Driving Forces for Research and Development Strategies: An Empirical Analysis Based on Firm-Level Panel Data

KOF Working Papers/KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich No. 184

33 Pages Posted: 11 Jan 2008

See all articles by Martin Woerter

Martin Woerter

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) - Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF)

Date Written: December 2007

Abstract

This paper investigates empirically different ways to organise R&D within Swiss firms. Based on a longitudinal data set comprising three cross sections (1999, 2002, and 2005) of the Swiss innovation survey, four different types of R&D strategies could have been separated; firms combine in-house R&D with R&D co-operations (coop), or in-house R&D with external R&D (buy), or they conduct in-house R&D, external R&D and R&D co-operations (mixed), or they exclusively rely on in-house R&D (make). It is the aim of this paper to understand what drives firms to go for different strategies. Based on econometric estimations controlling for correlations between the dependent variables and endogeneity among the independent variables it was found that concepts related to the absorptive capacity, incoming spillovers and appropriability, the importance of different knowledge resources, the competitive environment, costs and skill aspects as well as technological uncertainty are essential factors to determine firm's decision to choose a specific way to organise R&D.

Keywords: Research and Development, R&D Co-operations, Empirical Analysis (Firm Panel), R&D Strategies

JEL Classification: O30

Suggested Citation

Woerter, Martin, Driving Forces for Research and Development Strategies: An Empirical Analysis Based on Firm-Level Panel Data (December 2007). KOF Working Papers/KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich No. 184, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1081622 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1081622

Martin Woerter (Contact Author)

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) - Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF) ( email )

CH-8092 Zurich
Switzerland

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
176
Abstract Views
900
Rank
307,910
PlumX Metrics