An analysis of the EU funded research networks involving new technology based firms

Research networks are an increasingly popular and important instrument to foster knowledge exchanges across organizations, sectors and countries. Especially when involving New Technology Based Firms (NTBFs), R&D networks are crucial drivers for the production and diffusion of knowledge, and to support the competitiveness of a modern knowledge-based economy. This thesis aims at studying these key drivers of technological and scientific progress, by examining the characteristics of the EU-funded R&D networks involving NTBFs. The analysis relies on the data gathered from two different large data sources: the VICO database for European NTBFs and the CORDIS database of the R&D projects funded by EU. The data were retrieved and merged through ad hoc PERL scripts. Statistical analyses allowed a detailed description of the characteristics of these networks and highlighted relevant aspects of their structure and their governance: in particular, remarkable differences in the size and in the geographical diversity of the networks were observed when a NTBF was the coordinator of the network. These empirical observations, jointly with proposition from a previous literature review, were corroborated by an econometric analysis to identify the relevant characteristics of the network and of the firm influencing the likelihood of a NTBF to coordinate the R&D network. The results confirmed the hypothesis, concerning the relationship between characteristics of the network and the governance of the network itself, and were consistent for most part with the proposition identified by the literature. The size of the network, the duration of the relationship, the geographic diversity and the age of the company resulted to have an impact on the chances of a NTBF of being a coordinator, as it was expected as they are related to a higher effort and cost to govern it.