Providing Technical Innovation
-Employ 43% of all high-tech workers
-Produce 2.5 times as many innovations as large firms relative to the number of persons employed
-Produce 16 to 17 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms
-Major technological advances of the 20th century from individual inventors and small companies:Air-conditioning, airplane, automatic transmission, FM radio, heart valve, helicopter, instant camera, insulin, jet engine, penicillin, personal computer, power steering.