Camille D. Ryan

Comparing a Pharmaceutical and an Agro-food Bioregion: On the Importance of Knowledge Bases for Socio-spatial Patterns of Innovation

The aim of this paper is to compare the socio‐spatial patterns of innovation and knowledge linkages of a biopharmaceutical and an agro‐food biotech cluster. Dissimilarities can be expected based on differences in terms of historical technological regimes and sectoral innovation system dynamics between the agro‐food and pharmaceutical industries in general and particularly the distinctive analytical (science‐based) knowledge base of biopharmaceuticals in contrast with the more synthetic (engineering‐based) knowledge base of agro‐food biotechnology. Drawing on bibliometric data and case material the study compares two representative bioregions: a biopharmaceutical cluster in Scania, Sweden and an agro‐food biotech cluster in Saskatoon, Canada. The empirical study supports the theoretical expectations and shows that knowledge dynamics in the agro‐food cluster are more localized than in the biopharmaceuticals cluster. It is important, however, to acknowledge that these differences are relative. Both sectors display local and non‐local patterns of collaboration following the general pattern for biotechnology.

Knowledge Management in Advanced Technology Industries: An Examination of International Agricultural Biotechnology Clusters

Innovation—the social process of developing, adapting, and adopting new technologies and products into the economy and society—is being driven by increasingly intensive use of knowledge. Although knowledge is often considered inherently nonrival and nonexcludable, increasing complexity has combined with new private property rights mechanisms to erect barriers to use. One approach to overcoming the challenge of accessing and using knowledge has been for firms and other actors to cluster geographically in a few locations around the world, in order to capture scale and scope economies. This paper offers a theoretical explanation for this agglomeration, examines the extent of clustering in the agricultural biotechnology industry, and investigates one specific cluster—in Saskatoon, Canada—that has sustained success in generating successive innovation. Preliminary results indicate that clusters appear to be prevalent in areas where knowledge is diffuse, complicated, and actively protected. Finally, our results also suggest that regional knowledge management is enhanced through an optimal number of actors operating within the parameters of seven defined cluster-based functions: three primary (science, technology and collective) and four mixed or hybrid activities.

The Canadian and European Union Impacts from the Detection of GM Flax

Tolerance levels exist for many undesirable attributes in food where there is a general consensus regarding the potential food safety hazard: insect fragments, stones, livestock antibiotics, chemical residues, weed seeds, manure, etc. Yet much of the current debate about zero tolerance relates to the presence of genetically modified (GM) material, with far less consensus regarding the acceptability of traces of GM material and the role of science and technology as the arbiter of a safety threshold. The result has been international trade tensions, and increased complexity in supply chain relationships. Embedded in zero tolerance for GM material are divergent perceptions encompassing what constitutes ‘high’ and ‘low’ quality and an extension of the use of zero tolerance requirements beyond food safety to encompass different notions of food quality. Thresholds exist for a variety of materials that are commonly found in not only food but also in the trade of agricultural products. Even while knowing that trade in agricultural products cannot function at zero percent, it was decided by European legislators that if any GM variety was detected in agricultural product imports, or found growing in the European Union (EU), and if the variety was not approved for import or feed production, its use would be illegal and therefore the tolerance threshold was established at zero. Zero tolerance standards for GM material in international food markets and the discovery in 2009 of trace amounts of a deregistered GM variety of Canadian flax in bakery goods in Germany lead to the closure of the EU market to Canadian flaxseed.

INCORPORATING NETWORK ANALYSIS INTO EVALUATION OF 'BIG SCIENCE' PROJECTS: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE CANADIAN LIGHT SOURCE SYNCHROTRON

Major investments in science and technology are designed to generate something beyond the science itself. Government-funded big science infrastructure, exemplified by the Canadian Light Source Synchrotron (CLS), offers places for scientists both to conduct their scientific investigations and to do things that more directly add economic and social value. Scientists, however, do not work in isolation. They are usually part of larger networks or communities that can generate bigger net effects for the affiliated individuals and institutions. Understanding the structure and scale of these scientific networks provides insights into the impacts of big science on the scientific community (locally and globally) and the potential opportunities that may be realised. This study applies the social network analysis (SNA) methodology and combines it with a survey and statistical analysis to assess the network of scholars attached to the CLS, to explore the evolution of collaborative behaviour over time and to explore the relationships between the network and specific output and outcome variables. The study concludes that the CLS has generated a large and growing scholarly community; at the core of the network is a group of highly linked and engaged scholars who have the aptitude and experience to extend their research results into application and use.