Collaboration and Innovation Speed : Evidence from a Prize Data-Set, 1955-2010

The anecdotal evidence has indicated that inter-organizational collaboration increases R&D productivity by providing access to outside complimentary assets for firms. Focusing on the length of time from launching R&D project to realizing its R&D outcomes, we call it innovation speed, this paper examines a prize data-set on industrial technology, including 434 award-winning R&D projects, and empirically examines the relationship between inter-organizational collaboration and innovation speed and explores how the relationship varies across different types of collaborations. After controlling time periods, technological areas, prize categories, and collaboration types, the data reveal that inter-organizational collaboration among non-business group firms is associated with shorter innovation speed. The curtailed time periods vary from 19.9% to 32.2% according to the models. However, such accelerated time periods are not observed in other collaboration types such as inter-firm collaboration and firm-academic collaboration.[2], 28 p