摘要：This study explores the factors determining the propensity of Swiss firms to interact with
public science institutions in Switzerland (universities and other research institution), i.e. to
get involved in knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) activities in order to gain new tacit
and/or codified scientific knowledge in research fields which are relevant for their own
innovation activities. We are especially interested in the different forms of this interaction, not
only through joint research projects but also through training, recruitment of qualified R&D
personnel, jointly supervised master theses and PhDs, consulting and so on. The data used in
this study were collected in the course of a survey among Swiss enterprises.
The new elements that this paper adds to empirical literature are, first, the analysis of a wide
spectrum of KTT activities covering not only research co-operation agreements between firms
and science institutions but also general informational and educational activities (transfer of
“tacit” knowledge), joint use of technical infrastructure and consulting. Although such
additional activities seem to be an important part of KTT activities, they have been neglected
in most studies. Second, a further important element is the explicit consideration of a series of
relevant motives and obstacles as determinants of KTT which contribute significantly to the
econometric explanation of firms’ propensity to overall KTT activities as well as to several
forms of KTT activities. Third, some insights are gained with respect to the differences
between manufacturing and service firms in transacting with science institutions. This is the
first Swiss firm-level study on this matter.
关键词：knowledge and technology transfer, innovation activities, R&D activities
