Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Rocha, Frederico
Author-Workplace-Name: Universidade Federal Fluminense
Title: Inter-Firm Technological Cooperation Effects of Absorptive Capacity, Firm-Size and Specialization
Abstract: This paper aims to add evidence on the role played by firms' technological
	 competencies in the determination of their intensity of cooperation with other
	 firms. Using a database composed by patents jointly filed by two or more firms in
	 the European Patent Office, the paper: (i) finds no support for the hypothesis that
	 in order for firms to increase their rate of cooperation they should expand their
	 R&D expenditures; (ii) holds that technological cooperation is explained by the
	 need of the firm to acquire complementary competencies; (iii) concludes that
	 cooperation is an alternative technological strategy for those firms that have
	 adopted lean production to overcome obstacles posed by the cross-fertilization of
	 technological fields; (iv) shows that Japanese firms have a higher level of
	 cooperation than Western ones. This latter feature may be explained by the Japanese
	 firm's greater level of productive specialization. 
Keywords: Industrial Cooperation, Technology Transfer
Series: Discussion Paper
Creation-Date: 1997
Number: 07
File-URL: http://www.intech.unu.edu/publications/discussion-papers/9707.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 78.2 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unuint:199707