This work goes into a set of paramount influencing-wielding organizations in the global informational economy. It provides a perspective on science governance by focusing on rise of Big Tech in the realm of research support. The institutions of science and the practice of research has in the past shown vulnerabilities from Big Business, whether from food, drugs, or energy sectors. A precautionary concern suggests itself regarding the most recent wave of corporate might, one so unique that is shaping the entire mode of production of the contemporary economy as a whole. Accusations of
“having too much power” were bipartisan in the US Congress when the chiefs of platform industries were summed regarding concerns that they were “squelching competition, creativity and innovation.”
(Financial Times, 39 July 2020, p.2)
It has been noticed that the largest technology groups have been “pouring money” into the knowledge and policy ecosystem: their donations for think-tanks in the US more than doubled from 2017-2018 to 2019-2020 (perhaps reaching close to $3mn) and place them with Oil & Gas as top donors (Financial Times, 2 February 2022, p.6). Tech companies have building presence for years and became focused on influencing elites. Now the time has come to know about the Big Tech and Modern Science as bedfellows. With valuation over 1tn dollars, non-corporates cannot match the resources Big Tech can put in the hands of collaborators. How will this chance the rate and direction of research, the narrowing and instrumentalization of agendas is still unknown.
In this thesis we focus on conference sponsorships and funding acknowledgements as indicators of Big Tech support to research activities. We find that Big Tech are paramount players: their presence is substantively felt from the mid-2000s in terms of indirect support and from the mid-2010s in terms of direct support. Computer science topics is the main focus of this support, rather than reflexive themes (like the socio-political impacts of platformisation, the psychological effects of social media on children, or the environmental cost of large database exploitation) although security and private challenges has appeared as of late.
A number of policy and regulatory implications suggest themselves. For instance, Big Tech could be compelled to conform to strengthened disclosure rules. Moreover, beneficiaries must declare their business ties. Research actors should find ways to compete for other types of support and civil society scientific bodies should avoid Big Tech dependence.
32
REFERENCES
Abdalla, M., & Abdalla, M. (2021). The Grey Hoodie Project: Big Tobacco, big tech, and the threat on academic integrity. Proceedings of the 2021 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3461702.3462563
Bar-Ilan, J. (2010). Web of science with the conference proceedings citation indexes: The case of computer science. Scientometrics, 83(3), 809–824. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0145-4 Behrens, T. R., & Gray, D. O. (2001). Unintended consequences of cooperative research: Impact of industry sponsorship on climate for academic freedom and other graduate student outcome.
Research Policy, 30(2), 179–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0048-7333(99)00112-2
Broadus, R. N. (1987). Toward a definition of “bibliometrics.” Scientometrics, 12(5-6), 373–379.
https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02016680
Broomfield, CO: One Earth Future Foundation. http://acuns.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/gg-weiss.pdf
Castellacci, F., Grodal, S., Mendonca, S. & Wibe, M. (2005). Advances and challenges in innovation studies. Journal of Economic Issues, 39, 91-121.
Castells, M. (1996). The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture. Vol. 1: The Rise of the Network Society, London: John Wiley and Sons.
Confraria, H., Ferreira, V.H. and M.M. Godinho (2021). Emerging 21st Century technologies: Is Europe still falling behind?. REM Working Paper 0188-2021.
Conway, E. M., & Oreskes, N. (2014). Merchants of doubt. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Costa, C. M., & Mendonça, S. (2019). Knowledge-intensive consumer services. understanding KICS in the innovative global health-care sector. Research Policy, 48(4), 968–982.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2018.10.026
Costa, C. M., Quintanilha, T. L., & Mendonça, S. (2019). Manuel Castells and informationalism 1. In Management, Organizations and Contemporary Social Theory (1st ed.). essay, Routledge.
Cowgill, B., Prat, A. and Valletti, T. (2021). Political power and market power. Working Paper, June.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2106.13612.pdf
David, P. A. (2004). Understanding the emergence of 'open science' institutions: Functionalist economics in historical context. Industrial and Corporate Change, 13(4), 571–589.
https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dth023
Donthu, N., Kumar, S., Mukherjee, D., Pandey, N., & Lim, W. M. (2021). How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 133, 285–296.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.04.070
Dutton, W.H. (ed.) (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Internet Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
33 Epstein, D., Boden, R., & Kenway, J. (2007). Winning and managing research funding (academic's support kit). SAGE Publications.
Freeman, C. & Louçã, F. (2001). As Time Goes By: From the Industrial Revolutions to the Information Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gambardella, A., Heaton, S. Novelli, E. & Teece, D.J. (2021). Profiting from enabling technologies?.
Strategy Science, 6(1), 75-90.
Geroski, P. (2003). The Evolution of New Markets. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Geuna, A. (1999), The Economics of Knowledge Production: Funding and the Structure of University Research, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Geuna, A., & Martin, B. R. (2003). University Research Evaluation and funding: Na international comparison. Minerva, 41(4), 277–304. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:mine.0000005155.70870.bd Glänzel, W., Moed, H.F., Schmoch, U. & Thelwall, M. (eds) (2019), Springer Handbook of Science and Technology Indicators. Berlin: Springer.
Irwin-hunt, A. (2020). Global outlook R&D. FDI Intelligence, April/May, pp. 24-27.
Information for authors. (2017). IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 53(2), 1065–1066. https://doi.org/10.1109/taes.2017.2696918
Jacques, P. J., Dunlap, R. E., & Freeman, M. (2008). The organisation of denial: Conservative think tanks and environmental scepticism. Environmental Politics, 17(3), 349–385.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09644010802055576
Jefferson, T. (2020), "Sponsorship bias in clinical trials: growing menace or dawning realisation?", Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Vol. 113, No. 4, 148-157.
Keane, P. (2020, September 20). How the oil industry made us doubt climate change. BBC. Retrieved May 15, 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-53640382.
Klinger, J., Mateos-Garcia, J.C., & Stathoulopoulos, K. (2020), A narrowing of AI research?, Available at SSRN 3698698.
Lévêque, F. (2021). Les Entreprises Hyperpuissantes: Géants et Titans, La Fin du Modèle Global?.
Paris: Odile Jacob.
Louçã, F. & Mendonça, S. (2002). Steady change: The 200 largest US manufacturing firms throughout the 20th century. Industrial and Corporate Change, 11 (4), 817-845.
Lyall, C., Bruce, A., Marsden, W., & Meagher, L. (2013). The role of funding agencies in creating interdisciplinary knowledge. Science and Public Policy, 40(1), 62–71.
https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scs121
Mansell, R., Avgerou, C., Silverstone, R. & Quah, D. (2007). The Oxford Handbook of Information and Communication Technologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
34 Mansell, R. & Steinmueller, W.E. (2020). Advanced Introduction to Platform Economics. Cheltenham:
Edward Elgar.
Mansell, R. (2021). Adjusting to the digital: Societal outcomes and consequences. Research Policy, 50 (9), 1-10.
Martin, B. R. (2003). The Changing Social Contract for Science and the evolution of the University.
Science and Innovation, 7–29. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781781950241.00011
Martin, B. (2019). The future of science policy and innovation studies: Some challenges and the factors underlying them. In Simon, D., Kuhlmann, S., Stamm J. & Canzler, W. (eds), Handbook on Science and Public Policy. Chelteham: Edward Elgar, 523-542.
Marty, F. (2021). Hyperpowerful companies: Giants and Titans, the end of the global model, François Lévêque. Concurrences, N° 3-2021, Art. N° 101235.
Mejia, C., & Kajikawa, Y. (2017). Using acknowledgement data to characterize funding organizations by the types of research sponsored: The case of robotics research. Scientometrics, 114(3), 883–904.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2617-2
Mendonça, S. (2006). The revolution within: ICT and the shifting knowledge base of the world's largest companies. Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 15(8), 777–799.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10438590500510442
Mendonça S. (2012). Trademarks as a telecommunications indicator for industrial analysis and policy.
In Hadjiantonis A.M., & Stiller, B. (eds), Telecommunication Economics. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 7216. Heidelberg: Springer, 33-41.
Mendonça, S., Pereira, T.S. & Godinho, M.M. (2004). Trademarks as an indicator of innovation and industrial change. Research Policy, 33 (9), 1385-404.
Mendonça, S., Schmoch, U. & Neuhäusle, P. (2019). Interplay of patents and trademarks as tools in economic competition. In Glänzel, W., Moed, H.F., Schmoch, U. & Thelwall, M. (eds), Springer Handbook of Science and Technology Indicators, Berlin: Springer, 1023-35.
Mendonça, S., Damásio, B., de Freitas, L.C., Oliveira, L., Cichy, M., and Nicita, A. (2022). The rise of 5G technologies and systems: A quantitative analysis of knowledge production. Telecommunications Policy, forthcoming.
Morillo, F. (2016). Public–private interactions reflected through the funding acknowledgements.
Scientometrics, 108(3), 1193–1204. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-2032-0
Nelson, R.R., Dosi, G., Helfat, C.E. & Winter, S.G. (2018). Modern Evolutionary Economics: An Overview. Cambridge University Press.
O'Neill, A. (2022, January 4). Gross domestic product (GDP) ranking by country 2020. Statista.
Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/268173/countries-with-the-largest-gross-domestic-product-gdp/
35 Oremus, W. (2017, November 17). The rise of the phrase "big tech" should worry Silicon Valley. Slate Magazine. Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://slate.com/technology/2017/11/how-silicon-valley-became-big-tech.html
Paredes, A., Mendonça, J., Bação, F., & Damásio, B. (2022). Does R&D tax credit impact firm behaviour? Micro evidence for Portugal. Research Evaluation, forthcoming.
Philippon T., (2020), The Great Reversal: How America Gave Up on Free Markets, Belknap Press.
Righi, R., Samoili, S., Cobo, M.L., Baillet, M.V., Cardona, M., Prato, G. (2020). The AI techno-economic complex System: Worldwide landscape, thematic subdomains and technological collaborations.
Telecommunications Policy, 44 (6), 101943.
Rikap, C., & Lundvall, B. Å. B. (2022). Big tech, knowledge predation and the implications for development. Innovation and Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/2157930X.2020.1855825 Rivlin, G. (1995). Guide to organizing an international scientific conference.
https://doi.org/10.1159/isbn.978-3-318-04737-0
Rose, M. E., & Kitchin, J. R. (2019). Pybliometrics: Scriptable Bibliometrics using a python interface to scopus. SoftwareX, 10, 100263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.softx.2019.100263
Sullivan, L. (2020, September 11). New Plastics Economy Archives - Wrong Kind of Green. Wrong Kind of Green RSS. Retrieved May 15, 2022, from https://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/tag/new-plastics-economy/
Taalbi, J. (2020). Evolution and structure of technological systems - An innovation output network.
Research Policy, 49 (8), 104010.
Tan, A., Mui, H., & Terrace, K. (2000). Text Mining: The state of the art and the challenges.
Tunzelmann, N. (2003). Historical coevolution of governance and technology in the industrial revolutions. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 14 (4), 365-384.
US Senate (2019). Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence United States Senate Covering the Period January 3, 2017 to January 3, 2019 (March 28, 2019). Washington, D.C.: US Senate.
Wallin, J. A. (2005). Bibliometric methods: Pitfalls and possibilities. Basic and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, 97(5), 261–275.
Wedel, J. (2014). Unaccountable: How Elite Power Brokers Corrupt Our Finances, Freedom, and Security. New York: Pegasus Books.
Wedel, J., Hussain, N., and Dolan, D.A. (2017). Political Rigging: A primer on political capture and influence in the 21st century, Oxfam America
Weiss, Thomas G., Conor D. Seyle, and Kelsey Coolidge. 2013. “The Rise of Non-State Actors in Global Governance: Opportunities and Limitations.” One Earth Future Discussion Paper.
36 Wells, G., McMillan, R., & Volz, D. (2019). Senate Faults Google, Other Tech Giants for Role in Russian Election Meddling. The Wall Street Journal. https://doi.org/https://www.wsj.com/articles/senate-report-seeks-to-curb-possible-russian-influence-in-2020-election-11570556521
World Health Organization (WHO). (2019). Tobacco industry: decades of deception and duplicity.
Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://applications.emro.who.int/docs/FS-TFI-198-2019-EN.pdf?ua=1 Wu, T. (2017). The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble To Get Inside Our Heads. New York:
Knopf.
Wu, T. (2018). The curse of bigness: Antitrust in the new gilded age. Columbia Global Reports.
Zuboof, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. New York: Public Affairs.
37
APPENDIX
A: Sponsor names that were discarded from the sponsorship papers
‘Green Apple Data Ctr’
‘NEW ZEALAND APPLE & PEAR MKT BOARD’
‘Cafe Amazon’
‘Inst Nacl Pesquisas Amazonia’
‘Minist Environm Water Resources & Legal Amazon’
‘Univ Amazonas’
‘Daegu Kyungbook Apple Growers Agr Cooperat Union’
‘Daegu Kyungbook Apple Grower Agr’
B:
Combinations with Apple:
'fruit','food','genome','agricultural','agriculture','farm','peach','flavor','growers','picker','tree','breed',’
orchard','china','agro','juice','plant','agricultual', 'law experience', 'medical corporation', 'pear', 'berry', 'loess', '(anr)', 'rural', 'michigan', 'horticult', 'linnean', '(ardp)', 'pools', 'products research and education council', 'thurgood', 'adelphi', 'beatrice apple', 'baosteel', 'association of apple producers', 'california apple commission', 'apple industry', 'arthur boller', 'ny apple research and development program', 'fondazione cassa di risparmio', 'fondo unico progetti', 'idaho apple commission', 'dwarf apple', 'apple cultivars', 'modern apple industry technology', 'apple products', 'mr apple', 'ny apple rd', 'ny state apple', 'new york apple research', 'new york state apple research', 'jude apple', 'apple in postharvest', 'pennsylvania apple program', 'pennsylvania apple marketing board', 'shaanxi', 'apple proliferation', 'liaoning', 'south tyrolean apple consortium', 'south african apple', 'apple association', 'apple slices', 'apple rootstock', 'apple commission', 'yangling', 'apple pests', 'apple as a model for genomic information exchange', 'david j. apple', 'laboratory of apple resources innovation and genetic improvement', 'fertilizer', 'early apple wilt disease', 'virginia apple research program', 'wine', 'william s. apple', 'national apple'
Combinations with Amazon:
'brazil', 'amazonas', 'amazon region', 'amazonia', 'western amazon', 'amazon basin conservation association (acca)', 'amazon conservation', 'amazon cooperation', 'amazonica', 'amazon forest', 'amazon fund', 'amazon initiative', 'amazon malaria initiative', 'amazon research foundation', 'amazon river', 'amazon state research foundation', 'fapeam', 'amazon state', 'amazonandes', 'federal university of amazon', 'amazonica', 'peruvian amazon', 'amazon biodiversity program', 'capes', 'climamazon', 'environmental changes in the amazon', 'eastern amazon', 'amazon biota', 'amazon fish', 'amazon basin', 'iatecam', 'asica', 'fapespa', 'fapes', 'university of amazon', 'gordon and betty', 'forest', 'wild', 'adapta', 'ipeam', 'iesam', 'itegam', 'icaa', 'usaid', 'amazon oil', 'land use in the amazon', 'margaret mee', 'national amazon research institute', 'national science foundation', 'natural environment research council', 'proamazon', 'ufam', 'satellite monitoring', 'state of the amazon', 'university of the amazon', 'universidad', 'lower amazon', 'in the amazon', 'green amazon', 'wood', 'oils of the amazon'
38 C: Stop Words used for text cleaning
make,btw,a,as,able,about,above,according,accordingly,across,actually,after,afterwards,again,against ,aint,aint,all,allow,allows,almost,alone,along,already,also,although,always,am,among,amongst,an,an d,another,any,anybody,anyhow,anyone,anything,anyway,anyways,anywhere,apart,appear,appreciat e,appropriate,are,arent,arent,around,as,aside,ask,asking,associated,at,available,away,awfully,b,be,b ecame,because,become,becomes,becoming,been,before,beforehand,behind,being,believe,below,be side,besides,best,better,between,beyond,both,brief,but,by,c,ca,cmon,cmon,cs,came,can,cant,cant,c annot,cant,cause,causes,certain,certainly,changes,clearly,co,com,come,comes,concerning,conseque ntly,consider,considering,contain,containing,contains,corresponding,could,couldnt,couldnt,course,cu rrently,d,definitely,described,despite,did,didnt,didnt,different,do,does,doesnt,doesnt,doing,don,don t,dont,done,down,downwards,during,due,e,each,edu,eg,eight,either,else,elsewhere,enough,entirely, especially,essentially,et,etc,even,ever,every,everybody,everyone,everything,everywhere,ex,exactly,e xample,except,f,far,few,feel,fifth,finally,first,five,followed,following,follows,for,former,formerly,forth ,four,from,further,furthermore,g,get,gets,getting,given,gives,go,goes,going,gone,got,gotten,greeting s,h,had,hadnt,hadnt,happens,hardly,has,hasnt,hasnt,have,havent,havent,having,he,hes,hes,hello,hel p,hence,her,here,heres,heres,hereafter,hereby,herein,hereupon,hers,herself,hi,him,himself,his,hithe r,hopefully,how,howbeit,however,i,id,id,ill,ill,im,ive,ive,ie,if,ignored,immediate,in,inasmuch,inc,indee d,indicate,indicated,indicates,inner,insofar,instead,into,inward,is,isnt,isnt,it,itd,itd,itll,itll,its,its,its,itse lf,j,just,k,keep,keeps,kept,know,knows,known,l,last,lately,later,latter,latterly,least,less,lest,let,lets,let s,likely,little,literally,look,looking,looks,ltd,m,mainly,many,may,maybe,me,mean,meanwhile,merely, might,more,moreover,most,mostly,much,must,my,myself,n,name,namely,nd,near,nearly,necessary, need,needs,neither,never,nevertheless,new,next,nine,no,nobody,non,none,noone,nor,normally,not, nothing,novel,now,nowhere,o,obviously,of,off,often,oh,ok,okay,old,on,once,one,ones,only,onto,or,o ther,others,otherwise,ought,our,ours,ourselves,out,outside,over,overall,own,p,particular,particularly ,per,perhaps,placed,please,plus,possible,presumably,probably,provides,q,que,quite,qv,r,rather,rd,re, really,reasonably,regarding,regardless,regards,relatively,respectively,right,s,said,same,saw,say,sayin g,says,second,secondly,see,seeing,seem,seemed,seeming,seems,seen,self,selves,sensible,sent,seriou s,seriously,seven,several,shall,she,should,shouldnt,since,six,so,some,somebody,somehow,someone,s omething,sometime,sometimes,somewhat,somewhere,soon,sorry,specified,specify,specifying,still,su b,such,sup,sure,t,ts,take,taken,tell,tends,th,than,thank,thanks,thanx,that,thats,thats,the,their,theirs, them,themselves,then,thence,there,theres,theres,thereafter,thereby,therefore,therein,theres,there upon,these,they,theyd,theyd,theyll,theyll,theyre,theyre,theyve,theyve,think,third,this,thorough,thor oughly,those,though,three,through,throughout,thru,thus,to,together,too,took,toward,towards,tried, tries,truly,try,trying,twice,two,u,un,under,unfortunately,unless,unlikely,until,unto,up,upon,us,use,us ed,useful,uses,using,usually,uucp,v,value,various,very,via,viz,vs,w,want,wants,was,wasnt,wasnt,way, we,wed,wed,well,weve,well,were,weve,welcome,well,went,were,werent,werent,what,whats,whats, whatever,when,whence,whenever,where,wheres,wheres,whereafter,whereas,whereby,wherein,wh ereupon,wherever,whether,which,while,whither,who,whos,whos,whoever,whole,whom,whose,why, will,willing,wish,with,within,without,wo,wont,wont,wonder,would,would,wouldnt,wouldnt,x,y,yes,y et,you,youd,youd,youll,youre,youve,youll,youre,youve,your,yours,yourself,yourselves,z,zero D: Cooccurrence matrix for conference sponsorships
39 E: Trigrams and Bigrams by decade, from paper titles coming from sponsored conferences
Bigrams
40 F: Cooccurrence matrix of the companies in directly funded papers
G: Trigrams and Bigrams of titles of directly funded papers
41 Bigrams
H: Evolution of number of papers from conference sponsorships by years, per company Amazon
42 Apple
43 Google
Microsoft
44 Netflix
I: Evolution of number of papers directly funded by years, per company Amazon
45 Apple
46 Google
Microsoft
47 Netflix