IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unm/unumer/2008051.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Internationalising to create Firm Specific Advantages: Leapfrogging strategies of U.S. Pharmaceutical firms in the 1930s and 1940s & Indian Pharmaceutical firms in the 1990s and 2000s

Author

Listed:
  • Athreye, Suma

    (UNU-MERIT, Brunel Business School, Brunel University)

  • Godley, Andrew

    (Department of Management, University of Reading Business School)

Abstract

Internationalisation is a useful strategy to gain firm specific advantages during periods of technological discontinuity. The pharmaceutical industry offers us two such episodes as examples: when the antibiotics revolution was beginning and when the possibilities of genetic routes to new drug discovery were realised. This paper compares the strategies adopted by laggard U.S. firms scrambling to gain capabilities in antibiotics, and Indian firms equally eager to acquire positions in new biotechnology based drugs and shows that both groups used internationalisation strategies to gain technological advantages and build up their firm specific advantages.

Suggested Citation

  • Athreye, Suma & Godley, Andrew, 2008. "Internationalising to create Firm Specific Advantages: Leapfrogging strategies of U.S. Pharmaceutical firms in the 1930s and 1940s & Indian Pharmaceutical firms in the 1990s and 2000s," MERIT Working Papers 2008-051, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    • Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2008051
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/wppdf/2008/wp2008-051.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David J. TEECE, 2008. "Profiting from technological innovation: Implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: The Transfer And Licensing Of Know-How And Intellectual Property Understanding the Multinational Enterprise in the Modern World, chapter 5, pages 67-87, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Michael Hobday, 1995. "Innovation In East Asia," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 226.
    3. Jaya Prakash Pradhan & Abhinav Alakshendra, "undated". "Overseas Acquisition Versus Greenfield Foreign Investment: Which Internationalization Strategy is better for Indian Pharmaceutical Enterprises?," Working Papers 0607, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID).
    4. Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2006. "Indian Pharma Within Global Reach?," MERIT Working Papers 2006-031, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    5. Suma Athreye & Dinar Kale & Shyama V. Ramani, 2009. "Experimentation with strategy and the evolution of dynamic capability in the Indian pharmaceutical sector," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 18(4), pages 729-759, August.
    6. Soete, Luc, 1985. "International diffusion of technology, industrial development and technological leapfrogging," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 409-422, March.
    7. Kuemmerle, Walter, 1999. "Foreign direct investment in industrial research in the pharmaceutical and electronics industries--results from a survey of multinational firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(2-3), pages 179-193, March.
    8. Peter Temin, 1979. "Technology, Regulation, and Market Structure in the Modern Pharmaceutical Industry," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(2), pages 429-446, Autumn.
    9. W. Edward STEINMUELLER, 2001. "ICTs and the possibilities for leapfrogging by developing countries," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 140(2), pages 193-210, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Carvalho, Flavia & Duysters, Geert & Costa, Ionara, 2010. "Drivers of Brazilian foreign investments – technology seeking and technology exploiting as determinants of emerging FDI," MERIT Working Papers 2010-017, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guennif, Samira & Ramani, Shyama V., 2012. "Explaining divergence in catching-up in pharma between India and Brazil using the NSI framework," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 430-441.
    2. Pradeep Kanta Ray & Sangeeta Ray & Vikas Kumar, 2017. "Internationalization of latecomer firms from emerging economies—The role of resultant and autonomous learning," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 851-873, December.
    3. Kale, Dinar, 2019. "From small molecule generics to biosimilars: Technological upgrading and patterns of distinctive learning processes in the Indian pharmaceutical industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 370-383.
    4. Zhang, Haoyu & Shi, Yongjiang & Liu, Jianxin & Wu, Xiaobo, 2021. "How do technology strategies affect the catch-up progress of high-tech latecomers? Evidence from two Chinese research-institute-transformed telecommunications firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 805-821.
    5. Sandro Montresor & Antonio Vezzani, 2015. "On the R&D giants’ shoulders: do FDI help to stand on them?," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 42(1), pages 33-60, March.
    6. Tirta Mursitama, 2006. "Creating relational rents: The effect of business groups on affiliated firms’ performance in Indonesia," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 537-557, December.
    7. Hartnell, Gaynor, 1996. "The innovation of agrochemicals: regulation and patent protection," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 379-395, May.
    8. Kuhlmann, Stefan, 2001. "Future governance of innovation policy in Europe -- three scenarios," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 953-976, June.
    9. Álvarez, Isabel & Marín, Raquel, 2010. "Entry modes and national systems of innovation," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 340-353, December.
    10. Bhawani Bhatnagar & Viktor Dörfler & Jillian MacBryde, 2023. "Navigating the open innovation paradox: an integrative framework for adopting open innovation in pharmaceutical R&D in developing countries," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 2204-2248, December.
    11. Narula, Rajneesh & Zanfei, Antonello, 2003. "The international dimension of innovation," Research Memorandum 010, Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    12. Ming Gu & Edison Tse, 2010. "Building innovative organizations in China: The “execution+” organization," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 25-53, March.
    13. Samira Guennif & Shyama V. Ramani, 2010. "Catching up in pharmaceuticals: a comparative study of India and Brazil," CEPN Working Papers hal-00632439, HAL.
    14. Cuervo-Cazurra, Alvaro & Un, C. Annique, 2007. "Regional economic integration and R&D investment," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 227-246, March.
    15. Amankwah-Amoah, Joseph, 2015. "Solar energy in sub-Saharan Africa: The challenges and opportunities of technological leapfrogging," MPRA Paper 88627, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Liang-Chih Chen, 2011. "Technological Learning and Capability Building in LMT Industries in Newly Industrializing Countries: Selected Examples from Taiwan," Chapters, in: Paul L. Robertson & David Jacobson (ed.), Knowledge Transfer and Technology Diffusion, chapter 11, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. W. Edward STEINMUELLER, 2001. "ICTs and the possibilities for leapfrogging by developing countries," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 140(2), pages 193-210, June.
    18. Samira Guennif & Shyama V. Ramani, 2010. "Catching up in pharmaceuticals: a comparative study of India and Brazil," Working Papers hal-00632439, HAL.
    19. Richard Perkins, 2003. "Environmental leapfrogging in developing countries: A critical assessment and reconstruction," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 27(3), pages 177-188, August.
    20. Robin Mansell, 2010. "Power and interests in developing knowledge societies: exogenous and endogenous discourses in contention," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 29255, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Technological leapfrogging; Internationalisation Strategies; Indian Pharmaceutical industry; Antibiotics revolution; US Pharmaceuticals;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • L65 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Chemicals; Rubber; Drugs; Biotechnology; Plastics
    • N80 - Economic History - - Micro-Business History - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2008051. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ad Notten (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/meritnl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.