Collective bargaining and technological innovation in the EU15: An analysis at establishment level

Abstract

In this paper, we study the relationship between unionisation and workplace innovation in a cross‐country and multisectoral approach. This is an important and controversial issue in the industrial relation literature; however, the empirical literature on the links between innovation and unionism is rather scarce and results are mixed and ambiguous, both in theory and in empirical practice. The European Company Survey (Eurofound), with data for establishments in 15 European Union countries, is used employing a probit model. Our results contribute to the debate by showing that the adoption of technology not only increases when the company performs collective bargaining but also when the relationship between wage bargaining and innovation adoption is not linear, being more significant in cases where bargaining occurs at the regional/national level.