Beyond and between academia and business: How Austrian biotechnology researchers describe high-tech startup companies as spaces of knowledge production

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Abstract

Research and innovation policy has invested considerable effort in creating new institutional spaces at the interface of academia and business. High-tech startups founded by academic entrepreneurs have been central to these policy imaginaries. These companies offer researchers new possibilities beyond and between academia and larger industry. However, the field of science and technology studies has thus far shown only limited interest in understanding these companies as spaces of knowledge production. This article analyses how researchers working in small and medium-sized biotechnology companies in Vienna, Austria, describe the cultural characteristics of knowledge production in this particular institutional space. It traces how they relate these characteristics to other institutional spaces they have experienced in their research biographies, such as in academia or larger corporations. It shows that the reasons why researchers decide to work in biotechnology companies and how they organize their work are deeply influenced by their perception of deficiencies in the conditions for epistemic work in contemporary academia and, to a lesser degree, in industry.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)259-281
Number of pages23
JournalSocial Studies of Science
Volume46
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Apr 2016

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

  • 509017 Social studies of science

Keywords

  • BOUNDARY
  • CULTURE
  • ENTREPRENEURIAL SCIENCE
  • IMPACT
  • LIFE SCIENTISTS
  • NORMS
  • SYSTEMS
  • UNIVERSITY
  • WORK
  • biotechnology
  • corporate science
  • cultures of knowledge production
  • startup companies

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