Does Cooperation with Universities and Knowledge Intensive Business Services Matter? Firm-level Evidence from Spain

Abstract

This manuscript contributes to the literature on firm cooperation with universities and Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) by framing the analysis according to the literature on causal effects, comparing the effect of each of the agents and exploring which firms benefit the most from cooperation with a specific partner. The results have shown that the bias-adjusted effect is around a 27-30% increase in sales from new products for both types of partners. After covariates and fixed effects are used, it is considered unlikely that this effect is driven by time-varying unobservable factors. Moreover, we have seen that firms that benefit the most from cooperation with universities are different from those firms that benefit the most from cooperation with KIBS.

Keywords

• Firm cooperation
• Universities
• KIBS
• Treatment effects
• Heterogeneity
• Policy matching