The Contact-Hitting R&D Strategy of Family Firms in the Japanese Pharmaceutical Industry
研究了日本制药行业中，研发投入较少的家族企业如何通过避免激进创新、专注渐进创新的“接触式研发策略”来竞争，并发现其专利产出效率更高且不偏向低价值创新。
This article addresses the following question: How do family firms investing less in research and development (R&D) than nonfamily firms compete in R&D intensive industries? Using Japanese pharmaceutical industry data, we found that family firms produce more patents per R&D than nonfamily firms but are not biased toward low-value innovations. Further analyses of the distribution over innovation value suggested that family firms adopt a “contact-hitting R&D strategy,” avoiding radical innovations and pursuing incremental innovations compatible with their signature moves: innovation through tradition and narrow and internal search and resulting in may low-value innovations and a few mid or high-value innovations.