We document how, in the early years of high technology firms, the origination of technological knowledge starts with firm founders, then shifts to other firm members, and later on to external stakeholders. We further show that greater reliance on founder technological knowledge is initially...

Research summary We argue that interrelated processes of knowledge codification and uncertainty reduction lead to the contraction of vertical firm boundaries of new high technology ventures over time. Consistent with our arguments we show that, over time, the outsourcing of R&D is slower than...