Project 1.2.3: IR

Project Team

Prof. Bart Van Looy (project leader) and Catherine Lecocq

Content

The purpose of the new international reference database is to compare collaboration and networking patterns of Flemish start-ups and established firms with similar companies within Europe. Therefore, we will conduct an international survey of start-ups and established firms in a number of European countries. We are targeting an international database with 150 foreign companies. Together with the steering committee of STOIO, a selection of European countries / regions and industries will be agreed upon. The selection of industries will be such that high tech, medium tech and low tech industries are equally represented.
 

Methodology

Based on the Amadeus database (the European equivalent of the Belfirst database), foreign companies will be selected such that we get an equal representation of start-ups and established firms over the selected countries / regions and industries. Next, a mail survey will be sent to those firms. This survey will enclose questions concerning the collaboration portfolio of firms (presence / absence of collaboration with customers, suppliers and universities) and their innovation performance of companies (share of new / improved products in total turnover). The questions of the survey are the same as the ones in the START and the CIS survey such that the data of the international reference database can be directly compared with the data of the START and the CIS databases. This allows for benchmarking Flemish companies with European equivalents. In a next step, the international reference database will be complemented with economic performance indicators such as added value and profitability. These data will be obtained from the Amadeus databank.
The database will be complemented with technology and science indicators. For all firms, we will include patent data (EPO / USPTO databank) and publication data (Web of Science). We herefore intend to collaborate with the Policy Research Centre “R&D Statistics”, which has access to the relevant database infrastructure. Patent and publication data allow for the mapping of the technological and scientific performance of the companies (based on the number of patents and the number of publications), as well as their technological and scientific collaboration networks. The latter will be based on the analysis of the co-patent and co-publication activities of the firms. The data also allows us to differentiate between different types of collaboration partners (company, university, public research institute, hospital and individual).