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National institutional frameworks and high-technology innovation in Germany: the case of biotechnology

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  • Casper, Steven

Abstract

Can German national institutional frameworks be reconfigured to allow radical innovation in science-based industries? This paper examines the development of commercial technologies for entrepreneurial biotechnology start-up firms in Germany. During the 1980s and early 1990s an inadequate institutional infrastructure stifled virtually all attempts to organize entrepreneurial biotech start-up firms within Germany, while most large German pharmaceutical firms quickly invested in international alliances with US biotechnology companies and university research labs. The paper links the poor performance of the German biotech industry with a variety of institutional disincentives created by the broad institutional orientation of the German economy. Problems discussed include inadequate performance incentives within German firms, rigidities within the labor market for scientists and managers, and constraints on the provision of venture capital created by the broadly bankcentered orientation of German capital markets. Because these institutional arrangements strongly advantage a large coalition of German firms in a wide variety of engineering intensive industries, the paper argues that fundamental institutional reforms to better support science-based industries like biotechnology are unlikely. However, noting the recent upswing in the German biotechnology industry, the paper suggests that sector-specific policies may create an atmosphere conducive to largescale entry into some quickly growing market segments of biotechnology in which the financial and technological risks are lower than in pure therapeutics research.

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  • Casper, Steven, 1999. "National institutional frameworks and high-technology innovation in Germany: the case of biotechnology," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economic Change and Employment FS I 99-306, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:wzbece:fsi99306
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    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. Zucker, Lynne G. & Darby, Michael R., 1997. "Present at the biotechnological revolution: transformation of technological identity for a large incumbent pharmaceutical firm," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4-5), pages 429-446, December.
    3. Casper, Steven, 1998. "The legal framework for corporate governance: explaining the development of contract law in Germany and the United States," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economic Change and Employment FS I 98-303, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
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    Cited by:

    1. Amable, Bruno, 1999. "Institutional complementarity and diversity of social systems of innovation and production," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economic Change and Employment FS I 99-309, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    2. Vitols, Sigurt, 2004. "Changes in Germany's bank-based financial system: A varieties of capitalism perspective," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Institutions, States, Markets SP II 2004-03, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    3. Caroline Lanciano-Morandat & Hiroatsu Nohara & Eric Verdier, 2006. "Higher Education Systems and Industrial Innovation," Post-Print halshs-00391812, HAL.
    4. Anne Branciard & Eric Verdier, 2003. "La réforme de la politique scientifique française face à la mondialisation : l'émergence incertaine d'un nouveau référentiel d'action publique," Post-Print halshs-00153797, HAL.
    5. Kaiser, Robert & Prange, Heiko, 2004. "The reconfiguration of National Innovation Systems--the example of German biotechnology," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 395-408, April.
    6. Sigurt Vitols, 2005. "Changes in Germany's Bank‐Based Financial System: implications for corporate governance," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(3), pages 386-396, May.

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