Federal laboratories as research partners

Since the passage of the National Cooperative Research Act (NCRA) in 1984, nearly 600 formal research joint ventures (RJVs) have been filed with the U.S. Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission. Researchers have documented this trend and have examined, both theoretically and empirically, various aspects of collaborative research behavior. However, the composition of the membership of RJVs has yet to be explored. In this paper we present a theoretical explanation consistent with the empirical observation that Federal laboratories are most prevalent as research partners when the membership of the RJV is large.