A knowledge-based theory of pharmaceutical alliances: evolving paradigms and motives for cooperation

Abstract

A rapidly evolving drug discovery and development paradigm, as evidenced through the scientific and technical knowledge requirements for the successful development of new medical entities, is encouraging companies to form alliances to fill any voids in upstream knowledge and downstream capabilities. In resource-based alliances, parties are assumed to be mutually dependent upon the resources controlled by other parties and common benefits are associated with pooling resources. Mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances are alternatively employed to access these resources. As the pharmaceutical industry evolves to incorporate the information (systems) paradigm, a resource-based view that is centrally focused on knowledge provides a more informative view of pharmaceutical alliances. A knowledge framework is developed in this paper to specifically analyse the role of knowledge characteristics on pharmaceutical alliance formation, the role of knowledge form on the choice of alliance structure, as well as the impact of knowledge valuation as a function of knowledge form, on alliance performance.