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Acquiring Knowledge Within and Across Firm Boundaries: Evidence from Clinical Development

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  • Pierre Azoulay

Abstract

Considerable evidence suggests that information is acquired more easily within than across firm boundaries. I explore why this is observed in the setting of clinical development. Since the mid-1980s, pharmaceutical firms have partly contracted out the operational aspects of clinical trials to Contract Research Organizations (CROs). Using detailed project-level data for 53 firms, I document that even after controlling for a number of alternative explanations, knowledge-intensive projects are more likely to be assigned to internal teams, while data-intensive projects are more likely to be outsourced. The statistical exercise is complemented by in-depth interviews with six pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms. The qualitative evidence confirms that incentives for knowledge and data production are more easily kept in balance in the firm's own internal labor market than in that of its suppliers. Moreover, firms use relational contracts to ensure that their employees' incentives are both balanced and relatively high-powered.

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  • Pierre Azoulay, 2003. "Acquiring Knowledge Within and Across Firm Boundaries: Evidence from Clinical Development," NBER Working Papers 10083, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10083
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    Cited by:

    1. Chris van Egeraat and Frank Barry, 2008. "The Irish Pharmaceutical Industry over the Boom Period and Beyond," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp271, IIIS.
    2. Eliasson, Gunnar & Eliasson, Åsa, 2004. "Competence in Health Care - An Industrial Systems Analysis Using Competence Bloc Theory to Compare European and US Health Care," Ratio Working Papers 46, The Ratio Institute.
    3. Jung Won Sonn & Michael Storper, 2008. "The Increasing Importance of Geographical Proximity in Knowledge Production: An Analysis of US Patent Citations, 1975–1997," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(5), pages 1020-1039, May.
    4. Scherer, F.M., 2010. "Pharmaceutical Innovation," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 539-574, Elsevier.
    5. Pierre Azoulay, 2003. "Agents of Embeddedness," NBER Working Papers 10142, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Paulo J. Gomes & Nitin R. Joglekar, 2008. "Linking modularity with problem solving and coordination efforts," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(5), pages 443-457.
    7. Scherer, F. M., 2007. "Pharmaceutical Innovation," Working Paper Series rwp07-004, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    8. James D. Adams & Mircea Marcu, 2004. "R&D Sourcing, Joint Ventures and Innovation: A Multiple Indicators Approach," NBER Working Papers 10474, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure

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