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 practice entrepreneurship theory incubators, science parks and clustering entrepreneurial 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 practice entrepreneurship theory incubators, science parks and clustering entrepreneurial 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.

This volume is the latest edition of an international edited book series based on the formation and growth problems of High Technology Small Firms (HTSFs) begun in 1993. This body of work is unique, and maps the evolution of research in this area through almost two decades of academic research and government policy towards a sector that is the key to future prosperity of developed and developing notational economies throughout the world.

This volume is the latest edition of an international edited book series based on the formation and growth problems of High Technology Small Firms (HTSFs) begun in 1993. This body of work is unique, and maps the evolution of research in this area through almost two decades of academic research and government policy towards a sector that is the key to future prosperity of developed and developing notational economies throughout the world. In this the latest Volume, there is one major and two subsidiary themes that have emerged from the best papers to be presented at the HTSF Conference held at the University of Twente at Enshede in May 2008. Following a contextual introduction by the editors, seven of the chapter are concerned with the key issue of strategy, which is always a key concern for HTSFs as they seek to find the best way to getting their products to the market. Indeed, a further two papers are concerned with the requirements of international marketing, while a final three papers deal with aspects of education for HTSF founders.

"The New Technology-Based Firms in the New Millenium" series provides up to date research on a variety of aspects of High Technology Small Firm formation and growth (HTSFs) from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives and from national contexts throughout the world. This edited book series reflects on and shapes currently popular national government policies insofar as they relate to HTSFs. It is the only international publication specifically dealing with HTSF formation and growth and it uniquely provides an uninterrupted record of research in this area since 1993. This latest volume is a collection of the best papers presented at the HTSF Conference held in the United Kingdom at Manchester Business School in June 2007. Three major themes have emerged. Six particularly strong chapters of this volume are devoted to the critical problems of HTSF financing, comprising two contributions from the United Kingdom and individual chapters from Sweden, the Irish Republic, Italy, and Belgium. A further four papers are concerned with aspects of strategic development in HTSFs, and a final group of three papers deal with HTSF marketing problems, often in a 'born global' strategic context.

The research and policy evaluations presented in these papers represent a uniquely valuable evolving record of policy and research on high technology small firms through many changes in economic conditions and government policy approaches over more the a decade and a half. Specific issues in the book series cover many of the key industrial development policies adopted by developed, and developing, national governments since the early 1990's including, for example, writings on policy and practice concerning science parks, incubators, academic enterprise, industrial networking and the role of clusters in nurturing high technology small firms formation and growth. In particular, the on-going problem of early stage high technology funding has been a theme of constant concern since 1993, and because it remains resistant to amelioration, will endure into the future. Both the conference and the ensuing book series represent a pre-eminent vehicle for all the major international researchers concerned with high technology small firms to present their work to each other and the wider public.

This book consists of selected papers from the Annual High Technology Small Firms (HTSFs). The conference is acknowledged by experts in the field to be a particularly useful and authoritative record of the evolution of HTSF research since the inception of the series in 1993. It addresses strategic growth for small firms. It discusses how to harness external resources to promote growth (i.e., government and/or larger firms) while maintaining a win-win. It includes discussion of "spin off" the transformation from a non-profit making entity to a competitive busines world.

This eleventh volume derived from the Annual International High Technology Small Firms (HTSFs) Conference, and the edited book series of which it forms part, is a detailed testimony to the progress of academic research on this specialist, but highly important, area of industrial activity. In particular, research from this series is intended to provide a basis for new "evidence-based" government policy, although governments in many developed economies have often been seduced by "fads," in circumstances where policy solutions are crudely adopted without convincing evidence of their efficacy. None the less, it is most important for academics, although they may be occasionally ignored, to continue to pursue independent research of the type contained within this series in order to provide research-based policy options, and commentary on the quality of the current policy environment for HTSFs in different national contexts.

As in the case of previous volumes in this series, the current collection of papers inform many issues important to policy as governments seek to promote HTSF formation and growth. In this volume individual papers are grouped into three main sections; these are "Theory," "Strategy" and "Clustering and Spin Off Firms." Regarding Theory, all five papers grouped under this heading are concerned, either with high technology entrepreneurship in general, or academic high technology small firm entrepreneurship in particular, with four of the five papers strongly focussed on academic entrepreneurial examples. The Strategy section is again comprised of five papers, which broadly explore how diverse business ideas are operationalised in terms of strategy.

A longstanding interest in academic spin-offs in this book series has been more recently re-invigorated by a sudden interest in clustering which, through the related topics of incubation, science park formation and sub-regional high technology clustering has prompted linked research on the formation and growth of HTSFs in specialist locations, mainly through spin off. In the final Clustering and Spin Off section, the four individual papers are either concerned with how "spin offs" can contribute to HTSF cluster growth in industrial districts, or in the environs of major core regional universities.

This tenth volume of papers emanating from the annual International High Technology Small Firms Conference represents a full decade of research and policy relevant papers on innovation and growth problems of New Technology-based Firms (NTBf). Because this series has become the major vehicle for publication among the best international researchers working on the formation and subsequent growth problems of NTBfs, it represents an authoritative voice on NTBf development problems. Topics covered in this volume include strategy, spin offs - their contribution to NTBf growth and the problems they encounter during the traumatic spin off process, the current hot topic of clusters and their role in enhancing NTBf formation and growth, networking and global issues since many NTBfs are truly born global.

This volume is part of a growing body of work that maps the evolution of high technology small firm research over almost a complete decade since 1993. Begun during a period of relative neglect of high technology small firms (HTSFs) during the early 1990s, the book series has witnessed, and perhaps played some part in creating, a resurgence of interest in this type and scale of enterprise in the United Kingdom and mainland Europe by the turn of the century. Throughout this period, specific interest within the high technology small firm study area has ebbed and flowed, with some rather obviously important issues (e.g. policy and finance) often to the fore, while new and resurrected areas of concern have also contributed to the research agenda. Perhaps the best example of resurrection has been the rebirth of interest in the subject of clustering (or agglomeration) as it applies to HTSFs, notably led by Michael Porter. This interest has extended, and put a new slant upon, work consistently well represented in these volumes on networking. This trend is evidenced by the presence of four papers in the concluding Part IV of this volume on "Clusters and Networks". Earlier themes comprise groups of papers on "Science Parks and University Spin offs" (Part II), and "Markets, Strategy and Globalization" (Part III). Both individually and in aggregate, this series of books on HTSF development and growth issues represents a "one stop shop" for all those seeking to gain a broad understanding of the evolution of HTSF research since 1993 by providing a record of the manner in which this research agenda has evolved over these years.

This tenth volume of papers emanating from the annual International High Technology Small Firms Conference represents a full decade of research and policy relevant papers on innovation and growth problems of New Technology-based Firms (NTBf).
Because this series has become the major vehicle for publication among the best international researchers working on the formation and subsequent growth problems of NTBfs, it represents an authoritative voice on NTBf development problems.
Topics covered in this volume include strategy, spin offs - their contribution to NTBf growth and the problems they encounter during the traumatic "spin off" process, the current hot topic of clusters and their role in enhancing NTBf formation and growth, networking and global issues since many NTBfs are truly "born global."

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.