Does Geography Matter for Science-Based Firms? Epistemic Communities and the Geography of Research and Patenting in Biotechnology

Effects of firm size and geographical proximity on different models of interaction between university and firm: A case study

“…As most scholars have asserted that the spatial spillover is confined within 50 mi (about 80.5 km) (Anselin et al, 2000;Gittelman, 2007), which is accordance with the current national administration zoning of Taiwan, seven counties and cities 2 in southern Taiwan are defined as being in geographical proximity districts with NCKU, including Pintung County, Kaohsiung County, Kaohsiung City, Tainan City, Tainan county, Chiayi County and Chiayi City, as detailed in Fig. 6.…”

“…Scholars have adopted various measurement methodologies for evaluating how the geographical proximity might influence knowledge spillover in a specific region; however, as yet, there is not a set of measurement standards among those scholars. For example, both Mansfield (1995) and Gittelman (2007) claimed that enterprises conducting industryeuniversity cooperation projects are all located within an average distance between 1000 and 1500 mi (equal to 1609e2414 km T.-C. Lin et al / Asia Pacific Management Review xxx (2015) 1e10 approximately). Because the longest linear distance of Taiwan is no more than 400 km, which is much less than the aforesaid longest distance of 2414 km, all cases of cooperation in this research are within this region.…”

“…6, the total projects between NCKU and the enterprises located in the geographical proximity districts are 916, constituting 47.5% of the overall number of collaboration projects, whereas the projects between NCKU and the enterprises outside of the geographical proximity districts amount to 1014, representing 52.5% of the overall number. Therefore, nearly half of the projects are within the effective knowledge spillover district as defined by Gittelman (2007) and Anselin et al (2000), but the other half of the total projects is still outside of the knowledge spillover district. Taiwan's territory is pretty limited and differs greatly with that of the European countries and the US.…”

Scientific foundation, organization structure, and performance of biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms

“…Sequencing and manipulation of DNA molecules were the foundation that allowed further developments in this field (Liu & Schmid, 2009) such as DNA testing, genetically modified crops, monoclonal antibodies, and tissue engineering (Paugh & Lafrance, 1997). While some pharmaceutical firms have a long history (100+ years), commercial biotechnology has been in existence from about the 1970s (Gittleman, 2007). Genentech, one of the early firms in the industry, launched one of first commercially successful biotech compounds in the mid-1980s -human recombinant growth hormone (Liu & Schmid, 2009).…”

“…The CEO of Genentech, who holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry, sees his firm's primary responsibility as "great science" (Chase, 2007). Biotechnology firms have two key goals: 1) to increase scientific knowledge and 2) to develop marketable products (Gittleman, 2007). Table 1 provides examples of the key firms within the various segments.…”