Technological Capabilities and Patterns of Cooperation of UK Firms: A Regional Investigation
23 Pages Posted: 21 Apr 2009
See all articles by Simona Iammarino
Simona Iammarino
London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Department of Geography and Environment
Mariacristina Piva
Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Marco Vivarelli
Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano; IZA Institute of Labor Economics
Nick von Tunzelmann
University of Sussex - Science and Technology Policy Research Unit (SPRU)
This paper focuses on the relationship between firms' technological capabilities and different forms of cooperation for innovation by combining the analysis of both micro and meso levels, i.e. the level of the firm and of the geographical region. Our findings, based on the Fourth UK Community Innovation Survey (CIS), provide new insights regarding the relationship between cooperative linkages for innovation and the development of technological capabilities by business units. Firstly, the distinction between competences and capabilities adopted in this paper seems appropriate for going beyond the rather simplistic dichotomy of 'innovative' versus 'non-innovative' firms commonly used in interpreting CIS data. Secondly, we find that the analysis for the UK as a whole masks stark regional differences in terms of intra- and extra-region collaborative linkages and degrees of firms' technological capabilities. These findings may be useful to help policy making to meet the priorities highlighted within the UK Government's framework for Science & Technology.
Keywords: cooperation for innovation, technological capabilities, firms, regions
JEL Classification: O30, R12
Iammarino, Simona and Piva, Mariacristina and Vivarelli, Marco and von Tunzelmann, Nick, Technological Capabilities and Patterns of Cooperation of UK Firms: A Regional Investigation. IZA Discussion Paper No. 4129. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1391801
Simona Iammarino (Contact Author)
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