Technological distance, spatial distance and sources of knowledge: Japanese ‘new entrants’ in ‘new’ biotechnology

In this chapter we profile the strategies of two large Japanese firms with expertise in ‘old’ biotechnology, which successfully developed the technological capabilities to enter ‘new’ biotechnology. We suggest that these ‘new entrants’ differed from traditional pharmaceutical companies in their response to the technological discontinuities of the biotechnology revolution, and in the technological trajectories they traversed. We propose that technological distance and spatial distance from sources of new knowledge determined their development of technological capabilities. Finally, we conclude that such firms, not the much-touted new Japanese biotechnology start-up firms, are the true counterparts to American and European biotechnology start-ups.