A study of R&D, collaboration, and location preferences of health and agricultural biotech firms

The biotechnology industry is now a top priority of state and regional economic development organizations. Existing geographic research focuses on what motivates the development of regional clusters of biotechnology firms in the area of human therapeutics and diagnostics. However, the biotechnology industry is segmented into broad subsectors, such as health and agricultural biotech, and each sector has different types of firms. The purpose of this paper is to characterize firm-specific differences that exist between health and agricultural biotechnology firms. Specifically, we use a survey instrument to understand how firms in each sector perceive and use different forms of collaboration and location factors in their operations. Although firms in each sector may pursue similar goals and support for innovation, they do not necessarily do so in the same fashion. By treating agricultural and health biotechnology sectors separately, we offer new evidence to reevaluate theories explaining regional biotechnology development, and new insights into how development policies impact each sector. The insights provided by this paper are critical given the prevalence of policy initiatives supporting biotechnology.