Efficiency factors of knowledge production process (KPP)and knowledge commercialisation process (KCP) in R&D in the pharmaceutical sector in Spain

Resumen

The aim of this study was to determine the efficiency factors of twoprocesses, knowledge production process (KPP) and knowledgecommercialisation process (KCP), that are generally under consideration in the measurement of the efficiency of Research and Development (R&D) in companies, using a Network Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model, while considering KPP and KCP as categorical variables in the DEA. This study has been adapted to the specificities of the R&D activities, and a scale of measurement of the R&D processes has been validated in a sample of 77companies in the pharmaceutical sector in Spain. The results show that pharmaceutical companies in Spain must improve efficiency, which is higher in the phase of knowledge generation or knowledge production process (KPP). However, the lowest values in efficiency levels are found in R&D knowledge transfer or the knowledge commercialisation process (KCP). These results show that pharmaceutical companies in Spain must aim to improve the profitability of investments that are made in R&D. Thiswork helps to close the knowledge gap regarding the factors thatpharmaceutical companies themselves consider to be most important, in order to be competitive, more efficient, and able to use the results obtained as models of comparative efficiency between companies in the sector. In this sense, the studies carried out to date have not used a measurement scale on the factors that affect efficiency in R&D- intensive companies, with special relevance in the pharmaceutical sector