Thomas A. Hemphill

Strategic Research Partnerships: A Managerial Perspective

Private sector incentives to participate in research partnerships can be grouped roughly into two categories: cost-economizing incentives and strategic incentives. This paper summarizes the argument in two streams of thought that are often identified with these two sides: the transaction-cost/incomplete contracts approach and the strategic management approach. The paper recounts business motives to engage in research partnerships in each and points out that differentiating between more traditional economic perspectives (transaction costs, incomplete contracts) and strategic management/organizational theory perspectives (strategic networks, resource-dependent view, dynamic capabilities, knowledge-based view, organizational learning, options approach) may not be as sharp as one might suppose at first. The complementary nature of these perspectives should be encouraging for theoreticians looking for a more integrated model of collaboration.

Preemptive patenting, human genomics, and the US biotechnology sector: balancing intellectual property rights with societal welfare

Abstract Within the biotechnology sector of the US economy, aggressive patenting, i.e. preemptive patenting, of human genomic research results are practiced by private-sector firms, the academic community, and non-profit organizations. Preemptive patenting has traditionally been practiced by the private sector as a competitive strategy, being driven by economic considerations. Recently, academics and patients/consumers have instituted preemptive patenting strategies as a way of ensuring access to genomic sequences for, respectively, research study purposes and life-enhancing access to diagnostic gene testing. To reduce this non-economic motivation for preemptive patenting by these nontraditional competitors, it is recommended that the biotechnology industry initiate a strategy of its own which will: (1) relax firm patent enforcement of genomic sequences that are essential for academic researchers to use in their studies; and (2) provide for a ‘means-test’ approach that incorporates a ‘staggered’ fee-schedule for academic researchers to charge their subjects, i.e. patients, for gene tests and diagnostic results.

The Strategic Management of Trade Secrets in Technology-based Firms

The importance of trade secrets to the effective strategic management of technology-based firms can make the difference between economic success and failure for significant new product lines, or even the firm itself. This article proposes the conceptual outlines of a framework addressing the strategic management of trade secrets. The author identifies three environments that strongly influence strategy formulation (legal and market) and strategy implementation (organizational). A conceptual framework for trade secret strategy formulation is developed, offering a logical approach to reaching a managerial choice of trade secrecy over other forms of intellectual property protection. Discussion of trade secret strategy implementation invokes an emphasis on managerial control structures and mechanisms, focusing on the use of the trade secret audit, the identification of components of an implementation strategy (e.g., employee education, controlling physical and electronic access, and monitoring competitors), and an ever vigilant defense of trade secret protection pursued in the courts.

US offshore outsourcing of R&D: Accommodating firm and national competitiveness perspectives

Summary In the United States (US), the policy debate surrounding offshore outsourcing of ‘white collar’ service jobs, many of them high-paying, professional and technical positions, has recently focused on an area having potentially serious consequences for America’s long-term national competitiveness: the business strategy of off-shoring firm research and development (R&D) activities of critically important industries, such as information technology (IT) and pharmaceuticals. The author argues that, from a business perspective, an effective R&D offshore outsourcing strategy embraces an ‘Open Innovation’ approach, which emphasizes a careful balance between retaining core internal R&D capabilities while leveraging formal, collaborative technology relationships that enhance new product development and protect the corresponding intellectual property. US public policy complements this private sector strategy by establishing a foundation for improving the technological capabilities of the citizenry, restricting technology-sensitive areas from offshore outsourcing due to national security imperatives, and providing tax incentives for domestic R&D investment (and eliminating public financial incentives) for offshore outsourcing.

Cooperative Strategy, Technology Innovation and Competition Policy in the United States and the European Union

The widespread adoption of joint ventures in the 1980s and strategic alliances in the 1990s by a spectrum of businesses across industries has resulted in cooperative strategy emerging as the corporate and business strategy of the global economy. Of further significance, however, is the relaxation by antitrust authorities in the USA and the EU of policies forbidding or restricting horizontal or competitor collaborations. Beginning in the 1980s, legislation, regulations and guidelines have established a business environment conducive to competitor collaborations. This evolution in competition policy is justified by the need for accelerating technology-based innovations at the firm level, thus improving competitiveness at the national level. The US government and the European Commission have provided firms with safe harbors" to develop strategic technology alliances with competitors, albeit with notable differences in specific market share thresholds and emphases on qualitative versus quantitative perspectives in their respective competition policy frameworks.

The Global Food Industry and 'Creative Capitalism': The Partners in Food Solutions Sustainable Business Model

Rising global food prices have driven 44 million additional people into extreme poverty - and malnutrition - in developing countries since June 2010. Partners in Food Solutions (PFS), a nonprofit social enterprise affiliated with General Mills, is proposed as the conduit for food industry managers, engineers, and scientists to initially advise small‐ and medium‐sized African mills and food processors - and later other developing countries - on improving supply chain management by addressing manufacturing problems, developing products, improving packaging, extending product shelf, and finding new product markets. In this article, the “creative capitalism” model of sustainability and social and environmental responsibility is applied to the food manufacturing industrys efforts supporting PFS. Furthermore, the evolution of the sustainable business model developed by PFS is thoroughly described, explained, and analyzed as a generic model of social enterprise to be “scaled up” by the global food manufacturing industry. A summary of salient points conclude the article.

Oracle vs. Microsoft: Corporate Espionage or Competitive Intelligence?

world’s second largest software manufacturer, admitted that the company hired a private investigative firm, Investigative Group International (IGI), to probe two private public policy research organizations that supported the world’s number one software firm, Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Washington, during the recent landmark antitrust trial initiated by the U.S. Department of Justice. Oracle hired IGI, a firm headed by former Senate Watergate attorney Terry Lenzner, to gather information on whether Microsoft financially supported the Independent Institute and the National Taxpayers Union, both of which were releasing independent research supportive of Microsoft’s position during the antitrust trial. IGI ‘‘conducts confidential fact-finding around the world for corporations, law firms, financial institutions, public agencies, and private individuals.’’ 1 ‘‘Left undisclosed, these Microsoft front groups could have improperly influenced the outcome of one of the most important cases in U.S. history,’’ said Oracle in a statement. 2 ‘‘It’s absolutely true we set out to expose Microsoft’s covert activities,’’ said Larry Ellison, Oracle’s chief executive officer. 3 According to Ellison, the Independent Institute and the National Taxpayers Union made it appear that it would be best for American taxpayers if Microsoft won the antitrust trial. 4 ‘‘These experts were bought and paid for by Microsoft, by two taxpayers, Bill Gates and Steve Balmer,’’ stated Ellison. 5 ‘‘I feel very good about what we did,’’ said Ellison. 6 Oracle’s

Modernizing U.S. Antitrust Law: The Role of Technology and Innovation

From time to time, the U.S. Congress has undertaken major reviews of current legislation to adapt antitrust policy to emerging challenges in the economy.

Role of competition policy in the US innovation system

US competition policy, with its recent emphasis on encouraging the commercialization of new technological innovations, exhibits the flexibility to embrace new national competitiveness objectives. Competition policys traditional economic goal, of broadening consumer choice and improving market efficiency, is now extended to encourage continuous innovation (both technological and organizational) in a network-based, global business environment. Antitrust enforcement in recently formed industries exhibiting dynamic innovation requires a new theoretical foundation (utilizing Schumpeterian, evolutionary, Austrian, path-dependence, and resource-based perspectives) to create competition guidelines for agency intervention, as well as remedies that will not interfere with the ‘creative destruction’ that characterizes the innovation process. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

The Obama Innovation Strategy: How Will It Influence U.S. Business Innovation and R&D Management?

In September 2009, the “Obama Innovation Strategy”, designed to help guide U.S. technology and innovation policy, was unveiled by the new Obama Administration, with a follow-up, “Strategy for American Innovation” released in February 2011. First, this paper initially identifies and reviews the policy components and initiatives of the Strategy for American Innovation relevant to improving the nation’s corporate innovation and R&D performance. Second, the Strategy for American Innovation, specifically those four generic policies and initiatives identified as directly relevant to firm innovation and R&D management, i.e., Innovation and R&D Funding Initiatives, Taxation Policy, Patent Policy, and Antitrust Policy, are evaluated on how they complement (and harmonize with) the existing U.S. national innovation system. Last, a summary and conclusions are presented.