The influence of collaboration on firm publications: Evidence from pharmaceutical cancer research

Paper in proceeding, 2015

Although bio-pharmaceutical companies engage intensely in collaboration as well as in scientific publications it is not well understood how and why the choice of distinct partner types affects the quality of companies’ scientific publications. We contribute to this gap in the existing literature by analyzing whether collaboration with particular types of partners and whether network embeddedness influences the quality of publications in cancer research, and specifically of the scientific publications of biotech and of pharmaceutical companies. Our empirical analysis employs two different measures for scientific quality, publication in top-tier journals and the number of forward citations. The results suggest that publication in top-tier journals may depend on different factors and collaboration patterns compared to the number of citations an article receives.