Capacidades tecnológicas necesarias para establecer diversos vínculos con universidades: el sector manufacturero mexicano

The concept of threshold has been used in different fields. Identifying a threshold for technological capabilities that indicates a minimum level of capabilities that firms need in order to establish linkages with research organizations is important for policy making and for innovation management at the firm level. This research seeks to contribute to the empirical and theoretical discussion of a minimum level of technological capabilities that are needed to establish linkages with research organizations using different channels of interaction. We used firm level data from a survey on innovation and linkages, answered by firms located in Mexico in 2014. Our results show that manufacturing firms with high technological capabilities establish linkages with research organizations using more complex interaction channels, furthermore they use a more comprehensive mix of these channels. Policy implications from this study include the need to design policy programs to promote university-industry interactions that go beyond the differentiation between high and low technology manufacturing and differentiate firms by their level of technological capabilities.