2. Entrepreneurship Capital and Regional Development: A Perspective Based on Intellectual Capital

The literature describes entrepreneurial process as a multidimensional and complex phenomenon. Most conceptual frameworks advocate that the entrepreneurship is a function of the opportunity and the individual entrepreneur, his or her characteristics and actions. A knowledge-based perspective suggests that entrepreneurship can be thought of as a function of knowledge and attitude. Such perspective proposes that there is one single dominant factor upon which the opportunity, the individual, and the whole entrepreneurial process are based. This factor is knowledge as a property of individuals or organizations which are intelligent agents in their own right, and which are challenged to have a critical attitude in order to execute the entrepreneurial process. Recent works on this research area suggest that there is a positive link between entrepreneurship, regional economic performance, and the creation of new firms and businesses. Regions are now facing rapidly evolving pressures from global economy. Regions prosperity no longer lies in traditional assets such as cheap land and labor. Instead, regions’ success is shaped by new categories of assets, like skills, innovative firms, lifestyle amenities, cultural assets, and intellectual capital. Although, in the last years, many studies have investigated the knowledge factors grounding local development there are still gaps in the research that need to be filled for the definition of the theory pillars of an intellectual capital dimension of regional development dynamics. This chapter contributes to the literature on the role entrepreneurship plays in regional development, providing a holistic view of the knowledge-based entrepreneurial activity.