Entrepreneurs’ Search for Sources of Knowledge

The primary purpose of this monograph is to explore the search process for knowledge used by entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial firms in pursuit of new opportunities, new product innovation opportunities in particular. Understanding the search for and the use of informational sources is important at both the behavioral level and at the policy level. At the behavioral level, such an understanding expands the existing literature and research scope of scholars related to research on innovative activity, and innovative activity is important because it is a fundamental source of economic growth. At the policy level, such an understanding about sources of knowledge enhances the use of public-sector innovation initiatives in pursuit of economic growth.The second purpose of this monograph is to present empirical evidence about the sources of knowledge that entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial firms actually use (and actually do not use) in an effort to allow observed behavior to inform future economics and management theory about the search for and use of knowledge sources. The theoretical literature on this topic is limited and often uninformed by the actual behavior of entrepreneurs and the boundary constraints they face. The empirical evidence presented might begin to provide a foundation for additional theoretical advancements on the use of alternative sources and their economic and entrepreneurial implications for the firm. With such a foundation, working backwards to how a firm identified, searched for, and decided to use such sources might be possible.And, the third purpose of this monograph is to generate new and more complete empirical efforts to construct databases and to conduct analyses—empirical analyses and case studies—related not only to entrepreneur’s and entrepreneurial firm’s search for and use of sources of knowledge but also to measure the trends in the impacts of their use.