Finn Valentin

Academic drug discovery centres: the economic and organisational sustainability of an emerging model

Academic drug discovery centres (ADDCs) are seen as one of the solutions to fill the innovation gap in early drug discovery, which has proven challenging for previous organisational models. Prior studies of ADDCs have identified the need to analyse them from the angle of their economic and organisational sustainability. We take that angle in an in-depth study of four prominent ADDCs. Our findings indicate that there are clear similarities in the way sustainable centres are organised, managed and financed. We also identify factors in the frameworks of academia and research funding affecting their performance.

Discontinuities and distributed innovation - The case of biotechnology in food processing

This paper examines the organization of distributed innovation shaped by the major discontinuity in the life sciences and their associated technologies that has unfolded over the past three decades. While most studies have focused on its effects on pharmaceutical R&D, this paper studies food processing technologies, taking biotech exploitation of the ubiquitous micro-organism of Lactic Acid Bacteria as its example. Patents provide most of the data. Although highly distributed forms of innovation emerge from 1980 onwards, incumbents introduce virtually all innovations in this field, while the role of dedicated biotechnology firms (DBFs) remains negligible. Public research organizations contribute significantly to distributed R&D, and to a limited extent they also take on the role of economic actors. To explain the organizational characteristics of this distributed innovation this paper suggests a distinction between definition and solution of innovation problems. Extending Simons analysis of complex problems, it is argued that definition and problem solving in innovation need not have the same levels of decomposability. By implication, the US model for biotech growth, emphasizing the market mechanisms of DBF formation, venture capital and scientist entrepreneurs, should not incautiously be pursued in all contexts and for all applications of biotechnology. Low decomposability of problem definition in innovations may preclude the emergence of these vehicles for market-driven growth, and in such cases distributed innovation must take other forms, including not least an active role of public science.

Reaping the Fruits of Science: Comparing Exploitations of a Scientific Breakthrough in European Innovation Systems

This paper is an attempt to unpack the emergence and dynamics of science-based technologies in conceptual forms that allow us to understand better when and how the social and economic organization of search and problem-solving matters. The evolution over two decades of a specific science-based technology is mapped with data from its 192 patents. For the five European countries generating the majority of patents, we identify the host organizations of all 275 inventors involved in the R&D behind the patents. Using network analysis we then map the evolution of separate innovation systems and their structural and evolutionary characteristics. The best performing system combines a cumulative pattern with frequent and shifting connections to non-system R&D partners while maintaining a small core of almost omnipresent inventor-organizations. The role of multinational corporations in orchestrating innovation systems is apparent.

How Venture Capital Shapes Emerging Bio-clusters—A Cross-country Comparison

ABSTRACT Mapping the emergence of clusters of biotech firms specializing in drug discovery in Denmark and Sweden from 1997 to 2004 we find that Denmark faster and to a higher extent concentrated activities in the mid-sized categories of firms and also earlier and more steeply increased key outputs such as patents and projects. Regression models on firm-level data expose differential supply of venture capital (VC) as a key factor behind this divergence between countries. Further regression analysis examines if VC causes output discrepancies between the two countries not only through differential capital supply but also by the strategies they induce into drug discovery firms (DDFs) through the valuations by which they react to firm performance over the previous financing round. We find significant country differences, Danish investors to a stronger extent inducing output-oriented strategies. The context within which VC emerged in the two countries is discussed as possible causes of the differences between Denmark and Sweden for the role of VC in shaping their emergent bio-clusters.

Research Strategies in Science-based Start-ups - Effects on performance in Danish and Swedish biotechnology

Abstract Although biotech start-ups fail or succeed based on their research, few attempts have been made to examine if and how they strategise in this core activity. Using a unique comprehensive dataset on Danish and Swedish biotech start-ups in drug discovery this paper adopts a Simonean approach to analysing the research strategies of small dedicated biotech firms (DBFs), focusing on three interrelated issues: (i) characterising the problem architectures addressed by different types of DBFs; (ii) testing and confirming that DBFs form requisite research strategies, by which we refer to problem-solving approaches developed as congruent responses to problem architectures; and (iii) testing and confirming that financial valuation of firms is driven by achievements conforming to requisite research strategies. These strategies, in turn, require a careful combination of multiple dimensions of research. The findings demonstrate that Schoonhovens argument that ‘strategy matters’ is valid not only for the larger high-tech firms covered by her study, but also for small research-based start-ups operating at the very well-springs of knowledge where science directly interacts with technologies. Although more research is needed along these lines, these findings offer new implications for the understanding, management and financing of these firms.

Orientations and outcome of interdisciplinary research: the case of research behaviour in translational medical science

AbstractThe importance of interdisciplinary research in accelerating the progress and commercialization of science is widely recognized, yet little is known about how academic research self-organizes towards interdisciplinarity. In this paper, we therefore explore the micro-level behavior of researchers as they venture into a promising space for interdisciplinary research, namely translational research—a bridge between basic and applied biomedical research. More specifically, we ask (1) whether the researchers who choose to engage in translational research have a strong scientific record, (2) how interdisciplinary research spanning basic and applied research influences the output of academic research, and (3) how different disciplinary distance in interdisciplinary research contributes to reputational benefits of researchers. We find that for some types of collaboration, interdisciplinarity results in more highly cited research, while in others it is not, and look for explanations for this difference. Our results show that translational research draws higher citations when it involves university researchers from the most basic end of the disciplinary spectrum, and when its issues are directed at basic (rather than applied) research.

Shaken, Not Stirred: The Re‐combinatorial Capacity of High‐Tech Regions

This paper examines the re‐combinatorial capacity (RCC) of regional high‐tech economies. Empirically the paper studies the emergence and development of new firms derived in various forms from a downsizing lead pharmaceutical firm (Pharmacia). A model is developed conceptualizing RCC of regions by the levels of business creation obtained at different levels of asset complexity for given levels of decomposition of available resources. RCC of Pharmacias home region (Stockholm–Uppsala) is characterized by mapping all 75 new firms derived from Pharmacia onto the RCC space, revealing low RCC particularly for resources released from Pharmacia in highly decomposed form. Recombinations whereby managers from Pharmacia and other related incumbents become founders of new bio drug discovery firms (DDFs) come out as particularly scarce when benchmarked against the simultaneous emergence of a DDF sector in the otherwise comparable Copenhagen region. Venture capital is argued to be a key mechanism in RCC affecting high‐tech entrepreneurship. We test and confirm that compared to their Copenhagen counterpart, DDFs in the Stockholm–Uppsala region received much less early stage venture financing which therefore provided notable disincentives for re‐combinatorial manager‐to‐founder transitions.

How preference markets assist new product idea screening

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the different heuristics adopted by a crowd and a management committee to evaluate new product proposals, and whether, in assessing the value of proposals, they emphasize different features. Design/methodology/approach – The study takes a quantitative analysis approach to study an internal innovation contest held by the biotechnology company Novozymes. The contest generated 201 proposals that were evaluated by 109 research and development professionals by means of a virtual preference market, and by a management committee. Findings – The crowd and the committees’ assessments of the value of the proposals were based on different features. The committee emphasized experience and inventors’ seniority; the crowd set more store on informative idea descriptions but penalized overly complex and lengthy proposals. Research limitations/implications – The design of the innovation contest does not allow full comparison of the preference functions of crowd and committ...

Network and Technology Systems in Science-driven Fields: The Case of European Food Biotechnology

This book offers a novel insight into the economic dynamics of modern biotechnology, using examples from Europe to reflect global trends. The authors apply theoretical insight to a fundamental enigma of the modern learning society, namely, how and why the development of knowledge and ideas interact with market processes and the formation of industries and firms.

Technological achievements in entrepreneurial firms – legacy, value chain experience, and division of innovation labour

ABSTRACT This paper examines whether founders’ origin is systematically associated with the technological orientation of their new established organisation. Using an exploratory design, we empirically investigate how the technological achievements of organisations are associated with the founder’s prior experience identifying where in the industry’s value chain the founder worked previously. Using a unique dataset of Swedish and Danish biotechnology start-up firms, we explore the relationship between the founders’ prior position in the value chain and the technological achievements of their start-up. Firms established by founders from academia tend to perform well in early stages of technology development, while firms established by founders from further up the value chain tend to exhibit technological achievements in the later stages of development. Building on these results, we discuss possible mechanisms that may trigger these empirical regularities and propose that these mechanisms cause a division of innovation labour among biotechnology start-ups.