摘要：Starting point of our analysis is the empirical fact that firms pursue different goals when
getting engaged in R&D collaborations, often more than one goal at the same time. Given that
firms are driven by different motives for R&D cooperation, the aim of this article is to
investigate the differences related to different motives with respect (a) to the factors
influencing the likelihood of R&D cooperation as postulated by theory; and (b) to the impact
of R&D cooperation on firm innovativeness and firm productivity. On the whole,
distinguishing various cooperation motives appears to be fruitful because it allows more
differentiated insights with respect to the importance of factors determining cooperation that
would remain hidden behind the overall variable “R&D cooperation yes/no”. Not only R&D
cooperation in general but also cooperation driven by each of the seven motives considered in
this paper correlate positively with the sales share of innovative products. With respect to
innovativeness the characterization of cooperation by the driving motive did not add much
more insights that it could be gained through the overall variable ‘R&D cooperation yes/no’.
Technology-motivated collaborative activities show a weaker tendency to positive direct
effects on productivity than cost-motivated cooperation. In this case, the distinction of several
cooperation motives yields some additional insights as compared to the overall cooperation
variable
