Partnership as a strategy for New Zealand natural ingredients company: a framework for partner identification

Abstract

Life sciences is an industry that is rife with innovations, including innovations in the nutraceuticals and functional foods (NFF) industry. Nutraceuticals and functional foods are defined as “any substance that may be considered a food or part of a food and provides medical or health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of disease.” It is a fast-growing industry, fuelled by health conscious consumers and an aging population who wants to stay fit in their old age. As a young industry, many innovations in NFF are driven by research in universities and small-medium enterprises (SMEs). Anagenix, a New Zealand-based NFF ingredients developer, is among the innovators. Currently it is developing a fruit extract that has the potential to help control blood glucose in pre-diabetic and type-2 diabetic patients. However, alike many SMEs, Anagenix is constrained by limited resources and capabilities, mainly financial resources and knowledge about the market it intends to enter. For this reason, the company is currently seeking to form a collaborative partnership with a more established company. The main objective of this thesis is to assist Anagenix in identifying the potential partner companies. The research question presented in this thesis are: “What kind of company fits best to partner with Anagenix?” “What are the characteristics of the companies that are likely to be interested in co- development partnership with Anagenix?” To answer the questions, this thesis focused on secondary data collection. The data were analysed qualitatively to understand the partnering tendencies of the potential partners. Previous studies in this area have observed that there are three type of companies that are attempting to enter the NFF industry: food and beverages (F&B), pharmaceutical, and specialty chemical companies. To assess whether these three type of companies are suitable to partner with Anagenix, an assessment of the technological and strategic alignment was performed. The findings show that: 1) the majority of F&B companies do not have technological and strategic alignment with Anagenix; 2) some pharmaceutical companies have technological and strategic alignment with Anagenix, specifically pharmaceutical companies with strong consumer health division; and 3) the majority of large specialty chemical companies have technological alignment with Anagenix, but only weak strategic alignment. There are some medium-sized specialty chemical companies that have strong strategic alignment with Anagenix, namely the ones that focus on supplying high-value ingredients for the NFF and cosmeceuticals manufacturers.