Pharmaceutical firms frequently engage in preclinical research collaboration with universities. Many of these collaborative preclinical research projects are conducted by firms’ subsidiaries. In this setting, the challenge of transferring knowledge from university–industry collaborations (UICs) to internal research and development (R&D) increases, since knowledge has to be transferred twice: to the subsidiary and to the parent. To benefit from tacit and complex knowledge obtained through collaboration with academic partners, firms need to have a high absorptive capacity. However, existing research on absorptive capacity's effect on the efficacy of UIC has provided mixed results, and the knowledge transfer mechanisms remain unclear, particularly in the case of basic (or preclinical) research and of the complex knowledge transfer process from subsidiaries’ collaborative efforts. Building on the knowledge-based view and following a multidimensional perspective of absorptive capacity, this study investigates the role a firm's capabilities play in successful university knowledge integration in a firm's internal R&D. Therefore, this paper analyzes both parent firms’ UICs and their subsidiaries’ UICs in basic (preclinical) research. The results of our longitudinal analysis of a unique panel data set of 56 global pharmaceutical firms indicate that firms do successfully exploit valuable knowledge from preclinical research UIC in internal R&D, measured by the number of performed clinical trials. This holds true for the UIC involving the parent firm and its subsidiaries. As transformative learning dimensions of absorptive capacity, high diversity in therapeutic activity and high R&D intensity levels strengthen the positive relationship between parents’ UIC and R&D performance. A high exploration intensity level of the firm and high diversity in therapeutic activity help to transfer the knowledge from subsidiaries’ preclinical research UIC to parents’ innovation projects.

中文翻译：

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大学与产业合作在临床前研究中对制药公司研发绩效的影响：吸收能力的作用

制药公司经常与大学进行临床前研究合作。许多这些合作的临床前研究项目是由公司的子公司进行的。在这种情况下，将知识从大学-产业合作 (UIC) 转移到内部研发 (R&D) 的挑战增加了，因为知识必须转移两次：到子公司和母公司。为了从通过与学术合作伙伴合作获得的隐性和复杂的知识中受益，企业需要具有高吸收能力。然而，现有关于吸收能力对 UIC 功效影响的研究结果喜忧参半，知识转移机制尚不清楚，特别是在基础（或临床前）研究和子公司合作努力的复杂知识转移过程中。本研究以知识为基础的观点为基础，从吸收能力的多维视角出发，研究了企业的能力在企业内部研发中成功整合大学知识中所起的作用。因此，本文在基础（临床前）研究中分析了母公司的 UIC 及其子公司的 UIC。我们对 56 家全球制药公司的独特面板数据集的纵向分析结果表明，公司确实成功地在内部研发中利用了来自临床前研究 UIC 的宝贵知识，以进行的临床试验数量来衡量。这适用于涉及母公司及其子公司的 UIC。作为吸收能力的变革性学习维度，治疗活动的高度多样性和高研发强度水平加强了父母 UIC 与研发绩效之间的正相关关系。公司的高探索强度水平和治疗活动的高度多样性有助于将知识从子公司的临床前研究 UIC 转移到父母的创新项目中。