Knowledge and entrepreneurial employees: a country-level analysis

Erik Stam

Small Business Economics, 2013, vol. 41, issue 4, 887-898

Abstract: According to the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship, knowledge created endogenously results in knowledge spillovers, which allow independent entrepreneurs to identify and exploit opportunities (Acs et al. in Small Bus Econ 32(1):15–30, 2009 ). The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship ignores entrepreneurial activities of employees within established organizations. This ignorance is largely empirical, because there has been no large-scale study on the prevalence and nature of entrepreneurial employee activities. This article presents the outcomes of the first large-scale international study of entrepreneurial employee activities. In multiple advanced capitalist economies, entrepreneurial employee activity is more prevalent than independent entrepreneurial activity. Innovation indicators are positively correlated with the prevalence of entrepreneurial employee activities, but are not or even negatively correlated with the prevalence of independent entrepreneurial activities. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Keywords: Entrepreneurial employees; Knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship; Independent entrepreneurship; Innovation; GEM; J83; L26; M13; O31; O43; O57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (55)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:41:y:2013:i:4:p:887-898

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DOI: 10.1007/s11187-013-9511-y

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