TY - JOUR
T1 - The Contact-Hitting R&D Strategy of Family Firms in the Japanese Pharmaceutical Industry
AU - Asaba, Shigeru
AU - Wada, Tetsuo
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was financially supported by the grants (No. 25245052, 17H02570, and 18H00889) of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2019/9/1
Y1 - 2019/9/1
N2 - This article addresses the following question: How do family firms investing less in research and development (R&D) than nonfamily firms compete in R&D intensive industries? Using Japanese pharmaceutical industry data, we found that family firms produce more patents per R&D than nonfamily firms but are not biased toward low-value innovations. Further analyses of the distribution over innovation value suggested that family firms adopt a “contact-hitting R&D strategy,” avoiding radical innovations and pursuing incremental innovations compatible with their signature moves: innovation through tradition and narrow and internal search and resulting in may low-value innovations and a few mid or high-value innovations.
AB - This article addresses the following question: How do family firms investing less in research and development (R&D) than nonfamily firms compete in R&D intensive industries? Using Japanese pharmaceutical industry data, we found that family firms produce more patents per R&D than nonfamily firms but are not biased toward low-value innovations. Further analyses of the distribution over innovation value suggested that family firms adopt a “contact-hitting R&D strategy,” avoiding radical innovations and pursuing incremental innovations compatible with their signature moves: innovation through tradition and narrow and internal search and resulting in may low-value innovations and a few mid or high-value innovations.
KW - contact-hitting R&D strategy
KW - frequency distribution over innovation value
KW - innovation productivity
KW - signature moves
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U2 - 10.1177/0894486519852449
DO - 10.1177/0894486519852449
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85067896921
SN - 0894-4865
VL - 32
SP - 277
EP - 295
JO - Family Business Review
JF - Family Business Review
IS - 3
ER -