Institutionalizing the Network Form: How Life Scientists Legitimate Work in the Biotechnology Industry

This study combines insights from economic sociology on recent structural changes in the knowledge economy with neoinstitutionalist analyses of cul-tural change in organizations. Because a network form of organization relies on interorganizational ties, new models of legitimacy emerge alongside of old ones, rather than replacing them, so that seemingly contradictory institutions coexist in the network form. This article explores how life scientists legiti-mate working in the biotechnology industry—a new option that nevertheless fails to delegitimate the old academic path. The data are based on qualita-tive observations of a young biotechnology firm. These are supplemented by observations at a university laboratory and interviews with 41 life scientists