Choosing among alternative technological strategies: an empirical analysis of formal sources of innovation

This work aims to offer a detailed conceptual and empirical analysis of the inter-firm differences in deciding the composition of their technological efforts. Using data for Spanish firms in the period 1990-1996, the study begins with the standard analysis of the determinants of innovative investment, then moves on to the less analysed question of the determinants of the generate versus import alternative and ends with a novel analysis of the characteristics which lead firms to organise research internally as compared to the possibility of contracting R&D services externally. In contrast to standard practice, the econometric approach takes into account the existence of non-linearities in the used data. The results obtained support the conceptual ideas on which they are based.