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Date: Fri 23 Feb 2007 21:34 +0100
From: Phillips <Phillips@msm.nl>

CALL FOR PAPERS: SPECIAL ISSUE OF TECHNOLOGICAL FORECASTING & SOCIAL CHANGE
The New Genetics: Implications for Technology Strategy and Business Ethics

Guest Editors: Fred Phillips, Alliant International University and Maastricht School of Management (fphillips@alliant.edu), and Yu-Shan Su, University of Texas at Dallas and Chang Jung Christian University (belle@mail.cjcu.edu.tw)

Advances in genetics indicate the notion of natural selection, in its Darwinian version, has to be replaced by something of much greater complexity.  The special issue will explore the implications for technology strategy and forecasting.

Before Darwin, it was recognized that species change over time.  Darwin and Mendel provided the first scientific frameworks for how this change happens.  The later and still-unfolding understanding of the molecular basis of genetics opened richer possibilities for explaining evolution. 

An example is the recognition of pleiotropy, which affects both genetic expression and mutation. In a process comparable to self-modifying software, a single gene activates additional genes to express a large number of phenotypical traits. In experiments, one gene has been observed to affect the expression of hundreds of other genes; it is believed that a sensitive measurement could show a single gene affecting every element of the genome.  A mutation’s survivability then depends on the gene’s low degree of connectedness; a changed gene that cascades large changes in the expression many other genes may well kill the organism.

Co-evolution, the mutual adaptation of environment and organisms, is also now recognized.  We can no longer draw a straight and unidirectional line between environmental change, change in a gene, and change in the physiology of an organism.  By the same token, industry structure cannot be explained by simple competition between firms in a fixed environment; political lobbying is just one means by which firms try to change their environment.

It is not known what kinds of models will soon augment or replace Mendel’s picture of heredity and Darwin’s construction of natural selection.

For decades, evolution has been the central metaphor of many disciplines, from ecology and cosmology to computer science.  We now have a metaphor without a mechanism.  This development in biology poses a problem for managers who have relied on competitive selection as a way of comprehending business strategy, technology development, entrepreneurship, and ethics.

The editors invite researchers in genetics, technology strategy, and ethics, as well as other sciences affected by this development, to submit papers that clarify the meaning of the new genetics and begin to explore the needed re-thinking of our policy and management paradigms – with special reference to the scientific worldview, technology strategy and forecasting, corporate strategy and competition, and social change.

Authors should note that the special issue will focus on new views of the mechanism by which evolution occurs – not on the rejection of evolution as a fact or metaphor. Submissions should not represent efforts to advance creationist or metaphysical views.

Submissions may address questions such as:

• What can game theory, sociology, organizational behavior and other fields tell us about the benefits of cooperation versus competition within organizations or between economies? 
• "Genetic algorithms" are used for everything from operations analysis to classroom scheduling and product/engineering design. How can they be brought "up to date"?
• Should we reconceptualize "market niches," "technology standards," "industrial ecology," and other management notions that implicitly or explicitly depend on evolutionary/ecological metaphors?
• Does the complexity of genetic expression and change in organisms suggest the increased use of complexity theory and/or computational approaches in technological forecasting?
• Have new developments in genetics spurred advances in mathematics and informatics that could benefit other disciplines, specifically technology strategy and forecasting?
• How far can current bio-mimetic technologies progress in the absence of a guiding theory?
• What is the future of "social Darwinism" as a popular concept? 

Abstracts are due July 1, 2007, and final papers must be submitted by December 1, 2007, with the names of potential reviewers. Abstracts and papers may be sent to either editor.  Papers should adhere to the guidelines for the journal; see

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