How Venture Capital Became a Component of the U.S. National System of Innovation

Venture capital (VC) is a relatively recent addition to the U.S. national system of innovation (NSI). Tracing the history of the VC industry in the U.S. provides an interesting example of how NSIs can add new institutions and in the process be transformed. The history encompasses important exogenous events, endogenous developments, and actions by individual actors. The story of the development of VC is set in the technological trajectories where...