| This dissertation examines university-based start-ups to understand why university inventors found firms and to assess the role and experience of this class of start-ups in developing and commercializing technologies. I examine start-ups from the University of California's (UC) nine campuses and contrast firms founded by UC inventors with those founded by persons outside the university to develop UC inventions. In this examination, two factors emerge as important in an inventor's decision to found a firm: technological uncertainty and the inventor's personal tacit knowledge. Hence, the purpose of this dissertation is to examine inventor-founded firms, in particular. To meet this end, I employ three different methodologies, mapping to three analytical chapters: a series of case studies, a broad statistical analysis, and a theoretical model. (Abstract shortened by UMI.). |
