Martin Neubrandt

Working paper

Partnering for Productivity - The Impact of Cooperation on Firm Performance

As technology becomes more complex, firms rely more on collaboration with other players in their innovation activities. This paper looks at how cooperation with different partners in the innovation process affects a company's performance. I use panel data from the Hungarian Community Innovation Survey, which is linked with administrative firm data. I show that vertical cooperation in the innovation activity has a positive impact on firm performance. Four years after the introduction of an innovation firm value added growth, labor productivity growth, and total factor productivity growth increases as a result of innovation. I estimate that if a firm cooperates vertically in the innovation activity firm value added growth increases by 3.8%, labor productivity growth increases by 3.4%, and total factor productivity growth increases by 2.9% on top of innovation’s direct effect on firm performance. I show that supplier collaboration improves firm performance growth even in the absence of radical innovation. This implies that even firms that introduce only incremental innovations can benefit from collaboration.