WHERE ARE THE BIG GORILLAS?
Entrepreneurial success in high-technology industries depends on a supportive domestic environment and on a supply of entrepreneurs and managers capable of exploiting technological and market opportunities. Over the last twenty years successive British governments have tried to make progress on both these fronts, in the hope of matching the entrepreneurial dynamism of the US. How much have they achieved? The US benefits from four institutional advantages: a large and competitive domestic market; a highly developed financial system which ensures that entrepreneurs with sound projects have access to capital; large-scale government support for basic science; and a well-financed university sector responsive to the needs of industry. On the first two of these, substantial progress has been made in the UK. The pro-market policies introduced by the Thatcher government in the 1980s included privatisation and de-regulation, which reduced the power of incumbents in such industries as telecommuni
