Co-Operation on R&D as an Innovation Strategy : Evidence From Valencian Firms

Using survey data on Valencian manufacturing firms we analyse the factors influencing the probability of a firm to co-operate on R&D with different types of partners. We find that Research Institutions play a key role as a source of information for the decision to co-operate with any type of partner, and in particular to co-operate either with suppliers or customers (vertical cooperation). The availability of public funds and incoming spillovers increase the probability of the firm to co-operate on R&D whereas the orientation of the innovating activities towards basic R&D decreases this probability. Concentrating on co-operative firms on R&D, we further explore the determinants of co-operation with different partners