Venture capital and the birth of the local area networking industry

Venture capital has played an important role in funding the development of a number of US high-technology industries. Economists and business scholars utilizing models based in traditional economics have studied venture capital from the perspective of investment decision-making. These models provide significant insights, and yet they do not explain the actual operation of venture capital. This case study of the creation of LAN industry utilizes a synthesis of the dominant design and social constructionist perspectives to create a more nuanced explanation of how the practice of venture capitalists operates to create firms and industries. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.