Knowledge Diversity in the Emerging Global Bio-Nano Sector
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Knowledge Diversity in the Emerging Global Bio-Nano Sector Elicia Maine1, Martin Bliemel2, Armstrong Murira3, and James Utterback4 1
Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, B.C., Canada Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia 3 Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada 4 Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA 2
ASTRACT As scientists are able to understand and manipulate ever smaller scales of matter, research in the fields of biotechnology and nanotechnology has converged to enable such radical innovations as lab-on-a-chip devices, targeted drug delivery, and other forms of minimally invasive therapy and diagnostics. This paper provides a descriptive overview of the emerging bio-nano sector, identifying what types of firms are entering, from what knowledge base, where they are located, and their strategic choices in terms of technological diversity and R&D strategy. The firms engaged in bio-nano research and development span the range from start-up firm to multinational pharmaceutical, biotech, chemical, and electronics firms: two thirds of bio-nano firms are relatively young and relatively small. The United States dominates this sector, with more than half of all bio-nano firms located in the USA. Even within this sector which epitomizes the convergence of technology, there is a broad range of technological diversity, with the most diverse firms overall coming from a base in electronics, the most diverse start-up firms coming from a base in nanomaterials, and the most narrowly focused firms coming from a biotechnology/pharmaceutical base. We find that hybridization has been the dominant knowledge diversity strategy, with 93% of the bio-nano firms with nano-patents holding multiclass patents. INTRODUCTION Despite the early stage of research and development, the convergence of biotechnology and nanotechnology has generated high expectations among national governments and venture capital firms. Biotechnology is an established industry and highly research intensive: biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms perform approximately 20% of all corporate R&D, spending nearly $100 billion on research globally in 2006 (UK Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills, 2007). Nanotechnology is a nascent industry, but one that is also highly research intensive and considered commercially promising enough that national governments spent nearly $12 billion on nanotechnology R&D in 2008 (Plunkett Research, 2008). Of the approximately 2,500 companies globally involved in nanotechnology research (Lux Research, 2008), we find that 10% of these firms are conducting bio-nano research – that is, research in both biotechnology and nanotechnology. As scientists are able to understand and manipulate ever smaller scales of matter, research in the fields of biotechnology and nanotechnology has
converged to enable such radical innovations as lab-on-a-chip devices, targeted drug deliv
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