The Entrepreneurial Event Revisited: Firm Formation in a Regional Context

Abstract

This paper outlines the development of an entrepreneurial culture in the US Capitol region and the formation of a regional industrial cluster. The conditions that the literature associates with entrepreneurship lag rather than lead the development of the cluster. Supportive social capital, venture capital and entrepreneurial support services, as well as actively engaged research universities, are conditions that reflect the successful establishment of an entrepreneurial culture, built by the actions of pioneering entrepreneurs who often adapted to constructive crisis.