Les projets d'innovation inter-organisationnels développés dans le cadre d'une politique publique - Discussion et observations sur la nature des innovations, les modes de coopération et de leurs inter-relations

In recent years, the promotion of R&D partnerships between universities, research labs and companies has become a key feature of innovation and development public policies. However, these collaborations turn out to be fragile and their management very complex. In our literature review, the congruence between the nature of innovations (i.e. their radicalness) and the cooperation practices appears as a potentially powerful explanatory factor of interfirm innovation project’s outcome. Following this hypothesis, we explore, on two case studies of projects subsidized by the Walloon Competitive Clusters program, the way actors innovate and organize their actions. Though they face similar constraints, these projects illustrate diverse configurations, not only as to the nature of innovations but also as to cooperation practices. Besides, the analysis reveals that the criteria used to characterize the nature of innovations do not necessarily form a homogeneous set of factors. Considering these observations, we try to identify the main challenges faced by both projects’ partners