Inter-firm agreements and new biotechnology product development

We identify practices in establishing biotechnology inter-firm alliance and how they have changed over the period of 1983-1997. The results of this study indicate that technological innovation and the development of new businesses and product lines are tied to inter-firm alliances. While consideration of the discontinuous innovation cycle suggests that over time there should be a growth in mergers and acquisitions as opposed to formation of strategic alliances, we do not find this to be the case. All types of alliances seem to still be important with the result that participation in biotechnology networks is important for new product development. Management practices that consider technological technology acquisition and learning through networked organizations appear to be important