Why do firms form R&D cooperation: a resource dependence perspective

ABSTRACT

Relying on resource dependence theory (RDT), this study investigates the antecedents of inter-organisational R&D cooperation formation in the context of Chinese manufacturing firms over the period of 2012–2017. We found that environmental dynamism promotes R&D cooperation formation; firm size, structural holes, and regional market intermediary weaken the positive effect of environmental dynamism on R&D cooperation formation. The findings provide a more fine-grained understanding of antecedents of R&D cooperation formation. The practical implications and future research are also emphasised.

KEYWORDS:

• R&D cooperation formation
• environmental dynamism
• firm size
• structural holes
• regional market intermediary

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• O32

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank Jide Sun for his valuable comments, as well as research assistants who assisted with data collection for this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Please see Burt (1992) and Zaheer and Bell (2005) for details about calculation of structural holes.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China: [Grant Number 71472139]; National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences: [Grant Number 19BGL022].

Notes on contributors

Xincheng Wang

Xincheng Wang is a PhD student at Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiaotong University. His research interests are innovation and strategic management, and published papers in journals.