Being public in the Dutch private life

The biotech science industry is a relatively new industry, since it started to develop in 1970. The global market leader, with difference, in biotech is the US biotech industry, which is measured in aspects such as available financial capital, entrepreneurship, social acceptance, total revenue, etc. After the leading position of the US biotech market comes to European biotech market. The entrepreneurial spirit, management performance and role of the small biotech firms are very well developed in the US biotech market. In turn these aspects are less developed in the European biotech market. Therefore in this thesis these aspects are analyzed in both the US biotech market and the European biotech market. In addition, the management performance aspect is analyzed in more detail. Biotech managers learn best through work experience as biotech managers and from other biotech managers that are more experienced. For small biotech firms to perform mutual research with large biotech firms allows the small biotech firms to learn from more experienced large biotech firms how to cope with future growth stages. In The Netherlands there exist a shortage of large life science firms. Also are the large life science firms in The Netherlands spread very diverse throughout different clusters. Therefore for small firms it is not just about cooperating with firms that are established in different clusters, but being actually present in the different clusters. By being present in different clusters, biotech firms are able to learn from more parties. In addition small biotech firms in The Netherlands should try to set up more research cooperations with other biotech firms, as there exist very few cooperations between private biotech firms. While in the UK and the US there exist many cooperations between private biotech firms. Furthermore for small biotech firms in The Netherlands, to improve their performance it is best to cooperate with firms from other EU-countries and non-EU counties. Therefore, the focus of research cooperation for small biotech firms in The Netherlands should be on large and medium sized biotech firms outside The Netherlands. In order to improve the performance of small biotech firms in The Netherlands, small biotech firms in The Netherlands should allow more experienced biotech parties like suppliers of capital or medium sized and large biotech companies, to advice or take part in the management board of small biotech firms.