Characterisation of Technological Collaborations and Evolution in the Spanish Defence Industry

Abstract

Collaboration with technological partners as an innovation strategy has become widespread in recent years, and all sectors are immersed in this process. In particular, the defence industry is characterised by the technological complexity of the products and services offered, together with a constant innovation process. However, data that allow us to identify characteristics that are found in collaboration contracts are not usually available in this sector. This could explain the scarcity of research on collaborations in the defence industry. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by studying the different characteristics of both the technological partners and the development agreements over a long period that covers pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis years. This is possible thanks to a database of more than 300 collaboration technology agreements between public and private organisations and the Spanish Ministry of Defence from 1999-2017. Three cluster analyses are used to identify different typologies of technological collaborations. The results provide the Ministry of Defence with a clear picture of the type of collaborations in the Defence industry, their partners and their behaviour under different economic conditions, which will help it identify the type of collaborations that can contribute to improving the design of its innovation strategy.

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