Knowledge creation and knowledge exploitation influencing employee venturing behaviours at the national level: the moderating role of national entrepreneurial values

ABSTRACT

The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship (KSTE) posits that knowledge created but under-exploited in incumbent firms endogenously generates entrepreneurial opportunities for employee venturing behaviours (EVBs), which occur when employees quit to start new businesses. Thus, at the national level the gap between knowledge creation and knowledge exploitation by all incumbent firms shapes the volume of knowledge employees can use to venture out. In addition, national entrepreneurial values, which include overall innovative, proactive, and risk-taking values in particular countries, may explain variations in entrepreneurial activities across countries. By analysing a multi-source dataset collected from 52 countries for a sample period that runs from 2011 through 2017, this study reveals that at the national level knowledge creation positively influences knowledge exploitation but with a diminishing marginal effect, while the latter negatively affects EVBs. Additionally, we find a U-shaped relationship between knowledge creation and EVBs on a national scale, and this U-shaped relationship is strengthened by national entrepreneurial values. This article is among the first to study EVBs at the national level and enriches the KSTE literature by specifying the differential roles of knowledge creation and knowledge exploitation and highlighting national entrepreneurial values as an important moderator in the national-level KSTE framework.

KEYWORDS:

• Employee venturing behaviours
• knowledge creation
• knowledge exploitation
• national entrepreneurial values
• knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship
• knowledge filters

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. https://data.worldbank.org, accessed on October 12, 2022.

2. https://www3.wipo.int/ipstats/index.htm?tab=patent, accessed on October 12, 2022.

3. R&D investments by incumbent firms generate new ideas or inventions, some of which are disclosed or patented, depending on an inventor’s patenting motivation and corporate patent strategies. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization statistics database, 3,276,700 patents were applied for worldwide in 2020, while only about 50%, 1,592,000, were granted. Nevertheless, high maintenance costs, low economic value, or a shift in an owner’s strategy may cause patents to be either invalid or voluntarily abandoned prior to expiration. Even among patents that are in force, only a fraction will be commercialized, with a commercialization rate of around 41.6% for valid patents in China in 2020, as reported by the 2020 China Patent Investigation Report. Thus, excluding undisclosed or unpatented inventions and invalid patents, only about 2% of patents applied for are likely to be effectively utilized by incumbent firms.

4. The countries (regions) included in this study are: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Iran, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, South Korea, Australia, Barbados, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Luxembourg, Norway, Puerto Rico, Romania, and Russia.

5. https://computerhistory.org/blog/fairchild-and-the-fairchildren/, accessed on August 16, 2023.

6. http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2015–03/11/content_9519.htm, accessed on August 8, 2022.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the [Major Program of National Fund of Philosophy and Social Science of China] under Grant (number 22&ZD146); [National Natural Science Foundation of China] under Grant [number 71972150]; [China Scholarship Council] under Grant [number 202006280370]; [Spanish Ministry of Science & Innovation] under Grant [number PID2022-141777NBI00]; [Research & Universities Department, Catalan Government] under Grant [number 2021SGR 00719]; and ICREA under ICREA Academia programme.