Targeting the biotechnology clusters in North Carolina and Israel: lessons from successful and unsuccessful policy making

Abstract

This paper analyses the development of biotechnology clusters in North Carolina (NC) and Israel. In both NC and Israel, when the biotechnology was identified as a potential strategic priority, the framework conditions were suitable for successful policy-targeting. NC presents a case of a successful transition from a traditional manufacturing economy to a knowledge economy. The most successful part of this transition was a policy-led development of a biotechnology cluster in the Research Triangle. While Israel also presents a case of a successful transition from a low-tech economy to a knowledge-intensive economy, Israel failed to develop a successful biotechnology cluster. We suggest that this failure is mostly due to a failure to implement policy to encourage such development. We argue that the elements, which separate NC's success from Israel's failure, are: a clear vision and strategic planning; timely response, long-term commitment; strong leadership; cooperation between the government, private sector and academia, and an adjustable policy-making process.

Keywords:

• business and management studies
• case study
• historical analysis
• biotechnology
• clusters
• evolutionary economics and technology

Acknowledgements

This paper is written within the framework of TARGET, a research project supported by the European Union 7th Framework Programme.

Notes

The main written sources included: Katzir Committee report (Katzir 1988), Israel National Committee for Biotechnology report (Katzir and Herzberg 1992), Haim Aviv's reports (1998, 2007), Monitor report (2001), Ministry of Science report (Meser-Yaron 2001), Milken Institute report (Glen 2008), GlenRock report (2007), and other non-formal reports and articles.

We used multiple data resources such as USPTO database, the NC's TREE database (see Avnimelech and Feldman 2010), IVC-online, NCBC database and CBS Israel data.