Marie-Angèle de Looze

Corpus relevance through co-word analysis: An application to plant proteints

Different corpuses are analysed by means of co-word analysis, in the framework of technological watch of the industrial valorization of plant proteins. The comparison of keyword clusters reveals unequal results, raising the question of the relevance of information retrieval. The corpuses compiled do not provide all the important signals that can be expected from this type of study. Research on several data bases (five) provides increasingly detailed images which allow for rapid progress, with the experts, towards critical points of information.

Using patent statistics as knowledge base indicators in the biotechnology sectors: An application to France, Germany and the U.K.

In order to formulate firm, national or regional technology policy, it is necessary to have indicators that can measure technological competence. This paper develops a set of indicators using patent statistics to compare the “knowledge base” of individuals, laboratories, firms or nations. These indicators are then applied to the patent applications in France, Germany and the U.K. in the biotechnology sectors. The paper shows that France is lagging behind Germany and the U.K. in technology stocks (or its patent applications) in all biotechnology fields. However it is the leader in the technology network supporting the foods industry. It has a comparative advantage in terms of either technology stock counts or networks in Genetic Engineering, Pharmaceuticals, Foods, Chemicals, Cell Culture and Biocatalysis. Germany is leading in many sectors, but in all sectors in which it is a leader, it is a specialized leader, i.e. its technology networks need to be more extensive. It has a comparative advantage in terms of either technology stock counts or networks in all sectors except Genetic Engineering, Pharmaceuticals, Agriculture and Cell Culture. The U.K. is the leader in the important field of Genetic Engineering and in terms of the entire technology networks in the biotechnology sectors. It has a comparative advantage in terms of either technology stock counts or networks in Genetic Engineering, Pharmaceuticals, Agriculture and Purification.

Decoding the literature on genetic variation

A survey of the scientific and patent literature on single-nucleotide variants reveals the dominance of research centers in the United States and the prolific patenting of SNP technology by a select group of biotechnology companies.

Strategies of European SMEs in Biotechnology: The Role of Size, Technology and Market

Both the technological and market focus of 228 European biotechnology SMEs are analysed in this paper. Data from the Genetic Engineering catalogue provide a complementary representation compared to the patent publications that are most commonly used. Results of the analysis produce a new view of the development of biotech SMEs. First, no pattern of specialisation by country is observed, even though three types of company with different technological focus can be distinguished in the sample. Second, it is argued that the rapid technological evolution in this domain can hardly be explained by a rapid evolution of the technological basis of the companies, and should consequently be explained primarily by the creation of new SMEs. Third, four different patterns of linkage between technology and market focus are observed, by means of co-word analysis.

Knowledge dynamics, firm strategy, mergers and acquisitions in the biotechnology based sectors

In this article, a method to map the knowledge base (KB) of firms is developed and applied to the study of strategic changes, mergers and acquisitions. The empirical data are related to three firms, Hoechst, Rhône-Poulenc and Aventis, which resulted from the merger of the first two. Our study shows how the KB of both Hoechst and Rhône-Poulenc changed gradually reflecting their strategic reorientation away from chemistry and towards the life sciences. While the previous transition produced a segmented KB with the chemistry and biology subsets largely separated, the merger led a more closely integrated KB. The KB of some Aventis subsidiaries have been studied as well.

A Note on Using Patent Statistics to Obtain Competition Indicators

In a recent article a set of indicators have been proposed drawing upon patent statistics, which are meant to describe and compare firm and national research competence. However this article has raised more questions on the validity of such indicators as well as on their use. We have thus examined these issues so as to clarify the nature of the problems involved in the construction of competence and competitive indicators of firms and nations and their subsequent implementation on data bases.

The application of scientometric tools to the analysis of a sector in plant biotechnologies: Nitrogen fixation

The application of biliometric methods and tools for analysing data from information sciences and patent data bases allow us to obtain different representations of an area that is particularly fragmented and difficult to interpret: plant biotechnologies in which nitrogen fixation has been particularly highlighted.