Title: The role of national and regional innovation programmes in stimulating international cooperation in innovation

Authors: Andrea Fernandez-Ribas, Philip Shapira

Addresses: School of Public Policy and Enterprise Innovation Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA 30332-0345, USA. ' Manchester Institute for Innovation Research, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, M13 9PL, UK; School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0345, USA

Abstract: Innovation programmes have direct and indirect effects on enterprise strategies. In this paper we argue that national and regional programmes, not necessarily designed to increase international links, indirectly leverage international collaborative innovation, by providing additional funding, experience in domestic collaboration, and learning about public funding application rules. Our empirical findings confirm a positive (but small) influence of domestic-level programmes on the probability that a firm develops innovation with foreign partners. Implications for policy are multiple, including the need to consider systemic measures of innovation when evaluating the impacts of innovation programmes on firm|s behaviour.

Keywords: R&D; research and development; international cooperation; innovation policy; evaluation; national innovation; regional innovation; enterprise strategies; collaboration; collaborative innovation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2009.026690

International Journal of Technology Management, 2009 Vol.48 No.4, pp.473 - 498

Published online: 23 Jun 2009 *

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