There are so many lessons to be learned from the entrepreneurial spirit of the startup. Even when faced with failure, these nimble operations adapt and find a solution. That’s one reason why Wharton management professor Jacqueline “Jax” Kirtley is drawn to studying them. She spoke to Knowledge at Wharton about her latest research into startups that are focused on hard science and technology. An edited transcript of the conversation follows. Knowledge at Wharton: What do you study? Jacqueline “Jax” Kirtley: I study early-stage, hard-science startups, firms that are spinning out of labs and new science and technology theory. I’m interested in how they evolve in their first few years and how their strategies, their products, their technologies develop. Knowledge at Wharton: What have you found over the course of your research? Kirtley: One of the things that I found that was quite surprising to me is that for all of technology entrepreneurs’ talk of “When we hit a road block, we’ll pivot,” they don’t.…