Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Study of the Innovation Process

这项研究扩展了以前的工作，对快速变化和日益重要的行业：生物技术的创新采取了更广泛的观点。 学者和实践者认为，创新是企业生存的必要条件，因为企业努力跟上当今快速变化的商业环境的步伐。 尽管存在轶事证据，但目前的研究未能系统地回答关于产品创新的一个关键问题：企业应该开发新产品还是在现有产品的基础上增加创新每个阶段成功的可能性（即，产品发明、产品开发、产品成功）？ 为了回答这个问题，我研究了1985-2005年美国上市生物技术公司及其产品的数据。 数据收集工作包括对公司产品开发和战略联盟报告进行编码，以及对提交给美国专利和商标局的专利数据进行编码。 专利引用的数据使我能够评估一个产品在产品网络中的核心地位，相对于公司、联盟伙伴或竞争对手的现有产品。 分析包括评估公司，产品和联盟的特征，这些特征与创新各个阶段的成功相关。 这项研究为理解生物技术和技术创新提供了一些贡献。 首先，了解提高生物技术行业创新的因素对于政府和行业关注药物和医疗保健成本增加以及满足美国人口日益老龄化的需求至关重要。本研究的结果应提供更多的见解，以提高生物技术产品开发的效率和降低成本。 其次，本研究的结果将产生一个更好的理解的作用，技术在维持成功的创新超越典型的联盟和资源为基础的解释。 第三，这项研究将提供一个理论贡献的文献创新更普遍的概念化创新相对于企业和环境的各个阶段的创新。

This research extends prior work by taking a broader view of innovation in a rapidly changing and increasingly important industry: biotechnology. Scholars and practitioners assume innovation is necessary for survival as firms strive to keep pace in today's rapidly changing business climate. Although anecdotal evidence exists, current research fails to systematically answer a crucial question regarding product innovation: Should firms develop novel products or build on existing products to increase the likelihood of success at each stage of innovation (i.e., product invention, product development, product success)? To answer this question I examine data on U.S. publicly-traded biotechnology firms and their products from 1985-2005. Data collection efforts include coding company reports on product development and strategic alliances as well as coding data from patents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Data from patent citations allow me to evaluate the extent to which a product is central--within a network of products--relative to the firm's, alliance partner's or competitor's existing products. Analysis consists of evaluating firm, product, and alliance characteristics that are associated with success across the stages of innovation. This research provides several contributions to the understanding of biotechnology and technological innovation. First, understanding the factors that improve innovation in the biotechnology industry is critical for government and industry concerns regarding increasing costs of drugs and healthcare and for servicing the needs of an increasingly aging population in the U.S. Findings from this research should provide additional insight into factors that increase efficiency and reduce costs in biotechnology product development. Second, results from this study will yield a better understanding of the role of technology in sustaining successful innovation beyond typical alliance and resource-based explanations. Third, this study will provide a theoretical contribution to the literature on innovation more generally by conceptualizing innovation relative to both the firm and the environment across the stages of innovation.