Four essays on the formation and evolution of United States biotechnology companies

This dissertation examines entrepreneurial activities in the U.S. biotechnology industry. I combine (i) data on founders, scientific advisors and research executives of all U.S. biotechnology firms that have filed IPO prospectuses between 1972 and 2002, and (ii) a random matched sample of 5,000 life scientists drawn from the underlying population, to conduct a large-scale, quantitative analysis of university scientists' entrepreneurial activities. The first essay investigates how propensity to start or advise a for-profit biotechnology company varies with the social and physical proximity to previous participants in commercial science. The second essay examines gender differences in scientists' participation in for-profit biotech ventures. The third essay analyzes the publication strategies of young biotech companies to assess how founders' professional orientation, firms' technological niches, and the influence of competitors jointly shape firms' propensity to adopt the open science strategy. The fourth essay explores the diffusion of knowledge in science, especially in the context of the ever increasing exchanges between academia and industry during the past two decades.