Question

As we know, Apple Computer did not invent the "mouse," which was one of the big features on the Macintosh computer that debuted in 1984. (Yes, I saw the famous Mac add that showed only once -- during the 1984 Super Bowl.) The original PARC GUI used a mouse and it was invented by Xerox in the mid-1970s. As we also know, Xerox did not do much with the computer and Apple (and Steve Jobs) ultimately took the idea for its own. (No, Jobs did not "steal" the device from Xerox.)

Some people have said that if Xerox had recognized the potential of its machine, the history of that company might have been much different. Given what we have studied about the firm and about entrepreneurship, is this observation accurate? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Answer below, As we have covered in this course, entrepreneurs make decisions in the realm of uncertainty. Furthermore, while new technologies are equated with entrepreneurial innovation, the important ingredient is how the entrepreneur sees the new innovation being used for profitability.

In the case of Xerox and Steven Jobs, Xerox had made great innovations in copying but had not been a computer company. Likewise, Jobs could see the computer to be used in ways that others had not visualized. (For that matter, executives at IBM during the 1980s decided that the future was mainframes, not PCs, so the company put its main resources into mainframes.