An Empirical Analysis on Absorptive Capacity Based on Linkage with Academia

In this paper, we empirically explain how scientific knowledge assimilated from academia affects corporate performance, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry of Japan. We use balanced panel data on 46 pharmaceutical firms in Japan for the period 1992–2005. Then, we introduce a new concept, propensity to capture basic research (PCBR), to index how much scientific knowledge firms have assimilated from universities and public research institutes. We use this index to verify whether absorption of such knowledge influences corporate performance. According to econometric analysis, PCBR is positively significant for patent applications and patent efficiency but not for number of approved drugs. This obviously implies that scientific knowledge assimilated from academia is effective for technological performance in firms. Moreover, the results suggest how R&D is structured in the organizational setup of Japanese pharmaceutical firms