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• "Doing science together" means that collaboration partners have almost equal participation in scientific activities. • We explore four of AstraZeneca's large-scale, long-term, collaborative research programs with its academic partners Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University. • Our 3MCs insights for improving governance of collaborative research between firms and academia are: 1) Mutual collaboration, 2) Mutually beneficial science, and 3) Mutual governance model with senior management involvement. 'Doing science together' collaborations are a more intense form of university–industry interactions and are characterized by a mutual involvement and active participation of academic and company scientists in scientific research. Here, we examine the successful approach that AstraZeneca and its internationally renowned academic partners, Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University, implemented to fully unlock the potential of all parties in long-term, explorative, truly collaborative research programs. The underlying premises of these successful research programs are three collaborative governance mechanisms (3MCs) that are required that leverage the strengths of each organization: mutual collaboration; mutually beneficial science; and a mutual governance model with senior management involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds upon the literature which provides conflicting theoretical insights and empirical results concerning the importance of companies’ collaborative relations, their position within a network of collaborative relations and the effects on their innovative performance. Taking the importance of collaborations and networks in the pharmaceutical industry into account, the paper untangles the influence of the firm’s co-publication relations with different types of partners and its network position on the company’s product innovation in a specific disease area—cancer. We find rather robust evidence that in particular, companies’ indirect connections within the co-publication network, including connections to academic institutions and biotechnology companies, support product innovation. In contrast to evidence in the strategic alliance literature, direct co-publication links to biotechnology companies do not support product innovation in terms of new cancer medications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]