Title: Cooperation for innovation: evidence from southern European countries

Authors: Sandra Nunes; Luísa Carvalho; Teresa Costa

Addresses: Economics and Management Department, Business School, Setúbal Polytechnic Institute, Cumpus do IPS, Estefanilha, 2914-503 Setúbal, Portugal; Centre for Mathematics and Applications (CMA), Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science and Technology, New University of Lisbon, Quinta da Torre, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal ' CEFAGE – University of Évora, Largo do Vimioso, Gab 224, Largo Marquês de Marialva, 8, 7000-809 – Évora, Portugal; Economics and Management Department, Business School, Setúbal Polytechnic Institute, Cumpus do IPS, Estefanilha, 2914-503 Setúbal, Portugal ' Economics and Management Department, Business School, Setúbal Polytechnic Institute, Cumpus do IPS, Estefanilha, 2914-503 Setúbal, Portugal

Abstract: Innovation today is an important means for firms to achieve competitive advantage, but few firms recognise the importance of cooperation in developing innovative processes. This paper is a study of cooperation in innovation in southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy) and analyses how R&D, incoming spillovers, public support, appropriability of innovation, financial constraints on innovation, firm size and sector can contribute to cooperative behaviour in firms. The literature review demonstrates that cooperation encompasses sharing R&D costs and risks, reducing duplication spillovers, internalisation and introducing other benefits. This paper uses Community Innovation Survey (CIS 4) micro-data for the four southern European countries in question and applies a logistic regression in order to study cooperative behaviour in innovation. We believe that the results relative to these countries will provide important clues as to different arrangements of cooperation between firms and will highlight innovation patterns between them.

Keywords: cooperative innovation; cooperation; CIS; Portugal; Spain; Greece; Italy; R&D; research and development; incoming spillovers; public support; appropriate innovation; financial constraints; firm size; sector; cooperative behaviour.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIRD.2013.055250

International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development, 2013 Vol.5 No.2, pp.226 - 241

Received: 03 Dec 2012
Accepted: 02 Apr 2013
Published online: 02 Jul 2014 *

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