Strategies of biotechnology companies

To identfy the R&D and marketing strategies adopted by by biotechnology firms in the UK, a survey was conducted spanning a range of biotechnology firm size, product, organizational arrangemens. and prior experiences with advanced technology. This was done using a comprehensive questionnaire similar to that used in a comparable investigation in the USA. Twenty-three firms active principally engaged in speciality chemicals human diagnostics and agricultural products.The information from the questionnaires was used to analyse the company strategies under three man headings. These were technology acquisitation,marketing and R&D. Companies were charecterized into three clusters within each of these headings. The means of appropriation for different strategies were then examined although the significance of the results was undermined by the small size. Finally, the relationship between R&D and marketing strategies within the same firms was investigated.     

物业管理公司强化财务管理的策略

市场经济的繁荣发展,为物理管理行业带来了前所未有的机遇,但同时,也提出了更加严峻的挑战。通过不断强化和完善物业管理公司财务管理,可以为公司发展提供更加有力的支持,进而促进物业管理公司高效运营。财务管理内容多、范围广,因此其工作任务重、难度大,相关管理人员必须要从公司的实际情况出发,制定与公司实际发展需求相契合的财务管理体系,这样才能够真正推动公司建设与发展。     

From the 'rhetoric of hope' to the 'patient-active paradigm'—strategic positioning of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies

In this paper overt repositioning of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in relation to patients and the wider public between 1990 and 2002 is analysed. It is proposed that this repositioning is linked to their success in gaining public acceptance of their use of genetics-based technologies to develop novel products. It is argued that this has helped biopharmaceutical companies to avoid the public stigmatisation that agrochemical companies incurred when they employed the same technologies to develop GM Crops. Implications are drawn for the ability of established and of new firms exploiting emerging technologies to position themselves strategically in the future in an arena that is ethically and culturally acceptable to the public and hence to investors.     

Virtual companies reconsidered

An important recent report recommends the creation of 'rirtual companies'-companies formed from electronically linked workers who rfmain employees o f their regular firms . This paper criticizes that model, instead suggesting that uirtual companies have their o m employees. The assessment of the implications of both ppes of virtual compay points to the need for majar national poliy changes with respect to employment practices and mechanisms to conty wealth to people.     

Scenarios on the future of biotechnology

The major areas of research and development in biotechnology are maturing at a rapid rate, and may soon converge with one another. These emerging biotechnology areas range from the development of new medicines and drugs, genetically engineered foods, biologically controlled industrial manufacturing processes, and biologically based computing devices to the creation of new industrial materials and devices based upon biological structures and the use of biotechnology in food production. Each of these research areas carries the potential for strong societal reaction. To explore the potential impact of biotechnology on society, two fundamental drivers that influence societal acceptance of biotechnology are described. First, the extent to which technological integration proceeds may strongly impact the way society uses and perceives biotechnology. Second, the degree to which the public eventually accepts biotechnologically derived products and processes as legitimate and reliable alternatives to current products may shape both market demand and public policy. Taken together, these drivers suggest four discrete alternative scenarios for the future of biotechnology. Implications of these scenarios are discussed.     

Beyond the bureaucratization of US biotechnology

Drawing upon extensive interviews with researchers, corporate executives and government oficials, this discussion sketches out several of the unresolved public policy issues associated with the development of a globally competitive biotechnology industry in the USA. Paramount among these issues are the determination of appropriate levels and types of gouernmental research support; the design of effective, as well as efJicient, regulatory regimes; and the establishment of tax, Jinancing and patent policies which facilitate the optimal industrial organization. If allowed to follow conventional patterns of resolution, these issues threaten to add to overall bureaucratization (both public and private). In turn, if bureaucratization continues unabated, it may become increas-ingly difficult to sustain the basic entrepreneurial character of the industry, as well as other elements which are crucial to scientifically intensive enterprises.     

国外石油及其技术服务公司管理模式

国外石油公司及其技术服务公司在多年的发展中,逐步形成了一套适合自身特点的组织结构与内部管理控制模式,并且随着业务的发展与经营环境的不断改变也出现了一些新的变化,研究总结国外石油公司在组织结构及管理制度变迁方面的经验,对我国石油公司的改革与发展具有重要的参考价值。国外石油公司组织结构及内部管理模式埃克森美孚、BP 、壳牌等国外石油公司一般均为上市公司,已历经上百年的发展,拥有了较为完善的公司治理结构,其丰富的管理经验和成熟的管理模式不仅代表了世界石油工业的发展方向,而且也成为多数国家石油公司或中小石油公司学…     

Management of agriculture-related biotechnology constraints on innovation

This paper outlines constraints on jrms operating in the area of agriculture and, food-related biotechnology. It reports on findings from a study involving ouer 60 interviews with managers in firms innocating in this area. Cognitive maps are used to explore issues in the management of the technology, and depict various approaches adopted. It highlights market and organizational constraints, and discusses differences in large and smalljinns. The paper concludes that small dedicated biotechnology firms are disadvantaged in a number of important ways in this field of innovation. However, large multinational corporations also experience market and o~qanizational difficulties.     

The strategic alliance of the biotechnology firm

This article applies the relevant theories of firm organization and inter-firm relationships in the high-tech environment to explain the institutional reasons that firms choose between internal or external approaches. Particularly, this study tries to understand to what extent and in what way strategic alliances have impacts on individual firms’ organizational structure, financial structure and firms’ activities. Also it tries to find out what type of firms tend to benefit most from alliances, and thus use more inter-firm agreements. The theoretical findings are that due to liquidity constraint and asymmetric information reasons, young, research-intensive firms need to use more alliances to survive in the fast changing high-technology industry. The empirical analysis employs 3 year panel data and finds that the results are consistent with the theoretical predictions.     

Innovation,product development and market value: evidence from the biotechnology industryinnovation in biotechnology industry

The subject of the paper is financial valuation of firm's knowledge assets and returns to innovation in the biotechnology industry, where such assets appear to play key role in the commercial success of a product. The biotechnology industry is extremely research-intensive, and successful R&D drives profitability. Further, the pharmaceutical product development advances in a number of well-defined stages that allow relatively precise measurement of product development outcomes. The study reports recent biotechnology R&D statistics, and provides estimates of private returns to innovation and product development activity in the biotechnology industry. The conclusions indicate that the financial market recognizes the value of drugs in product development stage, as it expects the innovative knowledge embodied in drug development projects to become marketable products in the future.     

The economics of biotechnology under ecosystem disruption

Economic analysis of chemical pesticide use has shown that the interactions between plants, pests, damage control technology and state of the ecosystem are important variables to be considered. Hence, a bio-economic model was developed for the assessment of Bt variety and pesticide-based control strategies of the cotton-bollworm in China. The model simulates plant growth, the dynamics of pest populations and of natural enemies. The model predictions are used as major inputs for a stochastic micro-level profit model of alternative control strategies.Results show that: (1) productivity effects of Bt varieties and pesticide use depend on the action of natural control agents, and (2) the profitability of damage control measures increases with the severity of ecosystem disruption. The findings highlight the importance of the choice of the counterfactual scenario in the assessment of the impact of agricultural biotechnology. Also, some doubts are raised whether the high benefits of Bt cotton varieties claimed by previous studies based on cross section comparisons are realistic.     

Practitioners' forum perestroika and soviet biotechnology

This article summarizes the findings of a UK Department of Trade and Industry 'Overseas Science and Technology Expert Mission' on Biotechnology to the USSR, made over the period 15-24 September 1989. The mission visited some of the most important basic research institutes working in biotechnmology in the Moscow region, including the 'Biocity' of Poushchino, and Kiev in the Ukrainian SSR. These institutes ranged from primarily basic research to ones which had strong links with industrial production. We report on the scientific and technical level of some of the most advanced Soviet centres, such as the Shemyakin Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, the most important and prominent biotechnology institute in the USSR. The peculiar problems which best Soviet research in the field are described in the context of perestroika, the current restruing of Soviet society.     

Financial distress of companies in Poland

The study examines main determinants of financial distress of companies in Poland during the recent transformation period. Data compose a sample of 1995–97 annual financial statements of 200 unlisted companies in Poland. Degree of financial distress is expressed either by the binomial variable or by the trinomial ordered variable. The attempted models (binomial and trinomial logit) explain the distress variable for 1997 by the financial indicators evaluated on the basis of financial statements from previous years. The results are sensitive to the choice of explanatory variables in the models. The forecast accuracy of the estimated models lies in the range of 80–90 percent. In the second half of the 1990's, the financial condition of companies in Poland was determined by the degree of liquidity, profitability, and the financial leverage variables.     

生物技术产业的特征及作用

生物技术产业属于高技术、高投入、高风险和高回报的行业,因其前期投入大、科技含量高、生产工艺复杂、质量要求严格、受国家扶持,所以进入壁垒高、垄断性强、利润丰厚,蕴藏着巨大的经济潜能。生物技术产业的作用是：改善医疗卫生水平;解决粮食短缺问题;对传统工业的改造;加快改变能源格局。     

溢出效应:跨国公司直接投资对东道国企业的重要作用

跨国公司进入东道国后,对当地企业产生重要影响,其技术溢出效应是对当地企业产生影响的重要因素。技术溢出效应既是当地企业从跨国公司获取的一种重要收益,也是跨国公司促进东道国经济增长的重要机制。经济学家定义的技术溢出,具有外部经济性质。就跨国公司引起的技术溢出效应来讲,是指跨国公司进入当地市场,引起当地企业的生产率或生产效率提高,而跨国公司又不能完全内部化此类收益。跨国公司对当地企业的作用主要表现在以下几个方面的溢出效应。一、后向关联效应的作用跨国公司与当地供应商、分包商、客户的实质性交易可产生关联溢出效应,…     

Logic of the Japanese general trading companies

In recent years some American firms attempted to create an equivalent of the Japanese general trading companies, but they failed because of the cognitive and epistemological differences between the two kinds of companies. It is a mistake to try to understand the Japanese companies in terms of organizational structure or operational procedures. This article discusses the cognitive and epistemological aspects of the Japanese general trading companies.     

Portfolio selection by Austrian insurance companies

Zusammenfassung Ausgehend von einem modifizierten Modell vonParkin (1970) wird versucht, das Anlageverhalten der österreichischen Vertragsversicherungen ökonometrisch zu erfassen. In diesem Modell wird das gewünschte Portefeuille abhängig von den erwarteten Ertragsraten der einzelnen Aktiva gemacht. Um diesen Ansatz auf Daten anwenden zu können, sind Annahmen über den Zusammenhang von tatsächlichem und gewünschtem Portefeuille sowie über die Erwartungsbildung notwendig. In dieser Arbeit wurden der Stockanpassungsmechanismus und der marginale Anpassungsmechanismus sowie unitäre und rationale Erwartungen näher untersucht.Die Anwendung dieser Modelle auf Daten der österreichischen Versicherungswirtschaft im Zeitraum 1973 bis 1982 zeigt, daß der marginale Anpassungsmechanismus besser geeignet ist, die Enge der heimischen Finanzmärkte wiederzugeben, und daß unitäre Erwartungen rationalen vorzuziehen sind. Im Gegensatz zu Wertpapieren und Forderungen, die zueinander Substitute sind, herrscht bei den Einlagen das Transaktionsmotiv vor, sodaß für diese Position das Portfoliomodell wenig geeignet erscheint. Es ist jedoch nicht auszuschließen, daß die Ergebnisse stark von institutionellen Gegebenheiten beeinflußt worden sind.

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The author is indebted to G. Winckler for helpful discussions.     

The degree of integration in strategic alliances in biotechnology

This paper looks at the spection of strategic alliances in biotechnoloy in the late 1980s from the point of view of whether the alliance was of a contractual type or, at the other end of the spectrum, have integrated the two companies of the alliance were. It uses an ordered probit model to test for any systemalic association between alliances within indeustrial sectors and of different size types, and the type of alhance that occurred. The paper find that more contractual, less integrated types of alliance were concentrated in the healtheare secters of thenapeutics and diagnostics and where at least one of the firms was small in size. More integrated types of alliance revailed in the agriculature and cheicals sectors and between two lage companies. It relates these results to conditions of appropriability, the impact of the new lechnologies on existing compelencies and absorptwe capacity within the different industrial sectors at that time. It compares the situation of the late 1980s with more recnt developments in corporate strategy lowards allliance formation.     

The degree of integration in strategic alliances in biotechnology

This paper looks at the spection of strategic alliances in biotechnoloy in the late 1980s from the point of view of whether the alliance was of a contractual type or, at the other end of the spectrum, have integrated the two companies of the alliance were. It uses an ordered probit model to test for any systemalic association between alliances within indeustrial sectors and of different size types, and the type of alhance that occurred. The paper find that more contractual, less integrated types of alliance were concentrated in the healtheare secters of thenapeutics and diagnostics and where at least one of the firms was small in size. More integrated types of alliance revailed in the agriculature and cheicals sectors and between two lage companies. It relates these results to conditions of appropriability, the impact of the new lechnologies on existing compelencies and absorptwe capacity within the different industrial sectors at that time. It compares the situation of the late 1980s with more recnt developments in corporate strategy lowards allliance formation.