Technology-based entrepreneurs: Does Internet make a difference?

This paper is an empirical analysis of the personal characteristics of Ital ian high-tech entrepreneurs. We analyze differences in the characteristics of founders according to the sector of operation of the start-up. In partic ular, we investigate whether entrepreneurs in Internet related activities d iffer from those operating in other ICT industries (especially in manufactu ring). For this purpose, we analyze a sample composed of 246 entrepreneurs that between 1984 and 1999 established 116 new firms that operate in ICT ma nufacturing and service industries and are located in Northern Italy. The f indings highlight that Internet entrepreneurs generally are younger and les s educated (especially in technical fields) than the other sample founders. They quite often are at their first professional experience; if they have prior working experience, it generally is in unrelated industries. Such fin dings are related to evolutionary theories that emphasize the role of the n ature of technical change and of the stage of the industry life cycle in in fluencing the characteristics and behavior of new firms and their founders.