GM Foods and the Misperception of Risk Perception

Public opposition to genetically modified (GM) food and crops is widely interpreted as the result of the public's misperception of the risks. With scientific assessment pointing to no unique risks from GM crops and foods, a strategy of accurate risk communication from trusted sources has been advocated. This is based on the assumption that the benefits of GM crops and foods are self-evident. Informed by the interpretation of some qualitative interviews with lay people, we use data from the Eurobarometer survey on biotechnology to explore the hypothesis that it is not so much the perception of risks as the absence of benefits that is the basis of the widespread rejection of GM foods and crops by the European public. Some respondents perceive both risks and benefits, and may be trading off these attributes along the lines of a rational choice model. However, for others, one attribute-benefit-appears to dominate their judgments: the lexicographic heuristic. For these respondents, their perception of risk is of limited importance in the formation of attitudes toward GM food and crops. The implication is that the absence of perceived benefits from GM foods and crops calls into question the relevance of risk communication strategies for bringing about change in public opinion.     

Safe-by-Design: Stakeholders’ Perceptions and Expectations of How to Deal with Uncertain Risks of Emerging Biotechnologies in the Netherlands

Advanced gene editing techniques such as Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat (CRISPR)/Cas have increased the pace of developments in the field of industrial biotechnology. Such techniques imply new possibilities when working with living organisms, possibly leading to uncertain risks. In the Netherlands, current policy fails to address these uncertain risks because risk classification is determined process-wise (i.e., genetically modified organism [GMO] and non-GMO), there is a strong focus on quantifiable risks, and the linearity within current governance (science–policy–society) hinders iterative communication between stakeholders, leaving limited room to anticipate uncertainties at an early stage of development. A suggested concept to overcome these shortcomings is the Safe-by-Design (SbD) approach, which, theoretically, allows stakeholders to iteratively incorporate safety measures throughout a technology's development process, creating a dynamic environment for the anticipation of uncertain risks. Although this concept originates from chemical engineering and is already widely applied in nanotechnology, for the field of biotechnology, there is no agreed upon definition yet. To explore the possibilities of SbD for future governance of biotechnology, we should gain insight in how various stakeholders perceive notions of risk, safety, and inherent safety, and what this implies for the applicability of SbD for risk governance concerning industrial biotechnology. Our empirical research reveals three main themes: (1) diverging expectations with regard to safety and risks, and to establish an acceptable level of risk; (2) different applications of SbD and inherent safety, namely, product- and process-wise; and (3) unclarity in allocating responsibilities to stakeholders in the development process of a biotechnology and within society.     

Rethinking Women and Their Bodies in the Age of Biotechnology: Feminist Commentaries on the Hwang Affair

Many Korean women felt strongly positive about donating their eggs for Hwang Woo Suk’s research, in spite of the fact that Hwang was accused of fraud. It is said that there is a kind of unique ‘egg donation culture’ among Korean women, which urged them to donate their eggs for his research. However, positing such a Korean ‘egg donation culture’ does not seem to give a sufficient explanation of why so many Korean women were seemingly willing to provide their own eggs for Hwang’s research. Instead, we suggest that egg donation issues in the Hwang affair can be interpreted under the paradoxical context, in which Korean women are situated in the age of biotechnology. On the one hand, the invisibility of women as subjects in the public sphere led to their lack of social control over ova trafficking and made it possible for a huge number of eggs to be supplied secretly for Hwang’s team. The patriarchal structure of family, the myth of economic growth, and the restricted activities of feminist organizations are possible contributors to the invisibility of Korean women. On the other hand, in the practices of bodily technologies such as cosmetic surgery and reproductive technologies, Korean women have been highly visible. With the help of those technological instruments, women have been empowered to own their own bodies and to have them at their disposal. We argue that these dualistic realities of women as egg owners can explain the egg donation culture among Korean women in the Hwang affair.

Too much of a good thing? Alliance portfolio size and alliance expansion

Drawing from the organizational learning, transactions costs and resource based theories, we argue that the larger the Alliance Portfolio Size (APS) of the partners, the lower the likelihood that the alliance will be expanded. We also argue for an interactive effect by proposing that high levels of experience will neutralize some (but not all) of the detrimental impact of a large APS on the likelihood of alliance expansion. We deploy the case-control methodology to select a sample of 182 alliances from the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries spanning the period 1980–2004. Results from logistic regression analyses support our predictions.     

转基因产品安全性所引发的贸易争端与 对策研究

生物技术的蓬勃发展及其在农业生产中的广泛应用,使得全球转基因产品的种植面积和贸易量迅速上升。然而,转基因产品在安全方面的不确定性导致了主要农产品进出口国之间展开了激烈的贸易争端。文章探讨了全球转基因产品的发展及其贸易格局的变化概况、转基因产品的安全问题所引发的贸易争端及其实质,分析了WTO及有关全球环境条例对转基因产品贸易的制约和争端解决机制,提出了WTO背景下中国在转基因产品的生产及贸易方面的应对措施。     

Warum suchen Biotechnologieunternehmen strategische Allianzen? Eine experimentelle Untersuchung

Zusammenfassung  In diesem Beitrag werden die Faktoren untersucht, die zur Allianzbildung junger Biotechnologieunternehmen beitragen. Aus einer ressourcenorientierten Perspektive wird argumentiert, dass die Entscheidung von Managern, Partnerunternehmen für neue Allianzen zu suchen, von der Ressourcensituation ihres Unternehmens und den Ressourcenanforderungen bzw. -akquisitionsm?glichkeiten der Umwelt abh?ngen. Eine Analyse von 1664 Allianzentscheidungen aus einem Conjoint-Experiment mit 52 Top-Managern der deutschen Biotechnologiebranche zeigt, dass fehlende finanzielle Ressourcen die Haupttriebkraft sind. Au?erdem zeigt sich, dass für die meisten Manager fehlende, für manche Manager jedoch vorhandene Ressourcen eine st?rkere Triebkraft der Allianzsuche darstellen Diese Ergebnisse erweitern die wissenschaftliche Literatur über strategische Allianzen und haben Implikationen für die Managerpraxis.

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Why do biotechnology firms seek strategic alliances? An experimental study

Summary  In this article we draw on a resource-based perspective to analyze the drivers for strategic alliance formation in the biotechnology industry. We state that the decisions of managers to seek out new alliance partners depend on the resource endowments of their ventures as well as the resource demands and opportunities the environment places for them. We use a conjoint experiment to collect data on 1664 alliance decisions nested within 52 top managers of German biopharmaceutical ventures. Our data show that missing financial resources are the strongest driver. Moreover, we find that whereas for most managers missing resources are drivers of alliance search, a minority of managers is more motivated by a strong resource position of their ventures. Our results extend the literature on strategic alliances and have implications for practitioners.

Danksagung: Der Autor dankt zwei anonymen Gutachtern für ihre hilfreichen Kommentare. Das Projekt wurde durch ein EXIST-HighTEPP-Stipendium des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung gef?rdert.     

An empirical analysis of innovation strategies of biotechnology firms in the U.S.

The paper explores the strategies of biotechnology firms in the U.S. through a mail questionnaire study. Based on the responses of 89 companies we have developed strategy archetypes of these firms in R&D, marketing, and technology acquisition. In R&D, we found the firms to follow either incremental or radical strategy. In marketing, the firms use either a defender or an innovator strategy. In technology acquisition, firms differ in terms of their emphasis on licensing or developing new technology. The interrelationship among the strategy groups is weak. The R&D and technology acquisition strategies are related in the sense that aggressive technology strategy dictates radical R&D behavior with emphasis on development of new technology. We have found that firms following aggressive technology strategy tend to follow conservative marketing strategy. This is consistent with an earlier study by of German firms where it was found that firms tend to balance their technical and marketing risks. The paper also provides additional information about the factors considered to be important in product decisions for various strategies.     

Risky Business: Perceived Behavior of Local Scientists and Community Support for Their Research

Attracting new technologies to a region can mean significant economic growth, so understanding why some communities may not favor becoming “the next Silicon Valley” merits consideration. This study investigates the relationship among the perceived behavior of local scientists and community members' attitudes toward their research. Drawing on theories from organizational justice, it hypothesizes that when local residents consider scientists as more just in their behavior, they will also have more favorable attitudes toward the scientists and their research. Just, in this sense, refers to whether scientists are perceived as fair in terms of outcomes, procedures, interpersonal treatment, and explanations in their dealings with the community. Favorable attitudes are measured in terms of concern about new technologies and satisfaction with research. Data were collected via a mail survey of residents in two upstate New York counties (N= 1,306) that host substantial technology research facilities. Controlling for demographics, media use, basic science knowledge, and technology awareness, the results show that distributive justice (i.e., fairness of outcomes) had a consistent, negative relationship with technology concern. In comparison, all four justice variables were positively related with research satisfaction. The findings suggest that the perceived behavior of local scientists may indeed impact community support for their research.     

生物技术发展利弊简论

生物技术作为新兴的高科技技术,它的影响已经渗透到了现代社会的方方面面.生物技术促进了经济的发展,为人类保护自然环境提供了有力武器.但生物技术也面临着一些社会问题.     

Information Hazards in Biotechnology

With the advance of biotechnology, biological information, rather than biological materials, is increasingly the object of principal security concern. We argue that both in theory and in practice, existing security approaches in biology are poorly suited to manage hazardous biological information, and use the cases of Mousepox, H5N1 gain of function, and Botulinum toxin H to highlight these ongoing challenges. We suggest that mitigation of these hazards can be improved if one can: (1) anticipate hazard potential before scientific work is performed; (2) consider how much the new information would likely help both good and bad actors; and (3) aim to disclose information in the manner that maximally disadvantages bad actors versus good ones.