314Keywords Brexit · Entrepreneurship · Ecosystem · Governance · Multisided platforms · Platform economy · Competition · Users

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Introduction

Hobijn and Jovanovic (2001) argued that the arrival of the information-technology revolution (ITR) in the 1970s created the need for new firms to emerge.1 The technology breakthrough favored new firms for three reasons: awareness and skill; vintage capital; and vested interests. The stock market incumbents were not ready to implement the new technologies and it took new firms to bring the new technology to market. New capital flowed via venture capital to startups in the United States and Asia that built the new industries; but not in Europe (Gompers & Lerner, 2001).2 Between 1980 and 2020, the U.S. stock market grew 30-fold. The five most valuable

1See also Greenwood and Jovanovic (1999). 2See Acs and Audretsch (1987, 1988, 1990), Audretsch (1991, 1995), Acs et al. (1992, 1994, 2002), Audretsch and Feldman (1995), and Anselin et al. (1997).

Z. J. Acs (*) George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA e-mail: zacs@gmu.edu

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