Sources Of Knowledge And Entrepreneurial Behavior

This book searches to understand the nature of the relationship, as well as the importance of the relationship, between sources of knowledge and entrepreneurial behavior. The conceptual foundation for our arguments is The Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship.

Sources of Knowledge and Entrepreneurial Behavior delves into the nature and importance of the relationship between sources of knowledge and entrepreneurial behavior, and should be of interest to both academics and policy-makers. David B. Audretsch and Albert N. Link use the Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship as the conceptual foundation for why individuals decide to become entrepreneurs. Then, using a database of more than 4,000 small and relatively new European companies from 10 different countries, called the AEGIS database, Audretsch and Link offer new insights about the relationship between knowledge sources and entrepreneurial behavior. In their analysis of the empirical evidence in support of the Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship, Audretsch and Link conclude that there is no singular source of knowledge driving entrepreneurship, but a plethora of knowledge sources, each associated with different dimensions of entrepreneurial activity. The intellectual breakthrough in this book is not that knowledge matters or that it especially matters for entrepreneurship. Rather, Audretsch and Link show that knowledge, and especially entrepreneurial knowledge, is not a homogeneous phenomenon. There are multiple sources of knowledge that act on entrepreneurial performance in a myriad of ways.

This book examines knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship (KIE) with a focus on the European textile and apparel industries. The primary purpose is to review the extant academic literature related to the European textile and apparel industries and reflect on that review empirically using a new and robust database on KIE to discover patterns between human capital and strategic entrepreneurial and innovative behavior. According to the Advancing Knowledge-Intensive Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Economic Growth and Social Well-being in Europe (AEGIS) project, KIE is defined as an interface between knowledge generation and diffusion and the productive system. Knowledge-intensive entrepreneurs are thus involved in mechanisms that translate knowledge into innovation, which in turn leads to economic development and growth within an industry and/or region. To date, KIE is often associated with high-tech industries such as aerospace, computer engineering, automotive or telecommunications. For this reason, few studies have been conducted that specifically examine KIE as an avenue for firm or sector growth in the textile and apparel industries. However, new studies have positioned these industries as ones in which KIE can foster growth through innovation, and where products and processes are often evaluated within a knowledge-based framework. Building on this growing literature base, this volume explores potential policies and strategies for driving innovation and growth at the firm and industry levels in Europe and other regions, including the United States.

The relationship between the innovative behavior and the minority status, gender, and immigration status of, for example, owners, directors, principal investigators, and project managers has only begun to be explored, especially within and among entrepreneurial organizations. Data limitations are certainly one culprit for the paucity of research in this area, but also the economics literature has been slow to move from a technical capital (i.e., investments in R&D) to an innovative behavior focus to an alternative focus that examines the relationship between dimensions of human capital of those who are involved with R&D investments and resulting innovative behavior. The chapters in this edited volume advance this body of thought. These chapters represent foundational research for a nature versus nurture discussion as it relates to innovative behavior, especially a discussion that considers the innovative behavior within and among entrepreneurial organizations. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Economics of Innovation and New Technology.

The primary purpose of Entrepreneurs' Search for Sources of Knowledge is to explore the search process for knowledge used by entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial firms in pursuit of new opportunities, new product innovation opportunities in particular. The second purpose of this monograph is to present empirical evidence about the sources of knowledge that entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial firms actually use (and actually do not use) in an effort to allow observed behavior to inform future economics and management theory about the search for and use of knowledge sources. And, the third purpose of this monograph is to generate new and more complete empirical efforts to construct databases and to conduct analyses-empirical analyses and case studies-related not only to entrepreneur's and entrepreneurial firm's search for and use of sources of knowledge but also to measure the trends in the impacts of their use.

Why do only some people and not others recognize entrepreneurial opportunities? What is the impact of entrepreneurship education on students' entrepreneurial abilities and their intention to start a new venture? How does human capital influence the decision to become an entrepreneur? The author addresses these questions and further aspects of entrepreneurial behavior and activity. Three empirical studies cover topics related to the three phases in the entrepreneurial process - opportunity recognition, evaluation, and exploitation

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.

Due to the 2008-2009 crisis, the United Nations 2030 agenda for sustainable development, and the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of entrepreneurship has become more critical in most economies. Moreover, emerging protectionist policies are further encouraging the emergence of new entrepreneurial projects, particularly to replace goods and services traditionally provided by other countries. Understanding current challenges and best practices in nascent entrepreneurship is integral for the successful launching of new ventures to support the revitalization of economies and achieve sustainability. The Handbook of Research on Nascent Entrepreneurship and Creating New Ventures is a crucial reference source that covers the latest empirical research findings in the field of entrepreneurship and addresses the obstacles entrepreneurs face in these recent challenging times. The book embraces a pluralistic perspective from academicians currently navigating nascent entrepreneurship and key concepts for launching successful new ventures. Covering topics that include government support programs, spin-off companies, leadership, strategic entrepreneurship, and crowdfunding, this book is targeted towards entrepreneurs, professionals, academicians, researchers, and students.