Innovation, Assets, and Rentiership in Technoscientific Capitalism: A New Research Agenda?

• In Event: Organizing Technoscientific Capitalism: Epistemic Values, Practices & Assets - II

Abstract

A spate of recent scandals in the biopharmaceutical sector illustrate the extent to which innovation and finance are thoroughly entangled with one another, as well as an example of an emerging dynamic in technoscientific capitalism; namely, innovation in pursuit of rentiership (rather than entrepreneurship). Rentiership is the extraction and capture of value through different modes of ownership and control over assets. A range of social actors have highlighted rentiership as a significant and ongoing problem resulting from the increasing technoscientific nature of capitalism. As a result, it is important to examine how innovation is a problem as much as it can be a solution to societal issues or global challenges. Our aim in this paper is to conceptualize the relationship between innovation, assets, and rentiership as part of a new research agenda that examines the pursuit of economic rents as a deliberate research and innovation strategy.

Authors

• Kean Birch, York University

• Margaret Chiappetta, York University