Title: Collaborative R&D and project results within Brazilian incubators and science parks

Authors: Serje Schmidt; Alsones Balestrin; Raquel Engelman Machado; Maria Cristina Bohnenberger

Addresses: Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação, Feevale University, RS 239, 2755, 93352-000 Novo Hamburgo, RS, Brazil ' Unidade de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa, UNISINOS, Av. Unisinos, 950, 93022-000 São Leopoldo, RS, Brazil ' Instituto de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas, Feevale University, RS 239, 2755, 93352-000 Novo Hamburgo, RS, Brazil ' Instituto de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas, Feevale University, RS 239, 2755, 93352-000 Novo Hamburgo, RS, Brazil

Abstract: Small and medium enterprises have difficulties keeping up-to-date and developing and commercialising innovations. To reduce the risk and the cost of this process and strengthen firms' innovation capacity, inter-organisational collaboration is being encouraged by incubators and science and technology parks. Here, we consider tenants from incubators and science parks in an emerging country and analyse specific attributes of collaboration such as goal congruency, governance and knowledge complementarity and their relationship to collaborative R&D project results. The objective of this article is to analyse the influence of these R&D collaboration attributes on the results of R&D projects. Our theoretical framework was empirically tested through a quantitative survey conducted among 119 Brazilian tenants, whose data were analysed using structural equation modelling. We found that some collaborative attributes are significantly related to innovative project results. These results yield interesting implications and insights regarding inter-organisational collaboration and innovation within incubators and science parks, stimulating the debate among scholars and practitioners.

Keywords: collaboration; research and development; collaborative R&D; cooperation; innovation capacity; goal congruency; governance mechanisms; knowledge complementarity; business incubators; science parks; R&D projects; small and medium enterprises; SMEs; small business; small firms; entrepreneurship; Brazil; emerging economies; structural equation modelling; SEM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2016.073349

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2016 Vol.27 No.1, pp.1 - 18

Received: 09 Dec 2014
Accepted: 23 Mar 2015
Published online: 30 Nov 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article