Correspondence: Tomasz Mroczkowski, Kogod School of Business, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20016, USA

¹is Professor of International Business in Kogod School of Business. Dr Mroczkowski's teaching and research interests include comparative management in emerging market economies, international outsourcing and globalisation of R&D in the biotech industries. He is the author of more than 90 works, including articles in California Management Review, Academy of Management Executive, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Journal of Small Business Management, International Trade Journal and The Journal of East-West Business. Dr Mroczkowski is the Academic Director of the Institute for Private Enterprise and Democracy in Warsaw and on the Steering Committee of the Center for Information Technology and the Global Economy at the Kogod School.

²is Associate Professor of International Business in Kogod School of Business. Dr Elms teaches international business strategy courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her research focuses on corporate and stakeholder responsibility in the global context, including the role of professionals in those responsibilities. Dr Elms has extensive international experience, including several years as a management consultant with Ernst & Young, Budapest, Hungary (during the early years of privatisation there) and several additional years as the Founding Director of the Center for the Social Foundations of Business at the Central European University Business School, Budapest, Hungary. She is also on the Editorial Boards of both Business & Society and International Journal of Emerging Markets.

Received 29 January 2009; Revised 29 January 2009; Published online 7 April 2009.

Abstract

A number of emerging economies increasingly expend resources to improve national innovative capabilities and create knowledge economies through the development of biotechnology industries. Standard measures and ways of tracking biotechnology industry progress, such as those used by the OECD, were designed for developed economies. In this paper we review critically a recent report funded by the European Union which also assesses biotechnology industry development in the new member states of Central Europe. Going beyond the report we identify additional characteristics important for an evaluation of nascent biotechnology industries and apply them to Hungary and Poland. Our analysis reveals that the two countries are pursuing different approaches to biotechnology industry development with Hungary following a relatively well-funded national strategy of launching a biotechnology sector specialised in innovative drug discovery whereas Poland has adopted a more hands-off approach. Developing appropriate measures and tools to monitor the potential and progress of an emerging biotechnology industry can help avoid expensive and wasteful policy failures and also provide investors with more reliable information on which to base their decisions. However, those measures should take into account the differing policy objectives and national strategies pursued by different countries.