Wholly proprietary vs. wholly open knowledge strategies: some empirical evidences from italian biotech firms

The paper focuses on biotechnologies and the biotech industry. It aims to suggest appropriate knowledge governance strategies according to the biotech industry features. The biotech industry is an emerging component of the global economy, fostering with new products many socio-economic fields. Distinctive features of this industry are the strong relationship between knowledge, innovation and competitiveness; the collaborative basis of research; and the importance of small firms. The starting point of the paper is a description of the biotech industry in Europe, also in comparison to the North American ones. A literature review about the pros and cons of doing “wholly proprietary” or “wholly open” knowledge strategies follows. Then, we propose a model and report the main results of an on-field research, finally formulating some considerations based upon the empirical evidence. Our survey concerns many Italian biotech firms and tries to shed light on the openness degree of their knowledge strategies