Relevance of innovation cooperation for firms’ innovation activity: The case of Slovenia

Abstract

The paper analyses the importance of innovation cooperation on the innovation activity of Slovenian firms, and puts it within the broader context of firm’s innovation activity determinants. Probit estimations based on firm-level data confirm that, next to R&D spending, innovation cooperation is the most important factor in firms’ probability to innovate. This paper is the first to explicitly analyse the effect of variety and different types of innovation cooperation. Within innovation cooperation, a significant and positive effect on innovation activity is confirmed for domestic as well as for international innovation cooperation, for public as well as private cooperation, especially with customers, suppliers and advisors, but not for cooperation with public institutions such as universities and R&D institutes. Innovation cooperation should, thus, be more intensively promoted, especially in countries that lag behind in own R&D spending.