A Differential Association Theory of Socialization to Commercialist Career Paths in Science

Abstract

Drawing on sixty-one in-depth interviews conducted with commercial and noncommercial scientists at four universities in the United States, this paper examines why academic scientists embrace commercially oriented career paths in higher education. A central goal of this paper is to expand our descriptive and conceptual understanding of socialization in the academic profession by examining the explanatory power of differential association theory. Differential association theory emphasizes how patterns of behavior are learned through a process of interaction with different types of individuals with varying ideas about the acceptability of a particular course of action. The results demonstrate that socialization to commercialism is an interactive learning process in which scientists learn definitions that are favorable to commercial career trajectories. Such learning is often necessary because prior socialization can either lead to unfavorable views of commercialization or shelter doctoral students from techniques of and rationales for commercialization.