Strategies of European SMEs in biotechnology: The role of size, technologyand market

Both the technological and market focus of 228 European biotechnology SMEs are analysed in this paper. Data from the Genetic Engineering catalogue pro vide a complementary representation compared to the patent publications tha t are most commonly used. Results of the analysis produce a new view of the development of biotech SMEs. First, no pattern of specialisation by countr y is observed, even though three types of company with different technologi cal focus can be distinguished in the sample. Second, it is argued that the rapid technological evolution in this domain can hardly be explained by a rapid evolution of the technological basis of the companies, and should con sequently be explained primarily by the creation of new SMEs. Third, four d ifferent patterns of linkage between technology and market focus are observ ed, by means of co-word analysis.