᭹Earlier studies of business clusters have been carried out at the level of companies and industries as units of analysis.This paper explores the Cambridge high-technology cluster with individuals as the principal focus as they help to shed light on entrepreneurial processes, particularly on how their prior work experience together has shaped many of the start-ups and spin-outs from the University of Cambridge, local consulting organizations and other companies.
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This research explores serial entrepreneurship in the Cambridge high-technology cluster using a family tree and interlocking directorships approach. It reveals a mini-cluster of Cambridge entrepreneurs as the key influence on the success of the growth process and their links between the companies as the structural and relational social capital of the cluster.it relates to this context. At the centre of these networks is a mini-cluster of key individuals (investors, academics and serial entrepreneurs) who have an important influence on success.In The Cambridge Phenomenon, Segal et al. (1985) developed a complex family tree of spin-outs which provides a valuable basis for tracing the evolution of high-technology companies. This paper focuses at the level of individuals to illustrate the dynamics of social capital within the Cambridge cluster, to demonstrate that the role of individuals, especially of serial entrepreneurs, has been a significant contributory factor in explaining its emergence.This paper is also informed by the works of Rosa and Scott (1999) and New (2003), where they demonstrated that the most successful entrepreneurs tended to hold multiple direcStrat. Change 14: 165-177 (2005) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).
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