Cooperation in R D

Abstract

Tensions between competition and cooperation, mediated by government policies, set the conditions under which private firms engage in joint R&D. In general, companies collaborate when the costs of independent efforts are high relative to expected benefits. Characteristic forms of cooperative R&D in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan show a range of government roles from historical confinement by antitrust (United States) to active encouragement (Japan). When the R&D is relatively basic, with time horizons too long to be attractive to companies individually, cooperative projects may make valuable contributions to the underlying technology base. But the more applied the R&, the more likely it is to remain a marginal activity, consisting of projects that individual companies rank second to those pursued with internal resources. Examples such as Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation in the United States, the European Community's ESPRIT program, and Japan's International Superconductivity Technology Center illustrate these patterns.