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STRATEGIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP JOURNAL

Call for Papers for a Special Issue

Knowledge Spillovers and Strategic Entrepreneurship

Submission Due Date:  November 15, 2009

Guest Editors:

Rajshree Agarwal, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

David Audretsch, Max Planck Institute, Germany and Indiana University

MB Sarkar, Temple University

Background and Special Issue Purpose

The non-rival nature of knowledge as a productive asset creates the possibility of knowledge spillovers, defined as the external benefits from the creation of knowledge that accrue to parties other than the creator. Occurring at multiple levels of analysis, be it within or across organizations and networks, the idea of spillovers has been pervasive in scholarship in multiple literature domains. A few among these are: technology transfer, spatial agglomeration, networks, employee mobility, real options, organizational learning, and evolution of innovations, firms and industries.

Strategic entrepreneurship, however defined, clearly relates to initiatives grounded in the search for competitive advantage and which lead to new entry into products, markets, processes or technological innovations by both incumbents and new ventures. Knowledge spillovers thus represent a powerful lens through which to investigate questions that are central to strategic entrepreneurship, namely the formation of new ventures, the origin and development of firm capabilities, strategic renewal efforts of incumbents, the dynamics of innovation and macro-economic growth.

In spite of a rich legacy, there exist exciting avenues for further development in the theories and empirical frameworks surrounding knowledge spillovers and strategic entrepreneurship, with several tensions unresolved. For example, while the traditional view has emphasized the leakage of knowledge (spillovers) as dis-incentivizing R&D, spillovers can be a strategic lever through which a firm engages in distributed innovation, thereby also enhancing global competitiveness. Moreover, the spillover of knowledge through the mobility of human capital has profound implications for entrepreneurial activities, be it at the level of firm, region or nation. For example, while employee mobility traditionally has been considered a conduit through which tacit knowledge is transferred between firms or from firms to start-ups, recent accounts of reverse migration of scientists from developed countries to emerging economies demonstrate the importance of knowledge spillovers as critical to entrepreneurial resurgence in those countries.

This special issue provides an opportunity to advance our understanding of the inter-linkages between knowledge spillovers and strategic entrepreneurship. Accordingly, we call for papers that help achieve one or more of the following objectives:

a)       Enhancing our understanding of how knowledge externalities link to literature in strategic management and entrepreneurship to identify boundary conditions relating to value creation and appropriation.

b)      Creating inter-linkages between knowledge spillovers and theoretical lenses such as networks, real options, technology and innovation strategy, spatial agglomeration, organizational learning and diffusion of innovations among others in order to explore issues fundamental to strategic entrepreneurship

c)       Developing insights into mechanisms that facilitate or inhibit knowledge spillovers across or within organizational boundaries, including but not limited to individual level mobility, employee entrepreneurship, co-location in geographical or technological space, inter-firm and intra-firm networks, and investments to facilitate vicarious learning

d)      Identifying the potential of knowledge spill-ins, where incumbent organizations may effectively benefit from knowledge spillovers that originate from entrants, and in the process enhance their own competitiveness.

e)       Exploring the linkages between intellectual property, organizational learning and knowledge spillovers to explain innovation outcomes in inventor networks, and growth dynamics in emerging technology clusters, or across national borders.

Research Questions

We seek papers that suggest new theoretical perspectives or provide fresh empirical insights on issues related to knowledge spillovers and strategic entrepreneurship.  The articles may cover different levels of analysis in the broad spectrum from economy wide to individual level.  We especially encourage, though do not require, articles that link across multiple levels of analysis. A few questions and topics of interest include but are not limited to:

a)       What role does the institutional knowledge context have on subsequent spillovers of knowledge? What factors have an impact on knowledge spillovers and strategic entrepreneurship within and across organizational contexts (e.g. academic institutions, and organizations occupying competing, complementary or vertical supply chain relationships)?

b)      What are the underlying mechanisms that relate knowledge spillovers and strategic entrepreneurship, and how might individual, organizational, strategic, institutional (including but not limited to level of intellectual property protection) or environmental factors affect these mechanisms?  For example, how might employee entrepreneurship/mobility affect the strategy and performance of both the source and recipient organizations?  What factors moderate these relationships? What win-lose or win-win scenarios may be created due to knowledge spillovers across organizational boundaries, particularly as they relate to entrepreneurial activity?

c)       What factors have an impact on knowledge spillovers and strategic entrepreneurship in academic or scientific knowledge settings? What are the underlying mechanisms that enable or inhibit the transfer of "basic" knowledge to "applied" domains?

d)      What are the positive or negative consequences of knowledge spillovers and "legacy effects" on subsequent recipient organization performance?  i.e., do knowledge spillovers always enhance competitive advantage for recipient firms, or could they result in negative effects?  What factors potentially moderate the knowledge spillovers-performance relationship?

e)       What role do knowledge spillovers play in translating "failure" at one unit of analysis for "success" at another unit of analysis? For example, to what extent does a firm level focus on performance consequences underestimate or overestimate the overall performance consequences at another level, say the individual, industry or regional level?

f)        Given that innovations are becoming increasingly more complex and recombinant in nature, how do organizational strategies that differ on the continuum of open vs. closed systems of innovation affect knowledge spillovers and strategic entrepreneurship? Can knowledge spillovers become the source of growth options, and thereby affect investments under uncertainty?

g)       What effects do knowledge spillovers through returning diasporas have on entrepreneurship in emerging economies? How do ethnic ties contribute to transfer of tacit knowledge among inventor networks? How can existing firms use intra-firm mobility of employees to benefit new cross-border initiatives?

h)      Are there differences between the effect of market and non-market channels of knowledge transfer on strategic entrepreneurship? How does geographic proximity matter for market-based transactions and for non-compensated spillovers? Do these differences in the outcomes between the two types of transactions dissolve over time? Do firm and industry characteristics matter?

i)         How do positional characteristics in knowledge networks interact with type of knowledge spillovers to affect innovation outcomes? What are some of the boundary conditions that either mitigate or accentuate such relationships?

j)         What is the relationship between organizational type and the ability to access and absorb external knowledge spillovers? Are some organizations more capable of benefiting from knowledge spillovers?

k)       How might spillovers of non-technical knowledge, such as information about markets, alliance partners, funding, or potential acquirers affect strategic entrepreneurship?

Deadlines, Submission and Review Process:

The deadline for submission is November 15, 2009.  Please indicate that the manuscript is for consideration in the special issue when submitting your manuscript online at Wiley's Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal website and ensure that it follows the guidelines available at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/113412125/home/ForAuthors.html.  Papers will be reviewed using the normal double-blind process at Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal.

Special Issue Conference:

After the first round of reviews, authors of manuscripts that receive a revise and resubmit will be invited to attend a conference associated with the Special issue.  The conference will most likely be held in late Spring or early Summer of 2010 (date and location to be announced at a later time).

More Information:

We welcome queries regarding the special issue.  Please contact the special issue guest editors at the following email addresses:

Rajshree Agarwal, University of Illinois, agarwalr@illinois.edu

David Audretsch, Max Planck Institute and Indiana University, daudrets@indiana.edu

MB Sarkar, Temple University, mbsarkar@temple.edu

Or, please contact the managing editor of Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Ms. Lois Gast, lgast@wiley.com

Rajshree Agarwal

John Georges Professor of Technology Management and Strategy

Director, Innovation and Technology Management Initiatives

Scholar in Residence, Academy of Entrepreneurial Leadership

College of Business

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Phone:  217-265-5513

Fax:  217-244-7969

URL:  www.business.uiuc.edu/agarwalr