The 18 September 2000 disclosure that StarLink corn, a genetically engineered variety not approved for human consumption, had been detected in food was a seminal event in agricultural biotechnology. This thesis presents a comprehensive case study of the StarLink incident (part one), reviews the StarLink situation in terms of crisis management theory (part two) and develops crisis management theory using the StarLink incident as an example of a crisis (part three). Part one provides background information, then a meticulous day-by-day account of StarLink-related events. Part two presents a detailed overview of crisis management theory, then examines the StarLink situation in terms of pre-crisis (warning signals, preconditions for a crisis, crisis trigger), crisis (how Aventis, the biotechnology provider, managed the crisis and opinions concerning crisis handling) and post-crisis (lessons learned). Part three develops crisis management theory using the StarLink situation as an example of a crisis. It evaluates whether the StarLink incident possessed characteristics predicted for modern crises and suggests other factors which may become more prevalent and significant in future crises. The StarLink incident delivers certain practical lessons for managers, regulators and others and demonstrates a number of characteristics of modern crises.

This thesis addresses the puzzle of variation in first-generation regulatory policies for controversial science and technology, as demonstrated in the cases of agricultural genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and human embryonic stem cell research in the United Kingdom and the United States. Why did policy outcomes vary in each technology case? This study answers this question by placing greater emphasis on institutional factors. Although works within institutional analysis, bureaucracy and regulation literatures make significant progress in revealing how existing institutions can shape outcomes, how far one can characterize bureaucratic behavior and whether interest groups capture regulation, they nevertheless create an opening for research that: describes a mechanism for path dependence to explain variation in policies; shows the degree to which bureaucratic behaviors can influence outcomes; and, highlights instances in which regulatory officials hold power. This thesis makes an original contribution by providing new historical details relating to these cases, and by providing an extensive elaboration of Pierson’s criteria for increasing returns and a so-called secondary test of path dependence to explain outcomes. The study recounts the biography of key policy documents in each case by tracing the process of decision-making through government and archival sources, secondary literature and more than 40 elite interviews. In doing so, it details the activities of key governmental bodies within the European Union, UK and US. Moreover, it shows how the Coordinated Framework (1986) and Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 framework represented decision-making structures which triggered changes in actors and interests and shaped permissive outcomes for GMOs and stem cell research in the US and UK, respectively. Furthermore, lack of comparable structures may help account for restrictive policies for GMOs in Europe and the UK, and for stem cell research in the US.