Relationship between R&D co-development and knowledge creation-The moderating role of licensing behavior

Abstract

For the pharmaceutical industry, where the acquisition of external knowledge is very important in knowledge creation, this study investigated the moderating effect of the utilization of licensing, a unilateral relationship, on the knowledge creation of R&D co-development, a bilateral relationship. The results showed that pharmaceutical firms that properly utilize external knowledge through licensing contracts had larger knowledge creation compared to firms that only utilize R&D co-development with large organizational learning effects and risks. The study was carried out using licensing contracts, R&D co-development, and the data of new FDA-approved medicines targeting the top 100 global pharmaceutical companies for the past 20 years (1995 to 2015). Licensing contracts showed slightly significant moderating effects in the correlation of R&D co-development and knowledge creation