Cooperation for innovation and technology licensing: Empirical evidence from Spain

We study whether past cooperation activities make firms more likely to use disembodied technology licensed by other firms. Using empirical evidence from the PITEC database, a panel of Spanish firms yearly surveyed in the 2005-13 period, evidence is found of a positive relationship between past cooperation and licensing, especially cooperation with research institutions. We also find that the likelihood of licensing-in increases with the number of different types of cooperation partners. These results are robust to using different estimation techniques and econometric specifications, and point at the relevance for the diffusion of technology of policy interventions that reduce the costs of creating linkages among diverse cooperation partners, in particular between firms and other research institutions.