Books
The Evolution of a New Industry: A Genealogical Approach
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Economies that have seen strikingly superior growth offer, perhaps, the most promising source of economic guidance for other nations. Israel is surely one of the most evident examples and the authors provide insights that will be invaluable to planners, other economists, and readers concerned with improving growth prospects in their own societies. —William J. Baumol, NYU Stern
By Zur Shapira, William R. Berkley Professor of Entrepreneurship, chair of NYU Stern’s Management and Organizations Department, and Professor of Entrepreneurship and Management; and Israel Drori and Shmuel Ellis
In his new book, Professor Zur Shapira, along with co-authors Israel Drori and Shmuel Ellis, traces the emergence and growth of the Israeli high-tech sector to provide a new understanding of industry evolution. The authors reveal how the high-tech sector in Israel built an entrepreneurial culture with a capacity to disseminate intergenerational knowledge of how to found ventures, as well as an intricate network of support for new firms. Following the evolution of this industry from embryonic to mature stages, the authors develop a genealogical approach that relies on looking at the sector in the way that one might consider a family tree. The principles of this analysis enable them to draw attention to the dynamics of industry evolution, while relating the effects of the parent companies’ initial conditions to their respective corporate genealogies and imprinting potential. The text suggests that genealogical evolution is a key mechanism for understanding the rate and extent of founding new organizations, comparable to factors such as opportunity structures, capabilities and geographic clusters. (Published by Stanford University Press, January 2013)