IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ecinnt/v11y2002i2p93-108.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Vertical R&D Cooperation on Firm Innovation: An Empirical Investigation

Author

Listed:
  • Najib Harabi

Abstract

The recent surge of interfirm cooperative agreements can be seen to express a way for firms to respond to and organize market failure, especially in technology markets. The incentives for firms to internalize activities are to avoid the disadvantages, or capitalize on the advantages, of imperfections or disequilibria in external mechanisms of resource allocation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically, on the basis of data from German firms, the impact of vertical R&D cooperation on innovation in firms. The analysis is based on a survey conducted by the "Center for European Economic Research" (Zentrum fur Europaische Wirtschafts-forschung, ZEW) in Mannheim among 370 companies, mainly in the manufacturing sector. The results of the econometric analysis suggest a statistically significant impact of vertical R&D cooperation on the intensity of R&D activity in German firms. Informal modes of R&D cooperation (informal exchange of technological knowledge) seem to be more important for their innovative behavior than formal ones (joint ventures, joint development teams etc.). Since the relationship between vertical R&D cooperation and the intensity of R&D activity in innovating firms has been tested in a broader theoretical and empirical framework, the empirical results also confirm the significance of other key determinants of innovative activity, such as "technological opportunities", "appro-priability conditions" and "market demand".

Suggested Citation

  • Najib Harabi, 2002. "The Impact of Vertical R&D Cooperation on Firm Innovation: An Empirical Investigation," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 93-108.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ecinnt:v:11:y:2002:i:2:p:93-108
    DOI: 10.1080/10438590210900
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10438590210900
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/10438590210900?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David J. TEECE, 2008. "Profiting from technological innovation: Implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: The Transfer And Licensing Of Know-How And Intellectual Property Understanding the Multinational Enterprise in the Modern World, chapter 5, pages 67-87, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. von Hippel, Eric, 1976. "The dominant role of users in the scientific instrument innovation process," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 212-239, July.
    3. Cohen, Wesley M. & Levin, Richard C., 1989. "Empirical studies of innovation and market structure," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 18, pages 1059-1107, Elsevier.
    4. Klevorick, Alvin K. & Levin, Richard C. & Nelson, Richard R. & Winter, Sidney G., 1995. "On the sources and significance of interindustry differences in technological opportunities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 185-205, March.
    5. Najib Harabi, 1995. "Sources Of Technical Progress: Empirical Evidence From Swiss Industry," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 67-76.
    6. Hirshleifer, Jack, 1971. "The Private and Social Value of Information and the Reward to Inventive Activity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(4), pages 561-574, September.
    7. Hans B. Thorelli, 1986. "Networks: Between markets and hierarchies," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(1), pages 37-51, January.
    8. Kleinknecht, Alfred & Reijnen, Jeroen O. N., 1992. "Why do firms cooperate on R&D? an empirical study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 347-360, August.
    9. Michael L. Katz, 1986. "An Analysis of Cooperative Research and Development," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(4), pages 527-543, Winter.
    10. Geroski, P A, 1992. "Vertical Relations between Firms and Industrial Policy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 102(410), pages 138-147, January.
    11. Harabi, Najib, 1995. "Appropriability of technical innovations an empirical analysis," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 981-992, November.
    12. Richard C. Levin & Alvin K. Klevorick & Richard R. Nelson & Sidney G. Winter, 1987. "Appropriating the Returns from Industrial Research and Development," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 18(3, Specia), pages 783-832.
    13. Michael L. Katz & Janusz A. Ordover, 1990. "R&D Cooperation and Competition," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 21(1990 Micr), pages 137-203.
    14. Wesley M. Cohen & Richard C. Levin & David C. Mowery, 1987. "Firm Size and R&D Intensity: A Re-Examination," NBER Working Papers 2205, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Bruce Kogut, 1988. "Joint ventures: Theoretical and empirical perspectives," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(4), pages 319-332, July.
    16. Geroski, P A, 1993. "Antitrust Policy towards Co-operative R&D Ventures," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 9(2), pages 58-71, Summer.
    17. Kenneth Arrow, 1962. "Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention," NBER Chapters, in: The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity: Economic and Social Factors, pages 609-626, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Dasgupta, Partha & Stiglitz, Joseph, 1980. "Industrial Structure and the Nature of Innovative Activity," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(358), pages 266-293, June.
    19. Monteverde, Kirk & Teece, David J, 1982. "Appropriable Rents and Quasi-Vertical Integration," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(2), pages 321-328, October.
    20. Najib Harabi, 1998. "Innovation Through Vertical Relations Between Firms, Suppliers And Customers: A Study Of German Firms," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(2), pages 157-179.
    21. Dietmar Harhoff, 1996. "Strategic Spillovers and Incentives for Research and Development," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(6), pages 907-925, June.
    22. Cohen, Wesley M & Levin, Richard C & Mowery, David C, 1987. "Firm Size and R&D Intensity: A Re-examination," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 543-565, June.
    23. Harhoff, Dietmar, 1997. "Innovationsanreize in einem strukturellen Oligopolmodell," ZEW Discussion Papers 97-16, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    24. Giovanni Dosi, 2000. "Sources, Procedures, and Microeconomic Effects of Innovation," Chapters, in: Innovation, Organization and Economic Dynamics, chapter 2, pages 63-114, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    25. Klein, Benjamin & Crawford, Robert G & Alchian, Armen A, 1978. "Vertical Integration, Appropriable Rents, and the Competitive Contracting Process," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(2), pages 297-326, October.
    26. Levin, Richard C & Cohen, Wesley M & Mowery, David C, 1985. "R&D Appropriability, Opportunity, and Market Structure: New Evidence on Some Schumpeterian Hypotheses," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(2), pages 20-24, May.
    27. Geroski, P A & Walters, C F, 1995. "Innovative Activity over the Business Cycle," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(431), pages 916-928, July.
    28. Pisano, Gary P., 1991. "The governance of innovation: Vertical integration and collaborative arrangements in the biotechnology industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 237-249, June.
    29. Richard C. Levin & Alvin K. Klevorick & Richard R. Nelson & Sidney G. Winter, 1988. "Appropriating the Returns from Industrial R&D," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 862, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vitaliy Roud & Valeriya Vlasova, 2016. "Firm-Level Evidence on the Cooperative Innovation Strategies in Russian Manufacturing," HSE Working papers WP BRP 63/STI/2016, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    2. Karbowski, Adam & Prokop, Jacek, 2019. "The Impact of Vertical R&D Cooperation on Market Performance of Firms," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 7(4), pages 73-89.
    3. Kudic, Muhamed & Guhr, Katja, 2013. "Cooperation Events, Ego-Network Characteristics and Firm Innovativeness – Empirical Evidence from the German Laser Industry," IWH Discussion Papers 6/2013, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    4. G. Rossini, 2005. "Pitfalls in private and social incentives of vertical crossborder outsourcing," Working Papers 536, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    5. Bergek, Anna & Bruzelius, Maria, 2010. "Are patents with multiple inventors from different countries a good indicator of international R&D collaboration? The case of ABB," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 1321-1334, December.
    6. Karbowski, Adam, 2019. "Greed and fear in downstream R&D games," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 32, pages 63-76.
    7. Zhang, Qiao & Zhang, Jianxiong & Zaccour, Georges & Tang, Wansheng, 2018. "Strategic technology licensing in a supply chain," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 267(1), pages 162-175.
    8. van Moorsel, Daryl & Cranfield, John A.L. & Sparling, David, 2005. "Factors Affecting Biotechnology Innovation in Canada: Analysis of the 2001 Biotechnology Use and Development Survey," Working Papers 34121, University of Guelph, Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    9. Mariia Shkolnykova & Muhamed Kudic, 2022. "Who benefits from SMEs’ radical innovations?—empirical evidence from German biotechnology," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 1157-1185, February.
    10. René Belderbos & Martin Carree & Boris Lokshin & Juan Fernández Sastre, 2015. "Inter-temporal patterns of R&D collaboration and innovative performance," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 123-137, February.
    11. Rossi, Federica, 2002. "An introductory overview of innovation studies," MPRA Paper 9106, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jun 2008.
    12. Younghoon Kim & Yeonbae Kim & Jeong‐Dong Lee, 2011. "Corporate Venture Capital and Its Contribution to Intermediate Goods Firms in South Korea," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 25(3), pages 309-329, September.
    13. repec:bla:ecinqu:v:51:y:2013:i:3:p:1715-1730 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Fernandes, S. & Cesário, M. & Barata, J.M., 2017. "Ways to open innovation: Main agents and sources in the Portuguese case," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 153-162.
    15. Qing He & Yu Feng & Zheyu Li, 2023. "Dynamic Complexity Analysis of R&D Levels in the Automotive Industry under the Dual-Credit Policy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-25, December.
    16. Arijit Mukherjee & Achintya Ray, 2007. "Strategic Outsourcing And R&D In A Vertical Structure," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 75(3), pages 297-310, June.
    17. Song, Jian & Chutani, Anshuman & Dolgui, Alexandre & Liang, Liang, 2021. "Dynamic innovation and pricing decisions in a supply-Chain," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    18. Schmiedeberg, Claudia, 2008. "Complementarities of innovation activities: An empirical analysis of the German manufacturing sector," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 1492-1503, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Harabi, Najib, 1997. "Vertical Relations Between Firms and Innovation: An Empirical Investigation of German Firms," ZEW Discussion Papers 97-10, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. Cohen, Wesley M., 2010. "Fifty Years of Empirical Studies of Innovative Activity and Performance," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 129-213, Elsevier.
    3. Harabi, Najib, 1994. "Technischer Fortschritt in der Schweiz: Empirische Ergebnisse aus industrieökonomischer Sicht [Technischer Fortschritt in der Schweiz:Empirische Ergebnisse aus industrieökonomischer Sicht]," MPRA Paper 6725, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Bastian Rake, 2017. "Determinants of pharmaceutical innovation: the role of technological opportunities revisited," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 691-727, September.
    5. Barge-Gil, Andrés & López, Alberto, 2014. "R&D determinants: Accounting for the differences between research and development," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(9), pages 1634-1648.
    6. Cuervo-Cazurra, Alvaro & Un, C. Annique, 2007. "Regional economic integration and R&D investment," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 227-246, March.
    7. Wolfgang Becker & Juergen Peters, 2000. "Technological Opportunities, Absorptive Capacities, and Innovation," Discussion Paper Series 195, Universitaet Augsburg, Institute for Economics.
    8. Chia Lin, CHANG & Stephane, ROBIN, 2004. "Doing R&D and Importing Technology : an Empirical Investigation on Taiwan’s manufacturing firms," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2004006, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    9. Harabi, Najib, 1995. "Determinanten des technischen Fortschritts: eine industrieökonomische Analyse [Determinants of technical change: an analysis from industrial economics perspective]," MPRA Paper 26261, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Sakakibara, Mariko, 2001. "Cooperative research and development: who participates and in which industries do projects take place?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(7), pages 993-1018, August.
    11. Juergen Peters & Wolfgang Becker, 1998. "Technological Opportunities, Academic Research, and Innovation Activities in the German Automobile Supply Industry," Discussion Paper Series 175, Universitaet Augsburg, Institute for Economics.
    12. Kaiser, Ulrich, 2002. "Measuring knowledge spillovers in manufacturing and services: an empirical assessment of alternative approaches," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 125-144, January.
    13. Sakakibara, Mariko, 1997. "Evaluating government-sponsored R&D consortia in Japan: who benefits and how?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4-5), pages 447-473, December.
    14. Jürgen Peters, 2000. "Buyer Market Power and Innovative Activities," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 16(1), pages 13-38, February.
    15. Dosi, Giovanni & Nelson, Richard R., 2010. "Technical Change and Industrial Dynamics as Evolutionary Processes," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 51-127, Elsevier.
    16. Harabi, Najib, 1991. "Einflussfaktoren von Forschung und Entwicklung in der Schweizer Industrie: Ergebnisse einer schriftlichen Expertenbefragung [Factors Affecting Research and Development - Results of a Survey in Swis," MPRA Paper 5257, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Artés, Joaquín, 2009. "Long-run versus short-run decisions: R&D and market structure in Spanish firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 120-132, February.
    18. Bruno Cassiman & Reinhilde Veugelers, 1998. "R&D cooperation and spillovers: Some empirical evidence," Economics Working Papers 328, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    19. Schimmelpfennig, David E. & Pray, Carl E. & Brennan, Margaret F., 2004. "The impact of seed industry concentration on innovation: a study of US biotech market leaders," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 157-167, March.
    20. Giovanni Dosi & Richard Nelson, 2013. "The Evolution of Technologies: An Assessment of the State-of-the-Art," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 3(1), pages 3-46, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ecinnt:v:11:y:2002:i:2:p:93-108. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/GEIN20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.