Career Histories and the Biotechnology Industry
Description
Professor Higgins has written research articles (with Professor Ranjay Gulati of Northwestern) that are based upon archival data on the career histories of over 3200 managers and board members of biotechnology firms that went public between 1979 and 1996. This research examines relationships between the career histories of a firm's IPO team and the decision-making of key intermediaries such as investors and investment banks and new venture performance. In particular, findings from this research show that firms that go public with top managers who have had downstream affiliations (i.e., worked for a major healthcare or pharmaceutical firm) perform better in the IPO marketplace.
Closer examination of these downstream affiliations reveals an interesting phenomenon, a phenomenon that has sparked the writing of Professor Higgins' book, Career Imprints: Creating Leaders Across an Industry. That is, approximately 23% of the biotech firms that went public between 1979 and 1996 had at least one member of their IPO team who used to work at a particular downstream organization - Baxter. Other firms also spawned entrepreneurs for this industry (e.g., Abbott, J&J, Merck), but to a lesser extent than did Baxter. The question that begins this book is why? Why was Baxter such a generative institution? Professor Higgins draws upon the aforementioned archival career history data as well as over 70 interviews with people who were engaged in career transitions from healthcare firms/big pharma to young biotech firms at the start of the biotechnology industry to understand this phenomenon.
In this book, Higgins develops the concept of an organizational 'career imprint' to explicate this spawning phenomenon. An organizational career imprint refers to the types of capabilities, connections, confidence, and cognition that a group of individuals share as a result of working at a particular employer. Therefore, career imprints are associated with particular organizations and derive from patterns in shared career experiences. Certain conditions amplify career imprints or make them stronger such as strong corporate cultures, and certain conditions make them more valuable such as when a group of people leave to start firms in an industry. (For an article on career imprints, see Working Knowledge.)
Professor Higgins describes how Baxter's career imprint was perceived to be a relatively good match for the opportunities available to run biotech firms at the start of the industry, which led to the spawning effects observed. To do so, Professor Higgins analyzes the career histories of people who worked at Baxter during the 1970s with those of other potential spawners, including Abbott, Merck, and J&J and then compares the career imprints of these four firms. She then draws upon interviews with intermediaries such as venture capitalists to show how Baxter's career imprint was preferred at the start of the biotech industry, leading to a wave of entrepreneurs to leave Baxter for biotechnology. The book also provides evidence to suggest that organizational career imprints travel with individuals as they go on to lead and manage other firms. For example, Professor Higgins shows how reflections of Baxter's career imprint may be found in biotech organizations such as Genzyme, which is run by Baxter alumnus, Henri Termeer. The book, Career Imprints: Creating Leaders Across an Industry, will be published in April, 2005 by Jossey-Bass in Warren Bennis' Leadership Development Series.