This paper uses statistical data from the annual R&D survey of financial flows received or spent by the firm for R&D activities. To describe R&D networks, attention is focused on the construction of four synthetic proxies from empirical literature on social networks: variety of partners, intensity, regularity of links, and centrality in networks. On the bases of the two available innovation surveys, we explore, through a cross section study, the impact of these different variables on technological performance of firms.