Scientific foundation, patents, and new product introductions of biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms

Watts, Allison D.; Hamilton, R. D.

doi:10.1111/radm.12023

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…In particular, we suggest that firms can broaden their existing technological knowledge base to promote exploration in multiple dimensions in order to prepare for sustainable growth. As we measured technological knowledge breadth by the number of technological classes in which the firm received patents, this study suggests that, at least in the industries where patents are critical technological knowledge capital (Watts and Hamilton, ), firms should take great efforts to broaden the range of patents they possess. Firms may most likely achieve this by engaging in internal R&D activities accumulatively.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the pitfalls of using patent statistics – including persistent sectoral differences and the heterogeneous economic value of patents (Archibugi, ) – we consider these criticisms tangential to our study because we include only biotechnology firms, which must engage in innovation and patenting to survive. Innovative firms create temporary monopolies for their proprietary inventions by protecting them with patents, and biotechnology patents are crucial to firms' strategic decisions (De Carolis, ; Watts and Hamilton, ). In addition, patents are especially appropriate to measure a firm's knowledge breadth because the DBA readily enables us to classify knowledge embodied in a patent into knowledge classes.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Facilitating exploration alliances in multiple dimensions: the influences of firm technological knowledge breadth

Zhang

2015

R & D Management

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Whereas prior studies suggest that strategic alliances offer powerful tools for firms to explore business opportunities and alliances may explore in technology and organization dimensions, firms tend to compensate for exploration in one dimension by engaging in exploitation in the other dimension. The question of how firms can explore at a higher level in multiple dimensions of alliances remains unanswered. This study proposes that a firm's broad technological knowledge base may help facilitate exploration alliances in multiple dimensions. Data from the biopharmaceutical industry reveal that not only does a broad technological knowledge base support exploration in the technology and organization dimensions individually, but it also relaxes the firm's resource constraints; thus, the firm is less likely to compensate for exploration in one dimension with exploitation in the other. Instead, it can explore at a higher level in both dimensions simultaneously. This insight is particularly important in light of the increasing research interest in the fundamental enablers of and barriers to exploring new technological opportunities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facilitating exploration alliances in multiple dimensions: the influences of firm technological knowledge breadth

Zhang

2015

R & D Management

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“…In addition, citations of scientific papers are used to operationalize the basic research orientation of collaborations. Cutting‐edge technologies often require a strong foundation of scientific and basic knowledge to be able to combine existing information in new ways (Watts and Hamilton, ). The number of citations can be used as an indicator for theoretical knowledge and in contrast to applied problem‐solving knowledge, basic research and fundamental knowledge may receive more citations (Lim, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All results reveal similar, stable, and significant effects as those described below. 2016;33(6):708-725 knowledge to be able to combine existing information in new ways (Watts and Hamilton, 2013). The number of citations can be used as an indicator for theoretical knowledge and in contrast to applied problem-solving knowledge, basic research and fundamental knowledge may receive more citations (Lim, 2004 Estimation A negative binominal model (NB2) is applied to take into account the discreteness of the dependent variable (the number of new patents applied in new IPC combinations) and its potential overdispersion.…”

Section: Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of University–Industry Collaboration on Technological Newness of Firms

Wirsich

Kock²,

Strumann³

et al. 2016

J of Product Innov Manag

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Exploring new technological opportunities and reacting to environmental changes are key factors for firm performance. Collaborating with external partners, especially universities, is considered to be a powerful engine of technological development. However, there are several barriers associated with university-industry collaboration (UIC), such as divergent cultures and competing objectives. Previous studies show rather mixed effects regarding the purported benefits of UIC, and empirical evidence on the effects of UIC on technological newness of innovation is lacking. This study investigates whether and under which conditions UIC enhances the recombination of extant knowledge across technologies and facilitates the implementation of novel technologies at the firm level. The paper is based on the resource based view of the firm and analyzes the interaction between collaboration diversity and UIC intensity. This longitudinal analysis examines joint publications and the patent data of 318 technology-oriented companies from the S&P 500 Index in the years 1985-2007. This study focuses on technological newness as the dependent variable, defined as the extent to which new technology fields are discovered as a result of either exploration of completely new technologies or the novel combination of existing technology fields. Results show that UIC has a significant positive effect on technological newness, with a time lag of two years. The effect follows an inverted U-shaped pattern in UIC portfolios with high diversity, and a U-shaped pattern when diversity is low. Practitioner PointsUIC can lead to technological newness, e.g., new technology fields by the extension or convergence of existing technology fields.

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“…Moreover, the biotechnology industry presents an ideal context for investigating the tension between exploration and exploitation (Rothaermel and Deeds, ) and empirically testing the hypotheses developed (e.g. Demirkan and Demirkan, ; Karamanos, ; Watts and Hamilton III, ). To the best of our knowledge, no other article has attempted this research objective before.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of a firm's and their partners' alliance ego–network structure on its innovation output in an era of ferment

Karamanos

2015

R & D Management

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A technological discontinuity can disrupt an existing technological regime and it has a profound effect on firms' economic activities and outcomes. The period between the discontinuity and the establishment of the new regime is defined as an era of ferment, which can unleash significant innovation opportunities while creating great uncertainty in the business environment. Although it is well-known that firms often use alliances both to respond to uncertainty and facilitate innovation, little is known about the alliance behavior of firms during an era of ferment and how it can affect their exploratory and exploitative innovation output. The article tests this relationship using as large panel sample of alliances during the era of ferment in the biotechnology industry and the exploitative and exploratory innovation output of biotechnology firms during that time. The results suggest that managers in charge of innovation and alliance formation should proactively optimize the design their firms' ego-network structure as follows: First, alliance ego-network centrality supports exploitative innovation because a central firm coherently and reliably performs experiential search to source complementary knowledge through 'pipeline' alliances to the 'whole' network. Moreover, very high centrality offers little additional gains in coherence and reliability of knowledge received from the network because it restricts access to novel information beyond the focal firm's ego-network neighborhood. Second, ego-network structural holes support exploratory innovation because they provide efficient access through cognitive search to non-redundant flows of information and knowledge, offering ample opportunities for knowledge recombinations. Third, a focal firm's partners' centrality positively affects its exploratory innovation because the focal firm can learn by observing and cognitively evaluating the behavior and associated innovation outcomes of their central partners.

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Scientific foundation, patents, and new product introductions of biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms

Cited by 8 publications

References 71 publications

Facilitating exploration alliances in multiple dimensions: the influences of firm technological knowledge breadth

Facilitating exploration alliances in multiple dimensions: the influences of firm technological knowledge breadth

Effects of University–Industry Collaboration on Technological Newness of Firms

Effects of a firm's and their partners' alliance ego–network structure on its innovation output in an era of ferment

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