Drawing from questionnaire-based data of 229 US federal laboratory-industry joint R&D projects, this research examines the composition of the technical interaction by character of the R&D performed to determine the impacts on effectiveness of the technical roles played by research partners. In addition to the particular technical roles, their number and diversity are examined, giving particular attention to the subset of projects in which the company played no technical role. Our findings show that increased technical range on the part of industry is associated with increased product development and net economic benefit. Relatively few companies are technically passive with respect to their partnerships with federal laboratories. Nevertheless, a passive role can have positive results in terms of product development and improvement.