Abstract
Public funding of research improves the systemic conditions of entrepreneurial ecosystems. It provides early-stage financing to technologies that form the basis for new products and services. In addition to financial support, instruments as the EC Framework Programmes (FP) facilitate the creation of research networks. By bringing together organisations of various types and geographic origins and increasing the diversity of their interactions, the instrument seeks to accelerate a discovery process in which organisations attempt to bring desired innovations to the market and society. In this paper, we examine the impact of organisational and geographic diversity of partnerships in EU-funded research networks on the commercial potential of their innovations. We explore a sample of 603 collaborative research projects supported by European FPs. We use data from the Innovation Radar, a unique survey database developed by DG CONNECT to assess the innovation outcomes of FP projects in ICT. We show that innovations developed by research networks with a higher organisational diversity have more commercial potential. This finding supports the idea that policies improving systemic conditions of entrepreneurship ecosystems through the creation of institutionally diverse research networks can have beneficial effects on the commercialisation potential of innovations developed in FP projects. In contrast, research networks with a wider range of internationally dispersed research partners are likely to have less innovation potential. This may suggest the existence of coordination and communication difficulties in FP projects where geographic diversity is greater.
Highlights
Framework and systemic conditions constitute key elements of entrepreneurial ecosystems (Stam and Spigel 2016)
We explore the innovation potential of EU-funded collaborative research networks and investigate how this potential is related to the degree of organisational and geographic diversity of organisations involved in the development of innovations
The authors mainly analyse power relations and the role of knowledge. In line with their discussion and the literature on cultural diversity, we provide below a detailed overview of the advantages and disadvantages of organisational and geographic diversity in research networks
Summary
Framework and systemic conditions constitute key elements of entrepreneurial ecosystems (Stam and Spigel 2016). The objectives of the FPs go far beyond providing funding to technology development They aim at improving the systemic conditions of the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems by facilitating the creation of research networks between different organisations. It is expected to increase the level of innovation and to facilitate discovery of cross-border applications and solutions In this context, an important question for policy makers is: to what extent is a greater degree of organisational and geographic diversity in EU-funded collaborative research networks beneficial to their economic outcomes. It presents the most recent literature on impact assessments of Framework Programmes.1 This is followed by a description of the methodology and data sources used to measure innovation potential and diversity in EU-funded research networks.
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