Communication for Open Innovation in Japanese Drug Discovery Ventures

: Drug discovery ventures find candidate substances likely to develop into new drugs by selecting and concentrating management resources that specialize in basic and exploratory research and license them to pharmaceutical companies. They conduct R&D activities on the premise of open innovation; however, the number of their licensing cases is small. Therefore, in this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey to find variables that affect the performance of open innovation. Questionnaires were mailed to 349 drug discovery venture companies in Japan (41 addresses unknown), and valid responses were collected from 42 companies (response rate: 13.6%). Using a SEM analysis, we found the importance of communication in open innovation. Communication has direct impact on open innovation and has been found to enhance open innovation through customer orientation. Drug discovery ventures are the ultimate technology-oriented companies, and, while they tend to lower their communication awareness in business negotiations, they must raise their communication awareness to improve the performance of open innovation.