Title: Valuing new product development and analysing license agreements for intellectual property

Authors: John McAneney, Henk Berkman

Addresses: Risk Frontiers, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia. ' School of Commerce and Economics, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract: Strategic investments in research and development (R&D) possess challenging features for valuation: the relationship between research effort and a marketable product is highly uncertain and there is always the possibility for some exogenous event or competitor behaviour to render the whole effort valueless. The R&D project studied here concerns the breeding of new fruit varieties in a programme jointly funded by a research provider and an international marketing company. The breeding programme is modelled on the premise that the R&D comprises a series of lotteries – in the sense that the outcome in each evaluation phase is probabilistic – and that the final prize in this lottery is a call option, in this case the option-to-market accorded the marketing company. The model provides a framework for optimising contractual arrangements between the joint venture parties and encouraging profit maximisation.

Keywords: real options; valuation; product development; intellectual property; joint ventures; research and development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBT.2004.004805

International Journal of Biotechnology, 2004 Vol.6 No.2/3, pp.105 - 115

Published online: 07 Jul 2004 *

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