The role of University – Industry R&D collaboration in innovative and export performance in the midst of a crisis: empirical evidence from Greece

The Greek economy is suffering from the most severe economic crisis of the last 50 years. As the economy is now struggling to recover, the enrichment of the country’ s productive output in terms value added product and... [ view full abstract ]

The Greek economy is suffering from the most severe economic crisis of the last 50 years. As the economy is now struggling to recover, the enrichment of the country’ s productive output in terms value added product and services that are internationally competitive, emerges as one of the most effective mechanisms to create sustainable growth.. One of the key mechanisms in improving firms’ knowledge and innovative content is by collaborating in R&D projects with Universities.
In order to explore the different performance in terms of innovation and exports based on the extent of R&D collaborations with Universities, we are using a field survey on 2,000 of the largest Greek firms that was conducted on 2011 and repeated on 2013. A pattern of frequent players in such collaborations, along with the occasional players and the laggers are examined in order to assess whether there are significant differences in terms of their innovation performance and whether their export activity was positively affected by such collaborations. Preliminary results show that although such collaborations have become more difficult in 2013, those that have continue to undertake R&D collaboration with Universities are the ones that maintain their innovative performance and have intensified their exporting activity.