Competing Institutional Logics in the Biopharmaceutical Industry: The Move away from the Small Molecules Therapies Model in the Post‐Genomic Era

Abstract

The concept of institutional logics has been introduced as the totality of beliefs and assumptions guiding actors in a specific institutional field. While an institutional logic provides actors with guidance for action and an integrated worldview, it is possible for two or more institutional logics to coexist, even over longer periods of time. This study demonstrates how actors in the biopharmaceutical industry are conceiving of a shift from the incumbent small molecules/one target model for new drug development, predominant in the pharmaceutical industry during the post-World War period, to a more complex model where both genomic and post-genomic research methods and new forms of in silico biocomputation methods are constituting a new drug development regime where biological entities such as stem cells, biologics (larger molecules such as vaccines) and antibodies play a role in the new therapies.The study concludes (1) that institutional logics are never devoid of struggle and controversy and must be understood as outcomes of complex social processes, and (2) that linear periodizations of the life sciences into, for example, 'traditional', 'genomic' and 'post-genomic' eras impose an overly simplistic image of how new drug development is organized and technologically embedded in the contemporary period.

The interaction between institutional and stakeholder pressures: Advancing a framework for categorising carbon disclosure strategies

“…The market logic represents a purely market driven view, characterised by an absolute focus towards reducing costs and increasing profits, where the sustainability logic is regarded as a trade‐off and as a problem in regard to the pursuit of competitive advantage (Dobrovnik, Herold, Fürst, & Kummer, ; Glover, Champion, Daniels, & Dainty, ; Oberhofer & Dieplinger, ). As such, the logic of the “market” and the logic of “sustainability” reflect different values and beliefs within companies and are known in the literature as “competing logics” (e.g., Lander, Koene, & Linssen, ; Pache & Santos, ; Styhre, ). But although the market logic represents a central or “core logic” (Ansari, Wijen, & Gray, , p. 1017) in business organisations, the position of the sustainability logic varies between organisations.…”

Strategy in an ambiguous innovation environment

“…Individual firms may represent competing logic, for instance (Öberg and Shih, 2014), where competing logic has previously foremost been associated with its institutional character (cf. Styhre, 2011). Logic is an antecedent that influences whether interaction will take place (Håkansson and Waluszewski, 2007;Welch and Wilkinson, 2002) and what forms it takes (transactional or relational, see below).…”