Alliances may Explain the Significant Growth of Biotechnology Companies in the Critical Period 1996-2001?

Alliances may Explain the Significant Growth of Biotechnology Companies in the Critical Period 1996-2001?

Tomas Gabriel Bas
Copyright: © 2011 |Pages: 17
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61692-846-9.ch006
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Abstract

The biotechnology is a very complex sector and its growth depends on many variables like intellectual properties, venture capital, clusters, public policies, alliances, amongst others. In biotechnology, the complexity surrounding alliances can be observed. The market globalization, the exorbitant costs of R&D and the rapid changes in technology, are arguably in the midst of the principal reasons that push companies to establish alliances. Biotechnology companies use this instrument to develop external features in the search for resources and missing expertise. This chapter sets out to identify whether such alliances in biotechnology companies are an advantage in themselves, sufficient for the acquisition of new capabilities and whether they help the growth of these companies. For this approach, a private database of companies (900 companies including years 1996-2001) in the two most advanced countries in this sector: United States and United Kingdom will be used.
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Methodology

We used secondary information to create an original and exclusive database of biotechnology companies from the United States and the United Kingdom for the period 1996-2001. SPSS statistical software was used to analyze the data for regressions and correlations. Because several growth promoters are involved in the success or failure of biotechnology companies, we used different dependent and independent variables. The dependent variable was the fast growth of the companies, which was measured by the increase of 50% or more in the number of employees during the period 1996 to 2001. We use the number of employees because we work with private and public companies. We cannot use the income data from private companies, because for these companies that information is not publicly available. The independent variables were treated in a metric approach, for example the age of the companies, or dichotomy form by yes/no (supply/absence of alliances). The variables were: the age of the company (variable metric calculated over a number of years since the foundation), area of exploitation, such a human health or agro/bio (dichotomy yes/no), patents (yes/no), venture capital (yes/no) and finally, alliances (yes/no).

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