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WP 03-1

Johann Peter Murmann. The Coevolution of Industries and Academic Disciplines.

Keywords: Coevolution, Industry Analysis, Development of Science. .

Abstract:

Based on a five-country historical case study of the synthetic dye industry and the discipline of chemistry, the paper argues that academic disciplines, like industries, change through variation, selection, and retention processes. Using a comparative historical method and drawing on inductive evidence spanning a 60-year period, the study clarifies how national industries and academic disciplines coevolve as a result of mutualistic causal processes that work alongside well-known competitive processes. The analysis identifies three causal processes as being responsible for the coevolution of national industries and national academic disciplines: the exchange of personnel between industrial firms and academic organizations, the formation of commercial ties between the two social arenas, and lobbying by each on the other’s behalf. In both social arenas, the exchange of personnel affects the variation, selection, and retention processes, whereas the formation of commercial ties affects only the variation and selection processes, and lobbying affects only the selection processes.

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