Research and development alliances: Evidence from a federal contracts repository

This article examines 582 cooperative research and development agreements (CRDAs) between federal (Air Force) agencies and other partners. Those CRDAs that exchange technology in novel phases of development tend to be long in duration relative to agreements that share mature technology. While novel projects could just take longer to complete, the findings also suggest that holdup risks increase in novelty. The geographic proximity of partners also affects CRDA duration positively, which is consistent with higher levels of tacit technology exchange. Repeat CRDAs tend to be shorter in duration, which is evidence of reputation effects. Duration of CRDAs decreases over time, which supports the argument that organizational form familiarity reduces the risks of negotiating agreements. In addition, CRDAs complement other modes of governance and methods to finance innovation. Cooperative research and development agreements with for-profit partners are nearly 50 percent shorter than those with nonprofit partners. Venture-capital-backed partners tend to enter short-duration CRDAs that share exploratory technology and envision a particular product.