From new drug therapies and energy production to computer chip technology science has been the basis for many of the world’s biggest technological advancements. But while innovation is what drives scientific research, business is primarily about making profit and keeping shareholders happy. Science and business were typically viewed as two separate worlds. Both are interconnected, and it is impossible to separate their impact on business from that of research.
While business is focused on profit, the long-term consequences of its decisions http://scorbe.de/what-is-physics/ can have significant environmental, social and economic effects. Science is likewise concerned with the impacts of its actions in particular its decisions about resource exploitation and sustainability. A smart business would, for instance, exploit a resource at the level that scientists consider sustainable. However, greedy businesses have led to over-exploitation of natural resources and ecological catastrophe.
We have categorised the various ways that corporations try to influence science at the macro and meso levels and coded the expected outcomes and effects of these strategies (TL conducted the initial code-coding, AG second-coded 20 per percent of the papers). We discovered that corporations employ five macro-level strategies that work together to minimise perceived credibility of unfavourable science and maximize favorable science. These strategies are operationalised by meso strategies that, over time, skew the evidence base in favour of industry. This has three effects to discredit the harms that could be that are caused by the use of industry products and practices; to encourage policy solutions that are in favour of industry; and to boost the sales, consumption, and use of products from industry.