Institutional entrepreneurship in constructing alternative paths: A comparison of biotech hybrids

This paper investigates how firms adapt their innovation strategies to cope with constraints in national institutional environments. It is a comparative case study of Dutch and British dedicated biotechnology firms focusing on a particular type of strategy, the hybrid model. Patterns of skill accumulation and learning present in the Dutch hybrids are indications of how they use institutional advantages to focus on low-risk innovation and build deeper competences while also pursuing high-risk innovation strategies. The Dutch hybrid model offers insight into how firms comply with the dominant logic of the biotechnology field even when their institutional frameworks encourage the pursuit of low-risk innovation strategies.

► Uses a multiple comparative case design based on exceptional cases: biopharmaceutical firms that follow hybrid strategies of drug development and service provision.
► Uncovers the alternative paths that actors follow when faced with constraints in pursuing specific innovation specializations in specific institutional environments.
► Argues that institutional systems are persistent and reinforce particular innovation strategies, but that actors use institutional entrepreneurship in order to follow innovation strategies incongruent to their institutional systems.