Abstract
Prior research has devoted much effort to examine the role of environmental factors during the early phase of entrepreneurship. However, there is little research on the influences of certain factors on entrepreneurship during the development of an industry sector. Therefore, the aim of this article is to explore entrepreneurship in biotechnology from a more evolutionary perspective. In doing so, the focus is on two important environmental factors, public and private funding, since financing issues are critical for entrepreneurial development. Basically, this exploratory study shows that public and private funding have an important influence on entrepreneurship not only at its emergence but also to the point of its maturation. In addition, it provides preliminary support that public funding have an important impact in the early phase of the industry but play a minor role during the maturation phase. If confirmed by a larger study, our observations have considerable implications for researchers as well as for policy makers.
