Maksim Belitski (University of Reading)

“Innovation in Schumpeterian Firms: Internal or External Knowledge Spillover?”

abstract

An important characteristic of Schumpeterian entrepreneurs is their ability of knowledge creation and commercialization as part of a market disruption strategy. Building on the knowledge spillover of entrepreneurship theory, the corporate entrepreneurship strategy and economic geography literatures, this study distinguishes between an internal and external knowledge spillover and examines their individual and complementary effect on firm’s innovative performance.
We theorize that the synergies among an entrepreneurial climate, exploration activities and investment in creative work contribute to a stronger internal knowledge spillover, while collaboration with customers across different geographical dimensions is crucial for external knowledge spillover. We also theorize that complementarities between internal and external knowledge spillovers will be critical to innovation when collaborating with customers within close and distant geographical proximities.
To the best of our knowledge there has been no research in entrepreneurship literature to explaining the interplay between internal and external knowledge spillovers in relation to innovative performance and across different proximities (cognitive, institutional and geographical). The study offers further implications for entrepreneurs, academics and policy makers aiming to bestow Schumpeterian firms in their regions.