Strategies of European SMEs in biotechnology:: The role of size, technology and market

Both the technological and market focus of 228 European biotechnology SMEs are analysed in this paper. Data from the Genetic Engineering catalogue provide a complementary representation compared to the patent publications that are most commonly used. Results of the analysis produce a new view of the development of biotech SMEs. First, no pattern of specialisation by country is observed, even though three types of company with different technological focus can be distinguished in the sample. Second, it is argued that the rapid technological evolution in this domain can hardly be explained by a rapid evolution of the technological basis of the companies, and should consequently be explained primarily by the creation of new SMEs. Third, four different patterns of linkage between technology and market focus are observed, by means of co-word analysis.