Margaret Sharp

Organizational learning in cooperative alliances: some case studies in biotechnology

Dedicated biotechnology firms (DBFs) have played an important role in commercializing biotechnology. They emerged first in the US and, after a 5-year time lag, they also appeared in Europe. Faced with long and costly product lead times, DBFs raised money by entering into research contracts, mainly with large chemical and pharmaceutical companies. These coopertive research alliances have not vanished as biotechnology has matured and are more in evidence today than they were in the early dasy of the commercialization of biotechnology. This paper investigates how and why large and small companies enter research collaborations, what they learn from working together, and the effects on European competitiveness.

The battle for biotechnology: Scientific and technological paradigms and the management of biotechnology in Britain in the 1980s

Abstract This paper is about how institutions adapt and change to accommodate new technologies. Specifically it looks at how one set of institutions, the British Research Councils, accommodated to the emergence of biotechnology in the 1980s, charting the vicissitudes of their relationship and in particular the bitter quarrel which broke out between the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC). It suggests that the key factor behind the conflict was not remit (i.e. defence of research territory) but differences in culture, with a lack of symmetry between the scientific paradigm which dominated the MRCs approach and the technological paradigm which drove the SERCs Biotechnology Directorate. Given this difference in cultures, it argues that some plurality of approach was inevitable and that attempts to impose a strong element of co-ordination would not have prevented conflict. However, lighter coordination might have helped, and this could in fact have been achieved had the British government at that time not abdicated from all leadership roles in relation to new technologies and provided no resources to help oil the wheels of change.

Developments in new biotechnology firms in Germany

Germany now has a substantial number of new biotechnology firms, with the number steadily increasing. The institutional framework has been slow to develop for this novel form of company, but many are now emerging and will certainly play an important part in the dynamics of the system. At the same time, the science base in this area has gained considerably in breadth and quality. The essential questions that arise from these recent developments are: (i) what prevented these new biotechnology firms from growing earlier and what is the current situation? (ii) What changes have occurred which have stimulated this growth? (iii) How are biotechnology companies going to develop further and what are the implications for Germanys pharmaceutical industry and wider economy? A database for biotechnology firms in Germany was set up of which a subset was used to analyse the current state of development. The following conclusions were reached: (i) Germany now has a substantial number of new biotechnology firms and the numbers are steadily increasing. (ii) Their collaborations with and proximity to academic centres of excellence suggests they are well embedded in the German research system. However, their sectoral composition sets them apart from their American counterparts, with greater bias towards instrumentation and environmental biotechnology, both areas of German industrial strength. (iii) Since the mid-1980s there has been continuous, if slow, adaptation to the institutional framework supporting biotechnology. These changes have finally resulted in an effective network of industry, academic and government links and have helped to promote both an increasingly strong scientific performance and the development of new firms. The authors suggest that, although these developments do not conform to the Anglo-Saxon entrepreneurial model in which new firms effectively forge new industries, the German evolutionary approach to innovation may still be holding its ground.

National policies towards biotechnology

Abstract The ‘new biotechnology’ is still a very young technology - half-in, half-out of the research laboratory. This paper surveys the policies that have been emerging towards this new technology from six governments - those of the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, West Germany and the Netherlands. It suggests that the publicity ‘hype’ associated with the new biotechnology firms of the U.S., and the naming of biotechnology as a ‘next generation base technology’ by the Japanese government, together played a seminal role in pressurising governments into a positive policy stance. Looking across national policies, eight common characteristics of policy are identified: substantial support for basic research; increasing emphasis on applied research; expansion of traditional policies for supporting R & D; a new emphasis on linkage between academic and industrial research; gradual convergence towards corporatist or quasi-corporatist policies; the popularity of the collaborative approach; the promotion of small firms and the venture capital market; concern with the regulatory environment.

Knowledge Transfer and Biotechnology

This paper examines how Europe’s large chemical/pharmaceutical multinationals have developed their interests and capabilities in biotechnology and in particular the degree to which, in the process, they have become increasingly linked into the US science base. It looks at both direct linkages via subsidiary laboratories located on US soil and at indirect linkages via the small, dedicated biotechnology companies. It concludes that, although the picture is mixed, many of these major European firms are now deeply embedded by these two routes into the American science base. However, far from this being ‘exploitation’, the US in most respects is the gainer, for these linkages are creating high value added jobs for Americans on American soil. For Europe, the key issue is how far these firms are internally transferring the technology back to home-based laboratories. Unless this is happening, Europe risks the cumulative loss of leading edge capabilities.

Tides of change: the world economy and Europe in the 1990s

This is a speculative article. It aims to stand back and take a broad-ranging view of some of the factors, particularly those relating to technology, that seem likely to impact on the world economy in the course of the next decade. Its concerns are with the continuities and discontinuities of the times and it provides an impressionistic and thought-provoking survey rather than trying to paint in fine detail.

EC R&D: now is not the time to jump the twin tracks

There is increasing concern in Brussels about the plight of Europes electronics industry. Go back to December 1989 and all was optimism. Although there was little to show in terms of market-share performance, there was quiet confidence in Brussels that the corner had been turned. The feeling was that the European electronics industry, having used the decade of the 1980s to restructure and realign itself as a European (as distinct from British, French, German ...) entity, could compete on a par with its US, if not its Japanese, counterparts.

Technology — A special case for catch-up

Abstract This paper focusses on the technological “time warp” in which Eastern Europe and the USSR seem to have been caught since the 1950s, and which has been exposed by perestroika. As a result, much of the industrial fabric of these countries is now of little value, and a policy of scrap and rebuild, importing technology from the West and Japan, is the best policy. Such a situation is most closely paralleled by that of Western Europe in the aftermath of World War II. The Marshall Plan at that time not only provided the hard currency necessary for the purchase of equipment and expertise, but also encouraged self-help and a firm timetable for dismantling controls and protection. The paper argues that a similar plan is urgently needed for Eastern Europe. The market is not always a good provider of technology and, if a strong technology base is to be established, a gradualist approach is preferable to quick moves to a market system.

Barriers to European growth: a transatlantic view

If you really want to be smarter, reading can be one of the lots ways to evoke and realize. Many people who like reading will have more knowledge and experiences. Reading can be a way to gain information from economics, politics, science, fiction, literature, religion, and many others. As one of the part of book categories, barriers to european growth a transatlantic view always becomes the most wanted book. Many people are absolutely searching for this book. It means that many love to read this kind of book.

Inward investment and industrial competitiveness

Inward investment—foreign direct investment in subsidiaries and joint ventures—has played an important part in Europes post-war development as multinational firms, particularly American multinationals, became a major feature of many European economies. Latterly, we have seen an increasing presence also from Japan and other South-East Asian countries, as well as a resurgence of intra-European investment. What has been the effect of this on the competitiveness of European industry?