TECHNOLOGY DEPLOYMENT BY LATE MOVERS

It is widely accepted that the first firm to deploy the latest technology will enjoy monopoly profits. However, research shows that the first mover advantage is quickly eroded by late movers. Technology deployments by late movers remain largely under-explored. This study explores the impact of the technological and market capabilities of late movers on their deployment timing, and how this impact is moderated by the pace of frontier advancement. We find a positive association between a firm’s capabilities and the earliness of its deployment timing. A faster pace of frontier advancement exacerbates the impact of a firm’s capabilities on technology deployment timing. We draw empirical evidence from the thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) industry between 1995 and 2010. This paper contributes to the technology management literature by developing a deeper understanding of the trade-offs involved in the timing of technology deployments.

A systematic review of geographical variation in access to chemotherapy

BACKGROUND

Rising cancer incidence, the cost of cancer pharmaceuticals and the introduction of the Cancer Drugs Fund in England, but not other United Kingdom(UK) countries means evidence of 'postcode prescribing' in cancer is important. There have been no systematic reviews considering access to cancer drugs by geographical characteristics in the UK.

METHODS

Studies describing receipt of cancer drugs, according to healthcare boundaries (e.g. cancer network [UK]) were identified through a systematic search of electronic databases and grey literature. Due to study heterogeneity a meta-analysis was not possible and a narrative synthesis was performed.

RESULTS

8,780 unique studies were identified and twenty-six included following a systematic search last updated in 2015. The majority of papers demonstrated substantial variability in the likelihood of receiving chemotherapy between hospitals, health authorities, cancer networks and UK countries (England and Wales). After case-mix adjustment, there was up to a 4-5 fold difference in chemotherapy utilisation between the highest and lowest prescribing cancer networks. There was no strong evidence that rurality or distance travelled were associated with the likelihood of receiving chemotherapy and conflicting evidence for an effect of travel time.

CONCLUSIONS

Considerable variation in chemotherapy prescribing between healthcare boundaries has been identified. The absence of associations with natural geographical characteristics (e.g. rurality) and receipt of chemotherapy suggests that local treatment habits, capacity and policy are more influential.

The timing of introduction of pharmaceutical innovations in seven European countries

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

Differences in the performance of medical care may be due to variation in the introduction and diffusion of medical innovations. The objective of this paper is to compare seven European countries (United Kingdom, the Netherlands, West Germany, France, Spain, Estonia and Sweden) with regard to the year of introduction of six specific pharmaceutical innovations (antiretroviral drugs, cimetidine, tamoxifen, cisplatin, oxalaplatin and cyclosporin) that may have had important population health impacts.

METHODS

We collected information on introduction and further diffusion of drugs using searches in the national and international literature, and questionnaires to national informants. We combined various sources of information, both official years of registration and other indicators of introduction (clinical trials, guidelines, evaluation reports, sales statistics).

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

The total length of the period between first and last introduction varied between 8 years for antiretroviral drugs and 22 years for cisplatin. Introduction in Estonia was generally delayed until the 1990s. The average time lags were smallest in France (2.2 years), United Kingdom (2.8 years) and the Netherlands (3.5 years). Similar rank orders were seen for year of registration suggesting that introduction lags are not only explained by differences in the process of registration. We discuss possible reasons for these between-country differences and implications for the evaluation of medical care.

Innovative financing for health: what is truly innovative?

Development assistance for health has increased every year between 2000 and 2010, particularly for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, to reach US$26·66 billion in 2010. The continued global economic crisis means that increased external financing from traditional donors is unlikely in the near term. Hence, new funding has to be sought from innovative financing sources to sustain the gains made in global health, to achieve the health Millennium Development Goals, and to address the emerging burden from non-communicable diseases. We use the value chain approach to conceptualise innovative financing. With this framework, we identify three integrated innovative financing mechanisms-GAVI, Global Fund, and UNITAID-that have reached a global scale. These three financing mechanisms have innovated along each step of the innovative finance value chain-namely resource mobilisation, pooling, channelling, resource allocation, and implementation-and integrated these steps to channel large amounts of funding rapidly to low-income and middle-income countries to address HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and vaccine-preventable diseases. However, resources mobilised from international innovative financing sources are relatively modest compared with donor assistance from traditional sources. Instead, the real innovation has been establishment of new organisational forms as integrated financing mechanisms that link elements of the financing value chain to more effectively and efficiently mobilise, pool, allocate, and channel financial resources to low-income and middle-income countries and to create incentives to improve implementation and performance of national programmes. These mechanisms provide platforms for health funding in the future, especially as efforts to grow innovative financing have faltered. The lessons learnt from these mechanisms can be used to develop and expand innovative financing from international sources to address health needs in low-income and middle-income countries.

USER-PRODUCER INTERACTIONS IN EMERGING PHARMACEUTICAL AND FOOD INNOVATIONS

In order to study user-producer interaction (UPI) in emerging pharmaceutical and food innovation processes, a classification of user involvement has been developed, including a contextualised view on UPIs. Case studies are performed on two types of UPI: demand articulation in intermediary organisations and interactive learning in consortia, in the pharmaceutical and food sector, respectively.

Regarding demand articulation processes, articulation of problems, needs, demands and expectations through agenda-setting practices is important. Expression and evaluation of demands with other factors leads to moblization of creative potential of prospective users and facilitation of emerging innovation processes.

Regarding interactive learning, geographical, organisational, regulatory and cognitive proximity conditions could facilitate structures for emerging technology development, and codes and networks for frequent interaction between complementary stakeholders. Demands, concerns and opportunities are articulated by shared visions. Organised UPIs via intermediary user organisations or consortia seem to be the important tools for demand articulation and interactive learning involving patient organisations, researchers and private and public organisations.

A TAXONOMY OF INNOVATION: CONFIGURATIONS OF ATTRIBUTES IN HEALTHCARE INNOVATIONS

In spite of the continued importance of an innovation's attributes to research methodologies, and the increasing tendency toward multidimensional conceptualizations, the lack of a theoretically derived and empirically developed classification of innovations, conceived in terms of these perceived characteristics, continues to deter substantive research in the area. The absence of a stable descriptive framework has constrained researchers' facility to develop cross-case and cumulative research. In this paper, in which innovations are conceptualized as complex and multi-dimensional, we report on a mixed-method, exploratory study addressing the question of innovation classification. Data from a rigorous thematic investigation of the literature and four case studies, are synthesized into a descriptive framework incorporating 13 variables (innovation attributes). Following operationalization of the framework, we conduct a cluster analysis of the returns from a post-adoption survey of 310 innovations. Three distinct innovation types are identified: readily-adopted, challenging and under-cover. The attributes disruption, observability, profile and risk were found to be particularly important in distinguishing clusters that offer opportunities for new theoretical development. The UK National Health Service (NHS) forms the context for the study. Implications for theory and practice are examined.

AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS ON ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY BASED ON LINKAGE WITH ACADEMIA

In this paper, we empirically explain how scientific knowledge assimilated from academia affects corporate performance, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry of Japan. We use balanced panel data on 46 pharmaceutical firms in Japan for the period 1992–2005. Then, we introduce a new concept, propensity to capture basic research (PCBR), to index how much scientific knowledge firms have assimilated from universities and public research institutes. We use this index to verify whether absorption of such knowledge influences corporate performance. According to econometric analysis, PCBR is positively significant for patent applications and patent efficiency but not for number of approved drugs. This obviously implies that scientific knowledge assimilated from academia is effective for technological performance in firms. Moreover, the results suggest how R&D is structured in the organizational setup of Japanese pharmaceutical firms.