Knowledge production at industrial research institutes: Institutional logics and struggles for relevance in the Swedish Institute for Surface Chemistry, 1980–2005

This article examines dynamics of knowledge production and discourses of basic-applied science and relevance at the Swedish Institute for Surface Chemistry, a semi-public industrially oriented research institute, from 1980 to 2005. We employ a three-pronged method, consisting of (1) an analysis of how the institute articulated its research priorities and goals in publications primarily directed to stakeholders, (2) an analysis of retrospective narratives by researchers and managers about research ideologies and priorities, and (3) a bibliometric analysis of the institute’s scientific publications. Using a theoretical framework centered on the notions of institutional logics and struggles for relevance, we show how the transformations of the institute amount to a substitution of an internalized institutional logic of scientific autonomy with a new logic of industrial utility, and how the institute’s knowledge production was managed during this change. We also point out various strategies used by the institute to preserve and advance its own goals while still remaining relevant with regard to changing policy objectives. Another important finding is that although the institute by the end of the study period was fully committed to an industrial service role, parts of the originally deeply entrenched scientific logic were still manifested, although then discussed in the new industrial terminology.