Abstract
The current paper analyzes the role of the individual and regional knowledge context in forming university students’ entrepreneurial intentions. As access to knowledge resources is crucial for the growth and survival of knowledge-based start-ups, we argue that an individual’s decision in favor or against becoming an entrepreneur should critically depend on the multilevel context providing her with access to strategically relevant knowledge. A unique dataset for German students and regions allows us to analyze a variety of personal and regional determinants of entrepreneurial intentions among students. At the individual level we find that role models facilitating the transfer of tacit knowledge and the expectation that strong ties will provide know-how and know-who positively impact entrepreneurial intentions. At the regional level we find that a high regional start-up rate in knowledge-based industries and a high growth rate of regional knowledge production positively influence entrepreneurial intentions.
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Notes
Some authors alternatively use the term “self-employment intentions” (e.g., Souitaris et al. 2007).
A possible explanation for this missing integration is that authors from different disciplines tend to neglect the findings of other disciplines that differ in their premises, theoretical background, and empirical methods. As Klein et al. (1999) note, the training that young researchers receive is seldom multilevel in nature. Hence, individual-level attributes and behavior may seem uninteresting or even irrelevant to the macro-trained theorist, whereas macrolevel influences may appear intractable and of little interest to the micro-trained scholar. “The micro scholar may be unable or simply disinclined to see the forest for the trees, whereas the macro scholar may be unable or disinclined to see the trees that make up the forest” (Klein et al. 1999, p. 244).
A more detailed discussion of the features and the significance of our student sample is provided in Sect. 3.1.
This line of reasoning reflects the famous global–local paradox which says that, paradoxically, in a globalized world the factors that make the difference in international competition are not those which are ubiquitously available but those which are bound to a specific location and cannot easily be replicated or imitated elsewhere (Storper 1997).
In recent contributions to knowledge spillover theory (e.g., Audretsch et al. 2008), entrepreneurial motivation and qualification have been treated as exogenous factors. However, prior research has revealed that individuals with extensive general and entrepreneurship-specific human capital are more likely to identify and (successfully) exploit entrepreneurial opportunities (Bates 1990; Gimeno et al. 1997; Davidsson and Honig 2003; Ucbasaran et al. 2008; Unger et al. 2011). Hartog et al. (2010), for instance, show that the possession of certain cognitive abilities is related to entrepreneurial career choice and performance.
One could think of an individual’s formal education, work experience, etc. These are—similar to other personal characteristics of the individual—considered as control variables in the subsequent empirical analysis.
The importance of such strong ties for the success of newly founded businesses has been shown in empirical work by Brüderl and Preisendörfer (1998).
We focus on strong ties here, because Brüderl and Preisendörfer (1998) have found that support from strong ties is more important for the success of newly established businesses than support from weak ties.
Of course, family, friends or other ties can also support the prospective founder by direct material support unrelated to knowledge. The expectation of material support is therefore considered as a control variable in the empirical analysis.
A further advantage is that the high-quality information received by strong ties can typically be accessed in a timely fashion.
Obviously, this should hold true in particular for highly qualified nascent entrepreneurs starting knowledge-based ventures.
Even examples of failure may be stimulating, if you have an idea what went wrong and think you could make it better.
Note, however, that we have no information on whether students’ actual start-up ideas are indeed knowledge based or not.
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Appendix: Study measures
Appendix: Study measures
Entrepreneurial intention (measure based on Kolvereid 1996b; seven-point Likert scale from 1 = “I completely disagree” to 7 = “I completely agree”; α = 0.81).
(1) “There is no doubt that I will become self-employed as soon as possible.”, (2) “I plan on becoming self-employed within 5 years of the successful completion of my studies.”; (3) “I plan on becoming self-employed some time after the successful completion of my studies”.
Access to know-how (seven-point Likert scale from 1 = “no support” to 7 = “great support”).
“To what extent would the following social groups support you if you became self-employed after your studies? (Please answer even though you do not plan on becoming self-employed)”. Respondents reported the extent to which three different sources, including family, steady partner, and friends would provide “information and good advice (regarding business development and management).”
Access to know-who was measured analogously to access to know-how, but includes “procurement of contacts” as type of support.
Access to material support was measured analogously to access to know-how and access to know-who, but includes “material support (e.g., funding, office equipment,…)” as type of support.
Need for achievement (measure adopted from Cassidy and Lynn 1989; seven-point Likert scale from 1 = “I completely disagree” to 7 = “I completely agree”).
(1) “Hard work is something I like to avoid.” (r), (2) “I frequently think about ways I could earn a lot of money.”, (3) “I believe I would enjoy having authority over other people.”, (4) “I find satisfaction in exceeding my previous performance even if I don’t outperform others.”, (5) “I care about performing better than others on a task.”, (6) “I would rather do tasks at which I feel confident and relaxed than ones which appear challenging and difficult.” (r), (7) “I would like an important job where people look up to me.”
Need for independence (seven-point Likert scale from 1 = “I completely disagree” to 7 = “I completely agree”).
“In group and projectized work…” (1) “having freedom of choice over when I do my work is important to me.”, (2) “I prefer to determine the content of my work as far as possible on my own.”, (3) “I would rather set the sequence of my work tasks on my own.”, (4) “I dislike being subordinated to other people.”
Risk-taking propensity (measure adopted from Schneider and Lopes 1986).
“In the following you will be confronted with 5 situations in which you please either decide on being paid a safe amount of money or instead participating in a lottery. Your answers for these situations should be independent of each other. In every situation please imagine that you can dispose of a total wealth of EUR 1,000.”
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(1)
an 80% chance of winning EUR 400, or receiving EUR 320 for sure,
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(2)
receiving EUR 300 for sure, or a 20% chance of winning EUR 1,500,
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(3)
a 90% chance of winning EUR 200, or receiving EUR 180 for sure,
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(4)
receiving EUR 160 for sure, or a 10% chance of winning EUR 1,600,
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(5)
a 50% chance of winning EUR 500, or receiving EUR 250 for sure.
(r) = reverse coded
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Dohse, D., Walter, S.G. Knowledge context and entrepreneurial intentions among students. Small Bus Econ 39, 877–895 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-011-9324-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-011-9324-9
Keywords
- Knowledge context
- Entrepreneurial intentions
- Occupational choice
- Knowledge spillover
- Multilevel analysis