Search results

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether biotechnology and health-care firms in Australia have poorer continuous disclosure (CD) practices as reflected in Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) queries relative to other firms.

Univariate tests and multivariate logit regressions are used to examine whether the frequency and nature of ASX queries and firms’ replies to price queries differ between biotechnology/health-care firms and the control firms.

Results suggest that biotechnology/health-care firms are more likely to receive volume queries and ASX Listing Rule 4.10 queries. They are also more likely to respond to price queries with new information relative to the control firms. However, biotechnology/health-care firms do not otherwise have statistically significantly different CD practice compared to the control firms, as reflected by the frequency and attributes of various types of ASX queries and by the way firms reply to price queries.

Evidence from this study can help evaluate the adequacy and enforcement of CD requirements and the need for further improvement. Investors can also use the evidence to better understand the information risks associated with investment in the biotechnology/health-care industry.

Prior research has not used multivariate methods to examine biotechnology/health-care firms’ CD practice in Australia or to examine accounting determinants of different types of ASX queries and firms’ responses to price queries.

In light of the controversy between the theoretical importance of financing biotechnology firms’ research and development (R&D), and the firms’ contradictory and ambivalent empirical results, this paper aims to contribute to the debate by providing empirical evidence from Mexico’s case.

The authors use the probit model to determine if firms’ achievements in innovations are related to both private and public financing, and if so, to calculate their marginal effect on the firms’ innovation (n = 40 from 53 firms: 75.5% response). The survey was applied in 2015.

Although a large proportion of the firms innovate and dedicate resources to R&D activities, neither private financing (different from the R&D portion of sales) nor public financing has an impact on innovation activity.

It is necessary to increase the number of studies that corroborate the type of link established between innovations in biotechnology firms and financing. Analyzing the financing/innovation links at various stages of the innovation process would also be relevant.

The research results support the perspective that the theoretical relationship between the financing and achievements of innovation is not conclusive and point to relevant considerations for the public policy agenda of the case study.

This paper seeks to address the value relevance of summary accounting measures and fundamental income statement variables in the market valuation of biotech firms.

A biotech firm's stock price was related to its underlying financial accounting variables. Using the Ohlson model, the linear function of book value and earnings was employed, and the basic model was augmented with additional accounting variables. These accounting variables may provide information relevant for forming an approximation on the present value of expected future abnormal earnings.

Results show non‐linearities in the pricing of accounting variables Both book value and earnings are value relevant, but positive earnings are positively priced while negative earnings are negatively priced. R&D spending and selling, general and administrative expenses are also priced as assets for loss‐reporting firms, and as expenses for profit‐reporting observations. Including analysts’ forecasts of future earnings and long‐term growth rate in the model results in an insignificant increase in the explanatory power of the regressions.

Future research could attempt to examine the role of non‐financial variables which can proxy for the soft variables and intangibles like strategic alliances and product pipeline. Decomposing revenue into product sales, interest income and collaborative research revenue may further enhance our understanding on the determinants of the market value of biotech stocks.

This paper provides insights into the valuation of biotechnology stocks. Results show non‐linearities in the pricing of summary accounting measures and fundamental income statement variables.

Inter-organizational alliances and the networks they generate have been a central topic in organization theory over the last decade. However, network analyses per se have been static. Even when information over time has been available, the temporal component has been set aside or aggregated to the end point of the study. Substantially more research has been conducted on organizations initiating inter-organizational relationships. The organization-level research has been decidedly dynamic in nature. However, organization-level research has largely examined the structural characteristics of the networks generated by organizational actions. Work combining network-level and organization-level phenomena has been rare and, to our knowledge, no research including the effects of organization-level actions on the evolution of network-level phenomena has occurred.

In this chapter we use more than 6000 R&D alliances and more than 6500 M&D alliances initiated by more than 1000 biotech firms in the U.S. over a 30 year period to construct quarterly networks. We test 13 hypotheses linking the actions of the firms to changes in network structure. Utilizing hazard-rate models we test the effects of institutional status, positional status (centrality), and structural status (coreness) of firms on their propensity to form ties with different structural consequences. Our research indicates that both R&D and M&D networks in U.S. biotechnology are developing a distinct core/periphery structure over time. Furthermore, we find support for a process of preferential attachment wherein organizations are more likely to form ties with organizations of similar institutional and structural status. Furthermore, we find evidence for cross effects, for example attachment processes that enfold across the two networks.

Biotech companies stand as key actors in pharmaceutical innovation. The high risk and long timelines inherent with their R&D investments might hinder their access to funding, potentially stifling innovation. This study aims to explore into the appeal of biotech companies to capital market investors, whose financial backing could bolster the growth of the biotechnology sector.

This paper uses a dataset of 774 US publicly listed biotech firms to investigate their risk and return characteristics by comparing them to pharmaceutical firms and a sample of matched non-biotech R&D-intensive firms over the sample period 1980–2021. Tests show that the conclusions remain consistent across diverse methodological approaches.

The paper shows that biotech companies are riskier than the average firm in the market index but outperform on a risk-adjusted basis both the market and a matched group of R&D-intensive firms. This is particularly true for large capitalization biotech, which is also shown to provide a diversification benefit by reducing the downside risk in past crisis periods.

This paper provides insight relevant to the current debate about the overall performance of the biotech industry in terms of policy changes and their impact on small, early-stage biotech firms. While small and early-stage biotech firms are playing an increasing role in scientific innovation, this study confirms their greater vulnerability to financial risks and the importance of access to capital markets in enabling those companies to survive and evolve into larger biotech.

Economic interest groups such as seed, pesticide, feed, and food companies play an important role in supporting or preventing the production of genetically modified (GM) crops. The purpose of this paper is to examine firm managers’ attitudes toward GM technology, biotechnology R&D investment, and political lobbying activities.

Using data from surveys of 160 managers in the food, feed, chemical, and seed industries in 2013-2014, this paper employed three probit models to examine the determinants of managers’ attitudes, biotechnology R&D investment, and lobbying activities.

The results show that most Chinese agribusiness managers are concerned about GM foods and oppose its adoption. Nevertheless, one-third of the firms invest in biotechnology R&D and less than 15 percent of managers lobbied the government to change biotechnology policies. The econometric estimation results suggest that profit change expectation is the main factor affecting managers’ attitudes and biotechnology R&D investment decisions, whereas lobbying activities are significantly influenced by their attitudes and biotechnology R&D investment. In addition, managers’ attitudes toward GM foods also significantly influence firms’ decisions to invest in biotechnology R&D.

This paper has improved on previous research in two ways. First, it analyses the determinants of agribusiness firm managers’ attitudes toward GM technology, biotechnology R&D investment, and lobbying activities. Second, the methodology involves an analysis of agribusiness firm survey data in the food, feed, chemical, and seed industries, which is the first time to use such data to research on economic interest group in agricultural biotechnology field.

This paper aims to provide empirical evidence regarding the relationship between different capabilities and innovation performances in the biotechnology sector, in the case of Mexico.

Given the aforementioned objective, this paper constructs different indicators on types of capabilities and innovative performances and, based on them, performs an econometric analysis based on a logit model. The work assumes the central assumptions of the firm's evolutionary theory and, in this sense, seeks to provide quantitative empirical evidence that explains the way in which the construction of different types of capacities determines the innovation results of Mexican firms in the biotechnology sector.

Corroborating the previous empirical evidence in analysis of firm’s capabilities in the biotechnology sector, this work empirically states that productive, absorption, technological and innovative capabilities positively influence the innovative performance of Mexican biotechnology firms.

This work examines a central theme linked to the current analysis of innovation and knowledge processes: the relationship between the organizational capacities of firms in the biotechnology sector and their innovative performance. Through a detailed analysis based on a national survey of Mexican biotechnology firms, this work underlines the importance of generating a new type of reflection on linkage among capabilities, innovation, paradigms and trajectories, technological opportunities, relationship dynamics among actors and modes of insertion into the biotechnology value chain.

El propósito de esta investigación es determinar la influencia de diferentes tipos de capacidades en la habilidad de las empresas para innovar, medida como la introducción de productos biotecnológicos nuevos (o mejorados) en el mercado por parte de la empresa mexicana.

Se analizan los datos de una encuesta nacional de 40 empresas mexicanas de biotecnología en 2015. Se usó un modelo PLS teniendo en cuenta: el tamaño de la muestra, la naturaleza predictiva de la investigación y la complejidad de analizar el efecto de las variables latentes.

De acuerdo con investigaciones anteriores, nuestros resultados muestran la influencia de las capacidades de innovación en los resultados de innovación logrados por la empresa de biotecnología. Por otro lado, el efecto de las capacidades de gestión en los resultados de innovación de la empresa es muy limitado y moderado. Finalmente, y a diferencia de la evidencia predominante anterior, no se encontró una relación entre las capacidades de absorción de las empresas y su desempeño innovador.

El estudio proporciona nuevos aportes analíticos y empíricos que conducen a una reflexión sobre las oportunidades que tienen las empresas mexicanas de insertarse en los mercados globales de media y alta tecnología en el sector de la biotecnología. La detección de oportunidades tecnológicas aprovechables puede proporcionar a la biotecnología mexicana recursos directos para que desarrollen nuevas políticas de innovación e industriales y ajustar las actuales no organizadas.

Biotecnología, Capacidades, Innovación, Desempeño de la empresa, Políticas sectoriales

Trabajo de investigación

O objetivo desta pesquisa é determinar a influência de diferentes tipos de capacidades na capacidade de inovação das empresas, medida como a introdução de novos (ou melhorados) produtos biotecnológicos no mercado pela empresa mexicana.

Os dados de uma pesquisa nacional de 40 empresas de biotecnologia mexicanas são analisados em 2015. Um modelo PLS foi usado levando em conta: o tamanho da amostra, a natureza preditiva da pesquisa e a complexidade de analisar o efeito de variáveis latentes.

Segundo pesquisas anteriores, nossos resultados mostram a influência das capacidades de inovação nos resultados de inovação alcançados pela empresa de biotecnologia. Por outro lado, o efeito das capacidades de gestão nos resultados de inovação da empresa é muito limitado e moderado. Por fim, e diferentemente da evidência predominante anterior, não foi encontrada relação entre as capacidades de absorção das empresas e seu desempenho inovador.

O estudo fornece novas contribuições analíticas e empíricas que levam a uma reflexão sobre as oportunidades que as empresas mexicanas têm para se inserir nos mercados globais de média e alta tecnologia no setor de biotecnologia. A detecção de oportunidades tecnológicas exploráveis pode fornecer à biotecnologia mexicana recursos diretos para desenvolver novas políticas industriais e de inovação e ajustar as atuais políticas não organizadas.

Biotecnologia, Capacidades, Inovaçño, Desempenho da empresa, Políticas setoriais

Trabalho de pesquisa

The creation of partnerships among companies, governments and universities can improve innovation and the technological development of institutions. As innovation is a multidimensional concept, more nuanced research is needed to identify, which dimensions of innovation firms should focus on them. This paper aims to investigate the influence of attitude to knowledge sharing (KS) factors, learning organization and creativity on the innovation in marketing biotechnology firms. So, the purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of learning organization, attitude to KS, creativity, information technology (IT) acceptance, KS culture and trust on the innovation by presenting a new framework and a model.

The structural equation modeling technique is used to examine the reliability and validity of the measurement of the provided model. Data were collected by questionnaires. A case study was carried out in 100 marketing biotechnology firms in the Tehran of Iran. In this paper, smart partial least squares 2.0 was used to evaluate the measurement.

The result showed that all hypotheses of this research are proved. Also, the results have shown that the attitude to KS, learning organization and creativity affect the innovation in marketing biotechnology firms. As an overall result, the managers should create an enhanced knowledge bank to increase and encourage the KS among employees, thus creating and enhancing innovation in organizations. Also, the results have shown that marketing shortages were mostly connected to access to human resources with related management and marketing experiences and were mainly felt by firms introducing discontinuous novelties.

The main limitation of this paper is that the sample was retrieved from 384 employees in 100 marketing biotechnology institutions. The larger number of samples can yield better results. Next, even though the respondents’ profiles indicated a high probability of them being cognizant of their organization’s efforts in inter-firm KS, learning, creativity and innovation with three or four respondent from each organization answering all questions for such complicated issues always poses the risk of measurement bias and inaccuracy. An ideal situation for future studies would be to pool and compare multiple respondents from the same organization to obtain a more comprehensive firm-level measurement. In addition, this study only surveyed and sampled biotech marketing companies in Iran. Therefore, the model should be examined using samples from other countries because the varieties of culture could have an impact on employee apprehensions. So, future researchers can test the measurement instrument in different countries and/or conduct large multi-national comparisons.

Successful marketing strategies depend very much on an organization’s ability to implement them. This paper provides an excellent study about the future of pharmaceutical KS and shows that innovation paths are linked with local and temporary occasions. Also, the results of this study provide valuable information in formulating marketing biotechnology programs. It is essential to study both economics and innovation for students and academics. The results also suggested that policies to increase economic research will also increase innovation. They could contain the consolidation of the legal framework and institutional resources for public organizations to protect intellectual properties. In general, for successful implementation of strategies an organization has to integrate KS, processes and IT.

The paper identifies the most critical factors in the innovation process of enterprizes in marketing biotechnology institutions. The implications derived from this study can shed new light upon policy-making both at the level of governance and in the management practice in Iran’s marketing biotechnology industry. Also, the paper increases understanding of the innovation process in Iran marketing biotechnology companies. This study contributes to innovating management research by offering a set of legal and dependable operational measures. These measures can help academics in theory analysis.

This is the first attempt examining the role of the learning organization, creativity and attitude to KS as a key contingency factor in innovation in Iran marketing biotechnology firms, an issue whose understanding is still developing in the literature. The paper adds to the body of knowledge by allowing better understanding the attitude toward KS and the influence of KS, learning and creativity on innovation. Previous studies did not investigate the KS in marketing biotechnology firms deeply, but, the present paper permits a more complete view on this topic. The guidelines are provided for the top directors to promote KS and innovation according to the research results. From a managerial point of view some critical elements, which are important for the success of KS and application of these elements for progressing institutional guidelines to develop KS, are considered. Theoretical foundations can be extracted from this study, and these foundations can be implemented to investigate connection in KS elements such as feasibilities processes and institution initiative abilities. So, the results could be suitable to managers when arranging an organization and shaping its culture to improve knowledge management.

An emerging stream of literature has observed that project-based organizations rely increasingly on a network of collaborations originating from the ongoing process of creating and dissolving relationships that bring new project opportunities. Project-based networks are widespread in knowledge-intensive and creative industries, such as life-science and biotechnology, nanotechnology, and software, film, and music industry. This chapter examines the structural characteristics of project-based network-ties in German biotech. We focus on the consequences of local versus international network ties for the innovative success of German biotechnology firms. The findings of our longitudinal event history analysis indicate that the most valuable learning drivers are international research alliances and centrality within the international research network. Surprisingly, we do not find any local effects: neither the density of a local research cluster, nor its diversity or age is of significance. Our results shed new light on the relevance of international linkages for firms that are engaged in project-based learning networks.

This paper aims to construct a process model of business founding in the biotech industry.

An inductive method is used, and five case studies analyzed. Data are coded by applying Gioia’s method.

Aspirant entrepreneurs conduct resource analysis and industry analysis to formulate research and development targets. They perform transactions and networks because they require resources, and they then deploy and coordinate these resources. Such coordination generates activities with social and financial impacts.

The results are specific to the biotech industry. A future study could examine business founding processes in other industries (e.g. entertainment, fashion, public utilities and sport). Additionally, the paper argues that during the founding process entrepreneurs show little concern for knowledge-sharing risk, as they want to collaborate to implement their ideas. Quantitative papers could test the consequences of such behavior.

The process model provides insights into aspirant founders on how to start a business in the biotech industry.

The paper shows: the differences between the founding process in the biotech industry versus other industries; and the shape of the Bower–Burgelman model in the context of biotech business founding. The paper delineates how private companies discover competencies in the public sector; a model of technology transfer from public to private sector; entrepreneurs’ absence of risk perceptions regarding knowledge-sharing during founding; and how conferences can serve as vehicles for benchmarking in networking.