Networked Success and Failure at Hybritech

Abstract

The author presents an historical account of scientific work conducted at a commercial biotech firm in San Diego called Hybritech. It tells of disruptions in research programs following the acquisition of the company by the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly in 1986. The story centers on responses to an organizational challenge that research managers and scientists in any setting, academic or industrial, must confront—how to create and sustain an organizational culture that is conducive to creativity and innovation. The case provides an occasion for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of two leading theoretical accounts of innovation in social studies of science and technology—sociological network analysis and actor-network theory.

Food, Drugs, and TV

“…On the other hand, Sismondo (2011) critically engages interests and shows that, sometimes, interests are really exactly that: just interests. But corporations, as well as the interests they are associated with, change in unexpected ways (Jones, 2011;Schleifer, 2011). Indeed, among the most pertinent questions about corporate science are those that address how interests play out and change, along with parallel questions about how power matters and shifts.…”