The chicken or egg problem revisited: the role of resources and incentives in the integration of biotechnology techniques Online publication date: Sun, 13-Jul-2003
by Shyama V. Ramani
International Journal of Biotechnology (IJBT), Vol. 2, No. 4, 2000
Abstract: During the last 15 years, most countries of the developing world have declared investment in biotechnology to be strategic to their national programs of development and yet none of them has attained an industrial competence in the biotechnology sectors comparable to that of the developed nations. Is it simply a question of inadequacy of resources or is there something more to the building of industrial competence in an emerging highly science-based industry? How do developed and developing countries differ in their capacity to exploit a new field like biotechnology? We explore the problem of creating industrial competence in biotechnology in developing countries through a case study of India. We show that underdevelopment is characterised not only by scarcity of resources, but also by inflexibility of public institutions, absence of crucial networks and myopic vision of firms. These features lower both ''incentives'' and the ''degree of responsiveness to incentives'' for investment in biotechnology. Thus, the technology strategy in developing countries should not only concern itself with finding the optimal allocation of resources for the integration of biotechnology, but should also attempt to maximise the returns to any such investment through improving incentives.
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Biotechnology (IJBT):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com