Technological strategies of successful Latin American biotechnological firms

This paper presents the results of the analysis of the technologicalstrategies of eight Latin American biotechfirms. There is little literature on strategies of followerfirms in developing countries in high-technology sectors.For that reason, the authors undertook case studies offirms of six countries of Latin America that share thecharacteristics of being successful in the market placewhile adopting technology-follower strategies. Theanalysis considers five dimensions that, according to theliterature on the management of technology, constitutethe basic benchmarks of the strategy. These dimensionsinclude innovating activities of the firm to improve, itsposition on the market; orientation of research anddominant technological goals; technology sources usedby the firm to acquire its critical technologies; level oftechnological investments to acquire and/or developtechnologies; and organizational mechanisms to managetechnological functions of the firm. Results of thisstudy clearly show that Latin American firms can sustaincompetitive strategies on the intelligent management,combining in-house skills with excellent capabilitiesto locate, acquire and assimilate external technologies.