Knowledge entrepreneurship involves the exploitation, leveraging, and transformation of knowledge into valuable products, services, or ventures. It emphasizes the application and commercialization of knowledge in order to generate economic and social impact. Knowledge entrepreneurship is different from 'traditional' economic entrepreneurship in the sense that it does not aim to realize monetary profit, but it instead focuses on the opportunities of production (research) and knowledge (as in personal transformation[1]) improvement. It has been argued that knowledge entrepreneurship is a suitable form of entrepreneurship for not-for-profit educators, researchers and educational institutions. While generating economic value is important, knowledge entrepreneurship often aims to address social challenges and contribute to positive societal change.[2]
Following Clark[3][4]"entrepreneurial" can be used as a characteristic not only applied to individuals, but to organizations as social systems, as well as to projects. However, in contrast to Clark, the dynamic process of vision and change aspects of entrepreneurship (Kuratko, 2006; Schumpeter & Opie, 1934), also known as entrepreneuring are stressful. Thus entrepreneurship is the act of pursuing new ways of doing thing in a real context, or more concretely "the essential act of entrepreneurship is new entry" (Lumpkin & Dess, 1996). Or as Brown put it: "Entrepreneurship is a process of exploiting opportunities that exist in the environment or that are created through innovation in an attempt to create value" (Brown & Ulijn, 2004, p.5)
Model of knowledge entrepreneurship. Used in Senges 2007 and adapted from McDonald 2002
According to Kanter,[5]entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial organizations "always operate at the edge of their competence, focusing more of the resources and attention on what they do not yet know (e.g. investment on R&D) than controlling what they already know. They measure themselves not by the standards of the past (how far they have come) but by visions of the future (how far they have yet to go). And they do not allow the past to serve as a restraint on the future; the mere fact that something has not worked in the past does not mean that it cannot be made to work in the future. And the mere fact that something has worked in the past does not mean that it should remain." (Kanter as in (Cornwall & Perlman, 1990, pp.27–28)).
Using McDonald (2002, pp.12–33), the following specific set of attractors have been proposed by Senges (2007) to directly influence the knowledge entrepreneurship ability (figure 1.6): Environmental awareness describes with what practices and with what intensity the organization gathers information about its external and internal environment. The importance of this practice for the establishment of an entrepreneurial organization was also recognized by Cornwall and Perlman (1990). They write: "Scanning should be a fundamental part of every manager's job, not something that is done by top management in conjunction with the annual update of the strategic plan"(Cornwall & Perlman, 1990, p.46). As such the concept includes activities like internal needs analysis, benchmarking and inter-organizational networking. The organizations attitude towards the risk inherent in the pursuit of all innovation is captured under the concept of risk tolerance. A factor which has not been part of McDonald's model (and which replaces the variable named analytical diligence) covers the organizations vision in the sense of entrepreneuring (Kuratko, 2006). This ability is strongly related to strategic thinking and planning, describes its culture of envisioning and scouting new developments. New project support refers to the degree to which new initiatives are institutionalized as a means of institutional development. Thereby the monetary means, as well as managerial attention given to experimental projects is looked at. Communication is the last variable taken into consideration as a major influence for knowledge entrepreneurship. The organizational style of communication and the richness of communication channels are evaluated here.
Furthermore, the organizational condition, described through its setting and its current leadership and its organizational culture are set to determine the general possibilities for knowledge entrepreneurship to occur. Thereby the organizational setting represents the basic factual being of the organization; its size, type of institution, business model, history and historic approach to innovation. Under leadership the style and values embraced by the current top decision makers, as well as the governance structure itself is evaluated. The concept of organizational culture is central to the understanding of the enabling or discouraging condition of the organization, as it adapts its attitude towards organizational learning and whether values like innovativeness, competitiveness, entrepreneurship etc. are embraced or rejected.
On the output side, knowledge entrepreneurship is set to improve innovativeness and thereby indirectly improve performance. But
the most important outcome of organisational entrepreneurship is long term: an organisation that is better able to adapt and survive
—Cornwall & Perlman, 1990, p.29
Review of literature
In this section, only a few works that have been identified to have used the concrete term 'knowledge entrepreneur' (and derivates) are reviewed. Most of them have only a broad understanding of the concept and are thus only cited to give a context. The Ph.D. research conducted by McDonald (2002) seems to be the first to have proposed and tested a conceptualization of the term as defined here. In the following paragraphs, it is reviewed what has been published in books and then the journal papers:
The Demos Think-Tank published a report entitled: "Surfing the long wave: Knowledge entrepreneurship in Britain" (Leadbetter & Oakley, 2001).[6]
Colin Coulson-Thomas, a professor and consultant, has been promoting his version of the concept in various articles and workshops as well as in the book "The knowledge entrepreneur" (Coulson-Thomas, 2003),[7]
and lastly the librarian Stan Skrzeszewski (2006) wrote about knowledge entrepreneurship in the librarian context.
The Demos report is meant to influence policy planning in the UK. It starts with an overview section on entrepreneurship and why it is important to have an entrepreneurial society. It then goes on to present a collection of case studies from the UK creative IT services (gaming and animation). Even though there is no specific definition of the term given, they use knowledge entrepreneurship to indicate that the entrepreneur is starting an enterprise that is based on knowledge work.
With The Knowledge Entrepreneur Coulson-Thomas has written an interesting management consultant book. Having years of experience as business professor and board member, he brings reams of advice he has to give to the table. The knowledge entrepreneur, has many general chapters (such as "contemporary information problems" and "requirements of different stakeholders"). In general, this is not an academic but a practitioner oriented book; however, some original concepts are worth noting. He describes knowledge-based opportunities as distinct from (classical) resource-based opportunities; unfortunately, there is no clear definition of a knowledge-based opportunity which makes it difficult to demarcate, as all opportunities except for purely spontaneous action or intuition-based opportunities are somehow knowledge based. He also puts forward a list of eleven things a knowledge entrepreneur needs to understand. It is an extensive list starting with the ability to acquire, develop, share, manage and exploit information, knowledge and understanding, and related support tools, and it ends with the ability to lead and manage knowledge workers, network organizations and virtual teams.
The third book The Knowledge Entrepreneur by Stan Skrzeszewski (2006) was originally meant to be entitled "The Entrepreneurial Librarian" (Skrzeszewski, 2006, p. v), it describes practical hands-on advice for how to embrace the entrepreneurship paradigm in the librarian profession. He defines: "A knowledge entrepreneur is someone who is skilled at creating and using intellectual assets for the development of new ventures or services that will lead to personal and community wealth creation or to improved and enhanced services. The knowledge entrepreneur must have sufficient personal knowledge capital to be able to create value and/or wealth through the use of that knowledge capital" (Skrzeszewski, 2006, p.3). The definition is rather complementary with the Wikipedia conceptualization, only the dependence on existing intellectual capital and the result of "wealth creation and/or improved services" actually alludes to a different objective than knowledge product or service per se. He continues: "The knowledge entrepreneur must know more about the subject at hand than his or her client of boss. It does not always have to be a great deal more, and sometimes the difference is based on the ability to communicate, present, or more importantly, apply the knowledge asset" (Skrzeszewski, 2006, p.3). Now this argument is not convincing as true knowledge entrepreneurship, as for the knowledge entrepreneur identifying and realizing an opportunity, rather than exploiting existing intellectual capital is the motivating factor. Later, when Skrzeszewski elaborates on how information technology is a key trend to be exploited by knowledge entrepreneurs, his librarian perspective shows through again: "There is a growing need and expectation for relevant and usable digital information products and services. At the same time, there is a growing problem of information overload. Therefore, there is an attendant need to organize and package information for users, to put the information in context, to provide information intermediaries and facilitators, and to digitize all forms and formats of information – all major entrepreneurial opportunities" (Skrzeszewski, 2006, p.31).
The fourth author, McDonald (2002), has conducted his PhD research entitled "Knowledge entrepreneurship: Linking organizational learning and innovation" about a comparison of the conditions at hospitals regarding their approaches to knowledge sharing and exploration and the entry of innovations. The work is assessed as the first to develop the distinct characteristics of knowledge entrepreneurship.
Another Author that has used the theme is Jennifer Rowley. In her paper "From learning organization to knowledge entrepreneur" (Rowley, 2000) she deals with how organizational learning can be meaningfully conceptualized. Thereby she stresses learning and the usefulness of the knowledge codified. In this context she elaborates on the concept of the knowledge entrepreneur. In her understanding "an organization that is a knowledge entrepreneur recognizes the multi-faceted nature of knowledge, and the implication that this has for organization learning. Specifically, a knowledge entrepreneur understands how to interface organizational learning and systems evolution in such a way as to optimize and capitalize on its knowledge resources in pursuit of its vision" (Rowley, 2000, p.14). This understanding expresses the role of knowledge entrepreneurship in a different way but interesting. She writes knowledge entrepreneurship serves to "build bridges between people and systems". She then goes on to list what is in her eyes important to achieve the co-evolution of system and organizational learning in tandem. These are: allow for diversity, allow for historicity and a knowledge culture, as well as appropriate systems for storage and dissemination.
A short paper entitled "It's difficult to innovate: The death of the tenured professor and the birth of the knowledge entrepreneur" (Bouchikhi & Kimberly, 2001) has been published by Human Relations. The paper describes a near future where knowledge entrepreneurs are "working under a diversity of employment contracts and attachments" (Bouchikhi & Kimberly, 2001, p.82). Therefore, "knowledge entrepreneurs will be hired and compensated based on their ability to imagine, execute, and use of the results of research to develop original educational products". The authors are dealing specifically with business and management education, for which they are painting a profoundly transformed scenario as they are "break[ing] out of their institutional straight jackets and redefine their roles in the production of knowledge". According to their vision, there will be "an almost medieval hierarchy" amongst professors, with the super-star academics performing more the role of a "CEO of a firm than like the traditional professor, managing their work and their careers with extraordinary autonomy from customary university constraints" (Bouchikhi & Kimberly, 2001, p.82).
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend to go public, startups are new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo-founder. During the beginning, startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to become successful and influential.
Knowledge management (KM) is the collection of methods relating to creating, sharing, using and managing the knowledge and information of an organization. It refers to a multidisciplinary approach to achieve organizational objectives by making the best use of knowledge.
Organizational learning is the process of creating, retaining, and transferring knowledge within an organization. An organization improves over time as it gains experience. From this experience, it is able to create knowledge. This knowledge is broad, covering any topic that could better an organization. Examples may include ways to increase production efficiency or to develop beneficial investor relations. Knowledge is created at four different units: individual, group, organizational, and inter organizational.
Knowledge transfer refers to transferring an awareness of facts or practical skills from one entity to another. The particular profile of transfer processes activated for a given situation depends on (a) the type of knowledge to be transferred and how it is represented and (b) the processing demands of the transfer task. From this perspective, knowledge transfer in humans encompasses an expertise from different disciplines: psychology, cognitive anthropology, anthropology of knowledge, communication studies and media ecology.
The knowledge economy, or knowledge-based economy, is an economic system in which the production of goods and services is based principally on knowledge-intensive activities that contribute to advancement in technical and scientific innovation. The key element of value is the greater dependence on human capital and intellectual property as the source of innovative ideas, information and practices. Organisations are required to capitalise on this "knowledge" in their production to stimulate and deepen the business development process. There is less reliance on physical input and natural resources. A knowledge-based economy relies on the crucial role of intangible assets within the organisations' settings in facilitating modern economic growth.
A core competency is a concept in management theory introduced by C. K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel. It can be defined as "a harmonized combination of multiple resources and skills that distinguish a firm in the marketplace" and therefore are the foundation of companies' competitiveness.
In business administration, absorptive capacity is defined as a firm's ability to recognize the value of new information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends. It is studied on individual, group, firm, and national levels. Antecedents are prior-based knowledge and communication. Studies involve a firm's innovation performance, aspiration level, and organizational learning. It has been said that in order to be innovative an organization should develop its absorptive capacity.
Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a wide range of organizations, which vary in size, aims, and beliefs. For-profit entrepreneurs typically measure performance using business metrics like profit, revenues and increases in stock prices. Social entrepreneurs, however, are either non-profits, or they blend for-profit goals with generating a positive "return to society". Therefore, they use different metrics. Social entrepreneurship typically attempts to further broad social, cultural and environmental goals often associated with the voluntary sector in areas such as poverty alleviation, health care and community development.
Entrepreneurial economics is the field of study that focuses on the study of entrepreneur and entrepreneurship within the economy. The accumulation of factors of production per se does not explain economic development. They are necessary factors of production, but they are not sufficient for economic growth.
Organizational intelligence (OI) is the capability of an organization to comprehend and create knowledge relevant to its purpose; in other words, it is the intellectual capacity of the entire organization. With relevant organizational intelligence comes great potential value for companies and organizations to figure out where their strengths and weaknesses lie in responding to change and complexity.
Intrapreneurship is the act of behaving like an entrepreneur while working within a large organization. Intrapreneurship is known as the practice of a corporate management style that integrates risk-taking and innovation approaches, as well as the reward and motivational techniques, that are more traditionally thought of as being the province of entrepreneurship. Corporate entrepreneurship is a more general term referring to entrepreneurial actions taking place within an existing organization whereas Intrapreneurship refers to individual activities and behaviors.
Entrepreneurship education seeks to provide students with the knowledge, skills and motivation to encourage entrepreneurial success in a variety of settings.
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk, and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones.
Innovation management is a combination of the management of innovation processes, and change management. It refers to product, business process, marketing and organizational innovation. Innovation management is the subject of ISO 56000 series standards being developed by ISO TC 279.
The technological innovation system is a concept developed within the scientific field of innovation studies which serves to explain the nature and rate of technological change. A Technological Innovation System can be defined as ‘a dynamic network of agents interacting in a specific economic/industrial area under a particular institutional infrastructure and involved in the generation, diffusion, and utilization of technology’.
Organizational ambidexterity refers to an organization's ability to be efficient in its management of today's business and also adaptable for coping with tomorrow's changing demand. Just as being ambidextrous means being able to use both the left and right hand equally, organizational ambidexterity requires the organizations to use both exploration and exploitation techniques to be successful.
University spin-offs are companies that transform technological inventions developed from university research that are likely to remain unexploited otherwise. They are a subcategory of research spin-offs. Prominent examples of university spin-offs are Genentech, Crucell, Lycos and Plastic Logic. In most countries, universities can claim the intellectual property (IP) rights on technologies developed in their laboratories. In the United States, the Bayh–Dole Act permits universities to pursue ownership of inventions made by researchers at their institutions using funding from the federal government, where previously federal research funding contracts and grants obligated inventors to assign the resulting IP to the government. This IP typically draws on patents or, in exceptional cases, copyrights. Therefore, the process of establishing the spin-off as a new corporation involves transferring the IP to the new corporation or giving the latter a license on this IP. Most research universities now have Technology Licensing Offices (TLOs) to facilitate and pursue such opportunities.
Enterprise Cultural Heritage (ECH) is the combination of history and products that belong to an enterprise and are recognised by the organization as a potential resource of uniqueness, innovation, and differentiation of products and services.
Entrepreneurial leadership is "organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal using proactive entrepreneurial behavior by optimising risk, innovating to take advantage of opportunities, taking personal responsibility and managing change within a dynamic environment for the benefit of [an] organisation".
Clusters of Innovations (COI) have been defined in 2015 as "global economic hot spots where new technologies germinate at an astounding rate and where pools of capital, expertise, and talent foster the development of new industries and new ways of doing business."
References
↑ Harvey, L., & Knight, P. (1996). Transforming higher education. Buckingham [England]; Bristol, Pa.: Society for Research into Higher Education: Open University Press
↑ Clark, B. R. (1998). Creating entrepreneurial universities: organizational pathways of transformation (1st ed.). Oxford; New York: Published for the IAU Press by Pergamon Press.
↑ Clark, B. R. (2004). Sustaining change in universities. Continuities in case studies and concepts: Open University Press.
↑ Kanter, R. M. (1983). The change masters: innovations for productivity in the American corporation. New York: Simon and Schuster.
↑ @inproceedings{Leadbeater2001SurfingTL, title={Surfing the Long Wave: Knowledge Entrepreneurship in Britain}, author={Charles Webster Leadbeater and Kate Oakley}, year={2001} }
↑ @inproceedings{CoulsonThomas2003TheKE, title={The Knowledge Entrepreneur: How Your Business Can Create, Manage and Profit from Intellectual Capital}, author={Colin J. Coulson-Thomas}, year={2003} }
Bouchikhi, H. H., & Kimberly, J. J. (2001). 'It's Difficult to Innovate': The Death of the Tenured Professor and the Birth of the Knowledge Entrepreneur. Human Relations, 54(1), 77-84
Brown, T. E., & Ulijn, J. M. (2004). Innovation, entrepreneurship and culture: the interaction between technology, progress and economic growth. Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, Mass., USA: E. Elgar Pub.
Cornwall, J. R., & Perlman, B. (1990). Organizational entrepreneurship. Homewood, Ill.: Irwin.
Coulson-Thomas, C. (2003). The Knowledge Entrepreneur: How Your Business Can Create, Manage and Profit from Intellectual Capital: Kogan Page Ltd.
Kuratko, D. F. (2006). Entrepreneurship: theory, process, practice (7th ed.). Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western.
Leadbetter, C., & Oakley, K. (2001). Surfing the Long Wave: Knowledge Entrepreneurship in Britain: Demos.
Lumpkin, G. T., & Dess, G. G. (1996). Clarifying the Entrepreneurial orientation Construct and Linking It to Performance. Academy of Management Review, 21(1), 135-172
McDonald, R. E. (2002). Knowledge entrepreneurship: linking organisational learning and innovation. University of Connecticut
Rowley, J. (2000). From learning organisation to knowledge entrepreneur. Journal of Knowledge Management, 4(1), 7-15
Skrzeszewski, S. (2006). The Knowledge Entrepreneur: Scarecrow Press.
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