ABSTRACT
In several technology-intensive sectors firms have gained a considerable body of experience in the management of collaboration, often having participated in joint technology projects in national and European programmes. Although seemingly having little in common when large-scale international industries such as IT and aerospace are put beside smaller scale and still partly laboratory-based sectors such as biotechnology, they do have the common characteristics of knowledge-intensity and pervasiveness. The rise of technological collaboration has been observed since the early 1980s and appears to be linked with the need for firms to collaborate with others to gain access to new technologies as a source of competitive advantage. It can be postulated that collaborations are driven by high entry costs and the large risks of new technological development. The data suggest that technological collaborations are concentrated in 'high technology' sectors.
