Abstract :
Since the 1947 invention of the transistor at Bell Laboratories and the subsequent formation of the Shockley Transistor Co. by one of the inventors, William Shockley, engineers with ideas for new products, new markets, or new methods of management have left secure positions to start their own companies. Engineers exploiting breakthroughs in semiconductor manufacturing, computers, computer peripherals, lasers, and other electronic fields have ended up as presidents of their own multimillion-dollar corporations.