Understanding of Entrepreneurship in the Emergency of High Technology Firms: the Impact of the Longitudinal Case Study within a Construction Industry Context.

Abstract

Entrepreneurs create companies, employment and are often in the vanguard and view technology developments and applications- they are the Schumpeterian agents of ‘creative destructive’. This is widely recognized reality which underpins national and regional policies to create the conditions necessary to encourage and sustain entrepreneurial start-up companies. It is therefore surprising there is a dearth of research in to entrepreneurship within a construction industry context-given the high company formation rate in most within a construction sectors. This deficiency is further accentuated by the lack of understanding of entrepreneurship in high technology domains in an era when we seek new technologies to improve the environmental and whole lifecycle performance of buildings. This paper reportson an ongoing Construction Knowledge Exchange funded project which is tracking time, real time, the start- up and growth of a company which developing and introducing a range of leading edge light emitting diode technologies. Interim results will be presented on the interplay between business environment conditions and the complex emergence of the company: from the original motivation of the founders of the firm, to its growth strategy and organizational design and its business development and marketing strategy.

Key words: entrepreneurship, high technology, light emitting diode, Context,Industry