Anchor entrepreneurship and industry catalysis: The rise of the Italian Biomedical Valley

•Introduces the notion of anchor-entrepreneurs as catalysts for industry emergence.•Discusses the impact of pioneering entrepreneurs on the emergence of new industries.•Fleshes out the key generative processes by which an anchor-entrepreneur can foster the formation of an industry.•Develops a genealogical approach to the analysis of Italy's Biomedical Valley.•Advances a novel entrepreneurship-based framework for understanding the early evolution of an industry.