1 Introduction
2 Theoretical building blocks and conceptualization of knowledge-intensive innovative entrepreneurship (KIE)
2.1 Integration of three theoretical building blocks
2.1.1 Schumpeter and the Schumpeterian entrepreneur
- The entrepreneur:
- Takes risks and reaps profits
- Turns technology and ideas into innovations in the market
- Enables new combinations
- Faces uncertainty about current choices in relation to future outcomes
- Creates opportunities, by both driving and adapting to change in the external environment
- The key functions of the entrepreneur in the economy:
- Acting as a disruptive, disequilibrium force, which arises endogenously in the economy
- Driving wider processes of economic dynamism, which in turn lead to economic growth and societal well-being
2.1.2 Evolutionary economics
- Entrepreneurs
- Are involved with others in the diffusion, use and creation of knowledge
- Engage in learning and problem-solving activities
- Use knowledge into new combinations for innovation
- Are affected by education, knowledge and experience in their innovative activities
- Entrepreneurship
- Is a process with emergent properties
- Involves actors searching for opportunities and generating new knowledge
- Is affected by of the learning, technological and knowledge context
- Involves the co-evolution of knowledge, firms, industrial structure and institutions
2.1.3 Innovation system approach
- Entrepreneurs
- Are highly dependent upon the knowledge infrastructure, the supporting actors and the institutional context
- Create opportunities but are also bounded by the geographical and sectoral dimensions in which they operate and innovate
- Entrepreneurship
- Is affected by the complementarities in knowledge and capabilities of actors linked within innovation systems
- Relies upon existing and new networks and channels through which knowledge is communicated, shared or generated
2.2 Conceptualization of knowledge-intensive innovative entrepreneurship: theoretical definition and stylized process model
Knowledge-intensive innovative entrepreneurial firms are new learning organizations that use and transform existing knowledge and generate new knowledge in order to innovate within innovation systems
3 Defining empirically and analyzing knowledge-intensive innovative entrepreneurial firms
3.1 Empirical definition of KIE
KIE ventures are new firms that are innovative, have significant knowledge intensity in their activity, are embedded in innovation systems and exploit innovative opportunities in diverse evolving sectors and contexts
3.2 Identifying characteristics of knowledge-intensive innovative entrepreneurial firms
- Innovative firms: whether the company has introduced new or significantly improved goods or services during the past 3 years (question 27)
- Knowledge intensity: education: whether the educational attainment of the founder was at least a bachelor degree or more (question 5)
- Knowledge intensity: skills: Whether the main areas of expertise of the founder(s) were technical and engineering or product design (Q 8)
3.2.1 Knowledge-intensive innovative entrepreneurial firms are an empirically significant category of new firms
Other new firms | KIE | Total | |
---|---|---|---|
Croatia | 64 | 136 | 200 |
4.13% | 5.54% | 5.00% | |
Czech Rep. | 65 | 135 | 200 |
4.19% | 5.50% | 5.00% | |
Denmark | 136 | 194 | 330 |
8.77% | 7.91% | 8.24% | |
France | 262 | 308 | 570 |
16.90% | 12,55% | 14.24% | |
Germany | 230 | 327 | 557 |
14.84% | 13.33% | 13.91% | |
Greece | 114 | 217 | 331 |
7.35% | 8.84% | 8.27% | |
Italy | 171 | 409 | 580 |
11.03% | 16.67% | 14.49% | |
Portugal | 127 | 204 | 331 |
8.19% | 8.31% | 8.27% | |
Sweden | 132 | 202 | 334 |
8.52% | 8.23% | 8.34% | |
UK | 249 | 322 | 571 |
16.06% | 13.12% | 14.26% | |
Total | 1550 | 2454 | 4004 |
100% | 100% | 100% |
Other new firms | KIE | Total | |
---|---|---|---|
Advertising | 39 | 77 | 116 |
2.52% | 3.14% | 2.90% | |
Aerospace | 1 | 0 | 1 |
0.06% | 0.00% | 0.02% | |
Architectural and eng | 145 | 172 | 317 |
9.35% | 7.01% | 7.92% | |
Basic metals | 10 | 21 | 31 |
0.65% | 0.86% | 0.77% | |
Chemical industry | 15 | 36 | 51 |
0.97% | 1.47% | 1.27% | |
Computer and related | 155 | 363 | 518 |
10.00% | 14.79% | 12.94% | |
Computers and office | 7 | 13 | 20 |
0.45% | 0.53% | 0.50% | |
Fabricated metal prod | 81 | 133 | 214 |
5.23% | 5.42% | 5.34% | |
Food, beverages and t | 110 | 187 | 297 |
7.10% | 7.62% | 7,42% | |
Labor recruitment and | 27 | 17 | 44 |
1.74% | 0.69% | 1.10% | |
Paper and printing | 236 | 382 | 618 |
15.23% | 15.57% | 15.43% | |
Radio-television and | 9 | 26 | 35 |
0.58% | 1.06% | 0.87% | |
Research and experiment | 21 | 50 | 71 |
1.35% | 2.04% | 1.77% | |
Selected business ser | 367 | 465 | 832 |
23.68% | 18.95% | 20.78% | |
Technical testing and | 25 | 35 | 60 |
1.61% | 1.43% | 1.50% | |
Telecommunications | 8 | 16 | 24 |
0.52% | 0.65% | 0.60% | |
Textile and clothing | 87 | 122 | 209 |
5.61% | 4.97% | 5.22% | |
Wood and furniture | 101 | 132 | 233 |
6.52% | 5.38% | 5.82% | |
Other | 106 | 207 | 313 |
6.84% | 8.44% | 7.81% | |
Total | 1550 | 2454 | 4004 |
100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% |
- FINDING 1: KIE firms are an empirically relevant phenomenon within new firms in Europe. They are present across all European countries and all sectors
3.2.2 In their activities, KIE ventures benefit greatly from two-way interactions with their innovation systems
- Sources of knowledge that are relevant for exploring new business opportunities (question 24): The answers to this question are on a scale from 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important). We have selected the following sources of knowledge that are external to the new firm and therefore part of the innovation system and that are also highly knowledge intensive: public research institutes; universities; external commercial labs and R&D firms.
- Participation to agreements (question 26). Again the scale of the answers is from 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important). Among all the agreements, we have selected agreements in which the intensity of knowledge exchanged is high: Strategic alliance, R&D agreement, and Technical cooperation agreements
- Contribution to create and sustain competitive advantage (question 19). Also in this case the scale of the answers is from 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important). Among all the factors that create and sustain the competitive advantages of new firms, we have selected the ones that can be related to innovation systems in terms of interactions with other actors: Establishment of alliances; Networking with scientific research organization; partnership with other firms.
Not important | Important | Total | |
---|---|---|---|
Other new firms | 1292 | 258 | 1550 |
83.35% | 16.65% | 100% | |
KIE | 1860 | 594 | 2454 |
75.79% | 24.21% | 100% | |
Total | 3152 | 852 | 4004 |
78.72% | 21.28% | 100% |
Not important | Important | Total | |
---|---|---|---|
Other new firms | 1450 | 100 | 1550 |
93.55% | 6.45% | 100.00% | |
KIE | 2059 | 395 | 2454 |
83.90% | 16.10% | 100.00% | |
Total | 3509 | 495 | 4004 |
87.64% | 12.36% | 100.00% |
Not important | Important | Total | |
---|---|---|---|
Other new firms | 1220 | 330 | 1550 |
78.71% | 21.29% | 100.00% | |
KIE | 1564 | 890 | 2454 |
63.73% | 36.27% | 100.00% | |
Total | 2784 | 1220 | 4004 |
69.53% | 30.47% | 100.00% |
- FINDING 2: KIE firms interact more with innovation systems than do other new firms
3.2.3 Differences exist in the reliance on innovation systems for KIE belonging to different countries and sectors
- FINDING 3: Sectoral and national differences exist in the way KIE firms relates to innovation systems.