Technological regimes and sources of entrepreneurship

This paper concerns the technological detenninants of entrepreneurial behaviour. By applying a typology of technological regimes, which describes the nature of the technological environment in which finns operate, this paper examines the sources and obstacle to entrepreneurial entry related to the process of technical change. Two major points are suggested. First, innovation in technologies of high or increasing opportunities is not always associated with entrepreneurial behaviour, but can enhance the competitive advantage of existing finns. Second, opportunities for entrepreneurship are shaped by the nature ofknowledge underlying different technologies. These points are illustrated using US patent statistics classified by technical field and sector of firm's principal product activity. Different combinations of sources of technological entry barriers and technological opportunity are identified in science-based technologies, chemical technologies, core technologies in complex systems, product-engineering technologies and process-engineering technologies. This paper argues that such a characterisation of the dynamics of knowledge accumulation is important for interpreting the variety of dynamics of industrial competition.