廠商研發資產、信任與合作績效——以生物科技為對象

The effect of R&D Assets and Trust on Performance in Firm Cooperation-The Case of Biotechnology

面臨產業全球化時代，產品製造過程因專業化分工而逐漸形成緊密連結。以創新為目標的研發合作，廠商彼此間可分攤創新技術的開發成本和風險，並且有助於提高成員的學習能力；但在知識交流與資源共享基礎上，研發合作隱含著技術機密外洩與資訊盜用風險，故與合作夥伴間的信任建立是影響廠商研發合作與績效的重要因素。本文以生物技術產業為對象，探討廠商間研發合作之信任與合作績效的關係，透過問卷調查並利用結構方程模式進行分析，實證結果顯示廠商研發合作夥伴間特定資產關係、正式合約簽訂和廠商間非正式交換，均分別會影響廠商間信任的建立，三者產生的綜效結果與廠商間信任建立也呈現正向關係，廠商間信任的程度越高越有助於合作績效的表現。 In the era of industrial globalization, tight linkages are gradually developed among firms in the product manufacturing process, as the result of specialization. Among all kinds of linkages, R&D cooperation aiming for innovation allows firms to share the costs and risks of innovative technology development and helps to improve the learning capabilities of members. However, as R&D cooperation based on knowledge exchange and resource sharing implies the risk of confidential technical information leakage and of misappropriation hazards, trust among partners becomes an important factor of R&D network and firm performance. Using questionnaires and Structural Equation Modeling to study biotechnology firms, this paper intends to identify the relationship between trust and firm performance in R&D cooperation. Our empirical results show that specific assets, formal contracts and informal exchanges among R&D cooperation partners all affect interorganizational trust. Meanwhile, R&D assets from combining above three factors also have a positive relationship with interorganizational trust, which could further promote firm performance.