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Inter-organizational collaboration, knowledge intensity, and the sources of innovation in the bioscience-technology industries

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Knowledge, Technology & Policy

Abstract

What makes some firms more innovative than others and what determines the source of these innovations are questions that are still not adequately answered due to the complex, often esoteric, nature of the innovation process. This paper considers the effect of one externally oriented strategy (extent of formal inter-organizational linkages) and one internally oriented strategy (degree of knowledge intensity) on overall levels of innovativeness and the source of these innovations. Using data collected from firms operating in the bioscience-technology industries in both New York and Utah, our results suggest that both of these strategies have a significant effect upon innovation levels and the source of innovation (internally versus externally stimulated). Interestingly, there were few firms that undertook both of these strategies simultaneously and thus the proposed interaction effect where increased absorptive capacity (on the basis of knowledge intensity) would make external linkages even more valuable could not be discerned.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Management of Technology, the University of Minnesota, USA

    Kelvin Willoughby (the Honeywell/W. R. Sweatt Chair, Director)

  2. the Management of Technology Program in the Center for the Development of Technological Leadership, UK

    Kelvin Willoughby (the Honeywell/W. R. Sweatt Chair, Director)

  3. the Graduate School of Management, Curtin University of Technology, USA

    Peter Galvin (Senior Lecturer)

Authors
  1. Kelvin Willoughby
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  2. Peter Galvin
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Additional information

His interests lay in strategic technology management, intellectual property management, technology-based entrepreneurship, technology-based industry development, and regional economic development planning. Much of his work has focused on life-science related industries. He holds doctoral degrees in both technology studies and strategic management. He also works in the area of technology commercialization education for the U.S. Government’s Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer.

He received his PhD from the University of Western Australia in 1998. His present research interests focus upon the nexus of strategy and innovation, and have included studies in the bicycle, financial services, airline and biotechnology industries.

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Willoughby, K., Galvin, P. Inter-organizational collaboration, knowledge intensity, and the sources of innovation in the bioscience-technology industries. Know Techn Pol 18, 56–73 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12130-005-1005-z

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