The governance of agro- and pharmaceutical biotechnology innovation: Public policy and industrial strategy

Multinational companies in the life science sector are heavily influenced by government policies and regulations and in turn attempt to influence these actors nationally and internationally. This paper focuses on recent and on-going research, principally on the agro-biotechnology and, to a lesser extent, on the pharmaceutical industries, covering the evolution of policy and regulation in Europe, how policies are influenced by stakeholder pressures and how policy in turn influences company strategies for product development. We focus particularly on new 'governance' agendas in Europe and consider the relative impacts of enabling, constraining, discriminating and indiscriminate policies on company strategies as part of our development of an integrated approach to policy and governance. We also consider changes in external operating environments for multinational companies and compare past histories and present pressures on agro-biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The paper argues, with evidence, that a more enabling and discriminating policy and regulatory environment can achieve public goals more efficiently and effectively, taking account of impacts on innovation, than more blunt policy instruments. This type of environment takes into account the resources and capabilities available to firms and research laboratories rather than relying on broad brush carrot and stick approaches.     

Information technology and collaboration tools within the e-supply chain management of the aviation industry

This paper investigates strategic actions and grand strategies in the aviation industry. To address this purpose, a review of main strategic change is conducted and information technology is considered as a key factor to identify behaviours of main players. In this context, collaboration emerges as one of the core aspects driving the e-supply chain management. A specific and increasing role is given to e-marketplaces where integration and co-operation seem to be the appropriate competences to create durable competitive advantages. This paper does not attempt to consider the full range of e-tools developed in the aviation industry, but at the same time it highlights the impact of information and communication technologies on customer relations and supply chain management.     

Technology import,secondary innovation,and industrial structure optimization: A potential innovation strategy for China

To enhance people’s lives, China needs to maximize the opportunities of technological changes and conduct innovations to optimize its industrial structure in the context of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection. The present paper analyses how industrial structure can be optimized by considering technology imports and innovations, and proposes an innovation strategy for China. We decompose imported technology into embodied technology imports (ETI) and disembodied technology imports (DTI). We found that ETI and DTI have negative effects on industrial structure rationalization and supererogation. Moreover, secondary innovations based on ETI depress industrial rationalization and supererogation, while secondary innovations based on DTI contribute positively. Therefore, DTI should be valued and the absorption of introduced technology improved. It is important to choose the appropriate mode of technology imports, to coordinate on the ratio of technology imports to secondary innovations, and to enhance the absorption of imported technology with the gradual improvement of IPR protection.     

Open innovation and intellectual property strategy: the catch-up processes of two Chinese pharmaceutical firms

We explore the interaction of open innovation and intellectual property (IP) in two Chinese latecomer pharmaceutical firms in their catch-up process. Studying archival data, documentation, and interviews, we found that the two firms exhibited five periods that were characterised by different open innovation activities and R&D capabilities. In their early stages, the two firms lacked R&D functions; thus, they imported technologies and pursued production-oriented strategies. As they gradually entered into collaborations and established their R&D departments, open innovation and IP protection played important and dynamic roles in this process. Thus, a catch-up process involves not only acquiring technological capabilities and innovative competencies but also transforming a firm's capacity to strategies.     

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。     

基于产业链的自主创新的政策支撑体系研究

科技和创新是经济发展的关键,建设创新型国家是提升国家竞争力的重大战略决策.本文以产业经济学、创新管理理论为指导,在梳理各项自主创新政策在产业链上的作用机理后进行了实证,得出政府应在构建产业创新系统的基础上选择重点产业、根据上下游关系制定相关政策、加大对产业链上关键技术和核心技术政策支持力度、以重大产品开发为龙头带动整体自主创新的政策建议.     

The limits of policy: Public acceptance and the reform of science and technology governance

The adoption of a variety of new regulatory approaches and concepts, decision making processes and educational frames over the last three decades can be interpreted as an attempt to improve social acceptability of the process of science and technology governance. However, as argued in this paper, neither the introduction of non-standard scientific methodology and precautionary policy, nor participatory decision making, nor increased scientific-technological education are likely to significantly improve social acceptance of science and technology governance. Such reforms may shift the focus of ongoing policy debates, but do not lead to closure. In consequence, more research is needed on the complex relationship between acceptance, trust, information and participation, the implications of non-standard methodology in regulatory decision making, as well as the different interpretations that stakeholders may give to key regulatory concepts.     

Differentiation of innovation strategies based on pharmaceutical licensing agreements: Insight from Korean pharmaceutical firms

The paper aims to show how licensing behaviour can be used to differentiate distinct innovation strategies. Information on in-licensing and out-licensing agreements is used to guide the development of a framework that details the licensing firm’s relational preference for internal and external orientation. Using firm-level data of the Korean pharmaceutical firms, the study categorised the distinct strategic orientations of firms based on the proposed matrix model. The results indicated that firms with higher R&D (research and development) expenditures have a tendency to greater external exploitation of technological knowledge than firms with low R&D spending. The study provides potential avenues for targeting of licensing partners from the perspective of firms seeking to in-license or out-license their innovations.     

The impact of old technologies on innovation: the case of the US biotechnology industry

This paper investigates the implications of a technology sourcing strategy maintaining a focus on the rediscovery of old technologies. Specifically, we study the different impact exerted by old technological solutions, distinguished on the basis of their organisational and industrial origins, on the innovation value. We develop a set of hypotheses about the impact exerted by four distinct types of old technological solutions (firm core technological heritage, firm lateral technological heritage, competitors’ technological heritage and others’ technological heritage) and test them on a sample of 1189 biotechnology patents registered at the US Patent and Trademark Office from 1979 to 2002. Results strongly support our hypotheses, revealing that: (1) using both firm core technological heritage and others’ technological heritage has an inverted U-shaped effect on innovation value; (2) employing firm lateral technological heritage is positively related to innovation value; (3) a negative relationship occurs between competitors’ core technological heritage and the value of subsequent innovations.     

Scenarios of technology and innovation policies in Europe: Investigating future governance

In Europe, public research, technology and innovation policies are no longer exclusively in the hands of national authorities: increasingly, national initiatives are supplemented by, or even competing with, regional innovation policies or transnational programmes, in particular the activities of the European Union. At the same time, industrial innovation increasingly occurs within international networks. Are we witnessing a change of governance in European innovation policy? Based on some theoretical assumptions concerning the relationship between the “political systems” and “innovation systems” in Europe, the paper speculates about the future governance of innovation policies, trying to pave ways for empirical analyses. It sketches three scenarios stretching from (1) the idea of an increasingly centralised and dominating European innovation policy arena to (2) the opposite, i.e., a progressive decentralisation and open competition between partly strengthened, partly weakened national or regional innovation systems and finally to (3) the vision of a centrally “mediated” mixture of competition and cooperation between diverse regional innovation cultures and a related governance structure.     

Environmental innovation policy and international competition

We consider one polluting industry in an open economy. The national government implements a policy of industrial pollution control, by inducing appropriate technological innovation to reduce toxic emissions. The emission-reducing innovations are developed through firm-specific costly investments. Under different hypotheses on market structure (perfect competition, Bertrand and Cournot oligopoly), international competition forces the national government to subsidize innovation. The appropriate subsidy scheme varies according to the information available to the government and according to market structure. If information is asymmetric, the subsidy must include the information premium necessary to separate different types of firms.     

中国石墨烯产业创新政策分析及建议

石墨烯作为公认的典型颠覆性技术正在逐步走向应用前景,迅速的产业化进程离不开创新政策的支持。本文在对石墨烯产业发展阶段分析基础上,构建“政策演进过程政策工具分析-创新过程政策工具分析-应用领域分析”三维分析框架,采用内容分析法对石墨烯产业创新政策工具和应用领域推进进行深入分析。     

Pursuing a biotechnology system of innovation in Lithuania: a conceptual framework for effective policy intervention

The focus of this paper is on Lithuania, whose government released an ambitious innovation strategy to become an innovative services hub for Northern Europe by 2015, and an innovation hub by 2020. Biotechnology has been identified as a strategic sector, and whether Lithuania will be able to achieve its ambition of a fully functioning biotechnology sectoral system of innovation will be explored. With the Lithuanian government declaring that they will intervene to achieve their innovation goals, this paper argues that sound policy intervention is possible and can be done in a way that avoids the limitations of past systemic approaches. The policy approach presented is based on a modified extended industry life cycle, and the movement of system structures through three phases – background, pre-emergence and emergence – and explains how each phase lays the groundwork for transition to the next phase.     

Academia-industry collaboration,government funding and innovation efficiency in Chinese industrial enterprises

This article uses a stochastic frontier model to elaborate how academia-industry research and development collaboration and government funding influence the innovation efficiency of industrial enterprises through a panel dataset from 2009 to 2015, including 30 provinces in China. We find that the research institute-industry collaboration promotes innovation efficiency of enterprises, while university-industry collaboration is adversely associated with innovation efficiency. Government funding plays a positive role on innovation efficiency across the board. Next, we divide the sample into three clusters according to enterprises’ innovation ability. In the first cluster, which has the least innovation ability, research institute-industry collaboration, university-industry collaboration and government funding have no significant effect on enterprise innovation efficiency. In the second and third clusters, university-industry collaboration exerts a negative impact on innovation efficiency but government funding improves innovation efficiency. At the same time, we investigate the interaction effects of enterprise R&D personnel and academia-industry collaboration and government funding on innovation efficiency. We find some heterogeneity in the full sample and the three sub-samples.     

The trade-off between innovation and defense industrial policy: A simulation model analysis of the Norwegian defense industry

The paper investigates the trade-off between innovation and defense industrial policy. It presents an agent-based simulation model calibrated for the Norwegian defense industry that compares different policy scenarios and examines the effects of a pending EU market liberalization process. The paper points to two main results. (1) It finds that a pure scenario where national authorities focus on, and provide support exclusively for, either a) international competitiveness or b) national defense and security objectives, is more Pareto efficient than a corresponding mixed strategy where policy makers simultaneously pursue both international competitiveness and defense and security objectives. (2) Under the conditions of the new EU liberalization regime, it finds that a stronger and more visible trade-off will emerge between international competitiveness and national defense and security objectives. Policy makers will have to choose which to prioritize, and set a clear agenda focusing on one of the two objectives.     

Linking technology innovation strategy,intellectual capital and technology innovation performance in manufacturing SMEs

The research interest on Intellectual Capital (IC) has been increasing, adopting different definitions and developing diverse measurement tools. Nonetheless, little research focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the relation between IC and innovation management. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of technology innovation strategy on the IC development and then on innovation performance in manufacturing SMEs. After conducting a survey, measures of IC for SMEs have been performed and an integrated structural equation model has been created. Results demonstrate that technology innovation strategy affects all IC components, the internal structural capital supports the relational and human capital, and the latter two influence firm technology innovation performance. This study contributes to developing an IC measurement system in SMEs and to emphasise the importance of single IC components in improving technology innovation performance.     

How technological innovation affects the structure of an industry: entrepreneurship evolution in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry since 1980

Challenges faced by the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, including reduced R&D productivity and the expiration of drugs that are high in demand, are recently being addressed through technological innovation. Such innovations are highly likely to change the structure and functioning of the industry. Since 2000, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies have actively made strategic alliance, and technological innovations have changed the source of innovation from R&D to entrepreneurship within the industry. In this study, we identify the evolution of entrepreneurship and discuss the changes caused by technological advancements since 1980 by analysing patterns of exporting and acquiring technology data from Medtrack. Over difference period, biopharmaceutical firms have gained new knowledge and improved technology, and have implemented this newly acquired knowledge and innovation to introduce drugs to the market.     

The evolution and performance of biotechnology regional systems of innovation

The paper maintains that biotechnology regions develop as complexsystems: they start with star scientists in research universities,generating knowledge spillovers, then move progressively towardsregional technology markets. In the process they attract venturecapital (or modify the behaviour of existing venture capitalfirms with the addition of biotechnology portfolios). The routinesof universities are also modified with the addition of intellectualproperty and technology transfer offices intervening as sellersin the newly created knowledge markets. The paper also considerswhether companies located in regional agglomerations grow fasterthan isolated ones, and whether companies spun-off from universitieshave a better performance than start-ups. The study is basedon about 90 Canadian-based publicly quoted biotechnology companies.