The Impact of Founders’ Prior Experiences on Technological Development: Evidence from Technology Ventures in the Autonomous Driving Field

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of founders’ prior career experiences on technological development of their subsequent ventures that operate in the context of emerging fields of innovation. While existing research documents that founders’ prior experiences provide the relevant knowledge for their venture development, we have limited understanding about what specific sources of prior experiences can aid technology development in the emerging fields of innovation. Drawing on the idea of paradoxical nature of prior experiences, we specifically compare two sources of prior experiences: from industry incumbents versus research institutions. Using the data of 71 U.S. technology ventures and their founders in the autonomous driving field, we report the contrasting findings: prior experiences from industry incumbents have a negative effect on technology development, but those from research institutions have a positive effect. We further find that the effects of both sources of prior experiences are amplified as the venture accumulates experiential knowledge. Our research highlights that the founders’ prior experiences, depending on their sources of origin, can have diverging ramifications in their ventures’ technological advance.