Stimulating Knowledge-Driven Entrepreneurship : Delineating Relevant Networks and Interactions

The genesis and development of high-technology entrepreneurial activities cannot be confined to individual entrepreneurial activity. Rather, knowledge-driven entrepreneurship is the product of various interactions. These interactions require the simultaneous presence of enabling/accelerating elements (such as the presence of well-developed financial markets and of universities and research centers) and the entrepreneur's qualities and competencies. The historical development of three high-technology locations--Silicon Valley, Cambridge (U.K.), and Sophia Antipolis (French Côte d'Azur)--illustrate the complexity of the interactions that create knowledge-intensive entrepreneurial activity, as well as the length of time required for those interactions to come to fruition.Because companies must be prepared to collaborate and because knowledge centers have to adopt an "entrepreneurial stance," policy-makers would do well to take their cue from Leuven, Belgium, where the university is responsible for 46 spinoff companies and where several research and development firms collaborate with the university on a regular basis.Policies designed to promote fruitful interactions must foster an entrepreneurial environment within knowledge-generation centers by facilitating motivating institutional arrangements and must call for solid management expertise. (SAA)