Resumen de Estrategias de innovación en las empresas de biotecnología catalanas
The general objective of this thesis is to study the innovation strategies in Catalan biotechnology companies and the impact of these strategies on their innovation. ldentifying how, where and with whom these companies innovate, and what are their difficulties in implementing innovation. The focus, then, of the research that is presented is to demonstrate that the biotechnology sector, with its innovation strategies, has the capacity to transform business processes and, therefore , to improve the economic fabric impacting positively on it. lt is studied whether in Catalonia the companies of the biotechnology sector have emerged from knowledge environments , that is to say, as a result of the research and development of the public and private R & D centers, if they are spinoffs of universities or technological centers, or are the result of patents or new products of large Catalan pharmaceutical companies, or it is the result of collaboration between the private sector and public policies, applying the criteria defined by the publication "The Future of Biotech: The 201O Guide to Emerging Markets and Technology" of what is and is not a biotechnology company.
The study focuses on biotechnology companies from all biotechnology subsectors that are present in Catalonia that produce and / or commercialize an innovative product or service created in this community, that the main shareho lder is Catalan and that the headquarters are in Catalonia. The methodology used is the case method; lntroducing the techniques of the case study is adequate far the present research since the freid data collection is based on interviews with senior managers of biotechnology companies and the data source and their processing corresponds perfectly with the chosen technique. Three hypotheses are formulated , the first hypothesis referring to the collaboration that these companies make, the second hypothesis refers to the innovative culture and the innovation processes of these companies and finally the third hypothesis is linked to the knowledge of the employees.
The results are presented using two techniques of statistical analysis: 1 Descriptive analysis, where the frequency tables and the sector diagrams are presented, in arder to visualize the distribution of the variables studied. 2 Segmentation and contingency analysis, where the results of a clusters analysis are presented on tour groups of variables, with contingency tables being drawn between the resulting profiles, in arder to illustrate the dynamics of innovation.
The results confirm the hypotheses, with the following conclusions; ali the companies have a strongly committed collaboration with the universities and research centers of the public sector . All of them innovate by creating or improving product and / or service, three-quarters of the companies have been torced to adopt structural and organizational changes either by the growth of the company or by changing their business lines. Half of the companies interviewed combined the search far a new market with the known market that they already operated. Two-thirds of the workers in the innovative companies are qualified graduates and one-fifth are doctors. Most of the interviewees are satisfied with the communication that exists in their company and with the promotion of creativity . The resources that all these companies allocate to innovation are sustainable because of the return on investment despite the difficulties. Catalan biotech companies have different strategies depending on their subsector , pharmaceutical, environmental, food or agricultura! or industrial, all of them innovate today to remain competitive.
