Importance of collaboration partners in product development

In a Danish survey of 1022 manufacturing firms, 294 respondents gave detailed descriptions of the collaboration involved in their most important projects. The most frequently occurring partners in the projects were those who also played a role in the value chain for the eventual product. These partners are also those attributed by the firms as having the greatest importance for the completion of the project. The feature of these and other types of partner that had the greatest bearing on the importance of the partners was whether or not the firm had previously collaborated with the partner concerned. The survey thus expands on the rationale for establishing and maintaining long-term relationships. 1 This research is based on data collected in connection with DISKO (a project on the Danish Innovation System in a Comparative perspective). The project is located at the Department of Business Studies, Aalborg University, coordinated by Professor Bengt-Åke Lundvall and financed by the Danish Council for Industrial Development. This survey was conducted by Jysk Analyseinstitut, and the questions used here were formulated by the second author and assistant professor Poul Thois Madsen, Aalborg University. We are especially grateful to the firms who so willingly gave their time to this study. A description of the DISKO programme can be found at ”http://www.business.auc.dk/disko/.” 2 Authors’ address: Aalborg University, Dept. of Business Studies Fibigerstraede 4, DK-9220 Aalborg Oest, Denmark. E-mail: [email protected] – [email protected]