Development, organization and management of techno-economic networks: the Cuban biotech sector and vaccine industry

Abstract

This paper, the second out of two about the Cuban biotech sector and vaccine industry, gives an account of the creation, organization, and management mechanisms of the technoeconomic networks of the Cuban biotech sector and vaccine industry, by applying the concept of techno-economic evaluations developed by Michel Callon. It also seeks to explain the apparent paradox about shifting the emphasis of the biotech sector from that of targeting a ‘modern’ disease pattern to that of a’ traditional’ one that was identified in the first paper. Centralized and participatory decision making processes seem to facilitate close coordination and cooperation between the different research and development centers. The paper also inquires into the relation between the biotech sector and the national System for Science and Technological Innovation.Innovation systems, techno-economic networks, Cuba, vaccines, biotechnology