mit_impact_full_report

growth since the 1960s of ventures in financial
services and management/financial consulting, no
doubt reflecting both the market opportunities as
well as the growth of the number of MIT Sloan
Master’s degree graduates during this period. Some
of the trends may be attributable to changes in the
size of certain departments relative to the rest of MIT
(for example, architecture).
Figure 8 shows the trends over sixty years in the
mix of new manufacturing companies being formed
by MIT grads, the dominance of electronics firms, and
an increase in drug and biomedical firms. Mirroring
similar trends in the overall United States and world
economies, the percentage of MIT alumni
manufacturing firms has been slowly decreasing over
Percentage of Total Startups
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
The Role of MIT Alumni Companies in the U.S. Economy
Figure 10
Steady Decline in Manufacturing
vs. Services Startups (percent)
1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
Decade of Founding
Services
Manufacturing
the decades, as shown in Figure 10. From a high of
about 20 percent manufacturing firms in the 1950s,
about 10 percent of the firms founded in the 1990s
and 2000s were manufacturing firms. On average
over the decades, 13 percent of the firms founded by
MIT alumni are manufacturing firms. But they employ
about 30 percent of the total employees of all MIT
alumni firms. An interesting observation from Table 2
shown earlier in this report is that the U.S.-located
companies founded by MIT foreign-student alumni
include more than 28 percent in manufacturing. The
overseas-located firms established by foreign alumni
include less than 10 percent in manufacturing.
ENTREPRENEURIAL IMPACT: THE ROLE OF MIT 21