Investigating the adoption of open innovation in the bio‐pharmaceutical industry

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to focus on the adoption of the open innovation paradigm in the bio‐pharmaceutical industry and investigate through which organisational modes (e.g. collaborations, in‐ and out‐licensing) open innovation has been implemented and how these modes are interwoven with the different phases of the drug discovery and development process. Open innovation is currently one of the most debated issues in management literature. Few contributions, however, have paid attention so far to systematically and longitudinally addressing the adoption of open innovation in a specific industry. Design/methodology/approach - A two‐step research strategy has been adopted. First, a panel study of top industry representatives was organised to operationalise the concept of organisational modes of open innovation in the bio‐pharmaceutical industry. Second, the open innovation modes used by the first 20 pharmaceutical biotech firms worldwide have been documented over the period 2000‐2005 in the various phases of the drug discovery and development process. Findings - A framework of analysis, establishing the relations between open innovation modes and the phases of the drug discovery and development process, has been developed and assessed in the industry, allowing the determinants of adoption of different modes and their managerial implications to be discussed and to relate them to the peculiarities of the biotech industry. Originality/value - The paper contributes to the ongoing debate on open innovation by representing one of the first attempts to systematically and longitudinally assess the extent and particularly the determinants of the adoption of open innovation in a specific industry.