Knowledge Filters and Employee Venturing Behaviors: A Cross-Institutional Study of the U.S. and Indian Firms

Abstract

This article develops an attention-based view of organizational knowledge filters and it explains the theoretical roots for their existence, typology, and boundary conditions of influencing knowledge spillovers (i.e., employee venturing behaviors). Although prior studies have examined the roles of institutional factors in the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship (KSTE), it still lacks insights into whether and how the core proposition of the KSTE—the impact of knowledge filters on knowledge spillovers—differs across nations. Based on the analysis of a dataset of the U.S. and Indian firms collected from LinkedIn, this cross-institutional study reveals that though knowledge-creating firms’ cultural knowledge filters and capability knowledge filters both relate positively to employee venturing behaviors, the latter has a stronger impact than the former, across the U.S. and Indian firms. Due to different economic and cultural institutions, cultural knowledge filters exhibit a stronger impact on employee venturing behaviors in the U.S. firms, whereas the influence of capability knowledge filters is stronger in Indian firms.