The name is absent

to a similar extent. Among these mainly suppliers are chosen as partners, but
partners on the same production level are chosen nearly as often. Slightly
more than half of the companies have joined a R&D co-operation with clients.

More than half of the companies covered by the study maintain contact with
universities or other research institutes for the purpose of exchanging informa-
tion and conjoint projects. Nevertheless there are significant differences be-
tween companies in Eastern and Western Germany which need to be pointed
out: R&D co-operations between firms and scientific organisations can be ob-
served more often among companies in the Eastern than in the Western part of
the country.

The distinction between various sizes of companies reveals differences in their
R&D co-operation behaviour. As mentioned in table 3, small enterprises in
Eastern Germany with a maximum of 19 employees are more often participat-
ing in R&D co-operations than those in Western Germany. This is also due to
the fact that companies of this size have a high share in the structure of firms in
Eastern Germany. On the other hand, the share of medium-sized enterprises in
Western Germany participating in R&D turns out to be higher than in the East-
ern part of Germany.

Table 3: Partners of companies with differing size, that join R&D co-opera-
tions in Eastern and Western Germany

1 (2) including (excluding) West-Berlin

In order to estimate the status of R&D co-operations, the companies covered
by the study were asked to evaluate the role of their partnership for their com-
petitiveness. Most of these firms (85.4 %) assured that their R&D co-operation
is of importance for their future ability to compete. The majority of the compa-
nies (54.7 %) even considered their commitment to be of crucial importance for

<<   <   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   >   >>