La structure sociale de l’industrie des biotechnologies en France: une étude des relations inter-organisationnelles au niveau inter-individuel

Various authors have shown the importance of collaborative relationships for inter- organizational performance, the mode of governance or the trajectory of biotechnology companies. Most of these works analyze the exclusive contractual agreements between companies and their main relationships among individuals. We show that this purely economic approach presents a major limitation: the nature of contractual relationships does not explore in detail how players cooperate. We propose to extend the study of these inter-organizational social relations, seen through the resource exchange in inter-individual. An empirical study on the leaders of the biotechnology industry in the area of human health in France has allowed us to map their relationships and resources they exchange them. Our results confirm the existence of a system of exchange dense and multiple. It presents a hierarchical distribution of various types of resources, where the centre is different from the periphery relations denser, more numerous and more reciprocal. However, comparative analysis of different networks reveals that the relationships of the board are highly centralized, while those of friendship following a more even distribution. We suggest that this phenomenon is part of a compensation mechanism to less central actors to maintain inter-organizational relationships. Finally, two standards of the cooperation process, revealed by the relational behaviour of actors, have been discovered. We suggest that they reflect in part the difficult process of adjustment that must cross a science project out of the realm of academic research and develop in a private structure: the biotech company.