Although R&D-active firms are highly attractive targets for foreign acquirers, the impact of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on their innovation output remains largely unclear. While the dominant knowledge-based view predicts innovation-enhancing effects through knowledge transfer and recombination, empirical evidence is mixed and increasingly points to neutral or negative innovation outcomes following foreign acquisitions. To address this theoretical impasse, this study introduces Resource Dependence Theory (RDT) as an alternative lens to examine the effect of cross-border M&As on target firms' innovation output. We argue that foreign acquisitions create power asymmetries that constrain target firms' strategic autonomy and reduce their innovation outputs. We further propose that R&D cooperation mitigates these negative effects by providing alternative resource channels and strengthening the targets' bargaining power. To test these arguments, we draw on a longitudinal dataset of R&D-active firms in Belgium over the period 2000–2021. Combining official survey data on R&D activities and R&D cooperation with secondary information on cross-border M&A involvement and patent applications, we apply staggered difference-in-differences and difference-in-difference-in-differences models to identify these effects. The results show that cross-border M&As lead to a decline in patenting activity among R&D-active target firms, particularly five to nine years after acquisition. We find no evidence that R&D cooperation moderates this relationship. However, R&D cooperation has a direct positive effect on target firms' innovation output, providing them with an alternative way to generate innovation output and to compensate for the adverse effects of cross-border M&As.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) enables firms to leverage the extensive international networks of foreign investors, potentially gaining a competitive advantage over domestic-owned firms and assuming distinct roles in R&D cooperation. To explore the effect of foreign ownership on firms' choice of R&D partners, this study focuses on two key dimensions of R&D cooperation-partners' location and group membership-and two aspects of R&D networks-the breadth and depth. Partners' location investigates the geographic proximity between cooperating partners, while a shared business group membership fits the concept of organizational proximity. Using the biennial R&D survey from 2001 to 2017 conducted in Belgium, we find that foreign-owned firms are more likely to engage in various configurations of R&D cooperation than domestic-owned firms and maintain more extensive R&D networks, with a particular preference for international and intra-group cooperation. The findings indicate that foreign ownership helps to transcend geographic proximity but constrains firms to organizational proximity in R&D cooperation, thus reshaping the R&D cooperation landscape for firms.

This paper investigates the role of research and technology organizations (RTOs)—specifically Belgium’s collective research centers (CRCs)—as systemic intermediaries within sectoral innovation systems. Focusing on traditional ‘low-tech’ manufacturing sectors, we explore why firms engage with these RTOs and how such engagements affect their innovation performance. Our findings suggest that firms primarily resort to CRCs due to internal capability limitations, particularly a shortage of qualified personnel. CRCs help address these limitations by providing technological, informational, operational, and regulatory support that enhances both market-related and efficiency-related performance. The results show that technological support is associated with improvements in both market and efficiency outcomes, while information and operational support have more targeted effects. By acting as embedded innovation system actors that bridge capability and interaction failures, CRCs enable low-tech firms to access external knowledge, build absorptive capacity, and sustain incremental innovation. These findings reinforce the relevance of understanding RTOs not merely as service providers, but as key institutional actors in the governance and functioning of innovation systems.

Purpose SMEs maintain knowledge networks because innovation has become increasingly collaborative. This study fills a gap in the literature on inter-organisational relationships by looking at knowledge exchange practices to understand how collaborative innovation practically occurs. We distinguish between conventional interaction – such as in-person meetings – and computer-mediated interaction via text or video. Three relationship characteristics frame the interaction mode when SMEs collaborate on innovation: partner type, the type of knowledge and the spatial reach of the collaborative relationship. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses survey data on innovative SMEs in the Brussels-Capital Region, consisting of 296 collaborative relationships reported by 59 SMEs. The unit of analysis is the relationship. Since SMEs may have multiple relationships, different interaction modes can be used simultaneously. A bivariate probit model is employed to examine the interaction modes as dependent variables. Findings Our findings point to a hybrid attribution of particular interaction modes, influenced by the characteristics of inter-organisational relationships. The type of partner, spatial reach and the type of knowledge involved in the relationship all have more nuanced relations to a specific interaction mode. Disclosing these characteristics of interaction modes may help practitioners dodge pitfalls when setting up collaborative innovation projects. Originality/value This paper investigates three key characteristics affecting interaction modes in the context of SMEs, which are still understudied in the existing literature. Our empirical contribution quantifies these characteristics using a dataset on inter-organisational knowledge exchange in collaborative innovation.

We analyse the extent, growth and spatial distribution of knowledge-intensive employment in the Brussels Capital region and larger Brussels metropolitan area and compare it to its neighbouring geographical entities. We look at its impact on total employment, using both econometric and input-output analysis. Close to one out of two jobs in Brussels can be regarded as knowledge intensive. Over the period 2008-2020, the compound annual growth rate of knowledge-intensive employment was highest in the surrounding Brussels functional metropolitan area. A strong concentration of several knowledge services can be found in the Brussels metropolitan area, with different location patterns. Finance remains very central in the Brussels metropolitan areas, while others favour peripheral location, as it is the case for the pharmaceutical and accounting industry. A negative total employment growth rate differential between Brussels and the rest of Belgium is due to an industry-mix effect. Each additional knowledge intensive job in Brussels can be associated with the creation of another two jobs. For jobs generated by knowledge intensive sectors, forty percent of the extra employment within Brussels is accruing to less knowledge intensive labour.

We analyse the extent, growth and spatial distribution of knowledge-intensive employment in the Brussels Capital region and larger Brussels metropolitan area and compare it to its neighbouring geographical entities. We look at its impact on total employment, using both econometric and input-output analysis. Close to one out of two jobs in Brussels can be regarded as knowledge intensive. Over the period 2008-2020, the compound annual growth rate of knowledge-intensive employment was highest in the surrounding Brussels functional metropolitan area. A strong concentration of several knowledge services can be found in the Brussels metropolitan area, with different location patterns. Finance remains very central in the Brussels metropolitan areas, while others favour peripheral location, as it is the case for the pharmaceutical and accounting industry. A negative total employment growth rate differential between Brussels and the rest of Belgium is due to an industry-mix effect. Each additional knowledge intensive job in Brussels can be associated with the creation of another two jobs. For jobs generated by knowledge intensive sectors, forty percent of the extra employment within Brussels is accruing to less knowledge intensive labour.

We analyse the extent, growth and spatial distribution of knowledge-intensive employment in the Brussels Capital region and larger Brussels metropolitan area and compare it to its neighbouring geographical entities. We look at its impact on total employment, using both econometric and input-output analysis. Close to one out of two jobs in Brussels can be regarded as knowledge intensive. Over the period 2008-2020, the compound annual growth rate of knowledge-intensive employment was highest in the surrounding Brussels functional metropolitan area. A strong concentration of several knowledge services can be found in the Brussels metropolitan area, with different location patterns. Finance remains very central in the Brussels metropolitan areas, while others favour peripheral location, as it is the case for the pharmaceutical and accounting industry. A negative total employment growth rate differential between Brussels and the rest of Belgium is due to an industry-mix effect. Each additional knowledge intensive job in Brussels can be associated with the creation of another two jobs. For jobs generated by knowledge intensive sectors, forty percent of the extra employment within Brussels is accruing to less knowledge intensive labour.

We analyse the extent, growth and spatial distribution of knowledge-intensive employment in the Brussels Capital region and larger Brussels metropolitan area and compare it to its neighbouring geographical entities. We look at its impact on total employment, using both econometric and input-output analysis. Close to one out of two jobs in Brussels can be regarded as knowledge intensive. Over the period 2008-2020, the compound annual growth rate of knowledge-intensive employment was highest in the surrounding Brussels functional metropolitan area. A strong concentration of several knowledge services can be found in the Brussels metropolitan area, with different location patterns. Finance remains very central in the Brussels metropolitan areas, while others favour peripheral location, as it is the case for the pharmaceutical and accounting industry. A negative total employment growth rate differential between Brussels and the rest of Belgium is due to an industry-mix effect. Each additional knowledge intensive job in Brussels can be associated with the creation of another two jobs. For jobs generated by knowledge intensive sectors, forty percent of the extra employment within Brussels is accruing to less knowledge intensive labour.

We analyse the extent, growth and spatial distribution of knowledge-intensive employment in the Brussels Capital region and larger Brussels metropolitan area and compare it to its neighbouring geographical entities. We look at its impact on total employment, using both econometric and input-output analysis. Close to one out of two jobs in Brussels can be regarded as knowledge intensive. Over the period 2008-2020, the compound annual growth rate of knowledge-intensive employment was highest in the surrounding Brussels functional metropolitan area. A strong concentration of several knowledge services can be found in the Brussels metropolitan area, with different location patterns. Finance remains very central in the Brussels metropolitan areas, while others favour peripheral location, as it is the case for the pharmaceutical and accounting industry. A negative total employment growth rate differential between Brussels and the rest of Belgium is due to an industry-mix effect. Each additional knowledge intensive job in Brussels can be associated with the creation of another two jobs. For jobs generated by knowledge intensive sectors, forty percent of the extra employment within Brussels is accruing to less knowledge intensive labour.

We examine the behavioural additionality effects of a wage subsidy in the form of a tax cut on R D personnel's wages in a population of universities. How does university management use this wage subsidy? The wage subsidy is welcomed by universities as additional slack resources which are free to be used by university management. Its use depends on its degree of absorption and on it generates specific behavioural additionality effects. Wage subsidy resources are initially unabsorbed slack but over time increasingly function as absorbed slack because of the continuity and predictability of these resources. Different types of behavioural additionalities are generated at different impact levels. We find that initiatives at the organisational level are funded with absorbed slack, while initiatives at the project level are likely to be carried out with unabsorbed slack. The paper contributes to discussing slack resources in a non-profit setting and adds to the conceptual elucidation of behavioural additionality.

INTERDISCIPLINARITY AS A MEANS TO IMPROVE COLLABORATION AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES AND SOCIETY TO ADDRESS SOCIETAL CHALLENGES

This paper aims to improve the Regional Innovation Scoreboard as an instrument for policy-making. Dynamic slack-based models of data envelopment analysis to measure innovation output efficiency in 207 European regions demonstrate that the scale-based performance classification of the Scoreboard into 'leader', 'strong', 'moderate', and 'modest' innovator regions inadequately reflects differences in efficiency in transforming knowledge inputs into innovation outputs. We reveal a non-monotonic relation between scale-based and efficiency-based performance and substantial heterogeneity among the reasons for inefficiency among regions within each of the four scale-based performance classes of regions. Our findings argue for an extension of the current scale-based use of the Scoreboard by adding an efficiency-based measurement of the innovation process. Doing so addresses the tendency in policy design towards an increased focus on the efficient use of scarce resources in place-based policy approaches and strengthens the application of the Scoreboard as an informative decision-making tool.

Brussels is known worldwide for hosting (most of) the European institutions as well as several other international organisations like North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Besides the symbolic political value, their presence has an economic impact because of their administrative activities and staff remunerations. Estimating the economic impact poses two main challenges. First, the supranational nature of these organisations makes it challenging to quantify the size of these institutions and related bodies because country-based statistical systems hardly account for transnational organisations. Second, as these institutions and organisations mainly rely on taxpayers’ funding, policymakers need transparent estimates to assess the implications of their decisions as well as for a matter of accountability. For these purposes, a meticulous data collection is carried out, and transparent assumptions are used to estimate the local economic multiplier effect of these activities accounting for operational expenditures, employees’ consumption as well as (Belgian) taxes and saving. The results show that the economic impact for the Brussels-Capital Region lies between 23% and 26% of regional turnover and 19% and 20% of employment, while interregional spillovers are estimated being around 1.5% to 1.7% of regional turnover and 0.6% to 0.7% of employment for both Flemish and Walloon regions.

R D activities by indigenous firms create new knowledge and technology in a region, while foreign-owned firms bring advanced knowledge and technologies from their home countries. This paper analyses the spillover effects of R D-active or foreign-owned firms on total factor productivity of domestic non-R D active firms. It combines two sets of literature: the one on spillover effects of intra-industry and inter-industry linkages and the other on the regional context in which these linkages occur. As measured through input-output tables, industry linkages reveal that R D or FDI spillovers take on diverse roles in regions. Focusing on productivity spillover effects on domestic non-R D active firms in three regions in Belgium between 2000 and 2017, we conclude that R D spillovers generally occur more frequently than FDI spillovers. By focussing on two sources of spillovers, the paper offers a more nuanced picture of industrial transformation and regional path development. Region-specific analyses show that the effects on the productivity of domestic non-R D active firms originate from different spillover sources. The impact of spillovers and their contribution to industrial transformation differs according to the regional development path characterised by the varying degrees of organisational thickness and specialisation of the regional innovation system. Linkages of R D active or foreign-owned firms with domestic non-R D active firms exert a heterogeneous impact on their productivity. Therefore, an adapted regional innovation policy, such as smart specialisation, should consider these region-specific spillover effects on productivity when establishing future regional development paths.

The paper focuses on the interaction mode of collaborative relationships by SMEs. We distinguish between conventional interaction and computer-mediated interaction. Three characteristics in interaction play a role: the partner type, the spatial reach and the nature of knowledge. The paper uses survey data for innovative SMEs in the Brussels-Capital Region, consisting of 296 collaborative relationships by 59 SMEs. The unit of our analysis is the relationship. As SMEs can have multiple relationships and different interaction modes can be used simultaneously, warranting a bivariate probit model. Our findings help practitioners to dodge pitfalls when setting up collaborative innovation projects.

The paper proposes a policy evaluation approach to estimate the local multiplier effect of (public) R&I expenditures in the context of regional innovation systems (RIS). Starting from input-output tables and recent improvements in local multipliers, the proposed approach tracks all economic flows generated by the initial public R&I expenditures, distinguishing direct impact and subsequent effects on the supply chain, consumption, fiscal flows and inter-regional spillovers. The main interest of this approach is the focus on the ‘certain’ returns occurring within a RIS, irrespective of their ‘uncertain’ innovative outcomes, i.e. this approach tracks the economic flows of R&I expenditures even if innovation-oriented activities should fail to provide the expected benefits for regional productivity. The case of Innoviris, the Brussels regional R&I agency, is discussed to validate this approach unpacking the economic flows in a context of strong interregional linkages showing the spatial distribution of economic returns generated by R&I-oriented public expenditures.

This paper focuses on R&D employment effects due to financial slack generated by an R&D tax exemption scheme in Belgium. The tax exemption is granted without firm‐level requirements, which facilitates testing firm‐level contingencies on the influence of the generated financial slack. We find that R&D employment effects increase with the level of the R&D tax exemption related to financial slack resources and that this positive relation is more outspoken for older firms and for firms with an intermediate share of R&D tax exemptions in the overall mix of R&D policy support. No effects are found for firm size and its R&D intensity. These findings suggest targeting the R&D tax exemption support according to firm characteristics to obtain longer term R&D employment effects. The focus on R&D employment adds to the literature on the evaluation of R&D policies which is largely oriented toward R&D expenditure and innovation outputs.

This article explores the role of geographical distance and regional co-location as a determinant of the size of contract research from firms to domestic universities. The analysis relies on a panel of three consecutive R&D surveys for Belgium, and controls for firm, university, and network characteristics. The findings reveal that firms tend to enter into larger-sized contract research with universities that are either located nearby or farther away. Regional co-location is also positively associated with the size of contract research from firms to universities.

This paper looks at the relation between the R&D knowledge base of city-agglomerations and knowledge sourcing in product innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The small open Belgian economy is used as a test case. The characteristics of the city-agglomeration's R&D knowledge are posited to be instrumental for SMEs' reliance on particular sources of information for innovation. The R&D knowledge base is studied as a multidimensional concept consisting of R&D capacity, R&D specialization and R&D diversification. A representative sample of product innovative SMEs drawn from two waves of the Community Innovation Survey between 2008 and 2012 reveals that a strong R&D capacity at city-agglomeration level favours private external information sources for innovation, but has no influence on the likelihood to rely on public sources for innovation. Accordance between specialization of the private R&D knowledge base and the SME's activities positively influences the use of clients as information sources for innovation, whereas under these circumstances supplier responsiveness turns out to be less frequently solicited for. A more diversified private R&D environment reduces the reliance on universities and public research organizations as information sources for innovation. A public R&D knowledge base specialized in natural sciences or engineering favours information sources from universities.