National systems of innovation, organizational learning and industrial biotechnology

This paper discusses the effects of national systems of innovation on organizational learning by companies, and how this affects industrial structure. The analysis focuses specifically on the industrial response by both large, existing companies and new small firms to the opportunities offered by biotechnology, and how far government policy and other factors have shaped the different patterns of industrial development which have evolved in the US and the UK. Availability of venture capital investment in the science base and national culture are found to be important factors which explain the different initial patterns of commercialization which emerged in the two countries. Evidence of considerable learning by British organizations leads to the conclusion that, as biotechnology matures, industrial structure in the two countries will converge. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd