Communication Within a Biotech Cluster
Challenge: : The Cambridge/Boston Biotechnology Cluster has a large number of newly founded biotechnology firms located in a small geographic area in Boston and Cambridge, MA. An extensive literature has developed in recent years arguing for the benefits of firms sharing a common technology to cluster geographically. Some of these benefits include the attraction of specialized staff and the promotion of venture capital, suppliers, support services, etc. Claims have also been made for the synergistic benefits of firms sharing scientific knowledge, especially if there are university laboratories near the cluster.
Prior studies have inferred inter-firm communication from the evidence of co-publishing and co-patenting across firms, however, a good amount of scientific exchange may occur that does not appear in such publicly accessible records.
Approach: An investigation of whether less formal scientific exchange across firms really occurs, and if so, to what degree. Characterizaton of the actual dynamics and assessment of the results of communicaiton within a biotech cluster.
Principal Investigator: Thomas J. Allen, PhD, Howard W. Johnson Professor of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management
Collaborator: Ornit Raz PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT
Collaborator: Peter Gloor, PhD, Research Scientist, MIT Sloan School of Management
Student: Nada Hashmi, PhD Candidate, MIT Sloan School of Management and System Design and Management Fellow, MIT School of Engineering
