I think they were referring to internal research that says 'if we do X we can sell more' which has naturally aligned incentives.
This as opposed to releasing research along the lines of 'cigarettes are fine for you! smoke more!'
This as opposed to releasing research along the lines of 'cigarettes are fine for you! smoke more!'
Even then there are agency problems which mean that once a company gets over a certain size there is no natural alignment.
I know plenty of managers tweaking A/B tests until they get the results they want.