Cooperation for innovation in developing countries and its effects: evidence from Ecuador

Abstract

This paper evaluates the impact of the most common innovation linkages by type of innovation activity on firms’ innovation inputs and outputs. In order to estimate the casual effects, we employ Inverse Probability Weighting, while focusing on exclusive cooperative agreements to prevent our results from being affected by the presence of additional relationships in other activities or with other types of partners. Results indicate that cooperation in non-R&D innovation activities positively affects the introduction of new-to-the-firm product, marketing and organizational innovations, while cooperation in both R&D and non-R&D activities also affects R&D intensity and new-to-the-market product innovation. Furthermore, firms that cooperate exclusively in obtaining information, which is mainly carried out with suppliers and customers, are more likely to introduce new-to-the-firm product and organizational innovations.