Ray Oakey

With the global economy in a precarious position, nurturing new entrepreneurial high-technology firms is likely to comprise a key component of any policy to encourage economic growth, both in developed and developing countries. Recent high-technology ventures – such as retailing in the music industry – have shown how entrepreneurs can radically change, or even replace, the structure of existing industries. High-Technology Entrepreneurship introduces and analyzes all the major aspects of high-technology small-firm formation and growth. Locational and functional aspects of the process, as well as how contexts for development may vary between developed and developing economies are also discussed. Other key topics that are addressed include: how high technology firms originate in theory and practiceentrepreneurship theoryincubators, science parks and clusteringentrepreneurial strategy and finance. Students taking Master's-level courses in entrepreneurship, technology, innovation, academic enterprise and industrial development will find this an essential textbook for completing their studies.

With the global economy in a precarious position, nurturing new entrepreneurial high-technology firms is likely to comprise a key component of any policy to encourage economic growth, both in developed and developing countries. Recent high-technology ventures – such as retailing in the music industry – have shown how entrepreneurs can radically change, or even replace, the structure of existing industries. High-Technology Entrepreneurship introduces and analyzes all the major aspects of high-technology small-firm formation and growth. Locational and functional aspects of the process, as well as how contexts for development may vary between developed and developing economies are also discussed. Other key topics that are addressed include: how high technology firms originate in theory and practiceentrepreneurship theoryincubators, science parks and clusteringentrepreneurial strategy and finance. Students taking Master's-level courses in entrepreneurship, technology, innovation, academic enterprise and industrial development will find this an essential textbook for completing their studies.

Ward et al., examine the question of whether providing work experience within courses of study in higher education affects entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviour, important given government imperatives to foster entrepreneurship through the education system. They consider two dimensions: self-efficacy, which broadly relates to confidence in ability; and, entrepreneurial intent which relates to positive attitudes towards engaging in risk taking or firm start-up. Their sample is of 158 undergraduates who engaged in a summer work placement linked to their study. Their key finding is that positive effects on self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intent depends on the nature of the experience, being fostered by performing well in the face of difficulty and the closeness of the placement activity to their studies. Such experience appears more common when undertaking a placement in a small firm. Van der Sijde et al., consider the extent to which University start ups which are global as opposed to being domestically focussed differ in the extent of their business networks, using a sample comprising five technology-based firms of each type. They establish that global start-ups do have more extensive networks in terms of number of actors and global actors in the network at start-up, although their networks do not expand thereafter significantly more than domestic start-ups. They also have significantly more sources of capital.

The encouragement of the birth and growth of high technology small firms is a major goal of both national and regional government planning agencies. However, while there is broad agreement on the increasing value of this type of small firm to future industrial expansion beyond the year 2000, there is little hard evidence on which to base measures to encourage the rate of new firm formation and subsequent growth. This book aids policy prescription by providing a detailed study of regional variations in the management of innovation in high technology small firms. The empirical research considers all the major management factors that are inputs to the innovation process through a time-series study of innovation in British and American high technology small firms. In conclusion, results of this study form the basis of a radical new policy approach to the promotion of growth in high technology small firms.