Desarrollo de innovaciones cooperando con clientes¿cuándo es conveniente?

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the R&D cooperation determinants between Spanish manufacturing firms and a special group of external agents, the customers and users. The central point of the analysis has been two variables which have not been widely taken into account in previous literature and, as the results shown, have demonstrated to significantly influence on the customers` cooperation. These variables were: 1) the existence of sticky information (information costly to acquire, transfer and use) and 2) the presence of heterogeneous needs in the market. Furthermore, this study shows that cooperation with other agents, previous R&D experience, absorptive capacity, innovation type and foreign ownership of the firm were also determining factors of this kind of collaboration