Under the pressure of increased global competition and processes of concentration, the pharmaceutical giants are reorganizing their innovative capacities. Technology and research and development (R&D) play a key role in the competitive strategies of multinational pharmaceutical companies. This article analyzes the interrelation of the far‐reaching but spatially selective international expansion of R&D and technology of a major Swiss pharmaceutical company and its anchoring in regional arenas of innovation. It combines this international technological expansion with a perspective on integrating spatial and social proximities. Multinational corporations (MNCs) tend to locate their R&D activities in regions that are characterized by a richness of knowledge. The structure of inter‐ and intrafirm networks is shaped by the geography of talent. The Swiss pharmaceutical giants made substantial efforts to anchor themselves in regional arenas of innovation, such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, and San Diego. A case study of a pharmaceutical giant's embedding in the biotech arena of San Diego reveals how oligopolistic rivals fight over privileged access to spatially concentrated bases of technology. MNCs attempt to create, complement, and substitute spatial proximity with other types of social proximities, internal as well as external to their own organizations. These efforts contribute to the generation of specific global‐local interfaces in the processes of global scanning, transferring, and generating new pharmaceutical compounds and technologies.

No abstract

This paper investigates the strategic and organizational changes which two major Swiss pharmaceutical companies have implemented in order to respond to the challenges related to a slowing of innovation and increasing oligopolistic rivalry. Introducing cross-functional project teams, the companies mainly accelerated the development process. These project teams are overlaying structures which complement the functional and geographical organizational units. Common project teams and steering committees are instruments to manage collaborations between pharmaceutical and biotech companies. This paper argues that project teams change power relations, reflect rationalization efforts and serve to create organizational and cultural proximity which is important to guarantee knowledge flows within and between firms. Cet article examine les changements stratégiques et organisationnels mis en oeuvre par deux grandes sociétés pharmaceutiques suisses afin de relever les défis liés au ralentissement de l'innovation et àla hausse de la concurrence oligopolistique. En mettant en place des équipes de projet multi-fonctionnelles, les sociétés ont pour la plupart accéléré le processus de développement. Ces équipes de projet constituent des structures qui recouvrent et complètent les unités d'organisation fonctionnelles et géographiques. Des équipes de projet et des comités directeurs communs sont des instruments pour administrer la collaboration entre les sociétés pharmaceutiques et biotechnologiques. Cet article affirme que les équipes de projet influent sur la répartition des pouvoirs, reflètent les efforts de rationalisation et servent à créer la proximitéorganisationnelle et culturelle qui est importante afin d'assurer le flux de connaissances intra et interentreprises. Der Artikel untersucht die strategischen und organisatorischen Veränderungen, die zwei wichtige schweizerische Pharmakonzerne implementiert haben, um auf die Herausforderungen des Innovationsdefizits und der verschärften oligopolistischen Rivalität zu antworten. Mit der Einführung von functions übergreifenden Projektteams haben die Unternehmen hauptschlich den Entwicklungsprozess beschleunigt. Diese Projektteams sind ergänzende Strukturen, die die funktionalen und geographischen Organisationseinheiten-berlagern. Projektteams und gemeinsame Steuerungsgremien sind Instrumente, um die Kooperationen zwischen Pharma- und Biotechunternehmen zu leiten. Der Artikel argumentiert, dass Projektteams die Machtverhältnisse verändern, organisatorischer Ausdruck von Rationalisierungsmanahmen sind und dazu dienen, organisatorische und kulturelle Nähe zu schaffen. Diese ist wichtig, um die Wissensflüsse innerhalb von und zwischen Firmen zu garantieren.Pharmaceutical Industry, Project Teams, Restructuring, Research And Development,

Within the processes of global economic restructuring, organisations defending the interests of workers, especially trade unions, are faced with enormous challenges. These organisations have severe difficulties in using social answers to counter the neoliberal offensive and the change in economic conditions. The reasons for this political weakness are manifold. This paper focuses on one aspect which is decisive for the structural weakness of trade unions and other social movements; it deals with the question of scales.Multinational corporations (MNCs) shape space in the most far-reaching way. They have an integrated vision of space which is based on their capital accumulation requirements and on their power over specific places. Therefore, not only do they structure space very powerfully and coherently, but they also have a strong influence on the economic and social relations in these places. This very coherence brings about a sharpened competition between the places in which MNCs are located.Labour movementsölocal actors in associations or in state authorities öoperate within a local, regional, or national framework. They have to be competitive against other regions and places (Harvey, 1989b). In sum, actors in labour movements, and even in local authorities, act fragmentedly without a general economic, social, and spatial vision of reality. Neither unions (or political actors) nor state authorities have at their disposal the instruments and power to shape space, and therefore also specific places, to the same extent as the MNCs.

Compressive residual stresses are commonly introduced into the near-surface regions of morse taper junctions of modular hip endoprostheses to prolong fatigue life. An increasing number of publications report that contamination of shot-peened surfaces can lead to enhanced corrosion and third body wear. This study evaluates deep rolling of titanium alloy rods as a possible alternative to shot peening. Ten rods of Ti6Al7Nb alloy with a diameter of 15 mm were deep rolled with various rolling parameters. The resulting surface topography and residual contamination was analyzed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The near-surface residual stress states after deep rolling were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction. The roughness of the surfaces before deep rolling was about R(z) = 14 microm, and after deep rolling surface roughness values of R(z) 0.4-7.5 microm were achieved. The results of the SEM and EDAX analyses of the sample surface showed no evidence of surface contamination by particles or abrasion products caused by any process. At a pressure of 300 bar, compressive stress reached the maximum of -1150 MPa at a depth of 0.1 mm. Deep rolling thus allows a smooth and particle-free surface to be obtained and therefore shows promise as a surface treatment for mating surfaces of morse tapers in modular hip endoprostheses.