Knowledge Intensive Entrepreneurship

How and why are firms created, expanded and terminated by entrepreneurs in the knowledge intensive economy? The authors show these entrepreneurship processes are firmly embedded in a given social and economic context, that shapes the process by which some individuals discover entrepreneurial opportunities, creating new firms that sometimes grow to remarkable size, butmore often stay mundane or eventually exit. The authors expertly provide a theoretical and empirical examination of new knowledge intensive firms over their whole life cycle using a unique set of matched employee-employer data containing over three million individuals and over 200,000 firms. With theoretical pillars anchored in industrial organization economics, evolutionary organization theory, and entrepreneurship research, this book presents a detailed investigation of the entrepreneurial processes of firm entry, growth, and their eventual demise. This insightful book will prove to be invaluable for business policymakers as well as postgraduate students and researchers in management, economics, and entrepreneurship.

This original and exciting work differs from existing books on entrepreneurship by focusing specifically on the relationship between knowledge and entrepreneurship. The book uniquely combines an academic review of theoretical and empirical contributions with an analysis of the practical implications for engaging in and learning about venture creation. The authors concentrate on specific types of firms reliant upon advanced knowledge and show how a systemic perspective of entrepreneurship is required, involving design thinking, in order to capture the relationships between individual, venture and eco-system. Managing Knowledge Intensive Entrepreneurship will be insightful for academics and practitioners, as well as advanced students on entrepreneurship courses.

This book presents the first multidimensional investigation of KIE in the context of low-tech industries and gives insights in paradox conditions and specific mechanisms, using the example of the German textile industry. Therefore, the author solves conceptual inconsistencies and develops an alternative framework referring to systemic concepts of sectoral innovation systems and KIE as well as to the concept of institutional entrepreneurs. As a result, the deviation of willful actors from a restricting institutional environment and sources of entrepreneurial opportunities can be investigated more comprehensively.

This book examines entrepreneurship from three interrelated perspectives. Firstly, it links entrepreneurship to innovation and to the generation, transformation and use of knowledge. Secondly, it inserts entrepreneurship in innovation systems of various types- national, sectoral and local. Thirdly, it views entrepreneurship not as a single event but as a process that evolves in time, from the pre-entry experience, to the entrepreneurial act, to the evolution of the entrepreneur and the new company. With chapters from a range of international contributors, the book answers questions such as; what are the main dimensions of knowledge intensive entrepreneurship? What are the factors affecting its emergence, evolution and performance? How important is knowledge intensive entrepreneurship for European growth and competitiveness? Is the situation of Central and Eastern Europe, engaged in a process of major economic and institutional transformation, similar or different from the one of Western Europe?

Knowledge intensive entrepreneurship lies at the core of the structural shift necessary for the growth and development of a knowledge based economy, yet research reveals that the EU has fewer young leading innovators, and Europe’s new firms do not adequately contribute to industrial growth. This is especially true in the high R&D intensive, high-tech sectors. This structural malaise, undermining Europe’s growth potential, is well diagnosed, but poorly understood. This volume fills this important gap by exploring new firms that have significant knowledge intensity in their activity and develop and exploit innovative opportunities in diverse sectors. Through an evolutionary and systemic approach to entrepreneurship, focusing on knowledge intensive entrepreneurship as both a micro and a macro phenomena and analyzing firms in the context of various socio-economic models, the authors explore firms creation and origins around the world, their organization, strategies and business models as well as the role of innovation systems and institutions in their formation and growth. This comprehensive research text is vital reading for academics, researchers and students of high-tech and knowledge intensive entrepreneurship as well as those with an interest in industrial dynamics, innovation management and public policy.

How entrepreneurs do what they do presents fourteen case studies of knowledge intensive entrepreneurship. The book focuses on ÔdoingÕ, in essence, what happens when entrepreneurs are engaging practically in venture creation processes. Case studies can be used as a key element in learning and understanding what really occurs, as well as for illustrating theoretical points. This insightful book provides a series of in-depth case studies of knowledge intensive entrepreneurship from different industries to elucidate relevant phenomena and topics. They focus upon the venture creation process, involving close interactions between the individual, the company, and the external eco-system and environment. The cases primarily provide a managerial perspective on the process, from the sources of ideas, through opportunities and strategies, to outcomes and interactions with external networks. This enriching book will be relevant to academics and practitioners, as well as advanced students. The suggestions for further reflections can be used as inspiration for class discussions, Master thesis projects, academic research projects or stimulating successful entrepreneurship.

This book will appeal to social scientists, economists and students of innovation and entrepreneurship studies. Policy-makers and company representatives will also find much of interest in this book, with its surprising insights into a field that has b

This book contributes to an improved understanding of knowledge-intensive business services and knowledge management issues. It offers a complex overview of literature devoted to these topics and introduces the concept of ‘knowledge flows’, which constitutes a missing link in the previous knowledge management theories. The book provides a detailed analysis of knowledge flows, with their types, relations and factors influencing them. It offers a novel approach to understand the aspects of knowledge and its management not only inside the organization, but also outside, in its environment.