The Repercussions of the Adoption of Information Technology in Co-Operative Innovation

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to analyse what repercussion the adoption of certain types of information and communication technology (ICT), by firms, may have on collaborative innovation. It is our belief that tools such as Internet access, e-mail, and the presence of internal and inter-organisational communication networks, will promote and facilitate the signing of cooperative agreements. The empirical analysis performed on a sample of 1,649 firms partially confirms this intuition, since the existence of a network, bringing the firm into contact with its subcontractors, customers, and/or suppliers, increases the propensity of firms to cooperate in innovation.