Thomas Crispeels

The relationship between organizational characteristics and membership of a biotechnology industry board-of-directors-network

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between organizational characteristics and presence in a board-of-directors (BoD)-network, in the context of the biotechnology industry. Accessing and integrating external knowledge is key to an organization’s success within innovative industries. This can occur through inter-organizational networks such as the BoD-network. Design/methodology/approach – The authors apply a network analysis method (Robins and Alexander, 2004) and a logistic regression to a proprietary database of Belgian biotechnology organizations. Findings – The authors conclude that some organizational characteristics influence the presence of a biotechnology organization in the regional BoD-network. Academic spin-offs, start-ups and small companies are more likely to be part of the regional biotechnology BoD-network. The authors also observe that organizations involved in innovative activities are prominently present in the BoD-network. Interestingly, key actors lik...

Strategic and Innovation Networks in the Flanders Biotechnology Industry

For organizations in high-technology industries, knowledge is a critical resource that can be accessed through inter-organizational networks. However, for industries characterized by a heterogeneous set of actors, little is known about how different networks within the industry interact. Therefore, our research question is: How similar are the strategic network and the innovation network in the biotechnology industry? To answer our research question, we study two networks of interest. First, the Board-of-Directors-network serves as a proxy for the strategic network that fosters knowledge transfer between organizations. Second, we analyze the innovation network by using the patent network that emerged from collaborative innovation activities. Subject of analysis is the Flanders biotechnology industry, which is characterized by strong performing research institutions, large firms and innovative SMEs. We use social network analysis methods to measure the similarity of both networks and to identify their key actors. We find that a connection between two organizations in the strategic network increases the probability of forming a new connection between the same organizations in the innovation network, or vice versa. This shows that collaborations between two organizations on one network level can lead to an interlocking of the organizations at other network levels. Our results also suggest that few companies establish and maintain a strong position in the biotechnology innovation network. This network is dominated by academic institutions, which are the key producers of scientific knowledge. Interestingly, the BoD-network has a more balanced composition and power structure and knowledge on strategic issues is transferred across a wide range of industrial actors. We also highlight the strong position of spin-off companies in the BoD-network and the absence of large firms in both networks. Our findings call for more research on the causal mechanisms of network formation and on the relationship between multiple networks within one industry.

Public–private collaborations in drug development: boosting innovation or alleviating risk?

ABSTRACT Consistent with popular belief among certain academics, practitioners, and policy makers, we hypothesize that collaboration between private and public organizations promotes success. We test this hypothesis for data on clinical trial success. Contrary to this popular belief, our results do not support the beneficial effect of within- and cross-sector collaborations. In contrast, we find that trials from single private companies are four times more likely to be successful than are trials in which public and private organizations collaborate. Hence, our results indicate that companies engage with public partners to mitigate development risks, not to exchange knowledge or technologies with them.

SECTION 4: EDUCATION

This section presents data primarily concerning formal education as a whole, at various levels, and for public and private schools. Data shown relate to the schoolage population and school enrollment, educational attainment, education personnel, and financial aspects of education. In addition, data are shown for charter schools, computer usage in schools, distance education, and adult education. The chief sources are the decennial census of population and the Current Population Survey (CPS), both conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau (see text, Section 1, Population); annual, biennial, and other periodic surveys conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a part of the U.S. Department of Education; and surveys conducted by the National Education Association.

Effective Technology Transfer in Biotechnology:Best Practice Case Studies in Europe

Biotechnology is referred to as one of the key enabling technologies of the 21st century. It has the potential to offer solutions for a number of health and resource-based problems the world is facing, such as unmet medical needs and fossil fuel dependency. Considerable effort and investment has been expended in recent years to try and improve the outcomes of technology transfer in order to fulfill this potential. This book presents seventeen best-practice case studies on the topic of effective technology transfer in biotechnology. The selected case studies focus on technology transfer offices, funding models, incubators, education and clusters. Each presents an overview of an initiative that was deployed in Europe with the aim of supporting and stimulating the transfer of biotechnology discoveries and technologies from research laboratories to society. Readers are provided with a critical assessment of each initiative and policy makers, entrepreneurs, cluster managers and research institute managers will find inspiring lessons they can draw on when developing and implementing similar initiatives elsewhere. These cases are the product of research undertaken as part of the ETTBio (Effective Technology Transfer in Biotechnology) project, co-financed by the European Union (ERDF ia European Regional Development Fund) and made possible by the INTERREG IVC Programme. ETTBio commenced in January 2012 and concluded in December 2014.

Knowledge Bases and Collaboration Propensity during Clinical Drug Development

We apply the theory of the knowledge-based view on the firm to investigate why pharmaceutical companies enter into inter-organizational collaborations during clinical drug development. A firm’s propensity to collaborate is influenced by the firm’s knowledge base, i.e. its stock of knowledge resources. We consider two knowledge bases that exist within pharmaceutical firms: early-stage R&D and late-stage R&D knowledge bases. As pharmaceutical companies possess and utilize both knowledge bases during drug development, traditional patent-based measures present too homogeneous a view on the firms knowledge base. We complement traditional measures with a measure that captures late-stage R&D knowledge base and answer the following research question: What is the impact of the concentration of the early-stage R&D and late-stage R&D knowledge bases on the propensity of pharmaceutical companies to engage in collaborative clinical drug development? We find that pharmaceutical companies with a concentrated clinical d...

Clinical Development Of Biologic Therapeutics: The Influence Of Collaboration On Success

New therapeutics are developed by a heterogeneous set of actors including universities, innovative SMEs and large pharmaceutical concerns. In this paper, we distinguish between private and public organizations and we address the following research question: Does inter-organizational collaboration between private and/or public organizations during the clinical development of novel biologic therapeutics influence clinical trial success? We use a multilevel binomial logistic regression and control for clinical trial phase, product class, therapeutic indication and trial start year. No effect of collaborative clinical development on clinical trial success was found, regardless of whether collaborations took place within or across sectors. The absence of such a relationship indicates that the current portfolio approach to innovation in the drug development industry does not translate in improved outcomes. Collaborative R&D projects are vehicles that should be used to combine capabilities and to promote inter-o...