The term ‘technical entrepreneur’ i

The term ‘technical entrepreneur’ is synonymous with small, high-technology firms or, as they are sometimes known, new technology-based firms (NTBFs). These are small businesses that are dependent on a high level of technological knowledge and expertise. The term is offen used to describe a technology-based ‘spin-off’ business, formed by scientists and engineers leaving their current employment in a university, research-based institution or an industrial company and going it alone by setting up their own independent company. This sort of enterprise is typically to be found in industries such as electronics, computer services or biotechnology. A study by Jones-Evans and Wasthead (1996) for instance found that in the UK there were large numbers of small, high-technology businesses in the computer services sector comprising specialist software companies and others providing a range of other similar services. Other sectors where there were significant number of this type of enterprise included medical equipment, electrical equipment, precision instruments, and pharmaceuticals (i.e. biotechnology). In these sectors there is scope for individuals who have acquired technological knowledge and expertise through their work in a large organization to set up on this has been facilitated in recent year by the growth of networks as a way of linking together both large and small organisations and groups of small organisations. Clearly, becoming an independent as ‘entrepreneurial’. Nevertheless, they involve a particular form of entrepreneurship, one that relies heavily on technology and the creation of new products and services. As a result this is the form of entrepreneurship that is probably most closely connected to innovation.