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HETEROGENEITY OF FIRM CAPABILITIES AND COOPERATIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION OF MOTIVES
Author(s) -
SAKAKIBARA MARIKO
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
strategic management journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 11.035
H-Index - 286
eISSN - 1097-0266
pISSN - 0143-2095
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(199707)18:1+<143::aid-smj927>3.0.co;2-y
Subject(s) - empirical examination , industrial organization , business , empirical research , marketing , economic geography , economics , epistemology , actuarial science , philosophy
This article proposes capability heterogeneity of R&D consortia participants as a condition to distinguish two competing motives for cooperative R&D: cost‐sharing vs. skill‐sharing. An analysis of 398 questionnaire responses from participants in Japanese government‐sponsored R&D consortia finds that the relative importance of the cost‐sharing motive in R&D consortia increases when participants’ capabilities are homogeneous or projects are large, while the relative importance of the skill‐sharing motive in R&D consortia increases with heterogeneous capabilities. The skill‐sharing motive is likely to increase a firm’s R&D spending, implying an additional consideration for management’s evaluation of cooperative R&D participation, as well as adding a new public policy implication of cooperative R&D. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.