(2020). Subsidized R&D Collaboration: The Effect of Innovation Vouchers on Innovation Activity & Performance Academy of Management Proceedings, 2020 (1), 2020 (1)7665abstract.
We study the causal effect of subsidized R&D collaboration on innovation performance. In particular, we make use of a randomized controlled trial to analyze the effect of an innovation voucher scheme in the United Kingdom that grants small and medium-sized enterprises financial support of up to 5,000 GBP for engaging the services of experts, e.g., from universities, research institutes or IP advisors, when pursuing an innovation-related project. Our findings provide evidence that the innovation voucher program successfully accelerates the execution of R&D projects with short-term effects on innovation outcomes. We find that being awarded a voucher has a positive short-term impact on product development for firms that collaborated with a university. In addition, we find a positive effect on the number of patent applications for firms indicating to be in need for specialist IP knowledge. In terms of collaboration outcomes, we can show that subsidized university-industry collaborations result in an increase of joint ventures two years after the voucher has been awarded."
Also published as: Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 20-11
Also published in: Research Policy Volume 51, Issue 6, July 2022, 104515
