Title: Political embeddedness of technological development – the IgY case

Authors: Anna Bengtson, Cecilia Pahlberg

Addresses: Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, Box 513, SE 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden. ' Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, Box 513, SE 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden

Abstract: The impact of the political environment, not the least from supranational entities such as the European Union (EU), is increasingly affecting firms. A common theme among politicians at all levels is the importance of stimulating entrepreneurship and technological development. In research on business networks and technological development, however, this impact has so far attained rather limited attention. In this article, focus is on business-political interaction and its importance for technological development in a small entrepreneurial firm within life science. It is shown that the development process within the firm cannot be explained if the political dimension is not explicitly taken into consideration. Hence, it is suggested that the business-political dimension should be more emphasised in business network studies.

Keywords: technological development; political embeddedness; life sciences; resource interaction; IgY; European Union; business-political interaction; business network theory; entrepreneurship; small firms; political dimension; Sweden.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBE.2009.028793

International Journal of Business Environment, 2009 Vol.2 No.4, pp.418 - 434

Published online: 30 Sep 2009 *

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