Moving from non-interventionism to industrial strategy: The roles of tentative and definitive governance in support of the UK biotech sector

• Published in: Research policy 2019-06, Vol.48 (5), p.1113-1127
• Main Authors: Hopkins, Michael M., Crane, Philippa, Nightingale, Paul, Baden-Fuller, Charles
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biotechnology; Definitive governance; Equity finance; Governance niches; Innovation system functions; Medical innovation; Policy instruments; Tentative governance; Therapeutics
• ISSN: 0048-7333; 1873-7625
• DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2019.01.008

•We propose seven dimensions in which governance may be seen as tentative or definitive.•Tentative and definitive modes can be blended to provide flexibility and certainty.•Co-investment initiatives display features of both tentative and definitive modes.•Landscape issues such as macro-economic trends shape governance mode choice. This paper develops a framework for characterising tentative and definitive governance modes. Using investor financing of UK-based therapeutic biotech firms as a context, the paper traces how policy makers have blended tentative and definitive elements in the design and implementation of six different kinds of policies to spur investor support for these firms. We find that tentative and definitive governance are used together to balance the need for certainty with necessary responsiveness to the dynamic circumstances that surround technological emergence. Moreover we show that the relative use of tentative and definitive modes is shaped as much by higher landscape-level influences as by technology or sector-level factors. Challenges are also identified, for instance, how to maintain synergistic rather than either/or relationships between state and non-state actors when both hesitate to engage with markets at different times.