Abstract
The role governments play in new industry creation in developed, capitalist countries is examined.For purposes of this analysis, governments are considered as a group of decision makers who hold power for a limited tenure.To begin, discussion of two alternate national institutional structures, associational and corporatist, and two different approaches to technology entrepreneurship, the bricolage and breakthrough approaches, are reviewed. Then the four types of national political institutional structures considered in this analysis are presented.These are social corporatist, state corporatist, liberal pluralist, and state nation.Attempts by state corporatist and liberal pluralist governments to design and implement policies to support industry emergence without considering political institutional structures can result in detrimental consequences. Further, governments in social corporatist countries do not have the political structures in place to intervene directly in industry emergence even if they had such a desire.State nations, which lie at the far end of the spectrum, provide the government autonomy in industry creation as they are able to act as policy makers, strategists, and entrepreneurs all at the same time.In order for a government to aid in new industry creation, their strategies must match their own institutional structures.Those in governmental positions must learn to recognize the potential and limits of their own country. (SRD)