ABSTRACT
Technology-based firms (TBFs), defined as firms whose activities embrace a significant technology component as a major source of competitive advantage, are usually seen as an important source of product and process innovations, new employment creation and export sales growth (Rothwell, 1984; Slatter, 1992; Murray, 1993; 1994a; 1995). They therefore have an important role to play in the emergence of new technology-based sectors of industry (Rothwell and Dodgson, 1994) and in preserving and enhancing the economic competitiveness of established industries (Oakey, 1984; Rothwell, 1984; Slatter, 1992; Duhamel et al., 1994; Keeble, 1994; Segers, 1995). Indeed, Standeven (1993:2) considered it to have become “increasingly apparent that having a strong domestic technology sector is essential to the long-term health of an economy’.
