ENHANCING THE OUTCOMES IN R&D COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE MIDDLE EBRO VALLEY IN SPAIN

Abstract

The collaboration for developing research and development (R&D) projects highlights the importance to access new external knowledge. Drawing from a mixed-methods approach in a sample of projects carried out by Spanish firms, our key findings show that every project’s dimension of absorptive capacity is related to collaborative performance in different ways. Organisations with capability difficulties to transform external knowledge enhanced their R&D projects’ outcomes by collaborating more intensively. However, it is the ability to exploit that external knowledge into innovation which could be the key to obtain outcomes and support to R&D programs. The regional particularities have showed new ways to collaborate due to the innovation culture in the Middle Ebro Valley.