Maureen McKelvey

Does co-location matter for formal knowledge collaboration in the Swedish biotechnology-pharmaceutical sector?

This article addresses the validity of assumptions about the importance of co-locality for innovation, by analyzing whether or not co-location matters for formal knowledge collaboration in the Swedish biotechnology–pharmaceutical sector, or biotech–pharma sector. The population of Swedish biotech–pharma firms has been defined, based on the three criteria of geographical location, their engagement in active knowledge development, and their specialized knowledge/product focus. The firms’ patterns of regional, national and international collaboration with other firms and with universities is analyzed, as well as the differing collaborative patterns of small versus large firm. In addressing the theoretical questions about the relative importance of co-location for innovation, the article also provides an empirical overview of the Swedish biotech–pharma sector, especially trends over time. This paper thus contributes to the literature by expanding our empirical knowledge about one European biotech–pharma sectoral system, e.g. Sweden, as well as addressing the theoretical question about the relative importance of co-location for formal knowledge collaboration.

What are Innovative Opportunities

To better understand and explain processes of economic transformation, this paper proposes a new concept, “innovative opportunities”. Our interpretation of opportunities is based on an understanding of innovation in a business context, stressing perception and uncertainty during the choices involved in innovation processes. Based on Schumpeterian views of economic transformation, innovative opportunities refer to a set of different elements within the processes whereby actors identify, act upon and realize new combinations of resources and market needs to try to benefit from their future economic potential. To better understand and explain such processes, the proposed conceptualization of “innovative opportunities” consists of three elements: (1) economic value; (2) mobilization of resources; and (3) appropriability, which goes beyond existing types of opportunity conceptualizations found in the literature. The concluding discussion returns to the question of how this view of innovative opportunities modifies the existing understanding of innovation activities and industrial dynamics, and helps us identify new areas of research.

The Economic Dynamics Of Software: Three Competing Business Models Exemplified Through Microsoft, Netscape And Linux

This article proposes three ideal business models to analyze innovation in knowledge-intensive goods and services. The three models are 1) Firm-based control. 2) Hybrid, and 3) Network-based. Each is defined in relation to the two sides of innovation, e.g. creation of novelty and of economic value. Defining the models this way leads to a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each model for organizing the development of different types of software and for appropriating economic benefits. Each business model is .also exemplified through the economic history of one example. The examples are, respectively. Microsoft, Netscape and Linux. The concluding section relates software development to the broader forms of economic dynamics in knowledge-intensive sectors.

Who is not developing open source software? non-users, users, and developers

The development of knowledge requires investment, which may be made in terms of financial resources or time. Open source software (OSS) has challenged much of the traditional reasoning by suggesting that individuals behave altruistically and contribute to a public good, despite the opportunity to free-ride. The lion’s share of the existing literature on OSS examines communities, that is, those individuals whom are already part of the OSS community. In contrast, this paper starts from users with the requisite skill to use and develop OSS. This group of skilled individuals could potentially invest into the development of OSS knowledge, but they may or may not do so in actuality. This paper, therefore, explores three issues, which have not been extensively explored in the literature, namely, (1) how frequently a group of skilled people use OSS, (2) reasons for differences among users and non-users in terms of use and attitudes, and (3) how frequently, and why, some users contribute to OSS projects (and thereby become developers). In doing so, we consider the opportunity costs of use and development of OSS, which has been largely neglected in the literature. We find that the individuals have a rather pragmatic attitude to firms and that many are active in both firms and OSS community, which raises many questions for future research about the role and influence of firms on the development and diffusion of OSS.

Evolutionary economics perspectives on the regional - national - international dimensions of biotechnology innovations

This paper explores how and why relationships between firms, network linkages, and selection environments are related to geographical dimensions, within modern biotechnology at the overlap with pharmaceuticals. Theories from evolutionary economics and innovation studies are used to address questions related to the local–national–international dimensions of innovations. The concept of ‘environmental selection pressures’ is proposed, as one way to make sense of the differing patterns of firm formation, technological specialisation, and innovation. Preliminary evidence about developments in biotechnology-pharmaceuticals in Sweden and Australia is presented, to exemplify the conceptualisation and develop appreciative theorising. The paper concludes with implications for government policy as well as areas for future research.

The occurrence and spatial distribution of collaboration: biotech firms in Gothenburg, Sweden

Abstract This paper deals with the occurrence and spatial distribution of collaborations within biotechnology. By starting from a total population of 45 firms involved in biotech R&D, we shed light on how many collaborate with (1) other firms, (2) venture capitalists, and (3) actors in science and technology and whether these partners can be found in the region, nation or in the rest of the world. Possible explanations for the different patterns are drawn out.

Developing Capabilities: An Analysis of Biotechnology in two Regions in Australia and Sweden

Abstract This article analyses whether regions develop capabilities in terms of scientific, technological and business activities within specific biotechnology areas. We take a broad definition of biotechnology, and identify four industry areas: (1) core biotechnology; (2) drugs; (3) medical technologies; (4) agriculture. Capabilities and specialization-diversification are analysed for the regions of Gothenburg in western Sweden, and Brisbane in Queensland, Australia, for the period 1997–2001. These regions are relatively ordinary, and not well-studied, biotech mega-centres. The results suggest there are positive feedback mechanisms that occur in co-located activities developing regional capabilities. Regional success within biotechnology, then, is related to the existence of all or most of the different value adding activities within a sector, as well as being reasonably diversified within related sectors. This is true for all measured industry areas, although regional capability development within core biotechnology shows signs of a relatively more disruptive pattern.

Systematic Evolutionary Studies of Regional Restructuration IT and Biotech Case-Studies in Sweden

From a focus on technological change, this article deals with the issue of how to systematically study regional restructuration. The article aims to study regional restructuration as a case of general economic transformation in an evolutionary economics perspective. However, such open-ended types of analyses are inherently complex. In order to remediate the difficulties of empirical studies and to allow for a more structured comparison of different frame-works, the article outlines and applies a ‘research tool’ to the specific issue of regional restructuration. While such a tool is not a framework, it is intended to more readily compare different theories and frameworks with empirical studies. The tool treats change as involving novelty, renewal and destruction of actors and activities. These changes take place across four different dimensions: technology, organizations, interactions and economic value. The article ‘tests’ the tool by analysing three case-studies of regional restructuration at the municipality and country levels. The issue under scrutiny is how the restructuring of regional industries and technologies takes place, especially as linked to the emergence of new technologies. There are two cases of information technology in West Sweden and one case of biotechnology in Sweden. Three issues relating to the empirical findings are discussed. (1) The tool can help to structure empirical material to analyse complex processes of change over time. This is illustrated, for example, by the changes across dimensions of what is internal and external to regional restructuration. (2) The processes of technological development and of economic exploitation overlap but are differentiated from each other. Hence, a clearer distinction is needed between technology concepts and economic concepts such as ‘products’, ‘industries’, ‘economic growth’ and ‘regional development’. (3) In emerging technologies, there is clear evidence of the interdependencies between new, old and exit during regional restructuration. These three concluding remarks highlight the need for additional research to link empirical material to theoretical considerations of evolutionary processes.

What Drives Innovation Processes in Modern Biotechnology and Open Source Software

Summary This article asks about the momentum of innovating activities, by comparing and contrasting innovation processes in modern biotechnology and open source software (OSS). Both are broad technological areas, which are developed by diverse types of actors and which are useful to produce various types of goods and services. As such, their economic value lies in influencing existing and new products, firms and industrial sectors. By examining what drives modern biotech and open source software, we can ask which innovation characteristics are more general and which are more specific. We can thereby move a bit closer to the aim of considering the general conditions of innovation, in different industrial sectors and different technologies.

How and Why Dynamic Selection Regimes Affect the Firm's Innovative Search Activities

Summary The purposes of this article are: 1) To state the overall theoretical conceptualization of how and why dynamic selection regimes affect the firm’s innovative search activities; 2) To specift concepts and factors which can be used in further research, both theoretically and primarily empirical work. The article focuses on innovation processes as intrinsically economic phenomena - e.g. in an evolutionary economics and/or Schumpeterian economics perception of such dynamics being created internally to the economy. It develops a theoretical conceptualization of how and why dynamic selection regimes affect the firm’s innovative search activities. The overall theoretical perspective developed is condensed into nine propositions which link a set of concepts and relationship between actors, which together help explain the phenomena of interest. The nine theoretical propositions can help structure empirical and qualitative investigations into specific issues about innovations as economic phenomena.