d the construction of adequate alternatives to coordinate learning-processes (Orsenigo, 1989).
A sub-problem of the primary problem was interpersonal relationships. The absence of a tradition of interaction between biologists and industry made the coordination of learning processes difficult. A new group of scientists with a new discipline entered the industrial arena for the first time with their own problems, research procedures, perspectives and interests. Both scientists and industry had to develop forms of collaboration and adapt their disciplines and their outlooks (Elkington 1984).
The process was neither smooth nor simple. In the United States, in many cases, scientists became entrepreneurs and tried to exploit their knowledge. This decision was facilitated by the strong scientific content of technological research, by the establishment of venture capital, and by the example inherited by the previous experience of microelectronics. Questions were raised about the ethical implications of this trend and the effects that it might have on the free circulation of knowledge and thus on scientific productivity. In Japan, the transfer of science to technology was accomplished to a large extent through more conventional routes, particularly through government intervention and through the direct acquisition of know-how in the United States (Sharp, 1984).
A problem of public policy in the case of biotechnology was that of building institutional relationships of interactions and coordination. Biotechnology as a technological industry introduced a set of problems which were independent of the country-specific conditions. In each country governments were inevitably involved, since biotechnology affected issues such as public health and safety, education, etc., which are specific public interests and represent important externalities for the industrial innovative activities. Governments were compelled to devise new instru...