Interactions between firms and universities in an immature system of innovation: a survey of industrial R&D-performers firms in Minas Gerais, Brazil

This paper presents preliminary results from a survey of R&D-performer industrial firms located in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The inspiration for this research comes from the Yale Survey (Klevorick et all, 1995) and from the Carnegie Mellon Survey (Cohen et all, 2002), for these Surveys are groundwork for the study of interactions between universities and firms. The objective of this Minas Gerais Survey (MG Survey, henceforth) is the investigation of specific characteristics of the interaction between universities and firms in an 'immature national system of innovation'. The first section summarizes the theoretical questions putted forward by this investigation, specially the role of universities in immature NSIs. The second section investigates the Brazilian NSI using data from the IBGE’s PINTEC, focusing the R&D performer firms in Brazil and the importance of universities and public research institutes as source of knowledge for industrial innovation. This second section presents data that highlight the position of Minas Gerais in the Brazilian NSI and helps to define the MG Survey research universe. The third section summarizes the issues involved in the adaptation of the Yale and the Carnegie Mellon questionnaires to the Brazilian reality and in the identification of the R&D-performer firms in Minas Gerais. The fourth section presents the MG Survey results. The fifth section concludes the paper.