The Impact of R&D Labs' External and Internal Collaboration on Their Perceived R&D Performance : The Case of Pharmaceutical Companies

Abstract

The impact of R&D labs' external and internal collaboration on their perception of their R&D performance is examined, with our data from the Japanese and non-Japanese pharmaceutical firms. Our focus is on the extent to which R&D labs' collaboration with universities and other local institutions，as well as that with other intra-firm labs, would contribute to their R&D performance. Our result indicates that the impact depends on different types of R&D performance. For example, the labs' performance in basic research is enhanced by their intensive research collaboration with the local universities, whereas the performance in clinical trial is positively affected by the labs' extensive knowledge exchange with other intra-firm labs. Such findings from the questionnaire analysis are triangulated and interpreted together with the qualitative data from our fieldwork.