Title: Sourcing knowledge: R&D outsourcing in UK pharmaceuticals

Authors: Jeremy Howells; Dimitri Gagliardi; Khaleel Malik

Addresses: Faculty of Art Business and Law, University of Southampton, Building 4/4039, Highfield Campus, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK. ' Manchester Institute of Innovation Research/MBS, The University of Manchester, Harold Hankins Building, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK. ' Manchester Institute of Innovation Research/MBS, The University of Manchester, Harold Hankins Building, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

Abstract: The outsourcing of research and development (R&D) activities has grown rapidly in recent years. Outsourcing has major implications for how knowledge and R&D activities are organised and coordinated in a wider open innovation environment and creates major challenges for firms and their managers. This paper explores the implications of outsourcing and the increasingly distributed nature of research and innovative activities using primary survey data collected from the UK pharmaceutical industry. These issues are uniquely examined at both firm and activity level. This paper then seeks to set the findings of the study within the context of the wider debate and conceptual frameworks surrounding R&D outsourcing and offshoring in terms of the increasingly open and distributed nature of research operations. This paper concludes by exploring the implications for this for firm strategy and the open innovation agenda and for future research in this field.

Keywords: KM; knowledge management; knowledge sourcing; R&D; research and development; outsourcing; United Kingdom; UK; pharmaceuticals; open innovation; distributed research; innovative activities; pharmaceutical industry; offshoring; firm strategy; technology management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2012.047253

International Journal of Technology Management, 2012 Vol.59 No.1/2, pp.139 - 161

Received: 03 Oct 2011
Accepted: 09 Feb 2012

Published online: 06 Apr 2013 *

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