This research is one of three coordinated projects designed to generate an interdisciplinary approach to the same site of inquiry: the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC). SBC is a unique bioscience community created to provide small biotech and life sciences companies and start-ups with access to the expertise, networks and scientific facilities traditionally associated with multinational pharmaceutical companies. Located on a growing campus, and with a three year plan to expand into a science park, a key aim of Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst is to pioneer a culture of open-innovation that will place the UK bioscience sector at the forefront of worldwide biomedical discovery and deliver cutting edge healthcare solutions. Supported by Government, business, and the charitable sector, Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst campus offers a fertile environment for scientific innovation and commercial success but faces the challenge of how to develop, connect and monetise this digitally driven network. Katy Mason, (with expertise in business models and markets), Martin Friesl (expertise in strategic development and dynamic capabilities) and Chris Ford (with expertise in how accountability shapes network action) have come together to understand the practices and development of new business models for digitally connected bioscience start-ups.

The aim of my research at SBC is to generate understanding into the types of business models that emerge and the ways these business models are developed in networks of closely associated companies. These companies need to work together to share risk and co-develop market offerings that would otherwise be unimaginable. Understanding the forms and role of digitally mediated management knowledge, the management tools used and the different representational forms such knowledge takes will be central to generating new understanding of how this value creating system emerges.

The aim of the first phase of this longitudinal research is to identify emerging business models from SBC’s incubating ‘tenants’, to map out the priorities for business model development support that might need (for the tenants and for SBC as a catalyst in this ecosystem), and to understand how these developments are being or could be better mediated by digital technologies.