Drug Discovery Firms and Business Alliances for Sustainable Innovation

Biotech startup firms developing pharmaceutical seeds from scientific and technological innovation are burdened by significant Research & Development (R&D) expenses, long-term R&D operations, and low probability of R&D success. To address these challenges while sustainably creating innovations and new drugs, business alliances with existing pharmaceutical companies are one of the most important issues on the management agenda. The present study explores the necessity and significance of business alliances with pharmaceutical companies for the development of drug-discovery by Japanese biotech startup firms under high uncertainty. This study investigates the types of alliances to understand the origins of sustainability of these creative activities. First, we investigate and analyze the details of the partnership and its impact on the products under development based on the publicly available information of 16 drug discovery biotech startup firms in Japan that had become public since 2010. As a result, all firms continued their operations with the funds obtained from the business alliances with pharmaceutical firms at the time of their initial public offering (IPO). In addition, 56% of these firms’ alliance projects (n = 73) were seeded-out, and 32% seeded-in, indicating that they had adopted flexible alliance strategies not limited to seed-out ones. For sustainable going concern of the biotech startup business, it is valuable to consider multiple strategic options: “in-licensing and value up”, “best-in-class”, “platform leadership” and “first-in-class” depending on the characteristics of seeds and environmental restrictions.

Platform Strategy for New Product Development

This chapter proves the mediating effect of product platform strategies on the relationship between a firm's subject, environment, and resources and the performance of new product development in the perspective of platform leadership. The author analyzed the mediating role of product platform strategy by considering CEO propensity, competition and customers, and competitiveness of retained resources. Compared to the past, in the perspective of platform leadership, the product platform strategy has a critical effect on the relationship between the business scope of a platform leader, the external relationship with complementors, and the internal organization of a platform leader impact on the performance of new product development. As a result of hierarchical regression analysis with the data of Korean high technology companies, the product platform strategy would be mediating the relationship between the antecedents such as CEO propensity, competition and customers, and competitiveness of retained resources and NPD performance.

New Strategies for Evolution of Business Ecosystems

Several industries are formed by platform business models. To achieve success and have sustainability, the platforms should follow various strategies, paying attention on several factors. In this chapter, initially, how the platforms as a business model have emerged, in which ways they are used, and their working ways have been explained, and “platforms as a new business model” has been extensively examined. Types of platform business models, general features of platforms, ways to generate income from platforms are explained in detail. How platforms could succeed and what could lead them into failure have been told. Platform leadership, prominent platform strategies, governance of platform strategies have been extensively examined. Emerging trends and future research directions have been mentioned. For this study, a detailed literature scanning has been performed, research fields have been shared in order to fill the gaps. In the final section, the prominent parts of the study to be focused have been expressed.

Erosion of Complement Portfolio Sustainability: Uncovering Adverse Repercussions in Steam’s Refund Policy

Maintaining a consistently trending portfolio of complements is vital to sustaining platform leadership. Prior research has highlighted the value of open innovation, but has largely disregarded the strategic identification and management of distinctive complements that drive extended platform value, particularly via platform policy modifications. The relevance of prior research around influential policies such as refund leniency becomes largely irrelevant once applied to platform conditions. Utilizing Steam as the medium of analysis, this paper distinguishes complements into three classifications of sustainability, representing its contribution to developing platform leadership. Steam’s refund policy alteration is investigated for its effects on refund revenue reductions and additional demand on each classification, assessed using an indirectly related linear regression between playtime distribution and game age, and a binomially distributed t-test on the percentage of favorable games. The results reveal that, while all patterns experience significant volumes of refunds, corresponding revenue enhancements are perceived only among unsustainable games. This creates a disadvantageous foundation for high-value complements and consequently, an unforeseen disincentive for association, potentially inciting preferential linkage with competitors. This paper further proposes a precedent for future open innovation and platform management research, where complements of highest relevance are identified and granted heightened priority to protect their sustainability.

Entrepreneurial Resources, Complementary Assets, and Platform Sustainability

This paper applies grounded theory to explore the formation of platform leadership and its reputation through a single case study analysis of a Chinese energy internet platform enterprise CZB (Che Zhu Bang). Initially, CZB was a follower in China’s internet energy market. After clarifying and acquiring the entrepreneurial resources and the complementary assets it needed, CZB quickly established an energy internet platform and its platform leadership in two years. The research shows the mechanism by which the entrepreneurial resources and complementary assets affect the evolution of the platform leadership, the interaction between platform leadership and its reputation, and in the end, how platform reputation influences platform sustainability.