Individual versus collective strategies in system building - The case of point-of-care diagnostics in Germany
Fischer, Piret Kukk; Hekkert, M.P.; Hüsing, B.; Moors, E.H.M.
(2022) Technological Forecasting and Social Change, volume 177, pp. 1 - 11
(Article)
Abstract
Innovative entrepreneurs often need to engage in different system building activities in order to overcome the barriers to successful market introduction of an innovative technology. There is a large body of literature on individual system building strategies by single actors, as well as on the collective nature of system building
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by different actors. Yet, only limited research has been done into what type of system building activities innovative entrepreneurs undertake individually or collectively, how it depends on their size and resources, and what the trade-off between these different strategies is. This paper shows how firms', choice between individual and collective strategies depends on the availability of resources and the type of system building activity in the point-of-care testing (POCT) sector in Germany. Furthermore, we highlight the role of hospitals as end-user, whose specific needs influence the collaboration strategies of entrepreneurs along the whole value chain of POCT technology development.
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Keywords: System building, Technological innovation systems, Point-of-care diagnostics, Germany, Taverne, Management of Technology and Innovation, Business and International Management, Applied Psychology
ISSN: 0040-1625
Publisher: Elsevier North-Holland
Note: Funding Information: As POCT devices and assays are knowledge-intensive high-technology products and services, which target the highly regulated health care market, the R&D process is resource and time intensive. It comprises, amongst other things, discovery of new biomarkers, technology development of POCT devices, assay development, integration into hospital data management systems and validation. Since POCT SMEs are often focussed around specific scientific-technical expertise, they face considerable challenges to individually achieve the following prerequisites for successful commercialisation: (i) conformity with the European in vitro diagnostic testing Directive and obtaining a CE mark; (ii) compatibility with implemented diagnostic platforms and hospital information management systems; (iii) satisfying customers’ demands – for example with respect to performance, usability, and cost-benefit-ratio ( John and Price, 2014 ; Junker et al., 2010 ). Therefore, POCT SMEs need to collaborate in order to acquire additional skills and resources to develop and introduce novel technologies successfully into the market. According to data from the German Public Funding Catalogue (in German: Förderkatalog), which lists publicly funded R&D projects in the POCT field, we found that from 2005 until 2014, 26 POCT related R&D collaboration projects have been funded with more than € 50 million ( Table 1 ). As part of this funding, in 2012, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research initiated the funding programme “Mobile Diagnostic Systems” with a budget of € 17.3 million (BMBF, 2013). POCT SMEs benefit a great deal from public funding: the majority of German POCT SMEs (n= 42) have actively participated in publicly funded projects – receiving around 60% of total funding ( Table 1 ) – and have intensively collaborated with German research organisations (17 out of 26 projects) ( Table 2 ). On the other hand, collaboration between SMEs seems to be a much rarer event. Only 4 out of 26 publicly funded projects were collaborations between SMEs ( Table 2 ). Our search yielded only very few examples of privately funded R&D collaboration in knowledge creation between different smaller POCT companies. One typical example is the collaboration between Abaxis and LambdaGen: these two companies joined forces and shared innovation related risks in developing immunoassays to be detected on Abaxis's POCT device Piccolo Xpress® ( PR Newswire, 2013 ). The public funding programmes offer a good opportunity for SMEs to acquire additional resources and skills for their R&D activities. However, for SMEs, R&D collaboration with large diagnostic firms would be even more beneficial to benefit from the latter's broad skills, resources and know-how (Interview A, C). However, our searches for publicly or privately funded collaborations between large POCT firms and SMEs showed that such collaborations are rare (e.g. multinational diagnostic firms participated only in 4 publicly funded R&D collaboration projects ( Table 2 )). The search of press releases and market reports gave similar results. We observed that large POCT companies pursue R&D and product validation activities predominantly in-house. According to one of the interviewed company representatives, a large POCT company would never collaborate on assay development, as this is commonly considered in-house knowledge (Interview H). The same person added that Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Elsevier Inc.
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