INNOVATORY ACTIVITY IN SPANISH FIRMS: REGULAR VERSUS OCCASIONAL PATTERNS by JOSE MOLERO and MIKEL BUESA (*) This paper has been prepared as part of the project ‘Technology, Economic Integration And Social Cohesion’, sponsored by the European Commission under the TSER programme. This paper can be obtained at http://meritbbs.unimaas.nl/tser/tser.html ABSTRACT Within the framework of the evolutionary theory of technological change, empirical research in recent years has highlighted the existence of multiple forms of articulating firms' innovation processes. We have made a previous study of this topic on the basis of Spanish innovating firms based in the Madrid and Basque Country regions. Thus we have managed to identify various technological patterns in the determination of which an important role is played by both the expressive variables of firms' structures and those concerning technological activity and its innovatory results. After a recent research effort devoted to the evaluation of the technological policy of the Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (Centre for Industrial Technological Development) (CDTI), under the aegis of which a wide sample of Spanish innovating firms were surveyed, we have once more seen evidence of the existence of differentiated behaviour patterns among them. From the information compiled in the survey, our aim is to analyse the factors which determine the innovating behaviour of firms which, on a regular basis, develop R&D projects, in contrast with those whose technological activity is more sporadic. In the second part a description is given of the most important aspects of the behaviour of innovating firms and we have subjected the data to several statistical tests. Subsequently, in the third section, two Logit models are estimated to specify the factors determining the differences in behaviour among firms who carry out R&D activities with greater or lesser regularity. And, finally stress is given to the main conclusions reached. (*) Department of Applied Economics and Instituto de Analisis Industrial y Financiero. Facultad de Ciencias Economicas y Empresariales. Universidad Complutense. Campus de Somosaguas. 28223 Madrid. Spain. Tº:34-1-3942474 or 3942456. Fax: 34-1-3942457. E-Mail: ecap201@sis.ucm.es