John Hagedoorn, Hans van Kranenburg
This paper offers the first statistical analysis of the long-term movement in inter-firm partnerships during the period 1960–1998. Our analysis indicates a growth pattern in R&D partnering that is largely of a non-stationary nature, caused by fluctuations during the last 10 years of this time series. The further analysis of specific groups of these R&D partnerships reveals that the patterns for so-called high-tech sectors, for the leading industrial nations and for the contractual R&D partnerships follow the overall movement of these partnerships.