The Exxon Factor: The Roles of Corporate and Academic Science in the Emergence and Legitimation of a New Global Model of Sequence Stratigraphy

In the 1970s, a paradigm shift took place in petroleum exploration with the development, within Exxon's research laboratories, of a new model for oil exploration based on seismic stratigraphy and global sea level change. We demonstrate that this approach was widely accepted by the academic and petroleum geology communities outside Exxon in the absence of data, replication, or independent peer review. We attribute this acceptance to the “Exxon Factor”, that is, others” perceptions of Exxon's reputational capital and control over the material means of scientific production. We further demonstrate that the model's legitimacy was not accepted within Exxon, where it was developed, until after external legitimation took place. Using Strauss's social worlds/arena analysis, concepts of technoscience, disciplines, and the new knowledge studies, and situational analysis, we consider elements and interactions in the situations in which this scientific knowledge was produced and assessed. We conclude that university and industry geologists validated the scientific knowledge of the other using nonscientific perceptions that they equated with scientific authority.