William Lazonick
University of Massachusetts, Lowell, Economics, Faculty Member
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The tension between innovation and financialisation is central to the business corporation. Innovation entails a 'retain-and-reinvest' allocation regime that can form a foundation for stable and equitable economic growth. Driven... more
The tension between innovation and financialisation is central to the business corporation. Innovation entails a 'retain-and-reinvest' allocation regime that can form a foundation for stable and equitable economic growth. Driven by shareholder-value ideology, financialisation entails a shift to 'downsize-and-distribute'. This Element investigates this tension in global pharmaceuticals, focusing on the two leading UK companies AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline. In the 2000s both adopted US-style governance, including stock buybacks and stock-based executive pay. Over the past decade, however, first AstraZeneca and then GlaxoSmithKline transitioned to innovation. Critical was the cessation of buybacks to refocus capabilities on investing in an innovative drugs pipeline. Enabling this shift were UK corporate-governance institutions that mitigated US-style shareholder-value maximisation. Reinventing capitalism for the sake of stable and equitable economic growth means elim...
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The United States represents the world’s largest market for pharmaceutical drugs. It is also the only advanced economy in the world that does not regulate drug prices. There is no upper threshold for the prices of medicines in the United... more
The United States represents the world’s largest market for pharmaceutical drugs. It is also the only advanced economy in the world that does not regulate drug prices. There is no upper threshold for the prices of medicines in the United States. List prices are instead set by manufacturers in negotiation with supply-chain intermediaries, though some federal programs have degrees of discretion in price determinations. In practice, this deregulated system means that drug prices in the United States are generally far higher than in other advanced economies, adversely affecting patient accessibility and system affordability. In this paper, we draw on the “theory of innovative enterprise” to develop a framework that provides both a critique of the existing pricing system in the United States and a foundation for developing a new model of pricing regulation to support safety and effectiveness through drug development as well as accessibility and affordability in the distribution of approv...
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With just 4.2 percent of the world’s population, the United States had, as of July 21, 2020, 26.0 percent of its confirmed Covid-19 cases and 23.1 percent of its deaths. The magnitude of the tragedy raises the critically important... more
With just 4.2 percent of the world’s population, the United States had, as of July 21, 2020, 26.0 percent of its confirmed Covid-19 cases and 23.1 percent of its deaths. The magnitude of the tragedy raises the critically important counterfactual question of how the United States as a nation would have fared had there been competent and committed political leadership in place when, during January 2020, intelligence indicating the severity of the unfolding pandemic became available. A partial answer to this question lies in identifying the organizational and technological capabilities to develop, produce, and deliver “countermeasures”—personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, diagnostic tests, therapies, and vaccines—that a prepared federal administration would have been able to mobilize to respond to the pandemic. Main repositories of the necessary capabilities are government agencies and business firms, with the development, production, and delivery of countermeasures heavil...
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The aim of this paper is to document the role that career engineers played in the investment strategies and eventual survival of an organization producing large high technology capital goods. Using the theory of innovative enterprise... more
The aim of this paper is to document the role that career engineers played in the investment strategies and eventual survival of an organization producing large high technology capital goods. Using the theory of innovative enterprise developed by Lazonick and O'Sullivan (2000), we analyze the locus of strategic control and its interactions with the cognitive and behavioral dimensions of Rolls-Royce, nowadays a successful industrial firm. The company has been analyzed during an intense period of radical changes in the ownership structure of the company that followed the firm's misdemeanors. Analysis of the role of engineers is paralleled with an analysis of what influence the firm's exposure to the stock market had on its innovative activities. The case analyzed shows that there was a clear lead by the engineering-related functions, while other functions had little say in important investment decisions. Company decisions were driven by the creed of engineering excellence ...
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The case of the cotton industry has figured prominently in recent debates over Britain's loss of industrial leadership in the twentieth century.'As participants in these debates, our purposes here are to clarify our own arguments... more
The case of the cotton industry has figured prominently in recent debates over Britain's loss of industrial leadership in the twentieth century.'As participants in these debates, our purposes here are to clarify our own arguments concerning the sources of, British ...