西村 淳一

<title>Abstract</title> This paper examines the making of university and industry research collaboration from the perspective of matching theory. Our analysis, based on an original survey in Japan, aims at identifying the mechanism of matching. The major findings are as follows. There is significant evidence for positive assortative matching at the project level: a researcher with better seeds or better needs gives a higher value to the partner’s research capability and the goodness-of-fit between the project and the partner’s capability in selecting its partner. The projects with the partners selected for research capability and goodness-of-fit are associated with high university and industry research collaboration performance. Furthermore, own contact is most used for positive assortative matching. These results indicate the importance of deep field knowledge and tacit knowledge of the researcher in the search process. These findings suggest that technology transfer policy would need to pay significant attention to the contribution of the decentralized matching process.

R&amp D consortia have been regarded as an effective means of promoting innovation, and several R&amp D consortia obtain public financial support, which may affect its governance structure and performance. This study investigates the governance mechanisms of publicly funded R&amp D consortia and their effects on innovation. Regarding R&amp D consortia, few studies have empirically addressed the effect of project monitoring by the government. Moreover, the role of project leadership in R&amp D consortia remains poorly explored. Focusing on a major support program for R&amp D consortia in Japan and using a sample of 315 firms that participated in publicly funded R&amp D consortia from 2004 to 2009, we empirically confirm that project leadership by a private firm, especially its coordination capability, significantly increases the probability of project success (early commercialization of innovation outcomes). We also find that project performance is positively affected by the strictness of project monitoring and evaluation by the government, but negatively affected by interventions in application procedures. Finally, we find neither complementarity nor substitution between project leadership and government monitoring with regard to the effects on project performance.

Industrial clusters have attracted considerable attention worldwide for their expected contribution to regional innovation. Recently, policymakers in various countries have developed specific cluster policies. However, there exist few empirical studies on cluster policies. Focusing on the Industrial Cluster Project (ICP) in Japan initiated by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in 2001, we address two research questions on the support programs of the cluster policies: if the project participants who exploit various support programs are more successful in network formation within the cluster than others, and which kind of support program contributes to firm performance. We pay special attention to the differences between direct R&D support and indirect networking/coordination support. The estimation results, which are based on recent original survey data, suggest that cluster participants who exploit support programs (especially indirect support measures) expand the industry-university-government network after participating in the ICP. Moreover, we find that not every support program contributes to firm performance; firms should therefore select the program that is most aligned with their aims. Indirect support programs have an extensive and strong impact on output, especially innovation outcomes, whereas direct R&D support has only a weak effect.

Industrial clusters have attracted increasing attention as important locations of innovation. Therefore, several countries have started promotion policies for industrial clusters. However, there are few empirical studies on cluster policies. This paper examines the effects of the "Industrial Cluster Project" (ICP) in Japan on the R&D productivity of participants, using a unique dataset of 229 small firms, and discusses the conditions necessary for the effective organization of cluster policies. Different from former policy approaches, the ICP aims at building collaborative networks between universities and industries and supports the autonomous development of existing regional industries without direct intervention in the clustering process. Thus far, the ICP is similar to indirect support systems adopted by successful European clusters. Our estimation results suggest that participation in the cluster project alone does not affect R&D productivity. Moreover, research collaboration with a partner in the same cluster region decreases R&D productivity both in terms of the quantity and quality of patents. Therefore, in order to improve the R&D efficiency of local firms, it is also important to construct wide-range collaborative networks within and beyond the clusters, although most clusters focus on the network at a narrowly defined local level. However, cluster participants apply for more patents than others without reducing patent quality when they collaborate with national universities in the same cluster region.

本稿では,経済産業省が所管する「産業クラスター計画」第一期プロジェクト(2001〜2005)によって実施された「バイオ・クラスター・プロジェクト」全7地域のうち,北海道・関東・関西の3地域の参加企業601社(うち特許出願を行ったもの344社)が出願した3020件の特許書誌情報に注目し,そこに記載されている発明者の帰属先を同定して,これら発明者の組み合わせ及び発明者のクラスター計画への参加の有無によって個別特許の価値にどのような差があるかを分析した。特許価値を測る指標として,クレーム数,発明者数,技術分野数,引用情報などから合成指標を作成して分析した。主な分析結果は以下のとおりである。(1)クラスター参加者による共同発明から得られた特許は平均的価値が高い。(2)クラスター計画開始以降,参加企業の特許価値は有意に高まった。(3)企業単独発明よりも共同発明による特許価値が平均的に高くなり,特にクラスター計画に連携する大学との共同発明から得られた特許の価値が高くなった。これらの分析結果は,クラスター計画参加企業の特許価値が,産学連携を通じて有意に高まったことを示唆する。