Ph.D. Thesis Defense: Diane Alleva Caceres

Advisor: Dr. Kirk Bowman

Title: "Constructing Knowledge-based Industries in the Globalization Era: 

Social Learning, the Political Process and Institutional Change"   

Abstract:

Countries including Australia, Canada and the United States have been promoting knowledge-based

industries, especially those requiring a significant scientific base like

bioscience, as engines of economic growth. This dissertation compares changes

in finance, skill development and corporate governance institutions, all of

which are critical to the bioscience industry, as part of countries’ strategic

responses to global technological and economic shocks. Because regions within

countries increasingly design their own economic institutions, this research also

compares the industrialized provinces of Quebec and Ontario as well as the Atlantic

Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Prince

Edward Island and their aspiring bioscience industries. Two factors help

explain institutional change and the different configurations: degree of social

learning – disruptive or incremental, and, type of iterative bargaining –

coordinative or fragmented. These variables in turn are impacted by the presence

and type of knowledge-oriented policy community. Within each case I examine the

mechanisms through which the social learning and iterative bargaining process

occurs in response to two global shocks: the 1980s discovery and use of rDNA

techniques as well as the 2008 global financial crisis. Research reveals a

diversity of institutional configurations over time representing high, mixed or

low levels of commitment.