Building Biodigital Clusters in Emerging Economies: A Conceptual Framework Integrating Technological Capabilities and Governance in the Pharmaceutical Sector

Abstract

The emergence of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, advanced data analytics, and digital health technologies is transforming the pharmaceutical industry and reshaping the conditions under which innovation occurs. These developments are driving the formation of biodigital innovation ecosystems, where scientific knowledge, technological capabilities, governance arrangements, and institutional coordination become critical determinants of competitiveness and innovation performance. Despite the growing importance of biodigital convergence, existing literature has largely examined technological capabilities, innovation systems, cluster development, and governance as separate analytical domains. Limited attention has been devoted to understanding how these dimensions interact to support the emergence and consolidation of biodigital clusters, particularly in emerging economies characterized by institutional fragmentation, technological dependency, and uneven innovation capabilities. This paper presents the conceptual architecture of an ongoing doctoral research project that seeks to address this gap. The study proposes an integrative framework that combines three complementary perspectives: technological capabilities theory, governance theory, and innovation ecosystem approaches. The framework is designed to explain how technological capabilities and governance mechanisms jointly influence the development of biodigital clusters in the pharmaceutical sector. The proposed model conceptualizes technological capabilities as the ability of organizations and territories to acquire, absorb, adapt, generate, and reconfigure knowledge and technologies, while governance is understood as the set of coordination mechanisms that align actors, resources, institutions, and strategic objectives across multiple levels. The interaction between these dimensions is expected to facilitate knowledge flows, collaborative innovation, institutional learning, and ecosystem development. The research is particularly relevant in the context of emerging economies, where strengthening domestic innovation capabilities has become a strategic priority for technological sovereignty, industrial upgrading, and health resilience. Mexico provides a particularly interesting context due to recent efforts aimed at fostering innovation-driven industrial development and strengthening the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors.