The Impact of Biotechnology Pervasiveness and User Heterogeneity on the Organization of Public Sector Research

What is the appropriate institutional set-up for knowledge generation and use in biotechnology? This paper contributes to the debate by addressing the combined--and potentially conflicting--influence, upon the definition of institutional policies and structures, of two of biotechnology's distinctive features. First, its science-based nature, which defines a set of requirements concerning the production of knowledge and the ability to use it; and second its wide applicability, which requires the consideration of the diversity of technological and organizational capabilities displayed by the whole range of potential biotechnology users. In particular the study investigates whether and to what extent institutional models, whose emergence was largely associated with the behaviour of advanced industrial users from science based sectors, are suitable to the requirements of a more heterogeneous set of biotechnology users, and therefore can withstand a variety of industrial specializations. This issue is addressed empirically by analysing the evolution of the scientific and technological infrastructure of Portuguese biotechnology, as well as the strategic positioning and actual behaviour of individual research and technology organizations. The paper discusses the effectiveness of the current institutional model in Portugal and the implications of a mismatch between biotechnology institutional research frameworks and the industrial structure, for organizations, individual researchers and firms.     

A case study on obstacles to the growth of biotechnology

Why has a biotechnology industry developed much faster in some countries than in others? Studies indicate that public funding for research is not sufficient for the establishment of a strong biotech industry. What should countries and regions do then, in order to become globally competitive in the area? In this paper I concentrate on the upstream section of biotech growth - the creation of new biotechnology companies - and take a closer look at the case of Portugal, a country where the industry has long been at an embryonic stage. It becomes apparent from the analysis that generalist, top-down measures to stimulate general technological development may not be appropriate to foster a sector composed of many unique characteristics. Evidence from several countries suggests that there is a group of specific factors which all have to be in place simultaneously to allow the emergence of a biotech industry. A careful analysis of the Portuguese example - when set against the background of European and Global biotech - may help regions such as southeast Asia and southern Europe define their paths to bio-competitiveness.     

Organizational Learning in Cooperative Alliances: Some Case Studies in Biotechnology

Dedicated biotechnology firms (DBFs) have played an important role in commercializing biotechnology. They emerged first in the US and, after a 5-year time lag, they also appeared in Europe. Faced with long and costly product lead times, DBFs raised money by entering into research contracts, mainly with large chemical and pharmaceutical companies. These coopertive research alliances have not vanished as biotechnology has matured and are more in evidence today than they were in the early dasy of the commercialization of biotechnology. This paper investigates how and why large and small companies enter research collaborations, what they learn from working together, and the effects on European competitiveness.     

Organizational Learning in Cooperative Alliances: Some Case Studies in Biotechnology

Dedicated biotechnology firms (DBFs) have played an important role in commercializing biotechnology. They emerged first in the US and, after a 5-year time lag, they also appeared in Europe. Faced with long and costly product lead times, DBFs raised money by entering into research contracts, mainly with large chemical and pharmaceutical companies. These coopertive research alliances have not vanished as biotechnology has matured and are more in evidence today than they were in the early dasy of the commercialization of biotechnology. This paper investigates how and why large and small companies enter research collaborations, what they learn from working together, and the effects on European competitiveness.     

Biotechnology Development in Spain: A Change of Paradigm?

This article presents a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Spanish biotechnology sector, including its scientific, business, policy and social aspects. The study differentiates two sub-sectors, considered to be the most representative: Biopharma and Agro-food. The results show that biotechnology development in Spain has entered a new phase. Traditionally, research and development in Spain followed an unstructured path built around regional spaces and driven by factors and influences external to Spain. However, the emergence of a fast-growing sector of spin-off companies from the public research system, specifically in the Biopharma sector, points to a change of model of development of the industry, on the national as well as the regional level. The data also show the key role which public policy plays in creating a suitable framework for innovation and point to the need of analyzing the influence of social and cultural factors on the development of the biotechnology sector.     

Biotechnology Development in Spain: A Change of Paradigm?

This article presents a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Spanish biotechnology sector, including its scientific, business, policy and social aspects. The study differentiates two sub-sectors, considered to be the most representative: Biopharma and Agro-food. The results show that biotechnology development in Spain has entered a new phase. Traditionally, research and development in Spain followed an unstructured path built around regional spaces and driven by factors and influences external to Spain. However, the emergence of a fast-growing sector of spin-off companies from the public research system, specifically in the Biopharma sector, points to a change of model of development of the industry, on the national as well as the regional level. The data also show the key role which public policy plays in creating a suitable framework for innovation and point to the need of analyzing the influence of social and cultural factors on the development of the biotechnology sector.     

中国国防工业全要素生产率测算与分析

利用2004—2020年中国11大军工集团财务报表数据,从企业微观角度出发,运用LP方法计算国防工业全要素生产率并分析其变化趋势。结果表明,样本期内,我国国防工业全要素生产率总体呈波动上升趋势,其增长率高于制造业整体水平但低于高技术产业增速,说明国防工业技术进步比较明显,但进步速率还不够高;各细分军工行业全要素生产率存在较大差异,电子工业和船舶工业全要素生产率均值比其它军工行业高。收敛性分析表明,国防工业中,全要素生产率较低企业对较高企业具有追赶效应。建议军工行业必须转变增长方式,向集约型发展方式转变,提高发展质量;加大研发投入力度,重点扶持技术发展相对缓慢的行业,促进军工行业协调发展;贯彻军民融合发展战略,促进先进民用技术转军用。     

Biotechnology and the Potential for a Radical Shift of Technology in Forest Industry

Is biotechnology a revolutionary technology that will dramatically transform present technological systems, industries and society or will the entrance of biotechnology into industry rather take the shape of incremental innovations without any deeper impact on dominating technological paradigms? The vast science and technology research in this area has focused on pharmaceuticals and neglected the potential role for large scale biomass handling activities like the forest industry in general and pulp and paper industry in particular. In addition the industry itself has not focused its R&D activities towards utilization of biotechnology on inputs, processes or products. This is a study on the technological system for pulp and paper facing the challenge of a radical shift of technology. The confrontation between the genuinely science based biotechnology and its community on the one hand, and the pulp and paper community (highly scientific within the framework of a low-technology industry) on the other, is analyzed as are the industrial and economic potentials and limitations of biotechnology in this area.     

The Indian Challenge: The Evolution of a Successful New Global Strategy in the Pharmaceutical Industry

UK and European public policy has sought to encourage young biotechnology firms adopt American-inspired strategies. The venture-backed start-up associated with Silicon Valley and Route 128 in Boston, has been the preferred model. These policies have had limited success thus far. Indian companies are evolving indigenous business models that are achieving success within the pharmaceutical industry. Some Indian pharmaceutical firms, established initially as low cost suppliers, are investing in building innovative capabilities. This paper analyses the strategies and trajectories of a number of Indian pharmaceutical companies that are expanding successfully in Western markets. It assesses the local and international contextual factors that have underpinned the strategies and discusses relevant conceptual frameworks.     

城市科技创新人才政策扩散动力因素时空差异研究

科技创新人才是城市提升创新能力的核心资源,是科技进步的关键要素。科技创新人才政策作为城市争夺人才的工具,被各个城市广泛采纳和使用。以161个城市为研究对象,运用事件史分析方法,探寻城市科技创新人才政策扩散的动力因素并进行时空差异分析。研究发现,城市科技创新人才政策扩散具有双重动力因素：在需求拉动因素中,经济发展水平和财政收入是影响城市科技创新人才政策扩散的主要因素;在压力推动因素中,行政指令、府际竞争和社会舆论显著影响城市科技创新人才政策扩散;在政策扩散平稳增长期,双重动力因素共同作用于政策扩散过程,而在政策扩散加速和减速增长期,城市科技创新人才政策扩散动力因素存在差异;在东、中部地区,压力推动因素占据主导,而在西部地区,双重动力因素都发挥重要作用。     

Portugal at the crossroads of change, facing the shock of the new: People, knowledge and ideas fostering the social fabric to facilitate the concentration of knowledge integrated communities

Portugal has recently achieved the average OECD level in terms of the number of researchers per thousand workforce and the need to continue fostering the advanced training of human resources and the concentration of knowledge integrated communities as drivers of larger communities of users is discussed in the context of changing and evolving patterns in Portugal. This requires an ongoing public effort, but also a better understanding of the effectiveness of the mix of public support mechanisms and private incentives for the development of knowledge networks and flows of skilled people in times of increased uncertainty.Our hypothesis gains from the experience of a unique set of international collaborations with leading institutions worldwide that has been successfully developed over the last years based on thematic R&D networks, integrating advanced training initiatives and programs of industrial affiliation. It is in this context that we frame our hypothesis and argue for the need for Portugal to continue attracting and fostering open and dynamic “creative communities”.The main policy implication of our analysis is that Portugal needs to double the number of researchers per thousand workforce in the coming years. This requires a broad social basis for science policies across a wide range of public and private sectors, as well as that innovation is considered together with competence building and the need to foster individual skills through the complex interaction between formal and informal qualifications. Emerging user-centered innovation requires users able to access new knowledge. This implies a broad societal engagement in knowledge activities, including higher education enrolment, and we need to strengthen the top of the research system in order to create a locus of knowledge production at the highest level. But it also implies consideration of the social shaping of technology, because incentives and infrastructures do not operate in a vacuum, but shape and are shaped by the particular context in which they operate. Strengthening external societal links and “system linkages” is critical in making the institutional changes required to meet the needs of global competition and the knowledge economy.     

PUBLIC–PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP TO DEVELOP TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE: A CASE STUDY OF THE ECONOMIC RETURNS OF DNA DIAGNOSTICS

This paper presents a quantitative case analysis of one US Advanced Technology Program (ATP) public–private partnership that advanced the technology infrastructure of molecular diagnostics, resulting in substantial downstream economic and public health benefits. Biotechnology R&D is generally characterized by technologies requiring substantial investments in time, money, and effort to develop and sustain concepts through long incubation times. Public sponsorship of a partnership between two companies who would have not otherwise collaborated, Affymetrix and Molecular Dynamics, accelerated the development of DNA microarrays and DNA sequencing technologies and induced innovation at competitor firms. Public sponsorship of private-company research accelerated the completion of the Human Genome Project and improved both the quality and rapidity with which the biotechnology industry and medical science acquire genetic information. Counterfactual scenarios were used to quantify net public benefits by estimating the hypothetical costs of achieving the same outcomes as using the processes and technologies the ATP-cofunded innovations superseded.     

生物技术产业集群的动力机制及其演进——基于国外典型集群的多案例研究

在产业集群理论的总体框架下,本文以国外五个典型集群为研究对象,归纳了生物技术产业集群演化的关键动力要素,即科学研究、风险投资、传统大企业介入、政府支持、中介机构、市场需求、创新文化、相关产业支撑、龙头企业以及"龙头企业-专家型公司-科研机构"之间的良性互动。在此基础上,研究了要素的演进和集群发展的内在规律。最后,结合我国的实际情况,基于政府的视角得出若干促进我国生物园区发展的启示。     

Using resources in R&D policy planning: Brazil, the Amazon and biotechnology

Brazil's research and development (R&D) policies are examined in light of changes in economic direction especially as it pertains to competition. In a competitive environment, regions should develop industrial applications and expertise in areas that coincide with their resources. These could be human resources but could, as in the focus of this paper, be useful resources that differentiate the region from others in the world. This differentiation provides an advantage to the region. Brazil and its Amazon region has the large majority of the world's rare genes. In biotechnology, genes are “green gold,” and Brazil is slowly developing a biotechnology industry and beginning to tap into the Brazilian Amazon region's economic biotech potential. This region has enormous potential for the development of biotech-related technologies and products. This paper discusses the relationship between resources and an R&D strategy using as an example the recent developments in biotechnology research in Brazil and the role of the Amazon region in the development of a Brazilian biotechnology industry. It recommends a number of policy initiatives that will enhance Brazil's focus on biotechnology.     

From Imitation to Innovation: The Evolution of R&D Capabilities and Learning Processes in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry

Since the mid 1990s the Indian pharmaceutical industry has emerged as a leading supplier of generic drugs to both developing and developed countries.The movement of the Indian pharmaceutical industry along the R&D value chain represents a remarkable shift from an importer to an innovator of drugs. The Indian government's industrial and technology policies along with changes in regulation of intellectual property rights played a crucial role in shaping this development of R&D capability. Using the 'capability creation model' this paper discusses the learning processes and stages involved in this dramatic accumulation of technological capability. This analysis shows that the Indian pharmaceutical industry has followed a trajectory from duplicative imitation to creative imitation to move up the value chain of pharmaceutical R&D. Finally as a result of changes in patent law the industry is learning to develop capabilities in innovative R&D. The basic and intermediate technological capabilities gained from imitative learning gave these firms a solid base for development of competence in advanced innovative R&D. These findings have implications for government policies as well as firm strategies in other developing countries albeit with some limitations due to global harmonisation of patent laws being promoted by the World Trade Organization.     

欧盟工业生物技术研发现状及发展趋势分析

欧盟是现代工业制造业的发源地,长期保持着工业技术的世界领先水平。欧委会根据全球高新技术日新月异的快速发展及其重要性,以及欧盟相对处于世界领先地位的技术优先领域,扬长避短确定了欧盟工业可持续发展的六大关键势能技术(KETs)。工业生物技术,作为欧盟优先确定的六大关键势能技术之一,欧盟己制定具体的优惠政策和行动举措给予重点扶持,旨在提升欧盟先进制造业的世界竞争力,促进经济增长和扩大就业。通过综合研究分析欧盟工业生物技术及产业的发展现状、研发创新、面临的挑战和未来发展趋势,旨在为我国战略性新兴技术产业的可持续发展,提供有益的路径和经验借鉴。     

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.     

德国生物技术产业发展现状及其研发创新

生物技术是当前最具潜力和最富活力的科技领域之一。德国联邦政府认为,从传统化石能源时代向生物经济时代过渡是人类社会发展的必然趋势．未来生命科学和生物技术将更广泛地应用于农业、林业、渔业、畜牧业、食品、化工、制药、能源、环保和商贸服务等众多产业领域。知识生物经济将提高国家竞争力。2010年11月,德国联邦政府发布了《生物经济2030：国家研究战略》。包括德国在内的世界各国政府都高度重视推动本国生物技术研发创新和产业化发展。本文对德国生物技术产业发展最新情况进行了调研,并对其研发创新及其产业化发展的政策机制进行了总结分析。     

State capacity and the quality of policies. Revisiting the relationship between openness and government size

Countries with different levels of state capacity have access to different sets of policies. In particular, countries with strong state capabilities are able to draw from a broader menu of policies than countries with lower capabilities. We apply and test this insight to the case of exposure to trade‐related risk. So far, most of the literature has considered that only one type of policy—the one that increases government size—can help to overcome the challenge imposed by openness. However, there are a number of policies that can mitigate trade‐induced risks, many of which do not have the necessary implication of increasing public spending. Yet, many such policies require governmental capabilities not available to any country. For that reason, while the choice of a particular policy within a menu depends on political conditions, the relationship between openness and the size of government might be mediated by the capabilities of states. This paper provides reduced form evidence confirming that the empirical relationship between openness and government size is conditional on state capabilities. Therefore, public policies cannot be assessed independently of the capacity of the State that would have to implement them.     

韩国大数据发展及应用分析

随着网络信息时代的飞速发展,数据,已经渗透到当今的每一个行业和业务职能领域,成为重要的生产因素。面对计算机数据生成加快,数据形态日渐复杂,"大数据"成为了新时代网络信息的代言词。大数据在实现"智慧城市"、保障国民安全、促进医疗体系革新发展方面发挥着不可替代的作用。韩国有着先进的科学研发能力,IT电子行业在世界排名居前,同时,韩国作为亚洲科技发达国家,在大数据领域的发展战略有着可以借鉴之处。韩国高层极为重视大数据时代的到来,积极制定了一系列有关"大数据"的发展战略,将大数据技术研发视为"国家意志"的科技项目,而韩国民间企业为加强企业多元化生存空间,也大力研究大数据技术的商业应用。