Translations in Biobanking: Socio-Material Networks in Health Data Business

Abstract

In this paper, we utilize actor-network theory (ANT) to contribute to research on commercialization of innovation. Based on a qualitative study on emerging innovative biomedical business we demonstrate how innovative research and development (R&D) is entangled with business and commerce through a texture of socio- material relations. The empirical study of biobanking in Finland foregrounds an interplay of social and material elements in innovative biomedical business. We deploy the concept of translation for analyzing how human and non-human actors conjoin and challenge each other when pursuing data management into a commercial service. Our discussion centers on the role and transformations of biobank data in constituting connections of innovative business between organizations and institutions in health data economy. The article enriches theorization of commercialization of innovation by addressing the dynamic and malleable nature of socio-material relations as the groundwork of innovation business, and by showing how innovation and business entangle through translations. We argue that in seeking to understand commercialization of innovation, the focus should not be on the innovative product or service and the way by which it is transferred from one actor to another and modified by a variety of actors involved in a commercialization network. Instead, the question is about what is the capability and power to pursue and steer changes in networked relations between material and human actors.