Technology regimes and new firm formation

At least since Schumpeter (1934 and 1942), researchers have been interested in identifying the dimensions of technology regimes that facilitate new firm formation as a mode of technology exploitation. Using data on 1,397 patents assigned to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the 1980–1996 period, I show that four hypothesized dimensions of the technology regime – the age of the technical field, the tendency of the market toward segmentation, the effectiveness of patents, and the importance of complementary assets in marketing and distribution – influence the likelihood that new technology will be exploited through firm formation.