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Abstract
What makes or breaks the decision for an MNC to enter an emerging market beyond incentives
for profit-maximization? What role exists for public-private partnerships as a mechanism for
value capture in agricultural biotechnology investments into uncertain markets? The objective of
the paper is to provide the necessary theoretical framework by which future research may
empirically assess the discounted value and probability of R&D investments into the African
agricultural biotechnology sector. A partnership model lies at the foundation for creating
marketing channels between industries with high fixed costs and high social utility value.
Stimulating intellectual and scientific investments in agricultural biotechnology are contingent
on prioritization of public policy, wherein optimal investment strategy into developing markets
becomes a balance between providing adequate incentives for investment without compensating
technological dissemination to smallholders. A strong regulatory environment not only ensures
market power for the private industry and but forces change in the general expectations from and
attitude towards the hybrid seed and agriculture innovation. It is, additionally, imperative to
create a linkage between the private sector and the smallholder. Not only are multinationals
currently the gatekeepers of intellectual capacity for agricultural biotechnology research, but also
possess capacity to enter the market and provide products en masses. The lack of immediate
profit incentives may be balanced by public sector partnerships that might cushion risks and
eventually expand market opportunities for the smallholder.