Lori DiVito

Institutional entrepreneurship in constructing alternative paths: A comparison of biotech hybrids

This paper investigates how firms adapt their innovation strategies to cope with constraints in national institutional environments. It is a comparative case study of Dutch and British dedicated biotechnology firms focusing on a particular type of strategy, the hybrid model. Patterns of skill accumulation and learning present in the Dutch hybrids are indications of how they use institutional advantages to focus on low-risk innovation and build deeper competences while also pursuing high-risk innovation strategies. The Dutch hybrid offers insight into how firms comply with the dominant logic of the biotechnology field even when their institutional frameworks encourage the pursuit of low-risk innovation strategies.

Growing fast or slow?: variety of paths and speed of early growth of science-based firms

The paper explores the process of early growth of entrepreneurial science-based firms. Drawing on case studies of British and Dutch biopharmaceutical R&D firms, we conceptualise and map the simultaneous and interrelated paths of early fundraising, managerial and technological development. We distinguish between “assisted” and “unassisted” paths to access critical resources, and ascertain how these paths combine to influence the speed of firm growth. We show how a wide range of manifestations of technology development act as signalling devices to attract funding and management, affecting the speed of firm development. We also show how the variety of paths and the speed of development are influenced by the national institutional setting.