Inter-firm cooperation: Empirical analyses of how to set up and maintain successful R&D outsourcing relationships

Abstract

In order to cope with the continuing pressure of rapidly developing and commercializing innovations, organizations have increasingly turned to external sources of knowledge by integrating R&D supplier firms into the innovation process. Using the “market” for the generation of valuable knowledge inputs certainly allows for specialization benefits but at the same time renders the outsourcing party vulnerable to opportunistic behaviour of its R&D supplier. This dissertation is designed to examine the drivers and consequences of R&D supplier opportunism. It, furthermore, strives to identify mechanisms that are effective in curbing R&D supplier misbehaviour