Sectoral Determinants of Performance in Collaborative R&D Projects

The paper addresses the measurement and determinants of performance in collaborative R&D projects. It draws on some empirical analysis carried out on data and information gathered under the UK 'LINK' scheme, a programme supporting R&D collaborative projects and assessing collaboration outcomes. A new indicator of their performance is constructed,providing a relative and quite consistent measure of performance for comparing different LINK projects. An econometric model is worked out in order to analyse the effects of some explanatory variables characterising different projects on the new performance measure. Results show a strong importance of differences across sectors. More accurate assessment should take into account the peculiarities of the industrial sectors, to investigate the effects of different causal factors. We point to differences in nature (taxonomic character), appropriability, and position in the technology chain as instances