The Organizational Specificities of Brite-Euram Collaborative Projects : Micro-analysis and Policy Implications
Résumé
The aim of our chapter is to examine and characterize EU-sponsored R&D collaborations at the micro-analytical level, and to derive some policy implications. The existing literature on European framework research programmes relies, in the main, on quantitative, statistical information. We think that the relevance and the efficiency of such programmes may well require a deeper understanding of the cooperative practices adopted by the companies that participate in government-sponsored collaborations. Our contribution can be considered as an attempt at opening this specific "interorganizational black box" at the micro level of the firm. More precisely, we will explore the internal mechanisms of government-sponsored collaborations by comparing them to those of spontaneous, privately funded research collaborations. Our work is based on the existing literature conceming inter-firm alliances and on qualitative, empirical information obtained through numerous interviews relating to some of the research and development (R&D) projects within the EU's Brite-Euram programme.
