ABSTRACT
The historical account in Part One showed that in synthetic materials, in chemical processes, in nuclear reactors and in some electronic systems large firms predominated in launching the innovations. But a blanket hypothesis of ‘bigness wins’ could not be sustained, either from Part One or from the SAPPHO project. In scientific instruments in particular, new small firms made outstanding contributions. Inventor–entrepreneurs establishing new firms had apparently also been important in the early days of the chemical industry, the automobile industry, the semiconductor and radio industries. They continued to flourish in the microcomputer industry and in computer software. How far is it possible to test generalizations about the relative contribution of large and small firms to industrial innovation?
