Cooperation between business companies and institutions in the context of innovations implementation

Abstract

Cooperation in the field of innovation activities means active participation in joint projects with other companies or non-profit institutions. Such cooperation can be long-term and have prospects. According to the author of this article, the research problem is the impact of the level of cooperation between companies and the institutions of the business environment on the innovations development. There are not many publications regarding the identification of the degree of readiness to cooperate by companies in the regional context. The aim of this article is to define the impact of this kind of cooperation in the context of innovations development. The article uses the method of critical analysis of literature and statistical analysis of data obtained from a survey conducted in 381 Polish companies in Podlaskie. As a result of the literature analysis and discussions, the factors influencing cooperation were determined in the context of the implementation of innovations. The results show that in the group of studied companies, there is a small degree of interest in taking up cooperation with the institutions of the business environment. The higher the rating of the current level of contacts, the greater was also the tendency to cooperate in the future. From the perspective of the implementation of innovations, these are not optimistic observations. Some business institutions are involved in the cooperation with entrepreneurs to a very limited extent, which makes the help ineffective. In order to improve cooperation, a more proactive approach should be employed by research centres and business incubators to link the potential areas of cooperation.