Markets under the Microscope: Making Scientific Discoveries Valuable through Choreographed Contestations

• Author: Chris J. Ford,Katy Mason,Martin Friesl
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12426
• Published date: 01 July 2019
• Date: 01 July 2019

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Lt d and Society for the Adva ncement of Management Stud ies

Markets under the Microscope: Making Scientific

Discoveries Valuable through Choreographed

Contestations

Katy Mason, Martin Friesl and Chris J. Ford

Lancaste r University Man agement Scho ol, UK

ABST RACT This paper break s new ground by revealing and conceptua lizing the marketizat ion of

science a s a process t hat transforms scientif ic discoveries and markets through a ser ies of

choreographed contestations: moments of va luation th at occur when different social worlds

collide. We follow a scientif ic discovery, from the moment it entered an incubator, to uncover

how valuation practices a nd market devices enact and contest diverse socia l values (i.e., what is

worth doing) to generate economic v alue (i.e., what is worth paying for) at the science-

market-entrepreneursh ip nexus. I n contrast with commerciali zation of science studies that

focus on institutiona l arrangements, this stud y explicates the practices and devices us ed by

multiple market actors to tr ansform a scientific disc overy i nto a marketable object. I n so doing,

we characteri se choreogr aphed contestat ions and t he mechan isms through which they operate

to explain how spec ific valuations are performed to w ork out innovative next steps that unfold

the market ization of science.

Keywo rds: commerc ialization, contest ations, marketizat ion, market devices, soc ial worlds,

valuatio n practices

INTRODUCTION

The market for cancer treatments is dominated by chemotherapies. Chemotherapies

attack every div iding cell they encounter, often resulting in undesirable side effects.1

Scientists are now seeking a ntibody-based therapies, which only target cancer cells.

Much of this early stage scienti fic work takes place in un iversity laboratories, but the

discoveries must emerge from these non-commercial settings if they are to become both

socially and economica lly valuable. However, we know little of the pract ices that support

the commercializat ion of such scientific discoveries, or how markets shape this process.

Journal of Man agement Studi es 56:5 July 2019

doi: 10. 1111/j om s. 124 26

Address for re prints: K aty Mason, Market s and Management, De partment of Entrepreneu rship and Strateg y,

Lancaster Uni versity Management School, L ancaster, UK LA1 4YX (k .j.mason@lancaster.ac.uk).

Markets under the Microscope 9 67

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Lt d and Society for the Adva ncement of Management Stud ies

The commercialization of science is understood as the exploitation of a scientific in-

vention to reap financial rewards (Perkmann et al., 2013), making science valuable and

marketable. However, scientific discoveries are not always immediately associated with

the problem they ultimately address: when patients reported the surprising side effects

of Sildenafil Citrate (an angina therapy), Pfizer re-marketed it as Viagra – a treatment

for erectile dysfunction (Loe, 2004). Discoveries emerging from settings where commer-

cialization and market expertise is lacking have provoked research identifying the in-

stitutional arrangements and resources needed to support science commercialization:

intellectual property rights protection (Debackere and Veugelers, 2005; Lockett and

Wright, 2005; Lockett et al., 2002), licencing agreements support (Lockett and Wright,

2005; Siegel et al., 2003), and setting-up/monitoring spin-outs (Clarysse et al., 2007;

Vohora et al., 2004). Yet we still know little of how commercialization forges market con-

nections (Cooke, 2001) essential for progression from embryonic science to economically

valuable, market object.

The market studies literature conceptualizes markets as socio-economic collectives that

contest, calculate and co-ordinate action, organizing multiple social values to generate

economic value (Geiger et al., 2014; Stark, 2009). Through this co-ordination markets

enable compromises on the nature and value of goods produced (Araujo, 2007; Callon

and Muniesa, 2005). This suggests that commercializing any good requires connecting

distributed and heterogeneous sets of expertise to work out what is valuable, to whom

and why. The process by which this happens is referred to as marketization (Araujo and

Pels, 2015; Çalışkan and Callon, 2010). By studying the marketization of science, we shift

from the commercialisation of science literature’s focus on institutional support for ac-

ademic entrepreneurs, to the collective valuation of scientific discoveries through the

engaged and contested practices of multiple market actors.

Adopting this approach, we see markets as being constructed through collective mar-

ket action (Callon and Muniesa, 2005), and seek to uncover the process through which

this action transforms both the scientific discovery and the market it seeks to enter. To

uncover the tensions that academic-scientists face in this process (Clarysse et al., 2007;

Cooke, 2001; Vohora et al., 2004), we draw on social worlds theory to explicate the

plurality of norms, discourses, symbols and practices (Clarke and Star, 2008; Strauss,

1978) brought together in market encounters. Fisher et al. (2016) recognise this plurality

in the way new ventures secure resources from different audiences, arguing that social

judgements and valuations reside within socially constructed systems of norms, values,

and beliefs. We suggest that the ways in which market encounters are organised and per-

formed is critical to the marketization of science, and particularly the way they produce

multiple and sequential moments of valuation at the nexus of multiple social worlds. In

this paper we ask: In the process of marketization, how do contestations between different market actors

make scientific discoveries valuable?

We elaborate theory (Maitlis, 2005) through a single, longitudinal case study of

‘AntiBod’, a scientific discovery typical of those incubated at the Stevenage Bioscience

Catalyst (SBC), in the UK. This allowed us to generate ‘thick descriptions’ (Geertz, 1973)

of how AntiBod was made valuable, revealing the complex and pluralistic valuation prac-

tices performed in the marketization of science.

968 K. Mason et al.

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Lt d and Society for the Adva ncement of Management Stud ies

We find that there is no predetermined marketization pathway. Rather, a series of

choreographed contestations unfolds at the nexus of social worlds, transforming the

scientific discovery into a marketable, economically valuable object. Each contestation

brings together valuation practices and market devices from multiple social worlds to

temporarily frame and fix what is being valued and how. By holding these devices and

social worlds in dialogue, new valuations are produced, shaping understandings of what

is worth doing next. How marketization is achieved only becomes apparent as each mo-

ment of valuation unfolds the next; as the dissonance created through the collision of

discourses, symbols and understandings of social worlds is surfaced productively and

acted upon, one innovative step at a time.

We extend understanding of the commercialization of science by introducing a concep-

tual framework of choreog raphed contestations to explain how marketization occurs through

the generative interplay of valuation practices and market devices from diverse social

worlds. This shifts our attention away from institutional arrangements and towards the

practices and devices that perform the collective working out of innovative next steps in the

marketization process (Callon and Muniesa, 2005; Pénet, 2015; Pollock and D’Adderio,

2012). These insights take us beyond recognition of the challenges and tensions typically

experienced by academic-entrepreneurs (Siegel and Wright, 2015a; Siegel et al., 2003),

by foregrounding the role of collective valuation practices in ‘disentangling’ discoveries

from extant social worlds and norms in order to make them valuable in markets. Our

paper concludes by discussing how our theories from the lab have broader implications for

management research.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The Commercia lization of Science

Much commercialization of science literature focuses on understanding university spin-

offs and the inst itutional environments that shape t hem, addressing issues such as the

impact of equity investment availabil ity (Lockett and Wright, 2005), business develop-

ment capabilities and royalty reg imes of university technology t ransfer off ices (TTOs)

(Lockett and Wright, 20 05; Siegel et al., 2003), and network capabilities progressively de-

veloped by spin-offs (Ba raldi et al., 2014; Walter et al., 2006). This work foregrounds the

signif icance of creating a cred ible venture, and the importance of context, part icularly

the signif icance of TTOs within universities (Cla rysse et al., 2007; Lockett and Wright,

2005; Lockett et al., 2003). TTOs stimulate entrepreneurial a ctivity and are r esponsi-

ble for registering patents, organising licencing agreements and establ ishing spin-outs

as independent companies in which intellectua l property (IP )-owning u niversities have

a stake (Loc kett et al., 2003). As such, they are seen as ‘ insiders’ with specif ic skill-sets

and expertise ( Lockett and Wright, 2005, p. 1047), organisi ng key evaluative processes

before commercialization commences (Vohora et al., 2004). In sum, th is institutional

approach looks at the organisation and str ucture of resources and the organ isational

routines put in place by universities to help academic entrepreneurs commercia lize