A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Absorptive Capacity and Alliance Networks on Innovation in the Global Pharmaceutical Industry

包括组织理论、战略管理和经济学在内的各个学科的学者都对两个相关问题投入了大量关注：为什么有些公司比其他公司更具创新性，以及创新何时有助于公司的财务成功。这些问题值得关注，因为创新型企业是技术进步和长期经济增长的关键驱动力。本研究将提高我们对这些关系的理解，通过调查一个公司的科学和技术知识的特点，通常被称为其吸收能力，和一个公司的联盟网络共同影响其创新能力。我们特别关注吸收能力和联盟网络的特征如何影响专利公司生产的数量和价值，因为这些创新成果会积极影响公司利润，并表明技术进步的速度有多快。吸收能力被认为能够提高公司的创新能力，使其能够认识到外部发现的价值，吸收新的见解，并将这种知识应用于技术发展。然而，企业的知识存量属性及其吸收能力差异很大，这些差异可能会影响创新生产力。我们研究了企业吸收能力的广度和深度如何影响其专利的数量和价值。吸收能力促进了外部知识的利用，而企业的联盟网络则决定了它所能获得的外部科技知识的类型和数量。公司网络的某些属性，如其规模和合作伙伴之间的联系密度，与其产生的专利数量有关。研究尚未探讨企业通过其网络接触的知识类型如何影响其创新的价值，或网络变量和吸收能力如何相互作用影响专利生产。通过探索吸收能力和网络结构的具体特征，并通过研究它们对创新的互动影响，我们将了解创新能力的这两个方面何时相互补充，何时可以相互替代。这对于了解公司如何最好地利用其研发投资至关重要。联盟为公司提供了利用其通过自己的研究和开发获得的科学和技术知识的机会。然而，联盟伙伴的最佳组合可能因公司吸收能力的具体特点而异，特别是这种知识的广度和深度。有些网络结构可能会增加企业吸收能力的价值，而另一些网络结构在创新过程中可能发挥与企业内部知识基本相同的作用，因此可以被视为吸收能力的替代品。我们的研究还将阐明，当企业更好地服务于最大限度地提高创新的数量和质量之间的选择，当他们可以实现这两个结果与网络合作伙伴和吸收能力的适当配置。最后，我们希望提供一些洞察联盟网络的作用，在指导和节奏的技术进步。本研究以全球制药行业为背景，在该行业，科学和技术知识对创新至关重要，联盟日益普遍，专利有效并广泛用于防止产品模仿。这项研究可能对如何在企业系统中激励创新的政策讨论具有一定的价值。

Scholars in a variety of disciplines, including organizational theory, strategic management, and economics, have devoted substantial attention to two related questions: why are some firms more innovative than others, and when does innovation contribute to a firm's financial success. These questions warrant attention because innovative firms are critical drivers of technological progress and long-term economic growth. This study will enhance our understanding of these relationships by investigating how characteristics of a firm's scientific and technological knowledge, often referred to as its absorptive capacity, and a firm's alliance network jointly affect its ability to innovate. We focus particularly on how characteristics of absorptive capacity and alliance networks affect the number and value of patents firms produce, because these innovation outcomes positively affect firm profits and indicate how quickly technologies are advancing. Absorptive capacity is believed to enhance a firm's innovative capacity by enabling it to recognize the value of externally generated discoveries, to assimilate novel insights, and to apply this knowledge to technological development. However, attributes of firms' knowledge stocks, and hence their absorptive capacity, vary greatly, and these differences may influence innovative productivity. We examine how the breadth and depth of a firm's absorptive capacity affect the number and value of the patents it produces. Whereas absorptive capacity facilitates the utilization of external knowledge, a firm's alliance network shapes the type and volume of external scientific and technological knowledge it has access to. Certain attributes of a firm's network, such as its size and the density of connections among its partners, have been related to the number of patents it produces. Studies have not yet explored how the type of knowledge a firm is exposed to through its network affect the value of its innovations, or how network variables and absorptive capacity interact to affect patent production. By exploring specific characteristics of absorptive capacity and network structure, and by investigating their interactive effects on innovation, we will learn when these two facets of innovative capacity complement each other and when they may substitute for one another. This is central to understanding how firms can make the best use of their investments in research and development. Alliances present opportunities for a firm to leverage the scientific and technological knowledge it acquires through its own research and development. However, the best mix of alliance partners may vary according to specific characteristics of a firm's absorptive capacity, particularly the breadth and depth of that knowledge. Some network structures may augment the value of a firm's absorptive capacity, while others may play essentially the same role in the innovation process as a firm's internal knowledge and hence could be viewed as a substitute for absorptive capacity. Our study will also shed light on when firms are better served by choosing between maximizing the quantity and the quality of their innovations, and when they can achieve both outcomes with an appropriate configuration of network partners and absorptive capacity. Finally, we expect to provide some insight into the role of alliance networks in directing and pacing technological progress. This study is set in the global pharmaceutical industry, where scientific and technological knowledge is critical to innovation, alliances are increasingly prevalent, and patents are effective and widely used to prevent product imitation. The study may have some value for policy discussions of how to spur innovation in a system of firms.