Andreas Pyka, Paolo Saviotti
Innovation Networks in the Biotechnology-Based Sectors
Abstract:
Technological progress in the biological sciences is now advancing across
such a wide range and at such a pace, that, irrespective of size, no firm
can hope to keep up in all the different areas. Participating in innovation
networks, bundling of competencies and capabilities, therefore, offers
an alternative to extremely expensive go-it-alone strategies, whether carried
out by acquisition and mergers or by isolated R&D. This imbalance between
the rate of growth of the biotechnology knowledge base and the capability
of individual firms to access it can explain the persistence of cooperative
R&D in the biotechnology-based sectors at the end of the 90s. Such
imbalance is not due any more only to the lack of absorptive capacity of
existing firms, because the large pharmaceutical firms have meanwhile developed
considerable competencies in that field. This previous competence-gap was
considered to be the reason for cooperative behaviour in the early phases
of these industries in the end of the 70s and early 80s. To the extent
that this was considered to be the only knowledge gap innovation networks
were considered as a temporary phenomenon, which could not persist beyond
the period required by large firms to catch up with the new technology.
We are then proposing that a new role, that of explorers scanning parts
of the knowledge space that LDFs (Large Diversified Firms) are capable
of exploring but unwilling to commit themselves in an irreversible way,
can be played by DBFs (Dedicated Biotechnology Firms) in innovation networks.
Our simulation approach attempts to represent the emergence of these two
roles as endogenous changes in the motivation for participating in innovation
networks, allowing them to become an important and long-lasting organizational
device for industrial R&D. Drawing on a history friendly modeling approach
the decisive mechanisms responsible for the emergence of innovation networks
in these industries are figured out and compared to real developments.
JEL: L10, L22, L65, O30
Paper:
Paper available as pdf-file.
Beitrag Nr. 205, Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsreihe, Institut für
Volkswirtschaftslehre der Universität Augsburg
Contact:
Andreas
Pyka, University of Augsburg, Department of Economics, Universitätsstr.
16, D-86135 Augsburg, Phone +49-821-598-4178; Fax +49-821-598-4223
E-Mail: andreas.pyka@wiso.uni-augsburg.de
Paolo Saviotti, INRA-SERD, Université Pieres Mendés France,
BP47, F-38040 Grenoble, Cedéx 9, and CNRS-IDEFI, 250 rue A. Einstein,
Sophia-Antipolis,
06560 Valbonne, France
E-Mail: saviotti@grenoble.inra.fr
v.
K., 18.07.2001