Who cooperates on R&D?

Based on a sample of 1800 German manufacturing enterprises, we analyze the propensity to maintain different forms of R&D cooperation with customers, suppliers, competitors and public research institutions. We find a relatively stable set of characteristics of those enterprises that are engaged in R&D cooperation. According to our results, enterprises that maintain such relationships tend to be relatively large and have a high share of R&D. They are likely to have a 'Gatekeeper' who is screening the environment relevant for the innovation activity and are characterized by a relatively high aspiration level of their R&D activities. Industry effects are mainly found with regard to the number of R&D cooperations and are much less pronounced for the propensity to engage at all in cooperative R&D. The interregional differences pertain to the propensity to cooperate as well as to the number of cooperative relationships. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.