What makes crowdsourcing projects successful? Case studies of three pharmaceutical companies

• Main Authors: Judith Exl, 韓嫻
• Other Authors: Hsueh-Liang Wu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/95085061160054973852

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 國際企業學研究所 === 100 === This study examines current changes in the pharmaceutical industry’s innovation model. In recent years, pharmaceutical R&D productivity has been declining, forcing companies to search for new sources of innovation and cooperate with external partners. More traditional remedies to the innovation crisis include the sourcing of external knowledge through alliances, as well as partnering and licensing agreements with biotech companies. But one of the most promising novel approaches is open innovation, which allows pharmaceutical companies to exchange knowledge with external researchers without entering any form of long-term binding agreement. This thesis employs the case study approach to examine three pharmaceutical open innovation initiatives and determine the factors that may contribute to a project’s successful implementation. Data collected concerns the objectives and implementation of each project, as well as incentive creation, IP protection mechanisms, and interaction with external researchers. Specifically, the study seeks to determine the impact of the following factors: (1) a firm’s ability to attract external knowledge, (2) the effective recombination of internal and external knowledge, (3) the appropriate choice of inbound vs. outbound open innovation models, (4) the preconditions of inbound and outbound innovation models, and finally (5) the organizational arrangements of an open innovation project. The findings indicate that successful implementation of open innovation primarily depends on a firm’s ability to identify the appropriate implementation model for its project, attract complementary external knowledge, and effectively recombine this knowledge with internal resources. Open innovation shows the potential to supplement pharmaceutical companies’ in-house drug development efforts and may contribute to resolving the industry’s innovation challenge in the future.