Abstract
Biotechnology, rather than being defined as a distinct industry like steelmaking or shipbuilding, is instead a scientific knowledge base—a rapidly evolving technology—that has economically valuable applications in such diverse industries as pharmaceuticals, medical diagnostics, agriculture, bioenvironmental remediation, and chemical processing. Biotechnology has captured the imagination of ambitious scientific investigators and investors seeking high rates of return, as well as state economic development officials who hope to anchor the industry in their locality and reap the industry's economic and employment rewards. Biotech is still at an early stage of its development, and there are many competing hypotheses about its future development. Most importantly, biotechnology involves the commercialization of science resources in which the federal and state governments have made substantial investment. One key question is how to leverage this investment for future economic growth. This article explores the policy issue related to the commercialization of biotechnology, its role as an engine of economic development, and the appropriate public policy response.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Association of University Technology Managers, Inc. (AUTM). (1997). AUTM Licensing Survey Fiscal Year 1996 Survey Summary. Norwalk, CT.
Audretsch, D. B. and M. P. Feldman. (1996). “R&D Spillovers and the Geography of Innovation and Production.” American Economic Review 86 (3), 630–640.
Barnes, Michael, David C. Mowery, and Arvids A. Ziedonis. (1997). “The Geographic Reach of Market and Nonmarket Channels of Technology Transfer: Comparing Citations and Licenses of University Patents.” Presented at the Academy of Management. Boston, August 11.
Blumenthal, David, Michael Gluck, Karen Seashore Louis, and David Wise. (1986a). “Industrial Support of University Research in Biotechnology.” Science 23: 242–246.
Blumenthal, David, Michael Gluck, Karen Seashore Louis, and David Wise. (1986b). “University-Industry Research Relationships in Biotechnology: Implications for the University.” Science 23: 1361–1366.
Bowen, Howard Rothmann. (1997). Investment in Learning: The Individual and Social Value of American Higher Education. Baltimore, MD. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Clark, Burton R. (1983). The Higher Education System. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Clark, Burton. (1998). Creating Entrepreneurial Universities. Oxford, Great Britain: International Association of Universities and Elsevier Science.
Connolly, Martha, Maryann Feldman, Lori Gerstley, and Gail Mangels. (1998). “Biosciences in Maryland: A Closer Look.” Frederick, MD: MDBio.
Etzkowitz, Henry. (1983). “Entrepreneurial Scientists and Entrepreneurial Universities in American Academic Science.” Minerva 21: 198–233.
Etzkowitz, Henry. (1989). “Entrepreneurial Science in the Academy: A Case of the Transformation of Norms.” Social Problems 36 (1): 14–29, 36- 50.
Feldman, M. P. (1994). “The University and High-Technology Start-ups: The Case of Johns Hopkins University and Baltimore.” The Economic Development Quarterly 8: 67–77.
Feldman, M. P. (1999). “The New Economics of Innovation, Spillovers and Agglomeration: A Review of Empirical Studies.” The Economics of Innovation and New Technology 8: 5–25.
Feldman, M. P. (in press). “The New Economics of Innovation, Spillovers and Agglomeration: A Review of Empirical Studies.” Economics of Innovation and New Technology.
Feldman, M. P. and R. Florida. (1994). “The Geographic Sources of Innovation: Technological Infrastructure and Product Innovation in the United States.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 84, 210–229.
Feldman, M. P. and O. Pfirrmann. (1998). The Diffusion of Knowledge in Biotechnology. Paper presented to the 1998 APPAM research conference. New York, NY, October 30.
Feldman, M. P. and C. R. Ronzio. (2001). “Closing the Innovative Loop: Moving from the Lab to the Shop Floor in Biotech.” Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 13: 1–16.
Feldman, M. P., I. Feller, J. E. L. Bercowitz, and R. M. Burton. (2001). “Understanding Evolving University-Industry Relationships.” In M. P. Feldman and A. N. Link (Eds.), Innovation Policy in the Knowledge Based Economy. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 171–188.
Feller, Irwin. (1990). “Universities as Engines of R&D-based Economic Growth: They Think They Can.” Research Policy 19: 335–348.
Fenn, G. W., N. Liang, and S. Prowse. (1995). “The Economics of Private Equity Markets.” Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, D. C.
Geiger, Roger and Irwin Feller. (1995). “The Dispersion of Academic Research in the 1980s.” Journal of Higher Education 66 (3): 336–360.
Goetz, S. and R. S. Morgan. (1995). “State-Level Locational Determinants of Biotechnology Firms.” Economic Development Quarterly 9 (2): 174–184.
Haug, P. and P. Ness. (1993). “Industrial Location Decisions of Biotechnology Organizations.” Economic Development Quarterly 4 (7), 390–402.
Henderson, R., A. Jaffe, and M. Trajtenberg. (1998). “Universities as a Source of Commercial Technology: A Detailed Analysis of University Patenting, 1965- 1988.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 80: 119–127.
Jaffe, Adam B. (1989). “Real Effects of Academic Research.” American Economic Review 79 (5): 957–970.
Jaffe, A. and M. Trajtenberg. (1996). “Flows of Knowledge from Universities and Federal Labs: Modeling the Flows of Patent Citations over Time and Across Institutional and Geographic Boundaries” Working Paper 5712, NBER.
Jaffe, A. B, M. Trajtenberg, and R. Henderson. (1993). “Geographic Localization of Knowledge Spillovers as Evidenced by Patent Citations.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 108 (3): 577–598.
Krugman, P. (1991a). “Increasing Returns and Economic Geography.” Journal of Political Economy 99 (3): 483–499.
Krugman, P. (1991b). Geography and Trade. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Lee, K. and G. S. Burrill. (1995). Biotech 96: Pursuing Sustainability. The Tenth Industry Annual Report. Palo Alto, CA: Ernst & Young LLP.
Lee, K. and G. S. Burrill. (1996). Biotech 97: Alignment. The Eleventh Industry Annual Report. Palo Alto, CA: Ernst & Young LLP.
Link, Albert N. (1995). A Generosity of Spirit: The Early History of the Research Triangle Park. Chapel Hill, NC. Research Triangle Foundation.
Louis, Karen Seashore, David Blumenthal, Michael E. Gluck, and Michael A. Stoto. (1989). “Entrepreneurs in Academe: an Exploration of Behaviors among Life Scientists.” Administrative Science Quarterly, March, pp. 110–131.
Lucas, Robert E. Jr. (1993). “Making a Miracle.” Econometrica 61 (2): 251–272.
Nelson, R. R. (2001). “Observations of the Bost-Bayh-Dole Rise in University Patenting.” In M. P. Feldman and A. N. Link (Eds.), Innovation Policy in the Knowledge Based Economy. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 165–170.
Powell, Walter W, and Peter Brantley. (1992). “Competitive Cooperation in Biotechnology: Learning Through Networks?” In N. Nohria and R. G. Eccles (eds.), Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form and Action. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, pp. 366–394.
Powell, Walter W, and Jason Owen-Smith. (1998). “Universities and the Market for Intellectual Property in the Life Sciences.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 17 (2): 253–277.
Prevezer, Martha. (1997). “The Dynamics of Industrial Clustering in Biotechnology.” Small Business Economics 9: 255–271.
Raffa, M., G. Zollo, and R. Caponi. (1996). “The Development Process of Small Firms.” Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 8: 359–371.
Raider, Holly. (1998). “Repeated Exchange and Evidence of Trust in the Substance Contract.”Working paper, Columbia University.
Raymond, S. (ed.). (1996). The Technology Link to Economic Development. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 787. New York: New York Academy of Sciences.
Romer, P. (1986). “Increasing Returns and Long-Run Growth.” Journal of Political Economy 94 (5): 1002–1037.
Romer, P. (1990). “Endogenous Technological Change.” Journal of Political Economy 94 (1): 71–102.
Ruedig, Nicole. (1996). “A Daring Science Career: Start Your Own Company.” Science 273: 14.
Sabourin, V. and I. Pinsonneault. (1997). “Strategic Formation of Competitive High Technology Clusters.” International Journal of Technology Management 13 (2): 165–178.
Saxenian, A. (1994). Regional Advantage. Boston: Harvard University Press.
Scott, A. J. (1993). Technopolis: High-Technology Industry and Regional Development in Southern California. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Sitkin, Sim B. (1992). “Learning Through Failure: The Strategy of Small Losses.” Research in Organizational Behavior 14: 231–266.
Storper, M. (1995). “Regional Technology Coalitions: An Essential Dimension of National Technology Policy.” Research Policy 24: 895–911.
Turney, Jon. (1991). “What Drives the Engines of Innovation?” New Scientist, November 16, pp. 35–40.
Wade, Nicholas. (1984). The Science Business. New York: Priority Press.
Watson, James D. (1981). The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA. New York, NY: Norton.
Werth, Barry. (1994). The Billion Dollar Molecule. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Zucker, L. G. and M. R. Darby. (1996). “Star Scientists and Institutional Transformation: Patterns of Invention and Innovation in the Formation of the Biotechnology Industry.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 93 (November): 12709–12716.
Zucker, L. G., M. R. Darby, and M. B. Brewer. (1997). “Intellectual Human Capital and the Birth of U. S. Biotechnology Enterprises.” American Economic Review 88 (1): 290–306.
Zucker, L. G., M. R. Darby, and J. Armstrong. (1998). “Geographically Localized Knowledge: Spillovers or Markets?” Economic Inquiry 36 (1): 65–86.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Feldman, M.P. Where Science Comes to Life: University Bioscience, Commercial Spin-offs, and Regional Economic Development. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis 2, 345–361 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011489124123
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011489124123