Keep in mind that those qualified to do research in a field typically has worked in that industry.

Because that's where people with that expertise work.

And, in many cases, because that's where funding exists.

This comes up somewhat frequently in discussions of pet food. Most of the companies doing research into pet food - e.g. doing feeding studies, nutritional analysis, etc - are the manufacturers of those foods. This isn't because there's some dark conspiracy of pet food companies to suppress independent research; it's simply because no one else is funding research in the field.