Entrepreneurial Capitalism in US High-Tech Industries

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My group’s case study on Entrepreneurial Capitalism in the United States proved very informative; with many of our findings tying directly back to concepts and themes we have discussed and studied throughout the semester. The main source we used in our case study was Steven Klepper’s Experimental Capitalism: The Nanoeconomics of America’s High-Tech Industries, which discussed how & why industries become successful, how government involvement impacts the success of a high-tech industry, and how free trade and competition is involved with American high-tech capitalism. Much of our case study focused on six distinct industries in the United States: penicillin, tires, automobiles, semiconductors, TV receivers, and lasers.
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Through my research I was able to relate what Klepper theorized makes an industry, and firms within it, successful to the theories of Schumpeterian entrepreneurs. Schumpeterian entrepreneurs are defined as entrepreneurs that enter new industries and create new markets, something that was seen with Henry Ford and the establishment of The Ford Motor Company. Prior to Ford, the automobile industry was split into two markets: high-end luxury vehicles, and cheap farming vehicles. Ford created a new market within the introduction of the Model T, forging the pathway for affordable, mass-produced automobiles. Within the concept of Schumpeterian entrepreneurship, there is a distinct difference between types of Schumpeterian entrepreneurs; through class discussions and Serguey Braguinsky’s essay Entrepreneurs and Their Economic Functions: Schumpeter and Knight, we defined pioneering Schumpeterian entrepreneurs as those who are the first to introduce new innovations to an industry, while imitating Schumpeterian entrepreneurs are those who enter the industry after the initial innovation in hopes of making a profit while also helping to diffuse the innovation. These distinct types of Schumpeterian entrepreneurs are reflected in Klepper’s idea of a shakeout--where many firms in an innovative industry drop out, despite continued industry growth, leaving a few large firms to dominate the industry. With this, we can conclude that pioneering entrepreneurs are most likely to survive a shakeout and become a dominating firm in the

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