Book | Chapter

211693

Multimarket contact and inter-firm cooperation in R&D

Nicholas S. Vonortas

pp. 249-277

Abstract

Research joint ventures (RJVs) have been widely acclaimed for their alleged ability to restore private incentives to undertake R&D. Economists have, however, also sounded the alarm concerning the opportunities RJVs may create for collusion between partners. The danger of anti-competitive behavior increases significantly when repeated R&D collaboration occurs between firms that also "meet" in many product markets. This phenomenon is shown to be present in a large set of U.S.-based RJVs. The question is about the incentive trade-off: Are the alleged advantages of RJVs in terms of enhancing incentives for R&D sufficient to overcome the potential disadvantages in terms of decreasing incentives for R&D due to simultaneous multiproject and multimarket contact? Significant foreign participation, high technological and market uncertainties, and the set up of "porous' RJVs may operate as a check to anti-competitive behavior.

Publication details

Published in:

Mueller Dennis C., Cantner Uwe (2001) Capitalism and democracy in the 21st century: proceedings of the international Joseph A. Schumpeter society conference, Vienna 1998 "capitalism and socialism in the 21st century". Heidelberg, Physica.

Pages: 249-277

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-662-11287-8_13

Full citation:

Vonortas Nicholas S. (2001) „Multimarket contact and inter-firm cooperation in R&D“, In: D. C. Mueller & U. Cantner (eds.), Capitalism and democracy in the 21st century, Heidelberg, Physica, 249–277.