinhilde Veugelers

Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) - Department of Applied Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Date Written: June 2003

Abstract

This Paper presents an econometric analysis of firm and industry characteristics conducive to cooperation with universities, using Community Innovation Survey data for Belgium. We find that large firms are more likely to have cooperative agreements with universities. These agreements are formed whenever risk is not an important obstacle to innovation, and typically serve to share costs. Consistent with the open science paradigm, we find no evidence for the importance of the capacity to appropriate the returns from innovation for explaining cooperative agreements with universities. We do argue that cooperating with universities is complementary to other innovation activities such as performing own R&D, sourcing public information and cooperative agreements with suppliers and customers. Therefore, the decision to cooperate with universities cannot be analysed in isolation from the overall innovation strategy of the firm.

Keywords: Industry-science links, cooperation with universities, innovation strategy

JEL Classification: L13, O32, O34

Suggested Citation

Cassiman, Bruno and Veugelers, Reinhilde, R&D Cooperation between Firms and Universities: Some Empirical Evidence from Belgian Manufacturing (June 2003). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=436987

Bruno Cassiman

Harvard University - Business School (HBS) ( email )

Soldiers Field Road
Morgan 270C
Boston, MA 02163
United States

Reinhilde Veugelers (Contact Author)

Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) - Department of Applied Economics ( email )

Leuven, B-3000
Belgium
+32 16 32 6908 (Phone)
+32 16 32 6732 (Fax)

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom