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Technological strategies of successful Latin American
biotechnological firms
José Luis Solleiro*
Engineering Institute of the National
University of Mexico (UNAM)
Apartado Postal 22-510.14091. México D.F.
Fax (525)
662 5852
E-mail solleiro@servidor.unam.mx
Rosario Castañón
Engineering Institute of the National University
of Mexico (UNAM)
Apartado Postal 22-510.14091. México D.F.
Fax (525) 662 5852
E-mail solleiro@servidor.unam.mx
* Corresponding author
Keywords: Biotechnology firms; Business development; Latin
American biotechnology; Technology strategy
This paper presents
the results of the analysis of the technological strategies of eight Latin
American biotech firms. There is little literature on strategies of follower
firms in developing countries in high-technology sectors. For that reason,
the authors undertook case studies of firms of six countries of Latin
America that share the characteristics of being successful in the market
place while adopting technology-follower strategies.
The analysis considers five
dimensions that, according to the literature on the management of technology,
constitute the basic benchmarks of the strategy. These dimensions include
innovating activities of the firm to improve, its position on the market;
orientation of research and dominant technological goals; technology sources
used by the firm to acquire its critical technologies; level of technological
investments to acquire and/or develop technologies; and organizational
mechanisms to manage technological functions of the firm.
Results of this study clearly
show that Latin American firms can sustain competitive strategies on the
intelligent management, combining in-house skills with excellent capabilities
to locate, acquire and assimilate external technologies.
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