Enabling innovation at the level of firms, alliances and clusters : a study of Spanish biotech industry

Programa de Doctorado en Administración y Dirección de EmpresasFirms in knowledge-intensive industries are rarely able to develop internally all activities needed to foster the innovation. Innovation is increasingly becoming an interactive process that involves formal and informal relationships between different agents in order to exchange valuable knowledge and resources for the development of new technological advances. Therefore firms establish alliances which allow them to access necessary competencies to gain competitive advantage. Spatial proximity offered by cluster is often considered as a context which facilitates both, knowledge exchanges and creation of new knowledge for innovation. According to knowledge management approach, we consider that firms, alliances and clusters represent different levels in each of which a great amount of knowledge is generated and exchanged. We propose that certain factors in each of these levels may improve the effectiveness of such knowledge exchanges, which in turn, will improve the innovation performance of firms. Our research raises the question which enablers should be present at the level of firm, alliances and cluster in order to improve the innovation performance of companies. Four studies were carried out to find answer to this question. The first study suggests that curvilinear relationship between alliance partner diversity on innovation performance will be positively moderate by two alliance attributes relational social capital and knowledge codifiability. The second study provides a comprehensive understanding of how alliance portfolio configuration can influence innovation performance suggesting that rather than mere size of alliance portfolio its organizational and geographic features have impact on technological performance which in turn affects the growth of the firm. In the third study we examined science/industry interactions and we have found that combining firm¿s internal scientific capabilities with the exchange of knowledge with local scientific partners seems to be a favourable strategy for innovative firms. In the fourth study we analysed how industrial, scientific and supporting driving forces at cluster level may enable technological development of the firms located in the cluster. We focused our research on the biotech industry. The nature of biotechnology activity, result of cross-industrial and cross- disciplinary scientific synergies, has lead biotechnology companies to an extensive reliance on external collaborations which tend to take place in regional clusters. This is an emerging sector with a large multiplier effect, where management study is interested to determine different elements that contribute to the success of biotech companies. This dissertation contributes to various stream of literature, mainly to the research on innovation management. Also interesting implications are derived for managers, policymakers as well as regional government policies addressed to foster knowledge exchange and innovation in knowledge-intensive industries.Universidad Pablo de Olavide. Departamento de Organización de Empresas y Marketin

The role of policies and the contribution of cluster agency in the development of biotech open innovation ecosystem

Building on the open innovation and cluster literature, our research describes how innovation policies contribute to the development of open innovation dynamics in biotech clusters. Particularly, we address the role and impact of cluster agency by adopting a contextualized perspective. We carry out comparative case studies of the main five Spanish biotech clusters by combining longitudinal data extracted from secondary sources with primary data obtained from relevant stakeholders. Our study shows that clusters policies do not yield uniform effects; the impact in terms of patterns of collaboration and (open) innovation dynamics is path dependent. The characteristics of the local texture significantly contribute to the observed open innovation ecosystems. As such, these findings imply a plea for contextualizing regional policy initiatives

Dancing with wolves: how R&D human capital can benefit from coopetition

This research examines the impact of coopetition (i.e., competitor alliances) on the development of internal R&D human capital. The authors collect survey data from 111 biotech firms in Spain and US. Results show a mediation relationship: coopetition increases a firm's internal R&D human capital via its proactiveness to pursue R&D partnerships. In order to examine the mechanism behind competitor alliances, the authors investigate two moderators, alliance satisfaction and alliance coordination. The authors argue that the two factors exert opposite moderation effects on the relationship between coopetition and proactiveness to pursue R&D partnerships. Results show that when a firm and its alliance partners are satisfied with each other, the effect of coopetition on proactiveness decreases, but the moderation effect of alliance coordination, though opposite, is not significant

Four selected commercial seaweeds: biologically active compounds, antioxidant and cytotoxic properties

The aim of this research work was to study the chemical characterisation, antioxidant and cytotoxic activity of ethanolic extracts of four commercial algae species Arame, Kombu, Hijiki and Wakame. The highest scavenging activity has been observed in Arame extract. Antioxidant potential of all extracts was in correlation with total phenol content (Arame extract: 319.15 + - 0,56 mg GAE/g. d.w) and it was not in correlation with total carotenoids content (Wakame: 75.15 + - 0.20 mg/g). Polyphenols were quantified using LC-MS/MS technique. Baicalein and amentoflavone were identified in higher amount in relation to other phenols. Intracellular antioxidant activity and cytotoxicity of algae extracts were evaluated on the human prostate cancer cell line PC3. Although presented biomolecules in the extracts have demonstrated in vitro antioxidant activity, they did not show a significant effect on PC3 cells. However, this study opens up a broad perspective for the further comprehensive investigaton of these, commercial, sea weed's biopotential

Microalgal cell disruption: effect on the bioactivity and rheology of wheat bread

The aim of this study is to investigate the potential of the addition of a microalgal biomass to improve nutritional quality of bread. Microalgae contain a substantial amount of nutrients that are naturally encapsulated within cells, namely proteins, polysaccharides, polyunsaturated fatty acids and pigments (chlorophylls and carotenoids), which are capable of resisting harsh conditions during food processing. However, the cell wall integrity may significantly limit nutrient availability, and microalgal cell disruption is potentially required as a pretreatment. A suspension of a fresh Chlorella vulgaris biomass (0.88 g/L) was disrupted in a high-pressure homogenizer at 340 MPa using 1 and 4 passages. The impact of the cell disruption method was evaluated in terms of the reduction in the number of intact cells and average colony diameter of the remaining cells using flow cytometry and microscopy. Since cell disruption promotes the release of intracellular products, it can impart structural modifications to doughs and breads. Therefore, doughs and breads were prepared with the fresh C. vulgaris biomass (1.0 g of Cv/ 100 g of flour+Cv), the disrupted biomass, or a commercial powder. Doughs were characterized in terms of texture and oscillatory rheology. The texture and colour of breads were also evaluated. Cell wall disruption affected the colour and texture of the breads, resulting in breads with a higher firmness. Furthermore, bioactivity was evaluated, and the reducing power of the bread extracts obtained using the ferric ion reducing antioxidant power assay showed that cell disruption positively modulated the antioxidant capacityinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cross-industry innovation: A systematic literature review

Identificador de proyecto: UPO-1381152 (Programa Operativo FEDER Andalucía) y Proyecto de I+D+i: PID2020-114751RB-100 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación)This article performs a systematic literature review of cross-industry innovation (CII), which is a specific case of open innovation (OI) that has proved to be especially relevant in a context of increasing digitalization and technological convergence. In spite of its interest, previous research on CII is disperse in studies adopting different perspectives. A bibliometric analysis and a content analysis were carried out on a sample of 45 articles about CII, published between the year 1997 and the end of 2021. We address five research questions about the conceptualization and types of CII, the main features of CII (types of innovation, industries and actors), the process of CII, its determinants and consequences, and the prevalent methodological trends. By answering our research questions, we present a comprehensive picture of the state of the art of CII and make valuable contributions. Among them, our research provides a new definition of CII and a delimitation of its types, an integration of the processes of CII described under various approaches, and a network map of the crossfertilization of knowledge among industries, showing the relationship between source and target industries. By identifying unexplored opportunities in the literature, a research agenda is proposed.Departamento de Organización de Empresas y Marketin

Trifolium pratense L. as a Potential Natural Antioxidant

The essential oils of three different growth stages of Trifolium pratense L. (TP1, TP2 and TP3) were investigated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and tested for their antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. The highest content of volatile compounds was found in the essential oil sample TP1, where terpenes such as beta-myrcene (4.55%), p-cymene (3.59%), limonene (0.86%), tetrahydroionone (1.56%) were highlighted due to their biological activity. The antioxidant activity was determined by following the scavenging capacity of the essential oils for the free radicals DPPH center dot, NO center dot and O-2(center dot-), as well as effects of the investigated oils on lipid peroxidation (LP). In all three cases, the sample TP1 showed the best radical-capturing capacity for DPPH center dot (27.61 +/- 0.12 mu g/mL), NO center dot (16.03 +/- 0.11 mu g/mL), O-2(center dot-) (16.62 +/- 0.29 mu g/mL) and also had the best lipid peroxidation effects in the Fe2+/ascorbate induction system (9.35 +/- 0.11 mu g/mL). Antimicrobial activity was evaluated against the following bacteria cultures: Escherichia coli (ATCC10526), Salmonella typhimurium (ATCC 14028), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 11632) and Bacillus cereus (ATCC 10876). None of the examined essential oil samples showed inhibitory effects on the tested bacterial strains

Medicinal plants used in the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus

Since the beginning of the epidemic, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has infected around 70 million people worldwide, most of whom reside is sub-Saharan Africa. There have been very promising developments in the treatment of HIV with anti-retroviral drug cocktails. However, drug resistance to anti-HIV drugs is emerging, and many people infected with HIV have adverse reactions or do not have ready access to currently available HIV chemotherapies. Thus, there is a need to discover new anti-HIV agents to supplement our current arsenal of anti-HIV drugs and to provide therapeutic options for populations with limited resources or access to currently efficacious chemotherapies. Plant-derived natural products continue to serve as a reservoir for the discovery of new medicines, including anti-HIV agents. This review presents a survey of plants that have shown anti-HIV activity, both in vitro and in vivo