ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a review of the disparate literature on the role and potential of collaboration in industry, its extent, the ways governments and firms have promoted it, explanations for it, and analyses of its process and consequences. It examines what collaboration is, the extent to which it is occurring, and its focuses. Collaborations take place in the research, development, manufacturing and marketing functions, and take a wide variety of forms. Vertical collaboration occurs throughout the chain of production for particular products, from the provision of raw materials, through all the manufacture and assembly of parts, components and systems, to their distribution and servicing. Studies of collaborations across industry show the high number of them devoted to technological issues. It shows that many have a technological focus and that, very roughly, around one-quarter to one-third of them involve joint Research and Development. In the examination of technological collaboration it is necessary to distinguish between vertical and horizontal linkages.
