Do Firms Benefit from Being Present in Multiple Technology Clusters? An Assessment of the Technological Performance of Biopharmaceutical Firms.

Catherine Lecocq (1) , Bart Leten (1) , Jeroen Kusters (2) , Bart van Looy (1)

1 Department of Managerial Economics, Strategy and Innovation. Faculty of Business and Economics
2 Deloitte Consulting

Firms active in knowledge-intensive fields are increasingly organizing their R&D activities on an international scale. This paper investigates whether firms active in biotechnology can improve their technological performance by developing R&D activities in multiple technology clusters. Regions in the US, Japan and Europe, that host a concentration of biotechnology activity are identified as clusters. Fixed-effect panel data analyses with 59 biopharmaceutical firms (period 1995-2002) provides evidence for a positive, albeit diminishing (inverted-U shape) relationship between the number of technology clusters in which a firm is present and its overall technological performance. This effect is distinct from a mere multi-location effect.

Mots clés: Social Sciences & Humanities

Domaines: Science politique

Catherine Lecocq, Bart Leten, Jeroen Kusters, Bart van Looy. Do Firms Benefit from Being Present in Multiple Technology Clusters? An Assessment of the Technological Performance of Biopharmaceutical Firms.. Regional Studies, 2011, pp.1. ⟨10.1080/00343404.2011.552494⟩. ⟨hal-00680011⟩