This book focuses on exploring the relationship between spin-outs from incumbents and the
patterns of innovation in general purpose technology. Do spin-outs really promote innovation?
What happens if star scientists leave the incumbents and establish a startup to target untapped
markets? Entrepreneurial spin-outs have been recognized as an engine of innovation. General
purpose technology such as the steam engine in the Industrial Revolution has been considered
an engine of growth. This book provides new perspectives on how entrepreneurial spin-outs shape
the patterns of innovation in general purpose technology by integrating theoretical findings in
industrial organizations and includes innovation studies and detailed evidence from a
longitudinal case study. Concretely by longitudinally exploring the technological development
of laser diodes in the USA and Japan this study examines how the existence or absence of an
entrepreneurial strategic choice for spin-outs influencesthe patterns of subsequent
technological development. The longitudinal analysis in this book shows that spin-outs could
hinder the subsequent development of existing technology when that technology is still at a
nascent level because the cumulative effects of technological development could disappear if
research and development personnel leave their parent firms in order to target different
sub-markets. The findings of this book show that institutional settings designed to promote
spin-outs do not necessarily promote innovation. The book offers novel theoretical insights
into the relationship between institutions promoting spin-outs and the developments of general
purpose technology.
