From new drug therapies and energy production to the development of computer chips, science has provided the basis for many of the world’s most significant technological advances. While innovation is the driving force behind science, business is all about profit and keeping shareholders happy. Traditionally the sciences and business have been viewed as separate entities. Both are interconnected and it’s impossible to separate their impact on business from that of research.
While business is focused on profits, the long-term implications of its decisions can have significant social, environmental economic, and environmental impacts. Science is also concerned about the consequences of its actions, in particular its decisions regarding the exploitation of resources and sustainable development. A smart business will, for example, exploit a resource at the level that is http://scorbe.de/how-to-become-a-physics-major/ scientifically sustainable. But greedy businesses have led to over-exploitation of natural resources and ecological disaster.
We have categorised the many ways corporations try to influence science at macro and meso levels and coded the intended effects and outcomes of these strategies (TL conducted the initial coding, AG second-coded 20 per percent of the papers). We found that companies employ five macro-level strategies to reduce the perceived credibility of favourable scientific findings and maximize favourable research findings. These strategies are enacted by meso strategies that in time, can skew the evidence base to the favor of industry. This has three distal effects to discredit the potential harms that are caused by the use of industry products and practices; promote policy solutions that favor industry; and to increase sales, consumption and use of products from industry.