The effect of social capital in new venture creation: the Cambridge high-technology cluster

Earlier studies of business clusters have been carried out at the level of companies and industries as units of analysis. This paper explores the Cambridge high-technology cluster with individuals as the principal focus as they help to shed light on entrepreneurial processes, particularly on how their prior work experience together has shaped many of the start-ups and spin-outs from the University of Cambridge, local consulting organizations and other companies. This research explores serial entrepreneurship in the Cambridge high-technology cluster using a family tree and interlocking directorships approach. It reveals a mini-cluster of Cambridge entrepreneurs as the key influence on the success of the growth process and their links between the companies as the structural and relational social capital of the cluster.