Variety in founder experience and the performance of knowledge-intensive innovative firms

Abstract

This article contributes with an analysis of the specific linkages between knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurship for industrial dynamics, within the emerging literature upon knowledge-intensive innovative entrepreneurial (KIE) firms. We find a distinct variety in the usefulness of different types of founder experience (single or teams) in the performance of entrepreneurial firms. This variety affects selection in the economy, as measured by the performance of firms in a two-stage process – namely first by analyzing survival over time and then of high growth rates. We do so in order to consider averages/probabilities in the population using Cox regression as well as of the outliers, using quantile regression. We find that on one hand, founders having previously started firms or worked in the same industry are more likely to survive. On the other hand, very high-growth firms have founders who previously started firms or worked in universities. Combining different types of founder experience in KIE firms has a consistently positive relationship with performance both in terms of survival and of growth. Our interpretation is that the variety of founder experience affect selection processes and opportunity recognition in KIE firms and thereby fundamentally affect whether, and to what extent, entrepreneurial actions lead to industrial transformation.