Constructing entrepreneurial advantage: consensus building, technological uncertainty and emerging industries

In 1976, Cambridge, MA, and Berkeley, CA, responded to concerns about the environmental effects of recombinant DNA by adopting identical biosafety ordinances. This paper explores the mediating factors that explain how scientists and entrepreneurs came to view these regulatory interventions in diametrically distinct ways. We argue that although the regulations were the same, the process behind their adoption and implementation and, in particular, differences in citizen engagement and technology education account for these divergent outcomes. The paper suggests ways that contemporary regulatory responses can result in a constructive (rather than combative) approach to entrepreneurial accountability and thus contribute to constructed jurisdictional advantage.