27th of January - Professor Marcela Miozzo – Manchester Business School
Title: Cross-border acquisitions of science-based firms: their effect on innovation in the
acquired firm and the local science and technology system
Abstract: The UK through its research councils and charity organisations invests heavily in
sustaining a strong and healthy science base, which is second only to the USA in sectors
such as medical and life sciences, mathematics and physics. Nevertheless, the UK faces
challenges in its ability to commercialise and benefit from the economic impact of science
and innovation. Part of the problem is the ‘funding gap’ that science-based British firms face
at various stages of development, which is a serious impediment to realising the full
economic potential of publicly-funded science. One of the ways to fill that gap is through
cross-border mergers and acquisitions.
As the number of cross-border acquisitions of UK firms in general, and of UK science-based
firms in particular, continues to increase, so do the questions about what happens to the
technological resources and assets of acquired science-based firms. The main concern of
policymakers and stakeholders is whether the R&D projects of the acquired firms continue to
be developed in the UK, as well as whether scientists and technicians continue to be
employed in the UK. This is particularly relevant with respect to science-based firms, which
have built their technological assets and capabilities primarily from university research and
have developed through the support of national and regional financial, governmental and
educational institutions.
This paper asks what happens to the technological resources and assets of host country
science-based firms when they are acquired by foreign firms. Drawing on a multiple case
study research design and interviews with UK biopharmaceutical firms and on patent data,
the paper derives different patterns of knowledge base combinations through acquisition that
have different outcomes in terms of innovation. These patterns are based on combinations
of two factors: the complementarity or similarity of the technology, and the complementarity
or similarity of the discovery and development capabilities of the target and acquiring firm.
These combinations have clear differential outcomes in terms of investment in the acquired
firm’s technology and important effects for the local science and technology system.
BIO: Marcela Miozzo is Professor of Economics and Management of Innovation at
Manchester Business School, University of Manchester. She obtained her Ph.D. in
Economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, USA in 1997. Her research
explores the relationship between business organisation and innovation at the national and
sectoral level through comparative analysis. She has carried out a large number of
international comparative projects financed by the Anglo German Foundation, British
Academy, EC, ESRC, EPSRC, ISBE and Tyndall. She has authored around 30 articles, 15
book chapters and co-authored two books, publishing in academic journals that include
Research Policy, Organization Studies, and Industrial and Corporate Change.