Strategic Alliances as Social Facts: Business, Biotechnology, and Intellectual History

232 Pages·2003·1.43 MB·English

by  Mark De Rond

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Strategic Alliances as Social Facts
Business,BiotechnologyandIntellectualHistory
Howcanweexplainaproliferationofallianceswhentheprobabilityof
failureishigherthansuccess?Andwhyhaveweemphasizedtheirorder,
manageability,andpredictabilitywhilstacknowledgingthattheytendto
beexperiencedasmessy,politicallycharged,andunpredictable?Mark
deRond,inthisprovocativebook,setsouttoaddresssuchparadoxes.
Basedonin-depthcasestudiesofthreemajorbiotechnologyalliances,
hesuggeststhatweneedtheoriestoexplainidiosyncrasyaswellassocial
order.Hearguesthatsuchtheoriesmustallowforsocialconducttobe
activeandself-directedbutsimultaneouslyinertandconstrained,thus
permitting voluntarism, determinism, and serendipity alike to explain
causation in alliance life. The book offers a highly original combina-
tion of insights from social theory and intellectual history with more
mainstream strategic management and organizations literature. It is a
refreshingandthought-provokinganalysisthatwillappealtothereflec-
tivepractitionerandacademicresearcheralike.
  isUniversityLecturerinStrategyattheJudgeInstitute
ofManagementStudies,UniversityofCambridge.

Strategic Alliances as
Social Facts
Business, Biotechnology, and Intellectual History
Mark de Rond
  
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge  , United Kingdom
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521811101
© Mark de Rond 2003
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of
relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2003
- 
isbn-13 978-0-511-07286-4 eBook (EBL)
- 
isbn-10 0-511-07286-4 eBook (EBL)
- 
isbn-13 978-0-521-81110-1 hardback
- 
isbn-10 0-521-81110-4 hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of
s for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
To Ed and Greetje de Rond
Strangeisoursituationhereuponearth.However,thereisone
thingthatwedoknow–manishereforthesakeofothermen–
aboveall,forthoseuponwhosesmileandwell-beingourown
happinessdepends,butalsoforthecountlessunknownsouls
withwhosefateweareconnectedbyabondofsympathy.
AlbertEinstein

Contents
Listoffigures pageviii
Foreword byAnneSigismundHuff ix
Acknowledgements xii
Introduction 1
1 Paradoxesofalliancelife 6
2 Thecontextofdrugdiscovery 34
3 Throughthelookingglass1:Rummidgenand
Plethora 55
4 Throughthelookingglass2:CambiogenandPlethora 82
5 Throughthelookingglass3:BionaturaandPflegum
Courtal 103
6 Puttingtwoandtwotogether:revisitingtheory
andpractice 123
7 Strategy,structure,andstructuration:thegeneralin
theparticular 139
8 Thehedgehogandthefox:theparticularinthe
general 156
9 Thelegitimacyofmessiness 173
Appendix:Onmethodologyanddefinitions 184
References 193
Index 209
vii
Figures
1.1 Lifecyclemodels page24
1.2 Teleologicalapproaches:RingandvandeVen(1994) 26
1.3 Teleologicalapproaches:Doz(1996) 27
1.4 Teleologicalapproaches:HamelandDoz(1998) 28
1.5 Fourgenericprocessparadigms:vandeVenand
Poole(1995) 30
2.1 Alliancesasevolvingstructures 49
3.1 ChronologyoftheRummidgen–Plethoraalliance:
1994–8 58
3.2 Evolution:1994–6 63
3.3 Evolution:1997 66
4.1 ChronologyoftheCambiogen–Plethoraalliance:
1995–9 84
4.2 Evolution:1995–7 87
5.1 ChronologyoftheBionatura–PflegumCourtalalliance:
1991–9 104
5.2 Evolution:1991–7 107
5.3 Evolution:1998 108
9.1 Dialecticaltensionsinalliances 175
A.1 Methodology 186
A.2 Differingdegreesofverticalintegration(Lorange
andRoos,1992) 190
A.3 Differingdegreesofinterdependence(Contractorand
Lorange,1988) 190
A.4 Differentiatingbetweenalliancetypesinthe
biopharmaceuticalsector 191
viii