Effectiveness of Cooperation Partners from the Perspective of Innovation Proactivity

The purpose of this study is to research what combinations of cooperation partners are most effective according to a firm’s type of innovation proactivity: product or process oriented. Fifteen possible combinations are analysed, starting with the four most common cooperation partners: customers, suppliers, competitors, and universities and other research institutions. The empirical research was performed on a sample of 4,991 Spanish firms taken from the Technological Innovation Panel. The hypotheses presented were tested using path analysis. The results corroborate that collaborative R&D partnerships are more effective for proactive firms in product innovation than for proactive firms in process innovation