Chapter 11 Country-Specificity and Industry Performance: A Configurational Analysis of the European Generic Medicines Industry

Abstract

The identification of country-specific advantages for business activities is one of the most crucial issues of strategic management and international business literatures. We address this issue by examining location-specific conditions for a successful generic medicines industry within 24 European countries. The findings of our fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis show that there are no necessary conditions for the high performance or absence of the high-performance industry. By revealing the causal complexity related to the issue, however, we show that the high performance or lack of it results from a configuration of conditions. Specifically, we identify two sufficient causal configurations to both outcomes. These findings provide clear implications for generic medicines industry firms who are planning location choices of their operations. In addition, this study provides a methodological advancement to explain and understand which country elements matter more, for what outcomes, and under what conditions.

Citation

Pajunen, K. and Airo, V. (2013), "Chapter 11 Country-Specificity and Industry Performance: A Configurational Analysis of the European Generic Medicines Industry", Fiss, P.C., Cambré, B. and Marx, A. (Ed.) Configurational Theory and Methods in Organizational Research (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 38), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 255-278. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X(2013)0000038015