Cross border acquisitions and R&D activities: evidence from case studies in the biotech industry

This paper is part of a broader research program that aims at investigating the effects of cross border acquisitions of Italian firms, in order to analyze in particular way the impact on R&D activities of companies involved in the acquisitions that are specialized in R&D and are configurable as service companies. The purpose of the paper is to understand how these companies in the post-acquisition stage change their R&D skills and activities To this aim the acquisition impact will be assessed with respect to factors such as organizational and technological fit between the acquirer and the acquired firms, the similarity and complementarity of resources, the nature of knowledge that is to be transferred, the retention of key personnel. We focused on Red Biotech firms because these represent a key asset for an economic system and are quickly adapting to the new system centered on the search network, where they are no longer just the big laboratories to generate innovation but a network more immaterial skills and relationships between clinical centers, innovative SMEs, medium and large companies with international vision.