This document summarizes a study on collaboration networks and innovation performance among Argentinean biotech firms. The study finds that Argentinean biotech firms actively collaborate with partners, especially local public research organizations and foreign partners in leading regions, to source knowledge and enhance their technological capabilities. Collaborations with both local PROs and foreign partners are shown to benefit firms' innovation performance. While the knowledge network structure differs from leading biotech regions, it is similar to other non-leading regions, relying heavily on collaborations with local PROs and partners abroad. The study contributes new evidence on how high-tech industries develop in emerging countries through both local and non-local knowledge flows.
Inter-firm alliances have been regarded as an effective mechanism for acquiring specialized complementary assets and achieving synergies. Although previous literatures have provided important insights on inter-firm technology alliances, few scholars have paid attention to the impact of types of R&D alliances, business similarity and relative size on the value creation for focal firms. Taking the listed firms involved in technological alliances in China’s IT industry as the sample, the article empirically investigated the impact of technological alliance announcements, and characteristics inter-firm technological alliances on the abnormal returns for focal firms is empirically discussed. The results show that technological alliance announcements may increase the abnormal returns for focal firms, and technological alliance announcements by relatively smaller firms can significantly increase their abnormal returns. While the declaration of the technological alliances of firms in similar industries have a significant impact on abnormal returns, while the declaration of dissimilar firms has an insignificant impact on abnormal returns.
Alcacer & zhao 2009: Local R&D Strategies and Multi-location Firms: The Role ...MOC2010
This study examines the role of internal linkages in allowing multi-location firms to leverage knowledge across sites for competitive advantage while minimizing risks from knowledge outflows to competitors. The study analyzes the global semiconductor industry from 1998-2001. It finds that when major firms locate near direct competitors, they are more likely to quickly internalize innovations through collaboration across locations, especially with their primary R&D sites. This allows them to benefit from knowledge spillovers in clusters without jeopardizing their technological edge. The results suggest internal linkages are important for firms to take advantage of opportunities in technology clusters.
Public Research Organisations (PRO) – Industry interactions in developing co...Fabricio Martins
1. The document discusses public research organizations (PRO) and their interactions with industry in developing countries like Argentina. It analyzes the benefits and risks of these interactions through case studies and a survey of firms.
2. The case study of a biotechnology interaction found benefits like new discoveries but also risks around privatizing public knowledge.
3. The survey found that firms engaged in more active, bidirectional interactions invested more in innovation and were more likely to patent and formally collaborate. This suggests active partnerships maximize benefits over risks.
Online dating apps as a marketing channel a generational approachYing wei (Joe) Chou
This document discusses using online dating apps as marketing channels and how different generations perceive marketing on these platforms.
The study analyzed reactions from 411 users of the dating app Tinder after a marketing campaign. It found generally positive acceptance of the campaign, especially among Generation Z users. However, statistical analysis showed no significant differences in reactions between Generations X, Y and Z.
The document reviews literature on social media marketing and how different generations respond to online ads. Younger generations are more receptive due to being "digital natives" but can be suspicious of marketing tactics. The study aims to provide insights into using dating apps for marketing and whether audience generation affects acceptance of such ads.
This study examines changes over 4 years in inter-firm cooperation and social networks in Chile's salmon farming cluster. It finds that while access to skilled labor and joint product development intensified, most dimensions of cooperation did not significantly change or decreased over time. Contrary to expectations, firms acted more individualistically in areas impacting competitive advantage. Overall cooperation trends less rather than more, despite literature highlighting benefits. Lessons include the need for trade associations to facilitate informal social interactions to potentially foster further cooperation.
Think with me, or think for me on the future role of artificial intelligenc...Ying wei (Joe) Chou
This document discusses the potential role of artificial intelligence in marketing strategy formulation. It finds that:
1) AI is increasingly being used to process large amounts of data and translate it into usable information that can inform marketing strategies.
2) While AI is commonly used for tactical marketing tasks, it also shows promise for aiding strategic decision making by systematically processing data and identifying strategic options.
3) A key consideration is moving beyond using AI just for rational decision making and exploring its potential for more creative strategic thinking through a "creative-possibility perspective."
The battle of superheros the rise of the knowledge platform strategy in the m...Ying wei (Joe) Chou
The document discusses how platform strategies may be used in creative industries like the movie industry. It analyzes the three most successful superhero sagas of the past two decades - the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), DC Comics, and X-Men - to understand their "platform approaches". The findings show that platform strategies are relevant for creative industries, defining the concept of a "knowledge platform strategy". The MCU in particular builds on a common knowledge across various movies, enabling it to leverage characteristics of platforms emerging in the literature. This extends the concept of platforms into research fields where it has not been previously applied, such as for content development in creative industries.
The Partnership Health of ICT Projects in Developing Countries - Pacis 2009...Anand Sheombar
The basic argument of this paper is that successful contributions in developing countries that are made with, and through, ICT are partly dependent on the health of the relationship between partners. The research was conducted in 10 projects involving multinational ICT companies. It was found that problems with partner cooperation revolve around six core categories namely driving force factors, skill factors, input-output factors, socio-cultural factors, systems factors, and trust factors.
Inter-firm alliances have been regarded as an effective mechanism for acquiring specialized complementary assets and achieving synergies. Although previous literatures have provided important insights on inter-firm technology alliances, few scholars have paid attention to the impact of types of R&D alliances, business similarity and relative size on the value creation for focal firms. Taking the listed firms involved in technological alliances in China’s IT industry as the sample, the article empirically investigated the impact of technological alliance announcements, and characteristics inter-firm technological alliances on the abnormal returns for focal firms is empirically discussed. The results show that technological alliance announcements may increase the abnormal returns for focal firms, and technological alliance announcements by relatively smaller firms can significantly increase their abnormal returns. While the declaration of the technological alliances of firms in similar industries have a significant impact on abnormal returns, while the declaration of dissimilar firms has an insignificant impact on abnormal returns.
Alcacer & zhao 2009: Local R&D Strategies and Multi-location Firms: The Role ...MOC2010
This study examines the role of internal linkages in allowing multi-location firms to leverage knowledge across sites for competitive advantage while minimizing risks from knowledge outflows to competitors. The study analyzes the global semiconductor industry from 1998-2001. It finds that when major firms locate near direct competitors, they are more likely to quickly internalize innovations through collaboration across locations, especially with their primary R&D sites. This allows them to benefit from knowledge spillovers in clusters without jeopardizing their technological edge. The results suggest internal linkages are important for firms to take advantage of opportunities in technology clusters.
Public Research Organisations (PRO) – Industry interactions in developing co...Fabricio Martins
1. The document discusses public research organizations (PRO) and their interactions with industry in developing countries like Argentina. It analyzes the benefits and risks of these interactions through case studies and a survey of firms.
2. The case study of a biotechnology interaction found benefits like new discoveries but also risks around privatizing public knowledge.
3. The survey found that firms engaged in more active, bidirectional interactions invested more in innovation and were more likely to patent and formally collaborate. This suggests active partnerships maximize benefits over risks.
Online dating apps as a marketing channel a generational approachYing wei (Joe) Chou
This document discusses using online dating apps as marketing channels and how different generations perceive marketing on these platforms.
The study analyzed reactions from 411 users of the dating app Tinder after a marketing campaign. It found generally positive acceptance of the campaign, especially among Generation Z users. However, statistical analysis showed no significant differences in reactions between Generations X, Y and Z.
The document reviews literature on social media marketing and how different generations respond to online ads. Younger generations are more receptive due to being "digital natives" but can be suspicious of marketing tactics. The study aims to provide insights into using dating apps for marketing and whether audience generation affects acceptance of such ads.
This study examines changes over 4 years in inter-firm cooperation and social networks in Chile's salmon farming cluster. It finds that while access to skilled labor and joint product development intensified, most dimensions of cooperation did not significantly change or decreased over time. Contrary to expectations, firms acted more individualistically in areas impacting competitive advantage. Overall cooperation trends less rather than more, despite literature highlighting benefits. Lessons include the need for trade associations to facilitate informal social interactions to potentially foster further cooperation.
Think with me, or think for me on the future role of artificial intelligenc...Ying wei (Joe) Chou
This document discusses the potential role of artificial intelligence in marketing strategy formulation. It finds that:
1) AI is increasingly being used to process large amounts of data and translate it into usable information that can inform marketing strategies.
2) While AI is commonly used for tactical marketing tasks, it also shows promise for aiding strategic decision making by systematically processing data and identifying strategic options.
3) A key consideration is moving beyond using AI just for rational decision making and exploring its potential for more creative strategic thinking through a "creative-possibility perspective."
The battle of superheros the rise of the knowledge platform strategy in the m...Ying wei (Joe) Chou
The document discusses how platform strategies may be used in creative industries like the movie industry. It analyzes the three most successful superhero sagas of the past two decades - the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), DC Comics, and X-Men - to understand their "platform approaches". The findings show that platform strategies are relevant for creative industries, defining the concept of a "knowledge platform strategy". The MCU in particular builds on a common knowledge across various movies, enabling it to leverage characteristics of platforms emerging in the literature. This extends the concept of platforms into research fields where it has not been previously applied, such as for content development in creative industries.
The Partnership Health of ICT Projects in Developing Countries - Pacis 2009...Anand Sheombar
The basic argument of this paper is that successful contributions in developing countries that are made with, and through, ICT are partly dependent on the health of the relationship between partners. The research was conducted in 10 projects involving multinational ICT companies. It was found that problems with partner cooperation revolve around six core categories namely driving force factors, skill factors, input-output factors, socio-cultural factors, systems factors, and trust factors.
A knowledge accessing theory of strategic alliance pdf1Rose Kiprop
This document presents a knowledge-accessing theory of strategic alliances. It argues that the primary advantage of alliances is in accessing, rather than acquiring, knowledge from partner firms. Alliances contribute to efficiency by improving the integration of knowledge into complex products/services and increasing the efficient utilization of knowledge. These efficiency advantages are enhanced under uncertainty over future knowledge needs and when new products offer early-mover advantages, compared to alternative learning-based approaches to alliance formation.
This document discusses a study that examines how centralized HR capabilities and decentralized control mechanisms in HR shared service centers (HR SSCs) interact to create value for business units. The study found that:
1) The use of formal control mechanisms (e.g. contracts) by business units relates negatively to perceived HR shared service value, but this relationship becomes positive when mediated by informal control mechanisms (e.g. trust) and operational HR capabilities.
2) The dynamic capabilities of HR SSCs relate positively to perceived value, but only indirectly by improving HR SSCs' operational capabilities.
3) Previous studies examined capabilities and control independently, but this study shows how they interrelate to explain perceived value of HR shared
This document summarizes research on how corporate foresight and innovation management can help companies adapt to the transition to a knowledge-based economy. It first discusses how information and knowledge are becoming more important resources, and how this changes industry competition. It then reviews literature establishing corporate foresight and innovation management as key ways for companies to gain competitive advantages. Specifically, it looks at how futures research methods can contribute to the innovation process. Finally, it discusses how the concept of foresight has evolved and is now seen as a broader activity than just futures studies.
Research questions revolving around oi in ict industry. psaradis
This document discusses coupled open innovation processes, where companies cooperate and share knowledge to jointly develop innovations. It provides examples of how coupled processes are implemented in the ICT sector. Specifically, it discusses Ericsson's use of coupled processes through strategic alliances and platforms like Ericsson Labs that allow it to combine internal and external ideas. Ericsson participates in standardization initiatives like 3GPP that involve over 300 companies cooperating to develop telecom industry standards through a coupled innovation process. The document analyzes the benefits of coupled processes for value creation and competitive advantage, as well as challenges around intellectual property protection and balancing openness between companies and customers.
TOWARDS A FRAMEWORK OF COOPERATION ISSUES IN BASE OF THE PYRAMID PROJECTSAnand Sheombar
The purpose of the research reported in this paper was to take one step closer towards a framework of cooperation issues in so-called BOP projects, specifically in the ICT arena, with the ultimate aim of developing a way to assess factors that may present a risk to the success of these projects. This framework could serve as the foundation for further research into developing a diagnostic instrument for this purpose.
This document discusses supply chain integration and the challenges of coordinating outsourced product design and development across multiple firms. As firms have increasingly outsourced manufacturing and services, integrating contributions from suppliers into a coherent final product has become more difficult. The authors argue that learning and integration should be key principles for supply chain design decisions. Firms must determine which products and design capabilities to keep in-house versus outsource. Maintaining product quality will require effectively integrating outsourced development projects. The authors examine how to break up product development tasks and then reintegrate the pieces to form a coherent whole.
This document summarizes a research paper that experimentally examines how the relative size of firms involved in a merger influences merger outcomes. It begins by providing background on the growth of cross-border mergers and acquisitions between firms from developed and developing countries. It then reviews literature on organizational culture conflicts in mergers and the role of learning. The document hypothesizes that different compositions of employees from acquiring and acquired firms (unequal vs. equal sizes) will lead to different merger outcomes. It proposes that post-merger performance deterioration will be greater when the target firm is larger due to greater cultural conflicts. The purpose is to experimentally test these hypotheses about the impact of relative firm size on merger success.
Impact of informal networks on knowledge management strategy critique re...Adib Chehade
The document provides a critique review of a paper titled "Impact of informal networks on knowledge management strategy" by Jewel and Underwood. The review identifies two limitations of the original paper - that it only considered two organizations and gathered responses from 28 people. However, the review finds that the original paper's findings are supported by prior and new literature. It concludes that the findings can apply to all organizations but suggests examining multiple organizations from different industries to make more valid conclusions.
Publisher capabilities and online innovationsMiia Kosonen
This document discusses publishers' capabilities and online innovations. It explores the relationship between publishers' market and technology capabilities and their online innovations. The study focuses on four publishing companies through comparative case studies. The results show vast differences in publishers' capability portfolios, generally reflecting stronger market than technology capabilities. Publishers tend to build on their strongest capabilities and focus on leveraging those rather than experimenting in weaker areas. Publishers have been able to leverage market capabilities through online experimentation but have not developed technology capabilities in the same way. The study provides an empirical contribution to understanding capability portfolios and the relationship between capabilities and online innovations in publishing companies.
This document summarizes a study that investigated the factors impacting the voluntary disclosure level of Turkish manufacturing companies listed on the Borsa Istanbul stock exchange in 2010. The study used content analysis of annual reports and regression analysis. It found positive associations between voluntary disclosure and firm size, auditor size, independent directors, institutional ownership, and corporate governance practices. It found negative associations with leverage and ownership diffusion. Profitability, listing age, and board size were not significantly associated. The study contributes to research on determinants of voluntary disclosure in emerging markets and has implications for firms, auditors, investors, and regulators regarding improving transparency practices.
1) The study examines knowledge-intensive service activities (KISA) and their role in facilitating innovation in recipient organizations. KISA can serve as sources, facilitators, or carriers of innovation.
2) KISA influence innovation in different ways depending on the type of service. Some KISA like R&D aid in firm renewal while others like accounting help maintain existing systems.
3) The use of KISA varies across industries and stages of the innovation process. Services related to R&D are important early on while those related to commercialization are more important later on.
Effect of Supply Chain Resilience Strategies on Operational Performance of Ma...AkashSharma618775
This document discusses a study on the effect of supply chain resilience strategies on operational performance of manufacturing firms in Nairobi, Kenya. The study aims to determine the role of multisourcing, nearshoring, product harmonization, and inventory management strategies on the operational performance of manufacturing firms. The study found that these variables all have a positive significant effect on operational performance. It is recommended that firms adopt some resilience strategies to varying degrees to improve performance. Enhancing supply chain risk management, such as quality planning and assurance, can also help mitigate risks and improve performance.
- The UK microelectronics industry has transformed significantly over the past decade due to technological advances, changing markets, and globalization. Smaller, more agile UK firms now operate in this industry.
- Strategic alliances can provide benefits as part of firms' strategic responses to changing industry conditions. This research study explored how UK microelectronics firms perceive and utilize strategic alliances.
- The study found that while firms use the term "partners" rather than "alliances", partnerships are important on both the supply and demand sides of businesses. Firms' use of partnerships on the demand side helps explain differences in financial performance between companies.
Impact of education on innovation performance: evidence from Azerbaijan const...iosrjce
IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM) is a double blind peer reviewed International Journal that provides rapid publication (within a month) of articles in all areas of business and managemant and its applications. The journal welcomes publications of high quality papers on theoretical developments and practical applications inbusiness and management. Original research papers, state-of-the-art reviews, and high quality technical notes are invited for publications.
This document discusses a study conducted by Frost & Sullivan on collaboration in global enterprises. The study surveyed decision makers in Europe, Asia, and North America across various industries. It developed a Collaboration Index to measure how collaborative companies are and how collaboration impacts business performance. The study found that collaboration has a significant positive impact on business performance, more so than strategic orientation or market turbulence. Specifically, collaboration improves profitability, profit growth, sales growth, customer satisfaction, labor productivity, product quality, product development, and innovation. The document concludes collaboration is important for meeting both personal and enterprise needs, and is a key driver of business success.
The document proposes a framework called customer process management (CPM) for using customer-related data to create value for customers. CPM was developed through action research projects with industry and government and analysis of case studies. It suggests steps a service provider can take to help customers improve processes and create more value by using data related to their own processes, similar to how business process management uses company data. The framework views individual customer processes as targets that can be measured and improved using relevant customer data, taking a perspective like studies on manufacturing and business processes.
This document summarizes a research article that examines the relationship between innovative knowledge sharing practices within and between trading partners in supply chains and firm performance in Australian manufacturing firms. The researchers collected data from 418 manufacturing organizations to test whether internal knowledge integration, knowledge integration with customers, and knowledge integration with suppliers are interrelated and influence firm performance. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The results found the three knowledge sharing constructs were strongly interrelated, supporting the case for knowledge-based integration between firms and their trading partners. Additionally, the three knowledge sharing constructs collectively explained about a third of the variance in firm performance. The relationships identified provide support for the idea that knowledge-based collaboration can promote innovation and higher levels of firm performance
Cooperation issues in developing the BOP marketAnand Sheombar
The basic argument of this paper is that successful contribution of ICT to development goals is partly dependent on the nature of the cooperation between partners. Thus if there is a need to assess the contribution of ICT, then one needs to look further than just the basic quantitative measures and include cooperation issues as criteria for success.
This study analyses a baseline dataset collected for an evaluation of a co-operation project that assists trade unions in Zambia to boost their activities. The data were collected from 51 establishments to study attitudes towards unions, working conditions and the views of employers and trade union representatives on each other. The results show that employees have, by and large, positive views on unions but turning to unions when there are problems is not particularly common. Wages are often considered to be too low and assumed to be lower than those of similar individuals elsewhere or even in the same establishment. Regression analysis shows that having positive views on unions per se has a positive association with satisfaction and negative correlation with resign intentions. Union membership, however, seems to be correlated with employees being more discontent with their wages in some instances, though the direction of causality is unclear. Union membership seems to be associated with higher awareness of malpractices.
2007 - Borderless Biotech & Mexico's Emerging Life Sciences IndustryCrossborder Group
Report developed by Crossborder Group for UCSD Extension and Merck on the growth of life sciences infrastructure -- both human and physical -- in four regions of Mexico: Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos and Nuevo León. The research for this project included site visits, interviews, and a range of data collection, looking at education, medical device manufacturing trends, pharmaceutical research, clinical trials, and advances that these regions in Mexico are making. Also touched on in this document is the potential for crossborder life sciences collaboration, particularly in the regions of San Diego and Baja California.
This report was a follow up to the more-comprehensive regional technology study, Borderless Innovation (2006) -- also developed for UCSD Extension.
Foreign investment and foreign collaboration provide capital and technology that can help developing countries. Foreign investment comes in the forms of foreign direct investment, like wholly owned subsidiaries, and portfolio investment, like investments in stocks. It brings benefits like increased investment and exports, but also risks like distorting domestic development. India has pursued policies since the 1940s to attract foreign capital while regulating it. The 1991 reforms liberalized many industries and incentives to attract more foreign technology and investment. Further reforms are still needed to improve infrastructure, skills, and the business environment to maximize the benefits of foreign investment.
A knowledge accessing theory of strategic alliance pdf1Rose Kiprop
This document presents a knowledge-accessing theory of strategic alliances. It argues that the primary advantage of alliances is in accessing, rather than acquiring, knowledge from partner firms. Alliances contribute to efficiency by improving the integration of knowledge into complex products/services and increasing the efficient utilization of knowledge. These efficiency advantages are enhanced under uncertainty over future knowledge needs and when new products offer early-mover advantages, compared to alternative learning-based approaches to alliance formation.
This document discusses a study that examines how centralized HR capabilities and decentralized control mechanisms in HR shared service centers (HR SSCs) interact to create value for business units. The study found that:
1) The use of formal control mechanisms (e.g. contracts) by business units relates negatively to perceived HR shared service value, but this relationship becomes positive when mediated by informal control mechanisms (e.g. trust) and operational HR capabilities.
2) The dynamic capabilities of HR SSCs relate positively to perceived value, but only indirectly by improving HR SSCs' operational capabilities.
3) Previous studies examined capabilities and control independently, but this study shows how they interrelate to explain perceived value of HR shared
This document summarizes research on how corporate foresight and innovation management can help companies adapt to the transition to a knowledge-based economy. It first discusses how information and knowledge are becoming more important resources, and how this changes industry competition. It then reviews literature establishing corporate foresight and innovation management as key ways for companies to gain competitive advantages. Specifically, it looks at how futures research methods can contribute to the innovation process. Finally, it discusses how the concept of foresight has evolved and is now seen as a broader activity than just futures studies.
Research questions revolving around oi in ict industry. psaradis
This document discusses coupled open innovation processes, where companies cooperate and share knowledge to jointly develop innovations. It provides examples of how coupled processes are implemented in the ICT sector. Specifically, it discusses Ericsson's use of coupled processes through strategic alliances and platforms like Ericsson Labs that allow it to combine internal and external ideas. Ericsson participates in standardization initiatives like 3GPP that involve over 300 companies cooperating to develop telecom industry standards through a coupled innovation process. The document analyzes the benefits of coupled processes for value creation and competitive advantage, as well as challenges around intellectual property protection and balancing openness between companies and customers.
TOWARDS A FRAMEWORK OF COOPERATION ISSUES IN BASE OF THE PYRAMID PROJECTSAnand Sheombar
The purpose of the research reported in this paper was to take one step closer towards a framework of cooperation issues in so-called BOP projects, specifically in the ICT arena, with the ultimate aim of developing a way to assess factors that may present a risk to the success of these projects. This framework could serve as the foundation for further research into developing a diagnostic instrument for this purpose.
This document discusses supply chain integration and the challenges of coordinating outsourced product design and development across multiple firms. As firms have increasingly outsourced manufacturing and services, integrating contributions from suppliers into a coherent final product has become more difficult. The authors argue that learning and integration should be key principles for supply chain design decisions. Firms must determine which products and design capabilities to keep in-house versus outsource. Maintaining product quality will require effectively integrating outsourced development projects. The authors examine how to break up product development tasks and then reintegrate the pieces to form a coherent whole.
This document summarizes a research paper that experimentally examines how the relative size of firms involved in a merger influences merger outcomes. It begins by providing background on the growth of cross-border mergers and acquisitions between firms from developed and developing countries. It then reviews literature on organizational culture conflicts in mergers and the role of learning. The document hypothesizes that different compositions of employees from acquiring and acquired firms (unequal vs. equal sizes) will lead to different merger outcomes. It proposes that post-merger performance deterioration will be greater when the target firm is larger due to greater cultural conflicts. The purpose is to experimentally test these hypotheses about the impact of relative firm size on merger success.
Impact of informal networks on knowledge management strategy critique re...Adib Chehade
The document provides a critique review of a paper titled "Impact of informal networks on knowledge management strategy" by Jewel and Underwood. The review identifies two limitations of the original paper - that it only considered two organizations and gathered responses from 28 people. However, the review finds that the original paper's findings are supported by prior and new literature. It concludes that the findings can apply to all organizations but suggests examining multiple organizations from different industries to make more valid conclusions.
Publisher capabilities and online innovationsMiia Kosonen
This document discusses publishers' capabilities and online innovations. It explores the relationship between publishers' market and technology capabilities and their online innovations. The study focuses on four publishing companies through comparative case studies. The results show vast differences in publishers' capability portfolios, generally reflecting stronger market than technology capabilities. Publishers tend to build on their strongest capabilities and focus on leveraging those rather than experimenting in weaker areas. Publishers have been able to leverage market capabilities through online experimentation but have not developed technology capabilities in the same way. The study provides an empirical contribution to understanding capability portfolios and the relationship between capabilities and online innovations in publishing companies.
This document summarizes a study that investigated the factors impacting the voluntary disclosure level of Turkish manufacturing companies listed on the Borsa Istanbul stock exchange in 2010. The study used content analysis of annual reports and regression analysis. It found positive associations between voluntary disclosure and firm size, auditor size, independent directors, institutional ownership, and corporate governance practices. It found negative associations with leverage and ownership diffusion. Profitability, listing age, and board size were not significantly associated. The study contributes to research on determinants of voluntary disclosure in emerging markets and has implications for firms, auditors, investors, and regulators regarding improving transparency practices.
1) The study examines knowledge-intensive service activities (KISA) and their role in facilitating innovation in recipient organizations. KISA can serve as sources, facilitators, or carriers of innovation.
2) KISA influence innovation in different ways depending on the type of service. Some KISA like R&D aid in firm renewal while others like accounting help maintain existing systems.
3) The use of KISA varies across industries and stages of the innovation process. Services related to R&D are important early on while those related to commercialization are more important later on.
Effect of Supply Chain Resilience Strategies on Operational Performance of Ma...AkashSharma618775
This document discusses a study on the effect of supply chain resilience strategies on operational performance of manufacturing firms in Nairobi, Kenya. The study aims to determine the role of multisourcing, nearshoring, product harmonization, and inventory management strategies on the operational performance of manufacturing firms. The study found that these variables all have a positive significant effect on operational performance. It is recommended that firms adopt some resilience strategies to varying degrees to improve performance. Enhancing supply chain risk management, such as quality planning and assurance, can also help mitigate risks and improve performance.
- The UK microelectronics industry has transformed significantly over the past decade due to technological advances, changing markets, and globalization. Smaller, more agile UK firms now operate in this industry.
- Strategic alliances can provide benefits as part of firms' strategic responses to changing industry conditions. This research study explored how UK microelectronics firms perceive and utilize strategic alliances.
- The study found that while firms use the term "partners" rather than "alliances", partnerships are important on both the supply and demand sides of businesses. Firms' use of partnerships on the demand side helps explain differences in financial performance between companies.
Impact of education on innovation performance: evidence from Azerbaijan const...iosrjce
IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM) is a double blind peer reviewed International Journal that provides rapid publication (within a month) of articles in all areas of business and managemant and its applications. The journal welcomes publications of high quality papers on theoretical developments and practical applications inbusiness and management. Original research papers, state-of-the-art reviews, and high quality technical notes are invited for publications.
This document discusses a study conducted by Frost & Sullivan on collaboration in global enterprises. The study surveyed decision makers in Europe, Asia, and North America across various industries. It developed a Collaboration Index to measure how collaborative companies are and how collaboration impacts business performance. The study found that collaboration has a significant positive impact on business performance, more so than strategic orientation or market turbulence. Specifically, collaboration improves profitability, profit growth, sales growth, customer satisfaction, labor productivity, product quality, product development, and innovation. The document concludes collaboration is important for meeting both personal and enterprise needs, and is a key driver of business success.
The document proposes a framework called customer process management (CPM) for using customer-related data to create value for customers. CPM was developed through action research projects with industry and government and analysis of case studies. It suggests steps a service provider can take to help customers improve processes and create more value by using data related to their own processes, similar to how business process management uses company data. The framework views individual customer processes as targets that can be measured and improved using relevant customer data, taking a perspective like studies on manufacturing and business processes.
This document summarizes a research article that examines the relationship between innovative knowledge sharing practices within and between trading partners in supply chains and firm performance in Australian manufacturing firms. The researchers collected data from 418 manufacturing organizations to test whether internal knowledge integration, knowledge integration with customers, and knowledge integration with suppliers are interrelated and influence firm performance. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The results found the three knowledge sharing constructs were strongly interrelated, supporting the case for knowledge-based integration between firms and their trading partners. Additionally, the three knowledge sharing constructs collectively explained about a third of the variance in firm performance. The relationships identified provide support for the idea that knowledge-based collaboration can promote innovation and higher levels of firm performance
Cooperation issues in developing the BOP marketAnand Sheombar
The basic argument of this paper is that successful contribution of ICT to development goals is partly dependent on the nature of the cooperation between partners. Thus if there is a need to assess the contribution of ICT, then one needs to look further than just the basic quantitative measures and include cooperation issues as criteria for success.
This study analyses a baseline dataset collected for an evaluation of a co-operation project that assists trade unions in Zambia to boost their activities. The data were collected from 51 establishments to study attitudes towards unions, working conditions and the views of employers and trade union representatives on each other. The results show that employees have, by and large, positive views on unions but turning to unions when there are problems is not particularly common. Wages are often considered to be too low and assumed to be lower than those of similar individuals elsewhere or even in the same establishment. Regression analysis shows that having positive views on unions per se has a positive association with satisfaction and negative correlation with resign intentions. Union membership, however, seems to be correlated with employees being more discontent with their wages in some instances, though the direction of causality is unclear. Union membership seems to be associated with higher awareness of malpractices.
2007 - Borderless Biotech & Mexico's Emerging Life Sciences IndustryCrossborder Group
Report developed by Crossborder Group for UCSD Extension and Merck on the growth of life sciences infrastructure -- both human and physical -- in four regions of Mexico: Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos and Nuevo León. The research for this project included site visits, interviews, and a range of data collection, looking at education, medical device manufacturing trends, pharmaceutical research, clinical trials, and advances that these regions in Mexico are making. Also touched on in this document is the potential for crossborder life sciences collaboration, particularly in the regions of San Diego and Baja California.
This report was a follow up to the more-comprehensive regional technology study, Borderless Innovation (2006) -- also developed for UCSD Extension.
Foreign investment and foreign collaboration provide capital and technology that can help developing countries. Foreign investment comes in the forms of foreign direct investment, like wholly owned subsidiaries, and portfolio investment, like investments in stocks. It brings benefits like increased investment and exports, but also risks like distorting domestic development. India has pursued policies since the 1940s to attract foreign capital while regulating it. The 1991 reforms liberalized many industries and incentives to attract more foreign technology and investment. Further reforms are still needed to improve infrastructure, skills, and the business environment to maximize the benefits of foreign investment.
Technology transfer involves sharing skills, knowledge, technologies, and facilities between organizations to make scientific and technological developments more widely accessible. In India, technology transfer is an important way for developing countries to gain access to new technologies, primarily through commercial transfers between private companies. As India opened its economy in 1991, more Indian companies have entered into technical and financial collaborations with foreign companies through technology transfer agreements. However, not all such collaborations are successful due to various disputes that can arise in implementing the agreements.
Emerging technology innovation systems: key considerations for policy making ...costi2014
This document outlines key considerations for policymaking and strategy development regarding emerging technologies. It discusses factors that influence high-tech innovation systems like limited commercial experience and access to venture capital. It also describes four paths of emerging technology innovation systems: science and technology push, entrepreneurial, system building, and market motors. The document then provides examples of country experiences with emerging technologies strategies, like Germany's focus on priority technologies and the UK's investments in seven high-potential technologies.
Reverse innovation, emerging market and global strategy v3Kurnia Rosyada
Reverse innovation is a new phenomenon where innovations are first adapted in poor, emerging countries and then diffuse to rich countries. The paper examines this phenomenon across four research areas: 1) the types of innovations emerging from developing countries and why they may spread globally, 2) how internationalization processes are changing, 3) how multinational enterprise strategies and management must adapt, and 4) the effects on foreign direct investment spillovers. The rise of emerging markets is challenging traditional views of innovation originating solely in wealthy nations.
Foreign collaboration is defined as an alliance between domestic and foreign entities to collectively carry out agreed upon tasks. The document outlines the meaning and motives of foreign collaboration, including gaining access to new customers and markets, increasing sales and profitability, and eliminating competition. Potential problems with foreign collaborations include low commitment, poor planning, rigidity, distrust, overdependence, and legal issues. The major types of foreign collaborations discussed are technical, marketing, financial, and consultancy collaborations, which can take the form of strategic alliances, joint ventures, mergers, acquisitions, or consortiums.
Foreign collaboration has special appeal as a growth strategy for developing countries. A foreign company collaborates with a domestic company to start business in the host country. Some advantages of foreign collaboration include developing indigenous production, improving competitive abilities, developing brand image quickly, and increasing foreign exchange earnings. Benefits include earnings from royalty fees, return on financial investment, market expansion, and tax benefits in low-tax host countries. Objectives of foreign collaboration include following foreign government policy, utilizing spare capacity, accessing cheap resources, diversification, stability of export, tax benefits, and bandwagon effect. The regulatory framework for foreign investment and collaboration in India was outlined in 1980 and modified in 1990 and 1991. The role of foreign collaboration includes developing competitive spirit
The document provides an overview of foreign collaboration in India, including:
1) It discusses the key regulations governing foreign investment in India and the roles of the Reserve Bank of India and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.
2) It summarizes the two main types of foreign collaboration - financial collaboration involving equity investment, and technical collaboration involving technology transfer.
3) It provides details on the automatic route and government approval route for foreign technical agreements, and the relevant policies around royalty payments.
i'm not the exact author for this PPT ,but i can clime i'm added something more information on this. i hope this PPT will help you to acquire knowledge about MNC and its role in India in a simplest way.
This document is a report on foreign collaboration completed by Ankita Varma with roll number 17. It contains an introduction, definition of foreign collaboration, types of foreign collaboration, advantages and disadvantages of foreign collaboration, and a conclusion. Some advantages listed include creative solutions, higher standards from group outcomes, and developing other skills. Some disadvantages include group thinking, unequal workloads, reduced motivation, and interpersonal conflicts.
This document discusses the role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in India. It provides background on MNCs, including their history and features. It then examines MNCs operating in India, their impact on the country, and a SWOT analysis. The roles of MNCs in India are also outlined, such as profit maximization and international marketing. While MNCs can increase investment, technology transfer, and exports, they may also acquire monopolies, underestimate local culture, and prioritize profits over host countries' interests. In conclusion, MNCs increase competition and employment opportunities in India.
This document discusses national innovation systems and knowledge flows within them. It describes a national innovation system as a complex set of relationships among private enterprises, universities, and public research institutions that creates and shares knowledge. It outlines four primary knowledge flows within these systems: 1) interaction between enterprises through collaboration and information sharing, 2) interaction between enterprises, universities, and research institutions through joint projects and knowledge diffusion, 3) diffusion of knowledge and technology to firms from public research, and 4) movement of personnel between sectors. The quality and fluidity of connections within a national innovation system determine a country's innovative performance.
Bridging the Gap: Intellectual Property Rights and Sustainable Development Go...AJHSSR Journal
ABSTRACT : In today's highly developed society, start-ups are proliferating in various fields. However, most
start-up teams lack relevant management knowledge, resulting in a high failure rate. Entrepreneurial activity is a
complex social phenomenon, and businesses must integrate intellectual property rights (IPRs) management to
yield positive outcomes. This study reviews the literature on IPRs in the innovation and entrepreneurship
ecosystem. From over ahundred existing research papers, highly relevant literature was identified and analyzed
to conclude that IPRs management has contributed significantly to knowledge dissemination, sharing, and
protection among companies in the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. Simultaneously, companies and
universities should also take social responsibility, and contribute to the achievement of the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals.
KEYWORDS: Intellectual Property Rights; Patent Protection; Innovation and EntrepreneurshipEcosystem;
Systematic Literature Review Analysis Method; SDGs
This paper investigates how internal and external knowledge sources contribute to firms' innovation performance. The study analyzes data from 303 firms across 7 European countries. The results show that internal knowledge sources, such as in-house R&D, continuous improvements, and employee training, have the strongest influence on innovation. However, firms also need external knowledge to innovate. Knowledge from local, national, and international sources helps firms supplement their internal knowledge and introduce new ideas that lead to innovation. Firms mainly rely on links with other firms and institutions in their local and global environments to access external knowledge flows that support innovation.
This Working Paper was published by United Nations University Maastricht Economic and social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT). It seeks to provide insights about the main characteristics of innovative firms and to gather new evidence with regard to the nature of the innovation process in the Latin American and Caribbean region. This Paper analyses data from a number of CARICOM countries.
Franz tödtling: Knowledge sourcing and innovation in austrian ict companiesMOC2010
This document discusses a study on knowledge sourcing and innovation in Austrian ICT companies. It examines how the location of companies (type of regional innovation system) influences their pattern of knowledge sourcing and innovation performance. The study analyzes data from 110 ICT companies in three Austrian regions. It finds that both internal knowledge and external knowledge from various sources, including R&D cooperation, influence company innovativeness. Location in a "thick" regional innovation system is also identified as a key determinant of innovation in the knowledge-intensive ICT sector.
Case Study On The Danish Wind Energy SystemBeth Johnson
While books on medieval weapons and medieval warfare explore similar concepts, they differ in their perspectives. Medieval Machine focuses on how technological innovations, like new war machines, benefited medieval society. In contrast, Medieval Warfare emphasizes how constant innovations in weapons and armor promoted further warfare, which negatively impacted society. While improvements to an army's strength helped soldiers, an endless escalation of violence harmed civilians. The books present opposing views on whether military innovations enhanced or damaged medieval life.
This document discusses regional foresight and innovation activities. It argues that regions must develop self-generative capabilities to continuously innovate and renew themselves in order to remain competitive. Regions and companies must be able to rapidly generate and apply new knowledge to adapt to changing global economic conditions. The success of regions is based on the success of companies operating within them. Finland is used as an example of a country that has transformed its economy to be knowledge-and innovation-based through focused efforts. Regional foresight activities should aim to create dynamic innovation systems with strong interactions between actors rather than follow static models.
1) The study examines the relationship between network embeddedness and innovation performance in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana.
2) The researchers found that network embeddedness has a significant positive effect on innovation performance in SMEs.
3) Innovation openness, which refers to external knowledge sourcing, was found to further strengthen the relationship between network embeddedness and SME innovation performance. SMEs with both high network embeddedness and innovation openness had higher innovation performance.
Network Based Private Equity InvestmentJose Acosta
1) Analyzing patent data from organizations like universities can help identify clusters of innovative activity within certain technology domains and regions. This data reveals networks of inventors and their areas of expertise.
2) Convening key inventors from universities and companies within overlapping domains allows investors to explore opportunities at the intersections of technologies and fund collaborations.
3) Mapping innovation networks can guide private equity investments into partnerships between manufacturers and small innovators, technology transfers between academia and industry, and other models that create jobs and wealth in a region.
Corporate social innovation How firms learn to innovate for the greater good...Pam Chan
This document discusses how companies learn to engage in successful social innovation through acquiring tacit knowledge from external partners. It explores knowledge transfer between companies and external parties in corporate social innovation (CSI) projects. The study is based on observations of over 70 companies over five years. It finds that much of the knowledge exchanged in CSI is tacit knowledge developed through shared interactions and experiences. Companies partner with external organizations in different configurations that vary in their distance from the company's core business operations and level of investment/interaction. Through case studies, it illustrates how companies acquire different types of tacit knowledge from partners to enhance their value chains or address social issues.
This document discusses different sources of innovation. It explains that innovation can come from individuals, firms, universities, government laboratories, and private non-profit organizations. It goes on to describe how creativity underlies innovation and how different components of the innovation system, like individuals, firms, universities, and government-funded research, transform creativity into innovative outcomes. The document also discusses how firms conduct basic and applied research as well as development activities, and how universities and non-profits contribute to innovation.
International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) is an open access online peer reviewed international journal that publishes research and review articles in the fields of Computer Science, Neural Networks, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, Information Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Plastic Engineering, Food Technology, Textile Engineering, Nano Technology & science, Power Electronics, Electronics & Communication Engineering, Computational mathematics, Image processing, Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering, Environmental Engineering, VLSI Testing & Low Power VLSI Design etc.
This document discusses different sources of innovation. It begins by explaining that innovation can come from individuals, universities, government labs, non-profits, and firms. Firms are well-suited for innovation due to greater resources. The document then examines creativity and how different parts of the innovation system transform ideas into outcomes. Individual and organizational creativity are discussed. Research and development by firms, universities, government, and non-profits are also sources of innovation. Technology clusters and spillovers that spread knowledge across organizations are reviewed as ways collaboration drives innovation.
Knowledge management in universities in uganda a social perspectiveAlexander Decker
1) The document discusses knowledge management in universities in Uganda and its impact on transforming society. It assessed the relationship between knowledge management and society transformation in two private Ugandan universities.
2) The study found an average negative relationship between knowledge management and society transformation, indicating universities are not effectively applying knowledge to solve societal problems.
3) The author recommends universities strengthen knowledge sharing between students, faculty, and other institutions to better acquaint graduates with problem solving approaches that can transform society.
Effects of the External (Macro) And Internal (Micro) Source (Factors) of Inno...inventionjournals
In an attempt to use the resource-based theoretical approach, this article tried to empirically investigate the influence and impact of theinternal (micro) and external (macro) environmental factors of innovation performance using a sample of small and medium sized firms in the telecommunication cluster in Ghana with the main focus on examining variables such as customer inputs, the intensive role of R&D, cooperative networks, the uncertain environment and the complex environment of the firm. A sample of 31 SMEs in the telecommunication cluster was selected with 109 questionnaires administered. The results indicate that the macro environmental sources as cooperative network and customer inputs actually impact positively on the innovation performance of SMEs in the communication cluster in Ghana. However, firm size, network size and complex environment were shown to be negatively related to firm innovation performance.
This study examines knowledge transfer across boundaries within business incubation centers in China. Through interviews with employees at several incubation centers, the study identifies key boundary conditions and factors impacting knowledge transfer in the Chinese context. The results show that shared values and trust help knowledge transfer by reducing pragmatic boundaries between organizations. Additionally, entrepreneurial orientation and use of information-rich media within small-to-medium enterprises positively influence knowledge transfer across boundaries. The findings provide insights into knowledge management practices in emerging markets like China.
Cassiman in search of complementarity in the innovation strategyCristiano Cunha
- The document discusses complementarity between internal R&D and external knowledge acquisition by firms. It presents two approaches to provide evidence of complementarity from an econometric analysis of Belgian firm data.
- The productivity approach compares innovation performance across firms that pursue different combinations of internal R&D and external knowledge acquisition. The adoption approach examines the correlation between these activities and how they are affected by contextual factors.
- Preliminary results are not fully conclusive on complementarity but provide insights, identifying reliance on basic R&D as an important driver that increases the knowledge benefits of combining internal and external innovation activities.
Knowledge Management in Educational Administrationmin993535
This document summarizes 7 articles on the topic of strategic knowledge management. The articles cover various aspects of knowledge transfer within and between organizations, including internal and external search strategies, knowledge transfer in multinational corporations, balancing exploration and exploitation of knowledge across alliance networks, and the role of human resource practices and employee retention in innovation performance. The document provides high-level overviews of the objectives and key findings of each article.
DEMYSTIFYING KNOWLEDGE SOCIALIZATION AND SERVICE DIFFERENTIATION OF SELECTED ...IAEME Publication
Acquiring knowledge and skills is important facet for growth and development. Organisations have seen the necessity of create emerging ideas through socialization so as to meet up with the standards of the evolving world. The technology industry remains one which has huge potential and has made considerable progress in the last few years. A good number of IT firms are slowly beginning to carve a niche for themselves and deliver impressive products and services. IT firms have become highly competitive and despite their efforts in creating new knowledge, they are still faced with challenges of diverse socialization of ideas, innovative technologies, cultural syndrome and competencies for service differentiation. This array of challenges facing many IT firms in Nigeria forces one to question their levels of innovation. This study was specifically, descriptive and managers of three hierarchical levels (strategic, tactical and operational) in the four selected IT firms were selected as subjects of study.
DEMYSTIFYING KNOWLEDGE SOCIALIZATION AND SERVICE DIFFERENTIATION OF SELECTED ...IAEME Publication
Acquiring knowledge and skills is important facet for growth and development.
Organisations have seen the necessity of create emerging ideas through socialization
so as to meet up with the standards of the evolving world. The technology industry
remains one which has huge potential and has made considerable progress in the last
few years. A good number of IT firms are slowly beginning to carve a niche for
themselves and deliver impressive products and services. IT firms have become highly
competitive and despite their efforts in creating new knowledge, they are still faced
with challenges of diverse socialization of ideas, innovative technologies, cultural
syndrome and competencies for service differentiation. This array of challenges
facing many IT firms in Nigeria forces one to question their levels of innovation. This
study was specifically, descriptive and managers of three hierarchical levels
(strategic, tactical and operational) in the four selected IT firms were selected as
subjects of study. The target population of this study comprised IT firms that were
listed on JarusHub Nigeria (2017), Nigerian Yellow Pages (2011) and Nigeria Search
Engine (2011) which are the commonly used business directories in Nigeria. The
multi stage sampling technique was adopted which comprised purposive, stratified
and; convenience (availability) sampling techniques. A structured questionnaire
Similar to R&D collaborations and innovation performance the case of argentinean biotech firms (20)
Community Futures Mapping Documentation DRAFTiBoP Asia
This document provides information about the project team and community mapping activities conducted for the Informal City Dialogues project in Metro Manila. A series of focus group discussions and mapping exercises were held in 5 informal settler communities between February 16-March 1, 2013 to understand issues in informality. Key issues raised included lack of security of tenure, limited livelihood opportunities, and inadequate access to basic services. Despite challenges, participants remained optimistic and hoped the government and community initiatives could help alleviate poverty and facilitate adaptation to environmental changes.
Inclusive Futures Mapping Documentation DRAFTiBoP Asia
This document summarizes the proceedings of a two-day inclusive futures mapping workshop on the 2040 urban challenge in Metro Manila. The workshop brought together stakeholders from different sectors to discuss factors influencing how people live in Metro Manila, develop four scenarios for the city's future, and discuss lessons learned. Participants included community representatives, academics, and government officials who shared perspectives on the past, present and future of the city. Through group exercises, they identified key drivers of change, constructed narratives for alternative futures, and critiqued one another's scenarios. The goal was to generate inclusive visions that could help guide long-term urban planning.
Typology of business, social enterprise and social innovation models for incl...iBoP Asia
This document discusses inclusive mobility in Metro Manila and explores business and social enterprise models that can promote inclusive transportation. It begins by defining concepts of inclusive mobility and how mobility needs to work for vulnerable groups. The document then analyzes the current transportation challenges in Metro Manila, particularly for the poor and vulnerable, such as high costs and long travel times. It presents a framework to analyze potential inclusive mobility models based on how they benefit various sectors. Examples of international models that increase access to transportation for rural areas are also provided. The goal is to identify solutions that can be replicated or scaled up to improve mobility for all in Metro Manila.
Mobility characteristics, costs, and issues of the poor and vulnerable groupsiBoP Asia
The document summarizes the findings of a study on the transport needs and costs of poor communities and vulnerable groups in the Philippines. Key findings include that walking is the most common transportation mode for the poor, transport costs consume a significant portion of household income and expenses, and high transport costs are the primary mobility problem reported. Solutions proposed by communities included increasing income, lowering fares, and budgeting transport costs. Mobility characteristics and transportation preferences of vulnerable groups like BPO workers and the elderly were also examined.
Mapping of the Public Transport System of Metro Manila: Responding to the Nee...iBoP Asia
This document discusses a study that mapped the public transport system in Metro Manila using GIS to analyze accessibility for poor communities. The study collected secondary data on transport facilities and conducted field surveys to map routes, terminals, and pedestrian infrastructure. Notable gaps in existing transport data were identified. The GIS database developed classified formal and informal terminals and analyzed proximity and density to measure accessibility. The analysis identified North Triangle and areas along Commonwealth Avenue as having high public transport accessibility.
Non-Motorized Transport Forum and Mapping WorkshopiBoP Asia
The questions raised good points about replicating the program in urban poor communities and construction workers' communities. Mr. Uichico acknowledged the potential for expansion but also noted they are still learning from their pilot project. More discussion is needed on adapting the model to different contexts while maintaining its goals of poverty alleviation and mobility access.
The document summarizes the project launch of the "Catalyzing New Mobility in Cities: the Case of Metro Manila" project held on January 31, 2012. It provides an overview of the various presentations and discussions that took place at the event, which was organized by the Innovations at the Base of the Pyramid in Asia (iBoP Asia) Program to bring together stakeholders in transportation from Metro Manila. The launch aimed to start a conversation around empowering citizens to shape mobility patterns in Metro Manila to be more inclusive. Preliminary findings from research commissioned by the project on mapping public transportation and understanding mobility issues faced by the poor were also presented.
The document summarizes an inception meeting held by the Ateneo School of Government and Rockefeller Foundation to launch a project on catalyzing new mobility in Metro Manila. Key points from presentations include: (1) Metro Manila has experienced rapid urbanization that has led to problems like traffic and informal settlements; (2) Cities are economic engines and attract people seeking opportunities, yet Metro Manila's pedestrians are not prioritized; (3) The meeting brought together stakeholders to discuss research on Metro Manila's transport system and impacts on the poor.
Training on Sustainable Transport and Climate Change Documentation ReportiBoP Asia
The two-day training on sustainable transport and climate change covered 5 modules. The first day included modules on sustainable transport and climate change, sustainable transport and the climate process, and transitioning to low carbon transport. The second day covered climate finance for low carbon transport and measuring the impact of low carbon transport interventions on CO2 emissions. A group exercise was also conducted where participants proposed potential low carbon transport projects. The training aimed to enhance understanding of the relationship between transport and climate change, and identify solutions to transition to more sustainable transport systems.
This document summarizes a pilot mapping workshop on catalyzing new mobility in Metro Manila that took place on February 1, 2012. 38 participants from various private organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions attended to map the transportation systems in Quezon City. The workshop aimed to 1) map existing and potential transportation networks, 2) provide stakeholders an opportunity to collaborate, and 3) expand the shared knowledge base on inclusive mobility. Participants engaged in a walking tour and were divided into groups to map the area. Their maps identified issues like the need for improved signage, bike lanes, and integrated ticketing. The workshop helped participants learn from each other and envision how to make transportation in Metro Manila more accessible and sustainable.
Ortigas New Mobility Mapping DocumentationiBoP Asia
The document reports on a New Mobility Mapping Workshop held on March 13, 2012 in Ortigas CBD area that brought together 63 participants from government, private sector, academe and NGOs. The workshop aimed to map out the existing and potential transport systems in the area through group activities. The results highlighted opportunities to improve walking and biking infrastructure, develop a bus rapid transit system, and implement policies supporting green transportation.
Moving Manila Public Lecture DocumentationiBoP Asia
1. This document summarizes a public lecture on urban planning, transport, and mobility in Metro Manila held by the Ateneo School of Government. The event featured presentations from representatives of the Rockefeller Foundation and the University of Michigan on challenges facing Metro Manila's transportation system and potential solutions.
2. Key challenges discussed included severe traffic congestion, a reliance on private vehicles over public transportation, and a lack of coordination between the cities and municipalities that make up Metro Manila. Potential solutions focused on prioritizing pedestrians, increasing public transportation and road pricing, and fostering greater citizen engagement and multi-sector partnerships.
3. There was discussion around the need for long-term regional planning, modifying governance structures,
Creative industries and innovation the case of new media firms in cape towniBoP Asia
This document examines innovation in new media firms located in Cape Town, South Africa. It finds that the new media sector in Cape Town is small but emerging. While new media firms demonstrate technological innovation, their innovation activities tend to be incremental and localized. Various barriers limit their ability to enhance innovation and growth. The document provides policy implications for supporting innovation in creative industries in developing countries and recommendations for developing Cape Town's new media sector.
Colombia’s National System of Innovation: A Multi-theoretical Assessment of ...iBoP Asia
This document provides an overview of Colombia's National System of Innovation (NSI). It describes the structure and development of Colombia's NSI over three stages from 1968 to present. While the NSI has strengthened over time through various policies and laws, investment in science and technology remains low and Colombia continues to lag behind other countries in areas like academic publications, patents, and business sector performance. The document aims to analyze Colombia's NSI using multiple theoretical frameworks to better understand its strengths and weaknesses.
Clustering and Imitation in Innovation Strategy: Toward an Incumbent-Entrant ...iBoP Asia
This document summarizes a research paper about clustering and imitation in innovation strategy in emerging markets. It discusses how in emerging markets with institutional voids, firms face uncertainty in making innovation strategies. The paper proposes that in this context, imitation can be an alternative learning mechanism. Specifically, it hypothesizes that in industrial clusters in emerging markets, entrant firms will imitate the innovation strategies of incumbent firms. It also hypothesizes that characteristics of the industrial cluster like density and variability will moderate the imitation effect by influencing information conditions. The paper aims to test these relationships by examining firms' R&D investment strategies in Beijing's Zhongguancun Science Park from 2001-2003.
Approaching the Measurement of the Critical Mass of Science, Technology and I...iBoP Asia
This document discusses the concept of critical mass in the context of science, technology, and innovation (STI) capabilities. It aims to define critical mass for STI, discuss how to measure it, and analyze how far Mexico is from achieving critical masses in STI. Critical mass refers to the level of STI capabilities needed to generate self-sustaining endogenous processes. Newly industrialized countries have achieved critical masses in STI, as evidenced by balanced STI populations and spawning of development processes. The paper reviews literature on critical mass and coevolutionary processes. It proposes defining critical masses of S&T and innovation in terms of capability populations and their outputs. The empirical analysis compares STI indicators of developed, newly
Clustering and Imitation in Innovation Strategy Toward an Incumbent-Entrant D...iBoP Asia
This document summarizes a research paper that examines how entrants in an emerging market industrial cluster imitate the innovation strategies of incumbents. Specifically, it looks at firms in Beijing's Zhongguancun Science Park from 2001-2003. The paper develops hypotheses that under institutional voids in emerging markets, entrants will mimic incumbents' R&D investment strategies. It also predicts that characteristics of the industrial cluster, like density and variability, will influence information flow and shape imitation. The paper reviews several theories of imitation and discusses how characteristics of the reference group and information networks can impact diffusion of practices. It aims to test whether entrants imitate incumbents' innovation strategies and whether cluster density and variability moderate this
Colombia’s National System of Innovation A Multi-theoretical Assessment of St...iBoP Asia
The document provides an overview of Colombia's National System of Science, Technology and Innovation (NSSTI). It describes the system's structure and history, noting it was established in 1990 and operates through various councils, programs, and government bodies like Colciencias. However, the development of the system has been slow, with investment in R&D and ST&I remaining low around 0.4% of GDP compared to a 1% goal. Key challenges include low private sector participation, lack of coordination between actors, and regional disparities in innovation capabilities. The paper aims to assess NSSTI using multiple theoretical frameworks to better understand performance gaps and ways to strengthen long-term development.
Local Innovation Systems in Emerging Economies Study Case Córdoba, ArgentinaiBoP Asia
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Where Can Public Policy Play a Role A Comparative Case Study of Regional Inst...iBoP Asia
Where Can Public Policy Play a Role A Comparative Case Study of Regional Institutions and Their Impact on Firm’s Innovation Networks in China and Switzerland
In the rapidly evolving landscape of technologies, XML continues to play a vital role in structuring, storing, and transporting data across diverse systems. The recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) present new methodologies for enhancing XML development workflows, introducing efficiency, automation, and intelligent capabilities. This presentation will outline the scope and perspective of utilizing AI in XML development. The potential benefits and the possible pitfalls will be highlighted, providing a balanced view of the subject.
We will explore the capabilities of AI in understanding XML markup languages and autonomously creating structured XML content. Additionally, we will examine the capacity of AI to enrich plain text with appropriate XML markup. Practical examples and methodological guidelines will be provided to elucidate how AI can be effectively prompted to interpret and generate accurate XML markup.
Further emphasis will be placed on the role of AI in developing XSLT, or schemas such as XSD and Schematron. We will address the techniques and strategies adopted to create prompts for generating code, explaining code, or refactoring the code, and the results achieved.
The discussion will extend to how AI can be used to transform XML content. In particular, the focus will be on the use of AI XPath extension functions in XSLT, Schematron, Schematron Quick Fixes, or for XML content refactoring.
The presentation aims to deliver a comprehensive overview of AI usage in XML development, providing attendees with the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions. Whether you’re at the early stages of adopting AI or considering integrating it in advanced XML development, this presentation will cover all levels of expertise.
By highlighting the potential advantages and challenges of integrating AI with XML development tools and languages, the presentation seeks to inspire thoughtful conversation around the future of XML development. We’ll not only delve into the technical aspects of AI-powered XML development but also discuss practical implications and possible future directions.
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Generating privacy-protected synthetic data using Secludy and MilvusZilliz
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Read Taking AI to the Next Level in Manufacturing to gain insights on AI adoption in the manufacturing industry, such as:
1. How quickly AI is being implemented in manufacturing.
2. Which barriers stand in the way of AI adoption.
3. How data quality and governance form the backbone of AI.
4. Organizational processes and structures that may inhibit effective AI adoption.
6. Ideas and approaches to help build your organization's AI strategy.
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Webinar: Designing a schema for a Data WarehouseFederico Razzoli
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A data warehouse is a central relational database that contains all measurements about a business or an organisation. This data comes from a variety of heterogeneous data sources, which includes databases of any type that back the applications used by the company, data files exported by some applications, or APIs provided by internal or external services.
But designing a data warehouse correctly is a hard task, which requires gathering information about the business processes that need to be analysed in the first place. These processes must be translated into so-called star schemas, which means, denormalised databases where each table represents a dimension or facts.
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- Understanding dictionaries and how to identify business entities;
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- Setting a table granularity;
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Salesforce Integration for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions A...Jeffrey Haguewood
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We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on integration of Salesforce with Bonterra Impact Management.
Interested in deploying an integration with Salesforce for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
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5th LF Energy Power Grid Model Meet-up SlidesDanBrown980551
5th Power Grid Model Meet-up
It is with great pleasure that we extend to you an invitation to the 5th Power Grid Model Meet-up, scheduled for 6th June 2024. This event will adopt a hybrid format, allowing participants to join us either through an online Mircosoft Teams session or in person at TU/e located at Den Dolech 2, Eindhoven, Netherlands. The meet-up will be hosted by Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), a research university specializing in engineering science & technology.
Power Grid Model
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Power Grid Model is an open source project from Linux Foundation Energy and provides a calculation engine that is increasingly essential for DSOs. It offers a standards-based foundation enabling real-time power systems analysis, simulations of electrical power grids, and sophisticated what-if analysis. In addition, it enables in-depth studies and analysis of the electrical power grid’s behavior and performance. This comprehensive model incorporates essential factors such as power generation capacity, electrical losses, voltage levels, power flows, and system stability.
Power Grid Model is currently being applied in a wide variety of use cases, including grid planning, expansion, reliability, and congestion studies. It can also help in analyzing the impact of renewable energy integration, assessing the effects of disturbances or faults, and developing strategies for grid control and optimization.
What to expect
For the upcoming meetup we are organizing, we have an exciting lineup of activities planned:
-Insightful presentations covering two practical applications of the Power Grid Model.
-An update on the latest advancements in Power Grid -Model technology during the first and second quarters of 2024.
-An interactive brainstorming session to discuss and propose new feature requests.
-An opportunity to connect with fellow Power Grid Model enthusiasts and users.
Nordic Marketo Engage User Group_June 13_ 2024.pptx
R&D collaborations and innovation performance the case of argentinean biotech firms
1. R&D collaborations and innovation performance. The case of
Argentinean biotech firms
Lilia Stubrin1
Abstract
Many emerging countries are encouraging firms to enter into biotechnology, as it is seen as a
window of opportunity to generate a descommoditization of their patterns of product
specialization. We analyze the case of biotechnology in Argentina. We assess what strategies do
firms display to sustain their technological dynamisms and update their knowledge bases in order
to compete in this knowledge-intensive sector. In particular, we study the Argentinean biotech
firms’ network of collaborations in order to evaluate how knowledge diffuses within and to local
firms. Our main results suggest that the knowledge network structure of the Argentinean biotech
firms is different from the ones found in biotech leading regions, but similar to those in other
non-leading ones. The salient features are the scarcity of collaborations among co-located firms,
the key role that local PROs play in knitting the local network together and the striking relevance
of non-local partnerships predominantly forged with partners in leading regions. Collaborations
with local scientific and technological institutions as well as with foreign partners are shown to
be valuable to enhance firms’ innovation performance. Our study contributes to provide new
evidence regarding how-high tech activities develop in emerging countries, and the role of local
and non local knowledge flows to promote firms’ learning and technical change.
PhD Fellow UNU-MERIT
UNU-MERIT
Keizer Kareplain 19
6211 TC Maastricht
The Netherlands
stubrin@merit.unu.edu
2. 1. Introduction
In the last years, emerging countries have been encouraged to foster high-tech sectors, as they are
presented as possible avenues these countries should explore in order to diversify their patterns of
specialization towards more value added and technologically complex activities.
Accordingly, many of these countries are moving forward into activities such as biotechnology,
nanotechnology and ICT. The aim of this paper is to contribute to expand the existent empirical
evidence regarding how high-tech sectors develop in emerging countries, and in particular, what
strategies do firms display in these settings to enhance their technological and productive
capabilities in order to compete in a globalised world. We study the case of Argentinean biotech
firms, and in particular we focus on firms’ networks of collaborations.
To our view the relevance of studying the biotech firms'network relies on several factors. First,
it is known that biotech is an activity which is knowledge-intensive and in which technical
change takes place at a rapid peace. Thus, exploring how knowledge diffuses within and to
Argentinean firms becomes meaningful to comprehend how firms'acquire and build their
technological capabilities. Second, it is a widely held view that the complex and broad
knowledge bases of new technologies encourage firms to become `networked organizations'
looking for complementary knowledge, skills and resources outside their boundaries (Powell,
1992; Barley, 1992; Powell, 1996a; Powell, 2005). Third, networks have been found to be means
that facilitate firms'grow and innovation performance in leading regions (Powell, 1996; Uzzi,
1996; Ahuja, 2000). Thus, we aim at exploring to what extent this is the case for the Argentinean
case.
We are further interested in addressing the composition of the network in terms of the agents with
whom local firms exchange and share knowledge, and to what extent the industry network relies
on local and non-local collaborations. This intends to address the debate regarding the role that
geographical proximity plays in the economics of knowledge transmission as the available
empirical evidence is not conclusive about this matter (Brink, 2007; Bathelt et al, 2004). Non-
local collaborations can be crucial vectors to bring novelty and diversity, and sustain the process
of learning and technical change in relatively laggard knowledge regions.
3. The study is based on original data on Argentinean biotech firms collected in 2008. The firms
considered for the analysis apply at least one modern biotechnology technique to produce goods
and services and/or perform biotechnology R&D (OECD, 2005). These firms are active in
different biotechnology applications: human health, animal health, GM and non-GM agricultural
biotech and industrial processing.
Our study finds that Argentinean biotech firms are networked organizations. Thus, these firms
get actively involved in cooperations particularly with the purpose of sharing, exchanging and
sourcing knowledge from outside the firm. This is a pattern that spans across all firms, regardless
of their main area of biotech application. As regards the knowledge network structure,
knowledge collaborations with local public research organizations2 (PROs) and foreign partners
(mostly located in leading regions) are the most relevant and frequent type of interactions, which
we also find to be valuable to enhance biotech firms’ innovation performance.
The results obtained suggest that the development and sustainability of high tech activities in
emerging countries cannot be explained only focusing on local knowledge interactions.
Collaborations at a distance are not only frequent but also seem to be valuable to improve the
innovation performance of high-tech firms located outside leading regions. In addition, the
development of the biotech activity is highly grounded on the local scientific knowledge based
contained in local PROs. This reveals the relevance of a strong local scientific base for high-
tech activities to spring and further develop in a country.
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews the literature on collaboration networks,
geography and innovation, in order to address the current debate regarding the role of
geographical proximity and local knowledge flows to enhance learning and innovation. Section 3
describes the methodology and process of data collection used in this study. Section 4 is
concerned to depict the main characteristics of firms’ collaboration activity. In particular, it
focuses on Argentinean biotech firms’ knowledge network, unraveling its main characteristics
and providing plausible explanations for the observed patterns of collaboration. In Section 5 we
PROs refer to universities, research institutions, laboratories and hospitals.
4. assess the value of non local R&D collaborations and cooperations with local PROs for firms’
innovation performance. Finally, in Section 6 we present the conclusions of the study.
2. Literature review
Networks of collaborations: the value of embeddedness
In the last years we have witness an outstanding increase in firms’ engagement in strategic
alliances (Hagedoorn, 2000). These are ‘voluntary arrangements between firms involving
exchange, sharing, or co-development of products, technologies, or services’ (Gulati 1998, page
293). Collaborative arrangements are assumed to be driven by the asymmetric distribution of
technological, organizational, commercial and financial resources within an industry (e.g.
Andrews, 1971). In addition, the expanding knowledge base and complexity of many
technologies further trigger firms to enter into cooperations. That seems to be the case of
biotechnology. The evolution and development of this activity has been found to rely on a
diverse and complex array of cooperations between firms, universities, public research
organizations and venture capitalists (e.g. Bartley et al, 1992, Shan et al, 1994, Koput et al, 1997,
Owen-Smith and Powell, 2004, Powell et al, 1996, Powell et al, 2005). The complexity of the
technology, the high risk that the process of innovation entail as well as the speed at which
technical change takes place, encourage firms to interact and exchange knowledge and resources
with other agents within and outside the industry (Hagedoorn, 1992, Eisenhardt and
Schoonhoven 1996, Mowery et al, 1998).
Social network theory has been applied to study firms’ voluntary cooperation agreements as it
offers a framework to understand how firms came across the opportunity to cooperate with other
organizations, obtain information about potential partners and overcome the uncertainties that
cooperation with others entails. Social network analysis follows the studies of economic
sociology that explain how economic actions can be influenced by the social structure of relations
within which they are embedded (Granovetter, 1985). Thus, the way a firm is embedded in a
collaborative network can provide it with both opportunities and constraints for its behaviour and
performance (Gulati, 1995, 1998; Gulati and Garigulo, 1999). A network of collaborations that
is highly clustered was claimed to positively affect firm’s performance through the nurturing of
5. social capital (Coleman, 1988). Clustering arises as firms keep cooperating with the same
partners over time (‘relational embeddedness’) or collaborations with their partners’ partners
(‘structural embeddedness’). Particularly, firms’ structural embededdness prevents opportunistic
behaviours and enhances trustworthiness which, in turn, favours collaboration and exchange of
information (Coleman, 1988).
Hence, the value of embeddedness was found empirically significant in the biotechnology
industry in which network formation and industry growth are highly influenced by the
development and preservation of social capital (Koput et al, 1997; Powell et al 1996). Also in
other industries embeddedness was found to be significant for network formation3 and to foster
firms’ learning and innovation.4
However, as it was examined by the empirical study of Ahuja (2000), the degree of
embeddedness that can be beneficial to knowledge creation depends on the context and the kind
of links that the network structure facilitates. For instance, a network structure in which
structural embeddedness prevails restricts the potential partners and therefore, ‘put limits to the
inflow of diverse and fresh insights’ (Ahuja, 2000). This can be especially problematic when the
collaborative network is mostly composed by partners that are far from the technological frontier,
as a technological ‘lock-in’ may affect the firms that compose the network. As a matter of fact,
the empirical evidence that supports the value of firms’ embeddedness in networks of
collaborations has been mostly collected in developed countries. Studies are generally based on
samples of firms that are leading technological change in a certain industry, and most of the firms
are already in the frontier or are close to it. We know little if firms’ embeddedness is likely to be
valuable and beneficial for high-tech firms located in more knowledge scarce environments.
Accordingly, firms that are themselves connected to organizations situated outside the local
network may able to diversify their sources of knowledge and also become a bridge for fresh
insights to enter into the local network. Thus, actors that bridge ‘structural holes’ by forging non-
3
In the automobiles industry (Dyer and Nobeoka, 2000) or in new materials and industrial automatation industries
(Gulati and Garigulo, 1999).
4
In textiles (Uzzi, 1996), biotech (Powell et al, 1999) and chemicals (Ahuja, 2000), personal computers (Hagerdoon
and Duysters, 2000).
6. redundant ties between previously unconnected networks may have an information advantage and
a strategic position compared to their local partners (Burt, 1992).
Collaborations and geography: local and non-local collaborations
The embeddedness of firms in dense local networks was also pointed out as being beneficial for
firms’ learning and innovation by the agglomeration and cluster literature. A cluster is a
‘geographically proximate group of inter-connected companies and associated institutions in a
particular field, linked by commonalities and complementarities’ (Porter 2000, p 254). Firms’
clustering and spatial proximity not only can provide advantages in terms of costs as economies
of scale and scope can be achieved, but also facilitates access and circulation of knowledge
(Marshall, 1920). This is specially the case when the knowledge to be transferred is highly tacit,
which requires face-to-face and interpersonal interactions for its better diffusion.5
The benefits of clustering for fostering learning and innovation can be even more important in
those industries in which knowledge creation is the key (Audretsch et al, 1996). Success stories
of high-tech clusters, among which the Sillicon Valley is the most prominent example, fostered
and enhanced the value of clustering.6 Following these successful stories deliberate efforts have
been made to promote the creation of clusters elsewhere. Firms’ were provided incentives and
facilities to locate close to each other, and also nearby universities and scientific institutions, with
the aim that geographical proximity would naturally create room for knowledge diffusion.
5
See the cluster literature based on the seminal work of Marshall (1920). The value of clustering for the
dissemination of ideas in a cluster is addressed in the European literature on industrial districts (e.g. Piore and Sabel,
1984; Becattini, 1990; Schmitz, 1995), Innovative Milleus (e.g. Camagni, 1991), Regional Systems of Innovation
(e.g. Lawson and Lorenz, 1999; Cooke, 2001) and others. Mechanisms highlighted in the literature that facilitate
knowledge transfer among agglomerated organizations are user-producer relationships, formal-informal
collaborations, inter-firm mobility of workers and spin-offs of new firms.
6
Successful clusters in developed countries are the Silicon Valley, Emilia Romana in Italy and Bade-Wuerttembeng
in Germany. Besides other well documented clusters in developing countries are located in Brasil (Schmitz, 1995),
Mexico (Rabelotti 1995), Peru (Visser, 1996) and India (Cawthorne, 1995; Nadvi, 1996).
7. However, empirical evidence that has started to flourish cast doubt on the predominance of
localized knowledge networking and on the idea that learning processes are exclusively local.
Local and non-local knowledge cooperations have found of equal importance by certain studies
(Coenen et al 2004, Lawton-Smith, 2004, Van Geenhuizen, 2007, Mc Kelvey et al 2003, Fontes
2005) and authors started to claim that the value of local links has been very much exaggerated
(Oinas, 1999; Coenen 2004). Coenen (2004) argues that the ‘argument of proximity makes
interaction better, faster, easier and smoother runs the risk of spatial fetichism’ (page 1005). The
space as such may not be of great value if other factors contained in a physical space such as
certain actors, relations, institutions, and shared values are not taken into account.
In a review of the cluster literature Breschi S. and Malerba F. (2001) highlight the importance of
examining the openness of clusters to understand their productive and innovative dynamism.
Explanations mostly based on the benefits of geographical agglomeration lead to a narrow view
of clusters in which they are treated as isolated and self-constrained entities. On the contrary,
external linkages should start to be contemplated as they can be critical to foster and enhance the
dynamism of dense and local network relationships. For instance, they can be very valuable to
avoid technological lock-in and keep aware of technological changes and market opportunities.
Regarding the studies of clusters in developing countries, Bell and Albu (1999) also stress that an
analytical shift towards a more open view of the clusters is needed in order to understand the
bases of their technological dynamism and long-term competitiveness. In fact, external
collaborations may bring novelty and diversity, and thus become a source of competitiveness for
the development of high-tech industries in relatively laggard regions. It has been shown the
value of external alliances to access knowledge in distant contexts. See, among others, Rees
(2005) that analyze the medical biotechnology cluster in Great Vancouver (Canada) and
(Rosenkopf, 2003) who focus on the semiconductor industry
Therefore, the question that underlies here is whether it is the place (the geographical
agglomeration per se) or the network (without any a priori consideration of geographical
boundaries) that matters for encouraging learning and innovation.
8. When thinking about technical change in developing countries - specially in knowledge intensive
industries – a great deal of the sources of knowledge resides outside the local network, and
therefore local densely connected networks by themselves may not be a sufficient condition to
boost learning and generate technical change. In this case, ‘close’, local learning relationships
may fall short to sustain innovation and keep track to the ever changing technological frontier.
The case of biotechnology
In the case of biotechnology the pattern of spatial concentration seems strong. At world level, we
can identify a small number of `nodes of excellence’ constituted by clustered firms and
institutions that lead the industry and the research in the area. Thus, the world-leading biotech
regions are located in two main areas in the US (California and the north-eastern area that goes
from Maasachusetts to North Carolina), in two areas in the UK (Oxford and Cambridge) and a
scatter of small clusters elsewhere in Europe (Carlsson, 2001). However, recent evidence has
shown the emergence and importance of ‘newcomers’ into biotechnology (Heimeriks and
Boschma, 2011). Many developing countries are also trying to move forward into the
development of biotech as it can become a window of opportunity to generate a
‘decommoditization’ in their patterns of specialization. We got intrigued by the following
questions: How does biotech develop outside the world main hubs? Can the emergence and
further development of biotech activities in emergent regions be explained solely based on local
interactions and local knowledge flows?
The evidence from the development of biotechnology activities outside the `nodes of excellence’
shows that even though local collaborations are important, non-local cooperations are more
frequent than expected. As a matter of fact, empirical studies of the biotechnology industry in
non-leading biotech regions reveal that biotech firms in that localities tend to early
internationalize their cooperations (e.g. Fontes, 2005; Rees, 2005; McKelvey, 2003; Gilding,
2008; Belussi, 2008). The internationalism of partnerships in non-leading regions is such that in
some cases non-local partnerships even surpass the rate of local networking activity. For instance,
R&D projects carried on by DBFs in Portugal with foreign partners were more frequent than
those with local partners (Fontes, 2003; 2005). The biomedical firms in the region of Greater
9. Vancouver, a peripheral region of Canada, show to heavily rely upon non-local links as 77% of
the collaborations reported were non-local (Rees, 2005). Similar evidence was found for Swedish
biotech firms specialized in bioscience (McKelvey et al, 2003) and for the Melbourne biomedical
cluster in Australia (Gilding, 2008).
However, non-local collaborations are not exclusive for more laggard or peripheral biotech
regions. On the contrary, Boston Biotechnology Cluster which is a benchmark in the
biotechnology area and it is one of the largest biotechnology clusters in the world, showed a high
local density of connections along with out-of-the-cluster collaborations with organizations in
other US regions and even in other countries (Owen-Smith, 2004). Thus, it seems that the way
the biotechnology activity develops can hardly be explained by closed local interactions. As a
matter of fact, in the biotechnology and network literature the empirical observation that biotech
firms engage in R&D collaborations with foreign organizations is understood as a way firms can
access knowledge, resources and expertise that are not available in their locality (Fontes, 2003;
Rees, 2005; McKelvey, 2005). Thus, a mix between local and non-local knowledge flows can
be ideal to promote firms’ innovation performance particularly in regions that do not lead the
industry.
Accordingly, Gertler and Levitte (2003) in a study of 359 Canadian biotech DBFs show that
those firms that innovated had a more outward looking portfolio of collaborations. In addition,
Cassiman (2006) using data from the Community Innovation Survey on Belgian manufacturing
firms provide econometric evidence showing that those firms that combine internal and external
R&D strategies introduce more and substantially improved products to the market. To our
knowledge there are not much more studies that address the relevance of non-local cooperations
for firms’ learning and innovation in biotech.
In the following sections we address the case of Argentinean biotech firms. Firstly, we provide
new empirical evidence regarding the extent to these firms engage in collaborations for R&D,
manufacturing and marketing purposes. We particularly explore the geographical scope as well
as the organizational composition of their networks of collaborations. Secondly, we assess the
10. value of local and non-local collaborations to enhance firms’ innovation performance. In the last
section, we provide some conclusions.
3. Data and Methodology
This methodological section is organized as follows. First, we present the definitions of
biotechnology and biotechnological firm used in this study. Then, the process of data collection
is described as long as the main characteristics of the data obtained.
3.1. Definitions
As biotechnology is neither an industry in itself nor represents a natural grouping of processes or
products (Miller, 2007) its definition is neither simple nor straightforward. As a matter of fact,
biotechnology embraces several different technologies which can be used for different purposes
in diverse economic activities. For instance, the technology of recombinant DNA can be used to
produce large molecule medicines by the pharmaceutical sector, create new crop varieties by the
agricultural sector, or modify micro-organisms to produce industrial enzymes by the chemical
sector (OECD, 2005). A further concern associated with the term biotechnology is that, apart
from being used to encompass a wide range of technologies and applications, it has been defined
in many different ways (Kennedy, 1991).
In this paper we follow the OECD’s definition of biotechnology as it is broadly accepted by
many countries which follow it to compile statistics on biotechnology activity (see Annex A).
Thus, our study is focused on those firms that apply at least one modern biotechnology technique
to produce goods and services and/or to perform biotechnology R&D.7 Therefore, those firms
that just trade biotechnology products, or use biotechnology inputs without further modifications,
are not subjects of our study.
7
We adopt the OECD definition of biotechnology firm (OECD, 2005; Beuzekom, 2009) in order to obtain
consistent and international comparable data.
11. The study is grounded both on Dedicated Biotechnology Firms (DBFs)8 and on firms involved in
biotechnology activities but which main activity is not the production of biotechnological
products and process. Many empirical studies, particularly in leading biotechnology countries,
analyzed the development of the biotech industry by only focusing on the study of DBFs.9
However; we do not to restrict the study only to Argentinean DBFs as they fall short to represent
all the private efforts that take place in the area of biotech in the country.10
Biotechnology can be applied in many fields such as health (human and animal), agriculture,
food and beverages processing, natural resources, environment and industrial processing
(Orsenigo, 2006). The area of life science, particularly human therapeutics and diagnostic, has
been chosen by many empirical studies to do research about (e.g. Powell et al, 2005; Powell et al,
1999; Deeds and Rothaermel, 2004; Powell et al, 1996; McKelvey et al, 2003). However, our
study covers a larger scope of biotechnology applications as the aim of the study is to picture
biotechnology activity taking place in Argentina, regardless of the area of application.
Therefore, we base our analysis on an empirical material that contemplates an expanding field of
knowledge with multiple application areas with the aim of enriching the empirical evidence and
the analysis of how high-tech activities develop in emerging countries.
8
DBFs are defined by the OECD (OECD,2005) as biotechnology active firms whose predominant activity involves
the application of biotechnology techniques to produce goods or services and/or the performance of biotechnology
R&D.
9
See among others, for the US (Powell et al, 2005; Powell et al, 1996; Deeds and Rothaermel, 2004; Powell et al,
1999; Koput et al, 1997), Australia (Gilding, 2008) and Canada (Niosi, 2003).
10
The same criteria was followed by McKelvey et al (2003), Brink et al (2007), and Dahlander and Mc Kelvey
(2005).
12. 3.2. Database
The fieldwork for data collection took place in Argentina between January 2009 and July 2010.
We had the unique opportunity to participate and cooperate in the design of the questionnaire and
in the process of data collection with the United Nations Economic Commission of Latin
America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) - Buenos Aires office - .
We identified and surveyed those Argentinean firms that suited the adopted definition of
biotechnology firm. The lack of an official and updated database of biotechnology firms in
Argentina led us to the need of building up one. This was not a straightforward task due to the
fact that firms performing biotechnology activities are widespread throughout the productive
spectrum and their products are not easily identified as biotechnologicals at first glance. Thus, we
could not single out those firms solely based on traditional definitions of sectors or even of firms
competing in a certain market. We created a database by searching in secondary sources.11 The
database contained 142 firms which we presumed were active in biotechnology activities in
Argentina. All these firms were approached and invited to participate in the survey.
The main procedure to collect data was to survey firms by sending them a questionnaire12 by post
or by email. Additionally, we further interviewed 33 of these firms. The interviews were semi-
structured and had the purpose of checking and complementing the information given in the
written questionnaire.
In all, out of the 142 firms that composed the original database, 102 enterprises turned out to be
effectively involved in biotechnology activities. 40 companies were discarded as they were
mainly dedicated to market biotechnological products developed by third parties such as
11
The secondary sources consulted were lists of government grants'beneficiaries, membership lists of Technological
Poles, firms incubated in universities, Internet searches on companies` websites, interviews with knowledgeable
people, the business press and published reports on the matter.
12
The questionnaire was pre-tested to control both for the length and the quality of the information gathered.
Accordingly, the pilot survey was performed in the Santa Fe province from December 2008 to February 2009. The
pilot was run in this province due to the existence of a critical mass of active firms in the area of biotechnology as
well as scientific and technological infrastructure dedicated to that scientific field (e.g. two universities that offer
degrees in biotechnology, specialized research institutes, two technological poles with firms'incubators).
13. medicines, vaccines or genetically modified seed varieties. We achieved 59 responses which gave
a response rate of 57, 84%.13 The firms surveyed use biotechnology tools for different
applications such as human health, GM agriculture biotechnology, Non-GM agricultural
biotechnology, veterinary health and industrial processing (see definitions in Annex A).
The number of firms in each of the biotechnology applications considered varies. The largest
share corresponds to those active in health care applications (see Table 1). Thus, firms involved
in all health applications (including human and animal health care) made up 57.84% of the total
firms surveyed.14 The second most important area of application of biotechnology in Argentina
is agriculture representing 34.31% of the firms.15 Then, a smaller number of firms have to do
with industrial processing activities.
As regards the extent to which our sample is representative of the population under study, it
somehow overestimates to a certain extent those firms to do with biotechnology in the human
health activity and underestimates those firms engage in non-GM agriculture biotechnology.
However, the sample bias is small enough to have a trustable and representative sample to
understand and comprehend the development and characteristics of the biotechnology activity in
Argentina.
13
Studies that focus on analyzing the economic dynamics and network structure of biotechnology in the world main
hubs, such as the US or the UK, are based on around 300 firms or so (e.g. Rothaermel et al, 2004; Powell et al, 2005;
Niosi, 2003). However, studies for less advanced regions are generally grounded in a more limited number of firms.
For instance, Gilding (2008) study the biotechnology network in Australia based on 50 DBFs, (Fontes, 2005)
anchored the study of the Portuguese biotechnology network on 33 firms and Galhardi (1994) examined the pattern
of biotechnology development in Brazil out of the study of 12 representative firms. Our empirical evidence is in line
with studies that show a reduced number of firms involved in modern biotechnology in comparison with places that
lead the frontier of the field.
14
The prevalence of firms dedicated to health care was also observed other countries such as Poland (100%),
Sweden (89%), Austria (80%), Canada (58%) and Belgium (53%) (van Beuzekom and Arundel, 2009).
15
This figure is high compared to the share of firms'dedicated to agriculture biotechnology in countries such as
Germany (5%), Sweden (5%), Austria (4%) and Brazil (23%), but it is similar to other countries such as Philippines
(38%) and South Africa (37%) (van Beuzekom and Arundel, 2009).
14. Table 1: Surveyed firms, by biotechnology application
Biotech firms
Biotechnology Application Surveyed firms
in the dataset
Human health 42 27
Veterinary health 17 11
GM Agricultural biotechnology 6 6
Non-GM Agricultural
biotechnology 29 11
Industrial processing 8 4
3.3. Network data
Data about the formal collaborations in which Argentinean firms were involved during the period
2003-2008 was collected in order to unravel how the network of biotech firms'strategic alliances
was constituted.
In the absence of archival records of strategic alliances in the country we gathered data on firms'
collaboration activity by introducing specific questions in the questionnaire used to survey
biotech firms in Argentina.16 Network data were collected using the egocentric network method,
which focuses on a focal actor or object and the relationships in its locality. Thus, the whole
network is discomposed into each objects'egocentric network, so that based on the egocentric
network data the complete network can be built up (Marsden, 2005).
The focal nodes of the network are those firms located in Argentina involved in biotechnology
activities, and the ties of the network are contractual arrangements in which nodes participate to
pool or exchange resources or knowledge. Three types of collaboration ties were considered:
16
Network studies draw extensively on survey and questionnaire data (Knoke and Yang, 2008; Marsden, 1990;
Marsden, 2005). Recent studies that used surveys to collect network data are, among others, (Giuliani and Bell,
2005; Gilding, 2008).
15. knowledge, manufacturing and marketing. We treated each formal agreement as a tie. Thus, an
Argentinean firm is connected to a partner when one more ties exist between them.
To elicit the ties of each focal node we used the name generator method which consists in
asking each ego respondent to name the contacts to whom it has a specific kind of relationship
(e.g. R&D contractual arrangement).17 Therefore, each firm freely generated a list of alters by
writing down the name of the partners with whom it had collaborated during the period 2003-
2008. As the aim of the survey was to unravel both the organizational diversity and the
geographical scope of the network of collaborations, the type of partners to which Argentinean
firms collaborate was not restricted beforehand (see Annex B for details).
As the goal was to picture the formal collaboration network in which Argentinean biotechnology
firms participated in the period 2003-2008, and, in particular, unravel how organizationally
diverse and geographically dispersed the emergent network was, we coded partners by location
and type. Thus partners were classified into locals, when they were located in Argentina, and
external, if they were located in regions outside Argentina. Foreign partners were classified
according to their geographical location into Latin American, European, American and others.
As regards the type of organization, we classified partner into biotechnology firms, other firms
and PROs.
One limitation of our approach is that we do not end up having a complete network, as we lack
collaboration data between actors that are not Argentinean firms engaged in biotechnology. We
ignore if two Argentinean biotechnology firms are indirectly connected through collaboration
partners which are themselves connected. We lack this information as it is hard to collect,
particularly for international partners18. However, we are still able to picture and to explore
17
The name generator method differs from the roster method as the former consists of contacts'recalling whereas
the latter is based on contacts'recognition. The roster method is recommended when the total number of possible
alters is known beforehand, while the name generator method is more appropriate when that it is not the case. As
we mostly ignored all the possible nodes of the network in advanced, and hence one of the main objects of the study
was to unravel which were the nodes that compose the network, we followed the name generator proceudure.
18
Other studies that faced the same difficulty are Powell et al (2005), Powell et al (1996), Koput et al (1997), Gilding
(2008) and McKelvey et al (2003).
16. Argentinean biotech firms'direct partners which allows us to have an accurate approximation of
the structure, the geographical extension and the organizational diversity of the knowledge
network. We acknowledge that both direct and indirect ties can affect firms'knowledge
acquisition and performance (Ahuja, 2000). However, the impact of indirect ties is ultimately
determined by the firms'level of direct ties, which are the ones we were able to trace.
4. The Argentinean biotech network: exploration and analysis
This section explores the extent to which Argentinean biotech firms participated in R&D,
manufacturing and marketing collaborations during the years 2003-2008. Then, the analysis is
narrowed to the R&D network. We explore its organizational composition and geographical
scope. The possible explanations for the main features of the knowledge network structure are
further discussed at the end of the section.
4.1. The knowledge, manufacturing and marketing networks
The network of collaborations in which Argentinean firms got engaged in the period 2003-2008
can be visualized in Figure 1. The network representation contains all cooperations in which
these firms have participated in that period. Nodes are differentiated by their location (shape) and
by type of organization (color), so that agents located in Argentina are represented by circles, and
agents located somewhere else are represented by squares. Then, Argentinean biotech firms are
white circles whereas Argentinean PROs are depicted as black circles, and foreign partners as red
squares. A glimpse to Figure 1 reveals that the Argentinean biotech network is both
organizational diverse and geographically dispersed. Partnerships have been forged with agents
located within and outside the business sphere, and located both in Argentina and abroad.
In addition, ties are differentiated by types of collaborations (color). Knowledge-related ties are
black, manufacturing agreements are shown in red and marketing deals are colored in green.
Directed ties, which represent transfers of technology (e.g. licensing agreements), have arrows
pointed to the agent that receives the technology. The distinct colors of the ties that connect nodes
17. in the graph reveal the differing motives that aimed biotech firms to enter into strategic alliances
with third parties.
The high degree of connectedness that can be observed in the graph is a reflection of a high
degree of firms'participation in cooperations. Accordingly, 51 out of the 59 enterprises surveyed
active in biotechnology in Argentina had engaged in collaborations with other partners either for
R&D, manufacturing or marketing purposes. Thus, we found evidence aligned with the pattern
observed for the development of biotechnology in other regions: biotech firms tend to be
networked organizations.
Although different motives triggered firms to engage in collaborations, the overwhelmingly
superiority of black ties in the graph indicates the predominance of knowledge-related reasons.
We found that 238 out of the 275 cooperations recorded (86%) had to do with knowledge flows
both in the form of R&D collaborations and technology transfers (e.g. licensing). On the
contrary, the number of deals related to manufacturing and marketing are much scarcer as firms
set up 21 and 15 deals of these types of collaborations, respectively.
Some network statistics depicted in Table 2 help to understand further the network structure
pictured in Figure 1. The table shows the firms'average degree and standard deviation, the
maximum and minimum number of cooperations forged by firms, and the number of isolates.
Calculations are shown for R&D, manufacturing and marketing separately, and for all
collaborations together.
Based on the average degree we can state that, on average, each Argentinean firm engaged in
biotechnology had set up around 5 collaborations, the majority of which have been related to
R&D activities. Accordingly, the average degree for the knowledge network is 3.71 whereas the
manufacturing and the marketing ones are 0.15 and 0.03, respectively. The different degree of
firms'participation in each network is also illustrated by the reduced number of isolates in the
knowledge network (11) in comparison to the much larger number of non-connected nodes in the
18. Figure 1 – The complete network of Argentinean biotech firms. Nodes: Argentinean biotech
firms (white circles), Argentinean PROs (black circles), foreign organizations (red squares).
Ties: R&D cooperations and technology transfers (black), manufacturing agreements (red) and
marketing agreements (green).
manufacturing (51) and marketing network (57). Taken all ties together the rate of dispersion of
collaborations is 5.04, as it is indicated by the standard deviation measure. Although the
knowledge network is on average less connected than the complete network, it is more
homogeneous in terms of the number of connections held by each of the firms.
19. Table 2 – Knowledge network statistics, by type of cooperation
Type of Av. St.
Max Min Isolates
cooperation Degree Dev.
R&D 3.71 4.21 23 1 11
Manufacturing 0.15 0.41 2 1 51
Marketing 0.03 0.18 2 1 57
All 4.61 5.04 27 1 8
The analysis so far has not distinguish among different biotech application, as we grouped
together those firms engaged in human health, veterinary health, agriculture and industrial
processing applications. When we do this distinction, we see that for each of the biotechnology
applications, the same pattern than for the aggregate network is observed (see Table 3):
knowledge-related deals account for the bulk of collaborations, whereas manufacturing and
marketing ones are very limited. The area of human health is the one that shows the greatest
number of R&D cooperations (93), accounting for 40% of the total number of R&D
collaborations in the period analyzed. Then, also firms applying biotechnology to human health
are the ones that make most use of manufacturing deals19 whereas firms in veterinary health tend
to engage relatively more than the rest in marketing-related cooperations.
On the whole, even when we distinguish firms by main area of biotech application, we found that
the frequency and patterns of interaction for business purposes (marketing and manufacturing)
largely differ from those that involve knowledge flows.20 These results indicate that Argentinean
biotech firms make more use of strategic alliances to gather knowledge, expertise and
technology, than to manufacture or commercialize goods. Thus, our tentative hypothesis is that
our results support the idea that firms become networked organizations as all the necessary skills
19
This finding is alike the one presented by Thorsteinsdottir (2010) . They find that for health biotech firms located
in developing countries both end-stage commercialization and manufacturing activities are highly important
purposes that trigger collaboration.
20
Similar results were also found by Giuliani (2006, 2007).
20. Table 3 - Number of cooperation agreements by Argentinean biotechnology firms, by types
of cooperation (2003-2008)
Biotechnology Application Number of cooperations
Knowledge Manufacturing Marketing
Human health 93 10 2
Veterinary health 47 2 6
GM Agricultural biotechnology 43 2 3
Non-GM Agricultural
biotechnology 41 6 4
Industrial processing 14 1 0
and organizational capabilities needed to compete in biotechnology are not readily found under a
single roof (Powell and Brantley 1992). In addition, the complexity of the biotechnology
knowledge-base and the rapid evolution of technical change in this area further trigger firms to
become relatively more active in creating knowledge-related alliances with third parties.
Given the relevance of knowledge-related collaborations, and the importance of knowledge flows
to understand the development and evolution of the Argentinean biotechnology industry (Bell
and Albu, 1999), in the next section we will focus on studying the knowledge network in more
detail.
4.2. The knowledge network
The knowledge network is composed by all Argentinean biotech firms that engaged in R&D
cooperations and licensing agreements in the period 2003-2008. We found that all firms
dedicated to veterinary health and GM agricultural biotechnology and the vast majority of firms
involved in the other biotechnology applications considered are actively involved in the
knowledge network. But, with whom do these firms exchange and share knowledge with? Is the
network composed only by local interactions? In order to answer these questions the
composition of the knowledge network, in terms of the type of actors that participate, and their
21. geographical location is pictured in Table 4. For each biotech application it is shown the number
of collaborations that firms forged locally with other biotech firms, local PROs and other firms
(e.g. suppliers), and the number of non-local collaborations with foreign firms and PROs located
in other countries.
We observe that Argentinean biotech firms forged cooperations both with local and non-local
partners. 146 cooperations have been forged with local partners whereas 90 collaborations took
place with foreign organizations. Thus, although, on the whole, biotech firms cooperated more
locally than internationally, non-local cooperations still represent a large share of the total R&D
agreements (40%). These results suggest that when trying to understand how technical change
takes place non-local knowledge flows cannot be ignored.
Table 4 – Number of local and non-local collaborations to firms and PROs, by
biotechnology application area.
Number Number non-local
Biotechnology Local collaborations to collaborations to
application biotech local other
Total firms PROs Total
firms PROs firms
Human health 6 55 0 61 13 19 32
Veterinary health 3 19 1 23 11 12 23
GM Agricultural
biotechnology 0 22 0 22 19 1 20
Non-GM Agricultural
biotechnology 0 28 2 30 3 8 11
Industrial Processing 0 10 0 10 4 0 4
Total 9 134 3 146 50 40 90
22. At local level, the degree to which biotech firms collaborate with peers and with PROs largely
differ. There is an outstanding predominance of collaborations with local PROs and very scarce
inter-firm collaboration. Accordingly, 91% of all local collaborations forged by biotech firms
have been set up with universities and research institutions located in Argentina. And, only 9 out
of 146 local R&D-related collaborations were forged with local firms engaged in biotechnology
activities. In fact, cooperations among biotech firms only occurred between firms engaged in
health applications (human and animal) (see Figure 2).
Figure 2 - The inter-firm R&D collaboration network. Nodes: Argentinean Biotech Firms
(ABF) active in human health (blue), ABF active in veterinary health (yellow), ABF active in
GM agricultural Biotech (grey), ABF active in non-GM agricultural biotech (green), ABF active
in industrial processing (brown), Argentinean PROs (black), foreign organizations (red). Ties:
R&D agreements
23. As regards non-local collaborations, Argentinean biotech firms set up R&D collaborations both
with foreign firms (50) than with foreign PROs (40). The geography of non-local collaborations
can provide a hint of the sort of knowledge firms source and in particular whether non-local
collaborations may be a vehicle to access world-leading research. With that purpose we
classified foreign collaborations according to the region/country in which partners were located.
Thus, we grouped firms’ partners into the following categories: Europe, the US, Latin America
and others.
We found out that North-South collaborations predominate as 54 partnerships (59%) have been
forged with European and American partners. This evidence is coherent with that obtained by
other studies on the biotechnology knowledge network which also makes it visible that foreign
collaborations are not randomly distributed but very much oriented towards the world hubs of
biotechnology. Thus, for the Swedish (McKelvey, 2003) and Australian (Gilding, 2008) cases
partners were first drawn from the US, then the UK, then everywhere else. Assuming that agents
located in the US and Europe possess more advanced knowledge and are closer to the frontier, we
can argue that more than half of the non-local collaborations forged by Argentinean biotech firms
were with agents at the cutting age. These non-local collaborations can actually become a source
of novel and up-to-date technology.
Discussion of results
The Argentinean biotech firms’ knowledge network encompasses both local and non-local
collaborations. On the one hand, knowledge flows at local level mainly through collaborations
with local PROs. Thus, we observe that firms seldom engage in joined R&D activities with their
co-located peers but the bulk of their local R&D cooperations take place with local PROs. On
the other hand, a great deal of firms in all biotech applications actively gets involved in
knowledge collaborations with partners located elsewhere. We analyze these results in detail
below.
The close and intense cooperation between Argentinean biotech firms and local PROs may not
seem that surprising since the synergies between industry and science lye at the very core of the
24. birth and development of the biotechnology industry (e.g. Owen-Smith et al 2002, Zucker et al
1998, Arora and Gambardella 1994). Firms are fed by scientific discoveries, which may be
further developed within the industry and applied to create new products and processes upon
them. Thus, the industry in itself mostly consists of the transformation of academic research into
commercial products. To our view, what this result highlights is the importance of a strong local
scientific base for science-based firms to emerge and further develop.
The very limited the degree of collaboration among Argentinean biotech firms requires some
explanation. The dense inter-firm local network that typically arises in leading regions was
neither observed in the Argentinean case nor in other countries that do not lead the industry.21
One plausible explanation for the scarce local inter-firm interaction relies on firms’ knowledge
specialization. Biotech firms typically manage a reduced number of technologies which
constitute their technological platform, out of which they develop their product portfolio. We can
expect that biotech firms in not leading regions cater specific market segments, and hence, are
specialized in different set of technologies. The heterogeneity of local firms’ knowledge bases
may be an important factor to explain the likelihood of local inter-firm synergies. Thus,
empirical evidence is quite conclusive on the fact that some middle ground between diversity and
similarity in firms'knowledge bases fosters R&D cooperation agreements as firms are more
prone to cooperate with partners who provide them with learning opportunities but with whom
they share some common knowledge so that mutual understanding is possible (Ahuja and Katila,
2001; Mowery et al, 1996; Gulati and Gargiulo, 1999; Duysters and Shoenmakers, 2006).
Therefore, following this argument, it may well be the case that local firms do not share with co-
located peers enough knowledge or research interests so that engaging in partnerships among
them become attractive. Probably, this is accentuated by the fact that the number of firms
engaged in biotech in these regions tends to be relatively reduced.
Although we do not disregard the fact that knowledge diversity within the local industry may be
an important factor preventing local cooperations, it seems that this is not an explanation that
21
See, among others, Fontes (2003) and Fontes (2005) for the Portuguese case, Rees (2005) for the Canadian case,
Gilding (2008) for Australia, McKelvey et al (2003) for Sweeden and Belussi (2008) for Italy.
25. explains it all. Other factors such as the building of trust, reputation as well as competition
should be further studied. Indeed, for the case of Argentinean biotech firms’ we found that some
firms’ knowledge bases are similar enough for potential collaborations to take place.
Accordingly, Argentinean biotech firms'managers provided other reasons, beyond ‘knowledge
fit’, to explain the scarce inter firm collaborations among firms. Many of them claimed that they
acknowledged local peers with whom it could be fruitful to cooperate. Nonetheless, cooperations
did not arise. The most frequent explanation given was related to market rivalry. Thus, local
market competition may be a force that prevents potential cooperations in the Argentinean case,
and may inhibit the possibilities of local cooperations when they do exist.
As regards non-local collaborations, our study finds evidence aligned to other studies of biotech
industries in non-leading regions. Collaborations with foreign partners are frequent, relevant and
not random. In fact, firms mostly cooperate with partners in leading regions. The value of R&D
cooperations with geographically distant partners can be of great importance for high-tech
industries as innovation requires knowledge that is both best global and diverse (Dahlander and
McKelvey, 2005). In particular, non-local collaborations can be a vehicle through which firms
upgrade their technological competences and overcome the relative knowledge disadvantages of
their location (Rees, 2005). The interviews with managers of Argentinean biotech firms rovided
empirical evidence that supports the idea that foreign partners can provide local firms with
knowledge and developments that are not available locally, and also sometimes cheaper.
Accordingly, in the following section we provide empirical evidence regarding the value of
collaborations both with foreign partners and local PROs to enhance Argentinean biotech firms’
innovation performance.
5. R&D alliances and innovation output
This section intends to assess the value of R&D collaborations to enhance firms’ innovation
performance. We focus on local collaborations between firms and PROs, and non-local
collaborations. Both type of collaborations can be valuable to provide novelty and diversity to
the local industry sphere, and in turn, positively contribute to firms’ innovation performance.
26. We study the relation between R&D alliances and innovation output based on a descriptive
analysis of the data collected.22
Table 5 shows the number of firms which introduced new products and processes in the period
2003-2008, given that they have engaged or not in strategic alliances with local PROs and foreign
organizations. Three degrees of innovation’s novelty are considered: those product/process
which constitute an innovation for the firm but that already existed in the local and the
international market; those products/process that are innovations for the local market (and also to
the firm) but that already existed in other foreign markets; and those product/process which are
themselves innovations for the international market as a whole. Clearly, a product that is
`internationally'new is a more relevant innovation, that one that is just new for the firm.
One of the main results displayed in Table 5 is that the majority of firms that introduced products
and processes new to the international market during the period 2003-2008 have also engaged in
strategic alliances during that period. 17 out of the 21 firms that succeeded to produce a product
innovation that was new for the global market have collaborated with local PROs, whereas14 out
of those 21 had set up R&D collaborations with foreign partners. In the case of the 17 firms that
achieved a process innovation at international level, 13 have engaged in joint R&D projects with
local PROs and 10 with foreign partners. Therefore, these results suggest that there is a strong
correlation between firms’ innovation output and the engagement in collaborations with local
PROs23 and non-local partners.
o explain firms’ innovation performance by firms’ engagement in R&D collaborations we face a possible
simultaneity bias. Firms’ innovation performance could cause as well as be caused by R&D cooperations. Thus, in
order to correct for that we needed to build up an econometric model that accounts for it so to have meaningful
results. Several attempts were pursued with that aim, but the limited number of observations and the cross-section
nature of the data prove to be great limitations to achieve that goal. Still, we find strong and clear evidence of the
relation between collaborations and innovation performance.
23
This result is aligned to the study of Mohnen and Hoareau (2003) which shows firms that rely on PROs introduce
more radical product innovations
27. Table 5 - Biotech firms’ innovation performance and R&D alliance activity
Biotech firms that engaged in
collaborations with
Number of biotech firms that
innovated in Local PROs Foreign organizations
No Yes No Yes
Products
New only to the firm 1 2 1 2
New to the local market 4 15 10 9
New to the international market 4 17 7 14
Processes
New only to the firm 2 8 4 6
New to the local market 4 7 5 6
New to the international market 4 13 7 10
In addition, we also observe that the majority of firms that innovated in products and processes,
whatever the degree of product innovation considered, engaged in collaborations with local
PROs. This result provides further support to the idea that universities are one of the most
relevant sources for innovation activity by firms (e.g., Cohen et al 2002; Arundel and Geuna
2004; Kaufmann et al. 2001). Universities and research institutions may help to speed up
innovation (Mansfield, 1991; Klevorick et al 1995) and contribute to reinforce firm´s scientific
capabilities (Arora and Gambardella 1994) by providing knowledge which is not available, or at
least more difficult to obtain, within the industrial sphere. In addition, this result also contributes
to highlight the important role that scientific and research institutions play in the development of
a knowledge-intensive industry.
In the rest of the analysis we just focus on innovations that are new for the international market.
We evaluate the extent that firms that innovated have also engaged in relatively more R&D
collaborations. We consider four type of innovation indicators: whether surveyed firms declared
to have achieved a product innovation or a process innovation, applied for a patent in Argentina
and applied for a patent in the U.S. Table 6 shows the average number of collaborations with
28. local PROs and foreign organizations of firms that succeeded to innovate or not during the period
analyzed.
Table 6 – Biotech firms’ collaborations with local PROs and foreign firms and innovation
performance
Firms that in the period 2003-2008
Average Applied for
number of Innovated in Innovated in Applied patents patents in the
cooperations products processes in Argentina US
Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No
with local
PROs 2.31 2.2 3.05 1.93 3.76 1.45 3.92 1.74
** *
with foreign
organizations 1.28 1.26 1.64 1.11 2.05 0.87 2.46 0.93
*
*, ** Significance at the 5% and 1% level, respectively.
Having a look at Table 6 we observe that those firms that innovated in products and in processes
new to the international market tend to be on average relatively more involved in R&D
cooperations than firms that did not innovate. However, the differences observed are not large
enough to be statistically significant.
However, firms that applied for patents in Argentina have forged more than the double of R&D
collaborations with local PROs and foreign partners than the ones that did not apply for patents in
the period. These differences prove to be statistically significant. Also, firms that applied for
patents in the US have forged more collaborations with PROs and foreign organizations than the
ones that did not apply for patents in that country. The difference between the number of
collaborations forged with local PROs by those firms that intend to patent in the US in
29. comparison to those that did not apply for intellectual property rights in this country is found to
be statistically significant.
On the whole, this last set of results reveal that firm that collaborated relatively more with local
PROs and foreign organizations show a higher propensity to innovate. These results are
statistically significant when we take patent applications as innovation indicators.
6. Conclusions
Argentinean biotech firms are actively involved in alliances to exchange, share and source
knowledge. Most of these firms are networked organizations, as are biotech firms located in
other leading and non-leading regions. It seems that the characteristic of the industry, the
complexity of the technology and the rapid pace of technical change drives firms to enter into
collaborations. Our results illustrate that even though firms engage in cooperations for
manufacturing and marketing purposes, knowledge is the major factor that stimulates firms to get
involved in collaborations with other partners.
The knowledge network structure of the Argentinean biotech firm is different from the ones
found for the leading regions, but similar to those in other non-leading ones. The salient features
are the scarcity of collaborations among co-located firms, the key role that PROs play in knitting
the local network together and the relevance of non-local partnerships predominantly forged with
partners in leading regions.
The mix between local and non-local cooperation forged by Argentinean biotech firms reveals
that the sustainability and the development of the Argentinean biotech industry cannot be
explained focusing only on local knowledge interactions. Furthermore, we found that non-local
collaborations are valuable for firms’ innovation activity. Most of those firms that introduced
innovations new to the international market have entered into collaborations with foreign
partners. In addition, innovative firms also show a larger number of collaborations with external
organizations than those firms that did not innovate.
30. Another result of our study is that the strength of the local scientific knowledge base, contained in
local PROs, seems to be critical for the development of biotechnology in Argentina, as it is in
every region where a biotechnology industry emerges. We find evidence that suggests that
entering into R&D collaborations with local PROs may have a positive effect on firms’
innovative performance.
Even though we found collaborations with local PROs and non-local collaborations to be
valuable for firms’ innovation, stronger results claim for data available for more years, in order to
apply econometric techniques that permit to address the potential simultaneity bias between
knowledge cooperations and innovation performance.
However, we can still draw some tentative implications of these results for policy
recommendation. The persistent choice of firms to exchange and source knowledge from the
local scientific community and from foreign partners should be acknowledged by policy makers.
In particular, because both types of collaborations seem to be valuable to enhance firms’
innovation performance. Thus, non-local collaborations and cooperations with universities and
scientific organizations should not be ignored but promoted and facilitated. These results also
claim for a more open view of clusters, and an abandonment of a close and geographically
bounded view of knowledge flows.
Future research should address the reasons that lead firms to display the observed patterns of
R&D collaborations. In particular, which are the factors that prevent inter-firm synergies to take
place. We suggest that not only absorptive capacity issues and knowledge related factors should
be addressed, but also factors such as the building of trust, reputation and competition should be
consider in the analysis.
Acknowledgments
Results presented in this article are based on a study joint with ECLAC, Buenos Aires office.
The data collected were drawn from interviews and data from companies, we would like to thank.
We also wish to thank Bernardo Kosacoff for facilitating field research and being supportive and
31. positive about this research, Roberto Bisang for his invaluable insights and guidance during the
fieldwork study, and Robin Cowan for his useful comments and suggestions, and continuous
support on this study.
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Annex A – Methodology
The OECD definition of biotechnology encompasses both a single definition and a list-based
definition. The single definition defines biotechnology as:
The application of science and technology to living organisms, as well as parts, products and
models thereof, to alter living or non-living materials for the production of knowledge, goods and
services.
This single definition is intentionally broad as it covers not only biotechnological techniques
indentified as traditional biotechnologies but also those labeled as modern biotechnologies. The
single-OECD biotechnology definition is of minimal value to distinguish those firms engaged in
modern biotechnology from those that are only focused on traditional ones (OECD, 2005;
Arundel, 2007; Miller, 2007). The list-based definition functions as an interpretative guide of
the single definition, as it encompasses all technologies that are identified as modern
40. biotechnologies. Thus, the list-based definition narrows the single definition only to (modern
biotechnology) methods as it includes the following biotechnology techniques:
• [DNA/RNA] genomics, pharmacogenomics, gene probes, genetic engineering,
DNA/RNA sequencing/synthesis/amplification, gene expression profiling, and use of
antisense technology.
• [Proteins and other molecules] sequencing/synthesis/engineering of proteins and peptides
(including large molecule hormones); improved delivery methods for large molecule
drugs; proteomics, protein isolation and purification, signaling, identification of cell
receptors.
• [Cell and tissue culture and engineering] cell/tissue culture, tissue engineering (including
tissue scaffolds and biomedical engineering), cellular fusion, vaccine/immune stimulants,
embryo manipulation.
• [Process biotechnology techniques] fermentation using bioreactors, bioprocessing,
bioleaching, biopulping, biobleaching, biodesulphurisation, bioremediation, biofiltration
and phytoremediation.
• [Gene and RNA vectors] gene therapy, viral vectors.
• [Bioinformatics] construction of databases on genomes, protein sequences; modeling
complex biological processes, including systems biology.
• [Nanotechnology] applies the tools and processes of nano/microfabrication to build
devices for studying bio systems and applications in drug delivery, diagnostics, etc.
Biotechnology areas definitions:
• Human health: firms active in the following biotech applications: large molecule
therapeutics and monoclonal antibodies produced using rDNA technology, other
therapeutics, artificial substrates, diagnostics and drug delivery technology.
• GM agriculture biotechnology: firms involved in the production of new varieties of
genetically modified plants, animals and microorganisms for use in agriculture,
aquaculture, silviculuture.
• Non-GM agricultural biotechnology: firms that develop new varieties of non-GM plants,
animals and microorganisms for use in agriculture, aquaculture, silviculuture, biopest
41. control and diagnostics developed using biotechnology techniques (DNA markers, tissue
culture,etc.
• Veterinary health: firms active in all health applications for animals.
• Industrial processing: firms that develop bioreactors to produce new products (chemicals,
food, ethanol, plastics, etc.), biotechnologies to transform inputs (bioleaching, biopulping,
etc.).
Annex B
Questions 13 and 17 elicit data about unidirectional knowledge flows. Respondents are asked to
name those agents from whom they have obtained and transferred biotechnology-related
technologies in the period 2003-2008.
Q 13 - From which firms/institutions did your firm acquire technology (e.g. R&D services,
patent rights) during the period 2003-2008?
Local organizations Foreign organizations
Q 17 - Please specify the name of firms/institutions that your firm has licensed technology to
during the period 2003-2008
Local organizations Foreign organizations
42. Question 20 aims at eliciting collaborative ties for R&D, manufacturing and marketing purposes.
Respondents are asked to name those alliance partners with whom they have set up these types of
cooperations and also provide the number of collaborations forged with each of the named
partners in the period 2003-2008.
Q 20 - With which institutions did your firm set up R&D, manufacturing and marketing
collaboration/cooperation alliances in the period 2003-2008? For each type of alliance, please
specify the names of the partners in Argentina and abroad. Please consider all possible sorts of
partners such as other firms, universities, research institutes, and others.
Purpose of collaborations
Name of partners
R&D Manufacturing Marketing
Argentinean Partners
Foreign Partners