The innovative performance of in-house and contracted R&D in terms of patents and utility models

The standard empirical framework for analysing the R&D–patents relationship is widened both by examining the different role of in-house and contracted R&D in the innovative performance of firms, and by considering patents and utility models counts as measures of innovation output. Patents and utility models are considered to approximate for significant and incremental innovations, respectively. Applying count data econometrics to a panel data set of Spanish manufacturing firms surveyed in the period 1990–1996, a transcendental production function is estimated, which allows for non-constant elasticities of the R&D inputs. The results indicate that significant innovations are mainly gestated in-house, whereas contracted R&D seems more orientated towards innovations of incremental nature.