I denna rapport analyseras samhällseffekter av satsningar på akademisk utbildning genom att se på hur akademikers involvering i kunskapsintensivt företagande under perioden 2004-2009 bidrar till nya arbetstillfällen och ekonomisk tillväxt. I rapporten fokuseras särskilt fyra huvudsakliga grupper av akademiker: civilekonomer, civilingenjörer, jurister samt läkare/ tandläkare (medicinare). Rapporten är författad av Lina Ahlin; verksam vid CIRCLE och Nationalekonomiska institutionen/Lunds Universitet, Jonas Gabrielsson; verksam vid CIRCLE/Lunds Universitet och Sektionen för Ekonomi och Teknik/Högskolan i Halmstad, samt Karl Wennberg; verksam vid Centrum för Entreprenörskap och Affärsskapande/ Handelshögskolan i Stockholm och Ratio - Näringslivets Forskningsinstitut.

Rapportens resultat visar genomgående att akademikers företag bidrar till nya arbetstillfällen och ekonomisk tillväxt i betydligt högre utsträckning än andra företag. Det finns även stora skillnader mellan företag som startas och drivs av individer med olika akademiska utbildningsinriktningar. Civilekonomers och civilingenjörers företag skapar betydligt fler nya arbetstillfällen än juristers och medicinares företag. Samtidigt är bidraget från civilekonomers företag till nya arbetstillfällen cirka 20 procent högre än civilingenjörernas företag.

Utöver sammanställningen av akademikerföretagens bidrag till nya arbetstillfällen och ekonomisk tillväxt presenterar vi också ett antal pedagogiska och användbara nyckeltal för att mäta den entreprenöriella avkastningen från investeringar i akademisk utbildning. Denna avkastning baseras på akademikerföretagens bidrag till nya arbetstillfällen och ekonomisk tillväxt i förhållande till statens kostnader för olika typer av akademiska utbildningar. I analysen finner vi att om myndigheterna satsar 10 000 kronor på en akademisk utbildning så har detta generellt sett en god entreprenöriell avkastning för samtliga utbildningsgrupper.

Vi finner även att resultaten skiljer sig markant åt mellan olika akademiska utbildningar. Våra resultat visar att juristers och framförallt civilekonomers företag genererar betydligt fler nya arbetstillfällen per statlig utbildningskrona jämfört med civilingenjörers och läkares/ tandläkares företag, framförallt eftersom kostnaden för att utbilda de senare grupperna är så pass mycket högre. Skillnaderna i entreprenöriell avkastning mellan de olika akademiska utbildningsgrupperna i termer av löneutbetalningar och skatteintäkter baserat på företagens omsättning är mycket snarlika de skillnader som vi finner för nya arbetstillfällen.

För att driva på tillväxten och den industriella utvecklingen i ekonomin behöver Sverige individer och företag som kan omsätta teknologi och ny kunskap till produkter och tjänster. Förhoppningen är att rapporten skall bidra till den fortsatta debatten kring hur akademiker bidrar till den samhällsekonomiska utvecklingen genom involvering i kunskapsintensivt företagande och entreprenörskap.

Foreign entry mode choices are decisions of paramount importance for the long-term survival and growth of companies that are in a process of rapid international expansion. In this paper we seek to understand the foreign market channel strategies of Born Globals. We examine whether these companies develop a similar strategy regarding foreign entry mode choices and whether their market channel strategies differ from contemporary theories treating this problem. A comparative case study conducted on four companies meeting the criteria of Born Globals suggests that they do not show a common foreign entry mode. Instead, the companies seem to have very different market channel strategies even if they all have internationalised very rapidly. These findings are discussed against the current range of theoretical models that seek to explain the companies' foreign entry mode choice. We conclude the paper with some implications and suggestions for future research.

In this paper we explore internationalization and export growth over time in a sample of 135 small manufacturing firms. By using concepts and arguments from literature on international business and small firms, the paper identifies six situational, or contingency, factors that are expected to influence the international activities of small firms. Our results show that a dynamic and fast-changing environment may push small firms to go abroad, while it seems to be the experiences built up in the organization and a younger generation of CEOs that can explain why some small firms continue to expand their international activities. The findings suggest that the factors influencing small firms to go abroad and become international differ from the factors that influence them to continue and grow once they are on the international marketplace. The paper ends with a discussion of the findings, together with suggestions for further research.

In the study we examine whether external entrepreneurs show differences compared with inventor entrepreneurs in the way they interact and network with others in the start-up process, and – if so – how these differences become manifested in their venturing efforts. The study uses a case study design of four university spin-offs across different industries and development stages originating from a Swedish technical university. In general, our findings emphasize the critical role of incubators for supporting the commercialization and diffusion of technology as they bridge structural holes between research oriented and commercial networks. However, we also find evidence that the external entrepreneur model contains network elements that on the whole makes it more effective in the venturing process. As such, the external entrepreneur model seems to be a highly potent technology transfer mechanism with potential to orchestrate efforts to commercialize public research for the benefit of industry and broader society.

Recent years have seen the emergence of entrepreneurial acceleration as a means for linking innovative start-ups to resources and training. While sharing common characteristics, entrepreneurial acceleration programs differ across and within ecosystems. To address this issue, we inductively looked for differences across programs to find systematic evidence of variations in their overall design and approach to entrepreneurial acceleration. Grounded on the strategic management literature, nine characterizing variables and four major types of acceleration programs were found. The closing section of the paper addresses the implications for future.

The aim of this report is to identify the role of academics as entrepreneurs in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. We highlight the characteristics of companies established by academics and which factors that are crucial for these companies to grow. A special focus has been whether academics organise their companies in a particular way – a way that we may expect will become more common in our knowledge society.The report contains an executive summary in English, a Nordic overview in Danish, as well as national reports written in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. 

Alumni engagement plays a crucial role in driving innovation in university-based entrepreneurship ecosystems. We employ an inductive, informant-centric research design to explore the processual dynamics surrounding the early alumni engagement of entrepreneurship graduates and how these translate into enterprising behaviors that foster technology transfer and knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship. Our inductive analysis advances the theoretical understanding of the beginning phases of the alumni engagement process among entrepreneurship graduates, the key drivers that make them gravitate toward different forms of alumni engagement, and the role and impact of their engagement in the surrounding ecosystem. © 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model that explains how learning processes at the team level connect with individual and organizational levels of learning in technology-based ventures, thereby influencing the evolution of innovation capabilities in the entrepreneurial process.

Design/methodology/approach: The 4I organizational learning framework is used as an overarching theoretical structure to acknowledge entrepreneurial learning as a dynamic process that operate on multiple levels in technology-based ventures. Embedded in this logic, research on team learning is integrated into this theorizing to examine how learning processes at the team level bridge and connect with learning processes operating at individual and organizational levels.

Findings: The conceptual model identifies different sets of team learning processes critical for the routinization and evolution of innovation capabilities in technology-based ventures. In this respect, the conceptual model advances the scholarly understanding of entrepreneurial learning as a dynamic process operating across multiple levels in technology-based ventures.

Originality/value: By conceptualizing how individual streams of experiences over time become institutionalized via interaction, conversation and dialogue, the paper provides novel insights into the critical role of team learning for bridging individual and organizational levels of learning in the entrepreneurial learning process. © 2017, © Emerald Publishing Limited.

We employ bibliometric methods to provide insights and quantitative data about academic publications on sustainable entrepreneurship education in field-specific entrepreneurship journals. We identify 147 publications in journals acknowledged as Entrepreneurship and small business management outlets in the Academic Journal Guide (AJG) 2021. The analysis reveals that field-specific entrepreneurship journals play a significant role in driving conversations on sustainable entrepreneurship education. However, there are selective citation practices that concentrate attention on a few high-impact journals. The analysis also identifies four conceptual themes prevalent in the field, focusing on entrepreneurial intention, small business success factors, social entrepreneurship, and institutional aspects of sustainable entrepreneurship education. Additionally, the analysis highlights influential works and research themes within sustainable entrepreneurship education. Overall, our review and analysis emphasize the need for a multidimensional approach that combines bibliometric analysis with qualitative assessments for a comprehensive evaluation of the field.

Itis widely acknowledged that the design and quality of the business model is amain building block in what constitute a successful company. In this paper, weapproach the critical question of how firms can successfully renew theirbusiness models over time. The aim is to identify the main sequences of eventsthat precede business model innovation and which trigger evolutionary changesin how a firm develops and capture value. Theoretically, we approach businessmodel innovation as an evolutionary phenomenon by emphasizing the dynamic andpath dependent aspects of strategic change processes. Empirically, we employ ahistorical case study where we make an in-depth analysis of a firm in theprocess industry that has managed to innovate its business model several timessince its inception. In all, the study identifies five main sequences of eventsrelated to customer value proposition, strategic investments, corporateidentity, corporate structure, and value networks.

It is widely acknowledged that the design and quality of the business model is a main building block in what constitute a successful company. In this paper, we approach the critical question of how firms can successfully renew their business models over time. The aim is to identify the main sequences of events that precede business model innovation and which trigger evolutionary changes in how a firm develops and capture value. Theoretically, we approach business model innovation as an evolutionary phenomenon by emphasizing the dynamic and path dependent aspects of strategic change processes. Empirically, we employ a historical case study where we make an in-depth analysis of a firm in the process industry that has managed to innovate its business model several times since its inception. In all, the study identifies five main sequences of events related to customer value proposition, strategic investments, corporate identity, corporate structure, and value networks.

Research suggests that a strong and vigilant board can have a significant influence on the value-creating potential of medium-size companies. Yet, how best to conceptualize this relationship remains controversial. The mainstream approach has been to argue for a direct relationship between board demography and company performance. In opposition stands a growing number of scholars who argue that boards’ ability to perform board tasks effectively – their actual behaviour – should be taken into account. Empirical studies comparing the two approaches are however surprisingly scarce. Based on this observation, the aim of the study is to test the infl uence of boards of directors on CEOs’ commitment to take an entrepreneurial posture. Both demographic and behavioural board measures are included in the model. Statistical analysis on a sample of 175 medium-size manufacturing companies gives ample support for the behavioural approach. The study ends with a discussion of the results and suggestions for further research. © SAGE Publications, Inc. 2007.

This study seeks to advance the understanding of board empowerment in small companies. Predictions based on agency and resource dependency theories were used to examine how contingency factors correlate with board empowerment, in this study conceptualized as a larger number of board members, a higher representation of outside directors, and separate CEO and board chair positions. Statistical analyses on a sample of 135 small companies gave ample support for the agency-theoretic prediction that board empowerment in small companies is a response to satisfy the demands from owners not directly involved in managing the company. Other factors influencing board empowerment were younger CEOs, high degree of exports, and past poor company performance. The influence of these contingency factors, however, was not as strong and extensive as the presence of outside owners. The article ends with a discussion of the findings and their implications for understanding boards and governance in small companies. © 2007 by Baylor University.

Scholarly research positioned in the intersection of corporate governance and entrepreneurship has grown considerably in scale and scope during the past two decades. While mainstream research on corporate governance has been much concerned with large, publicly listed corporations (Daily et al., 2003; Gabrielsson and Huse, 2004) this particular research stream has addressed issues and problems specifically related to corporate governance in entrepreneurial settings (Huse, 2000; Daily et al., 2002; Gabrielsson and Huse, 2010). The research includes a range of various entrepreneurial settings, such as start-ups (e.g., Grundei and Talaulicar, 2002; Ingley and McCaffrey, 2007), venture capital (VC)- financed ventures (e.g., Rosenstein, 1988; Gabrielsson and Huse, 2004) and fast-growing firms (e.g., Nelson and Levesque, 2007; Wirtz, 2011), as well as organized efforts to support entrepreneurship and innovation in established corporations (e.g., Zahra, 1996; Zahra et al., 2000). This volume seeks to explore and expand on the rich body of knowledge that has emerged and developed in this direction. © Jonas Gabrielsson 2017. All rights reserved.

In this paper we develop a test a tentative framework of effectual board governance in high potential start-ups aimed at understanding how entrepreneurial founders think and behave in relation to their boards of directors when creating new firms and markets. Overall we draw on the theory of effectuation to suggest that entrepreneurial founders see their board of directors largely as a mechanism to explore and exploit uncertain situations. Based on this conceptual base, we develop theoretical explanations why some founders of high-potential start-ups are more likely to prefer effectual board practices than others. We test our hypotheses on a unique sample of founders who are actively operating and running high-potential start-ups. 

This study adopts a configurational approach to discover conditions common to graduates from venture creation programs who take a particular learning pathway to high entrepreneurial passion. Our theoretical framework identifies two primary sources of experiential learning (direct and vicarious experience) and three temporal vantage points (pre-, peri-, and post-education) conducive to such conditions. Employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on a sample of graduates from a Swedish university yields four configurations of present or absent conditions that are sufficient for producing high entrepreneurial passion. A uniting feature across all four configurations is the interplay between direct and vicarious experiences with core conditions closer rather than farther away in time. The identified configurations resulting from fsQCA thus imply intricate interdependencies of time-specific direct and vicarious experiences attributed to high entrepreneurial passion. © 2024 The Author(s)

In this article, we present an overview of empirical research on boards and governance in leading U.S. and international academic journals in general management. Samples, methods, theories, and main concepts are presented and compared. The contributions are positioned with respect to contingency perspectives, behavioral perspectives, and evolutionary perspectives. Through an analysis of 127 empirical articles, we find that most studies on boards and governance have been influenced by a research tradition that treats the board of directors as an isolated “black box.” Only few studies explore boards in context or explore behavioral perspectives of boards. Almost no studies include evolutionary perspectives. Based on our analysis, we explore alternative research streams and outline various directions for future research.

In this article, we present an overview of empirical research on boards and governance in leading U.S. and international academic journals in general management. Samples, methods, theories, and main concepts are presented and compared. The contributions are positioned with respect to contingency perspectives, behavioral perspectives, and evolutionary perspectives. Through an analysis of 127 empirical articles, we find that most studies on boards and governance have been influenced by a research tradition that treats the board of directors as an isolated “black box.” Only few studies explore boards in context or explore behavioral perspectives of boards. Almost no studies include evolutionary perspectives. Based on our analysis, we explore alternative research streams and outline various directions for future research.

Good governance for SMEs is critical for economic development and growth in both developed and developing economies. In this paper we focus on boards and governance in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) by investigating the role and contribution of “outside” directors in this setting. By contrasting board role theories against different types of SMEs, firms are expected to recruit “outside” board members for various reasons. Illustrated by 52 empirical studies of “outside” directors in SMEs we show how agency theory, resource based view of the firm, and resource dependence theory can be applied to understand the multiple roles that “outside” directors can play in family firms, venture capital-backed firms and other SMEs. The illustration shows that the concept “outside” director is not the same in different theories and in different empirical settings. Based on this finding, we argue for the need to have a conscious and balanced use of theories for understanding the role and contribution of “outside” directors in SMEs.

Sustainability has become a key concern for SMEs whose board members recognize the need to consider not only the financial bottom line but also the environmental and social performance of the business. Sustainability is about ethics because it calls on board members to consider the condition of current stakeholders as well as the potential condition of future people who are at the mercy of contemporary unsustainable production and consumption patterns. In this chapter, we build on recent developments of the extended team production theory to discuss the characteristics and behavior of value-creating boards in SMEs. We present an integrated value chain framework that may be used for developing the value-creating potential of boards to achieve the long-term sustainability goals of the business. © Till Talaulicar 2023.

The paper provides an attempt to direct the research in the area of venture capitalists and the board of directors in SMEs. Issues about boards in venture capital-backed technology based industrials are explored, and various research designs are used to meet different research questions. Empirical results indicate that venture capital firms purposefully use boards in the portfolio firm, and boards in venture capital-backed firms are more active than boards in other firms. The venture capitalist and the entrepreneur/owner-manager of the portfolio firm may have diverging expectations to board roles. In this setting the board becomes an interesting meeting place for studying the processes and the dynamics between external and internal stakeholders. Future research in this area should integrate board role theories and board process theories.

Current corporate governance recommendations—rooted in an investor-based shareholder supremacy model—often narrowly discuss the issue of board leadership as whether or not there is a separation of the CEO and chairperson positions. In this article, we employ a team production approach to better understand the leadership role of the board chairperson. We argue that effective board performance is driven by the extent to which corporate directors bring relevant knowledge into the boardroom. An important prerequisite, however, is that the knowledge must be actively used. In line with this argument, we contend that the competencies and behaviors of the board chairperson are critical in order to unleash a board’s value-creating potential.

The objective of this chapter is to discuss corporate governance in relation to small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). We examine the regulatory environment by reviewing corporate governance codes developed for SMEs as well as literature and research on corporate governance in SMEs. From this stance, we discuss the specificities of SMEs, including the multiple ideologies that often co-exist in these firms. Finally, the extended team production model of corporate governance is introduced. The model offers a balanced perspective on the full range of value-adding stakeholders in SMEs, and provides a set of guiding principles to improve the value creation potential of their corporate governance arrangements © Oxford University Press 2021

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to explore knowledge accumulation in research on pedagogy in entrepreneurship education, with particular attention to how core journal outlets, core topics and core scholarly works have developed over time.

Design/methodology/approach: The authors combine a systematic literature review technique and bibliometric analysis to depict the development of this stream of research in the period 1995–2018.

Findings: Findings from the analyses suggests that research addressing pedagogy in entrepreneurship education has developed into a coherent research theme over the past decade, with a noticeable cognitive structure in core research topics and core works, as well as a number of core journal outlets for debates and dissemination of findings.

Research limitations/implications: The study is anchored in a bibliometric research tradition and influenced by the strengths and weaknesses of this approach.

Originality/value: The paper provided contributes to the understanding of knowledge accumulation in research addressing pedagogy in entrepreneurial education. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

We conduct a systematic literature review of research on entrepreneurship education published in the period 1980-2017 to examine how entrepreneurship education research has developed as a scholarly field since the 1980s. Our search enables us to synthesize and analyse 334 articles published in 62 peer-reviewed academic journals. Two major observations emerge. First, entrepreneurship journals are over time playing a decreasing role as primary outlets for communicating and disseminating entrepreneurship education research. Second, entrepreneurship education research has over the past decades continued to be an interesting and highly relevant topic. However, the migration of entrepreneurship education research from “mainstream” entrepreneurship conferences and journals, combined with its closeness to (educational) practice, seems to have produced a practice-oriented research agenda largely guided by empirical descriptions, thus compromising some of its academic legitimacy.

Styrelser lyfts ofta fram som en outnyttjad resurs i nya och unga företag. Det finns dock begränsat med studier som lyfter fram det unga framväxande företagets särskilda behov och villkor. I denna artikel tar vi ett steg mot att bättre förstå användandet av styrelser i unga entreprenörsdrivna företag som vill växa och expandera på inhemska och internationella marknader. Studiens empiriska data kommer från unga företag som medverkat i Seed Forum International. Vi analyserar företagens finansieringskällor och utvecklingsfas i förhållande till deras styrelseaktivitet. Sammantaget visar studien att styrelsen får större roll och betydelse när organisationens resursberoenden utvecklas i takt med att företaget växer. Vidare finner vi att aktiva styrelser i unga entreprenörsdrivna företag tar ett helhetsansvar för organisationens utveckling genom att vara involverade i en bred repertoar av olika styrelserelaterade uppgifter.

Boards of directors are complex systems, and it is imperative to understand what the contextual forces are that shape the direction and make-up of boards. This Research Handbook provides inspiration for researchers and practitioners interested in the manifold dimensions and facets of context surrounding boards of directors. The contributions identify the complexity and multiplicity of contexts in which boards of directors work and operate, as well as indicating how board members interact with, and influence their contexts. The chapters explore national and institutional differences, divergent understandings of board requirements, climate change and boards’ duties, transformation due to digitalisation, family firms, and micro-contextual dynamics affecting boards and their decisions. This Research Handbook promotes board accountability, questions the relative position of companies in society, and reconsiders governance from a multiple context, multi-actor perspective. Building a greater understanding of the main issues and theories surrounding boards of directors, this Research Handbook will be ideal for students and scholars of business and governance. Practitioners and policy makers can also find material for their evolving frameworks. © Jonas Gabrielsson, Wafa Khlif and Sibel Yamak 2019. All rights reserved.

The growth of entrepreneurship education has played an important role in building up an academic infrastructure for entrepreneurship research. In this chapter we identify exemplary European contributions to entrepreneurship education research and practice. We discuss the evolution of entrepreneurship education as a scholarly field in Europe with particular emphasis on its social infrastructure and cognitive development. Thereafter we use a systematic literature review to identify important contributions made by European-based scholars to entrepreneurship education research published in peer-reviewed academic journals. Based on the review we identify top research journals with the most published articles on entrepreneurship education, the most cited articles, and the most influential scholars. We end the chapter with a description of the European Entrepreneurship Education Award (EEEA) together with summary analyses of the work of the six Award Laureates.

In this study, we contribute to research on the history of entrepreneurship education scholarship in the 1990s and early 2000s by focusing on the Internationalizing Entrepreneurship Education and Training Conference (IntEnt conference). Acknowledging the pioneering initiative of the IntEnt conference in a formative phase of the development of entrepreneurship as a teaching subject, our study delves into the scholarly field’s early collaborative endeavors and knowledge expansion. We collected descriptive data on the conference’s evolution by reaching out to conference hosts and key delegates. Additionally, we identified edited proceedings for content and bibliometric analyses of annual conference papers. The findings illuminate the role of the IntEnt conference in fostering an emerging academic infrastructure for international collaborations and knowledge exchange on entrepreneurship education. In this regard, the study provides a deeper understanding of the field’s evolutionary trajectory. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Contemporary entrepreneurial education (EE) has global reach and impact, with a growing number of entrepreneurship courses, specializations, and degrees in all parts of the world. There is no longer a question of the significance and demand for EE in the higher education system. At the same time, the interest in scientific knowledge and proven experience of “what works” has accelerated, resulting in a rapid growth in the number of scholars and research-based publications conversing vividly about the field. This chapter elaborates on the historical evolution of EE as a scholarly field. First, an overview of important milestones and major events that shaped the field is provided. Second, by focusing on the development over the last three decades, the authors present an overview of the advances that have occurred within the field in terms of practice, social, and research-based aspects. The historical review shows how EE began in, but gradually separated from entrepreneurship as a field, which can be observed in the development of research outlets, meeting places, and teaching practice. Consequently, this historical review can serve as a point of departure for showing how the field has emerged and how knowledge has been developed and accumulated over time. The authors believe that this review can be helpful for scholars, particularly new entrants such as PhD students and other scholars entering the EE field, to learn from and contextualize their own research-based historical insight.

The importance of high-growth entrepreneurship is widely acknowledged. Previous studies, however, have shown that only a few rapidly growing firms manage to sustain their growth trajectory over long periods. This paper addresses high-growth entrepreneurship in the Scania region of Sweden. The authors analyse a sample of high-growth firms and find that only a minority exhibit sustained high growth. They also compare sustainable high-growth firms with temporary high-growth firms, using unique data about their innovation and R&D activities. The analysis shows that sustainable high-growth firms are more often involved in activities aimed at developing and improving existing production processes, and are also less committed to international operations in new foreign markets. The results can be used to advise policy makers on how to understand and support high-growth entrepreneurship in regional innovation systems.

The recognition of new venture opportunities has been acknowledged as one of the most important abilities of successful entrepreneurs. Explaining the recognition of new venture opportunities has thus become an important element of the scholarly study of entrepreneurship. Building on this stream of research, we present a study of the influence of prior industry and functional work experience on entrepreneurs’ ability to recognize new venture opportunities. As a theoretical point of departure we acknowledge two alternative lines of reasoning in the literature as explanations of opportunity recognition; the expert thesis and the intersectional thesis. Statistical analysis is made on a sample of 291 Swedish individuals with recent experience of starting up a new venture. In all, the overall results give ample support for the intersectional thesis. The findings suggest that entrepreneurs with experience across different industries and work functions have an enhanced ability to recognize new venture opportunities. On the other hand, we do not find any support for the expert thesis. The findings show no association between deeper experience within a particular industry or work function and generating more new venture opportunities. In addition, a more fine grained analysis of the type of business opportunity recognized reveal supporting evidence that experience across functional areas is positively associated with more innovative business opportunities.

This paper follows a behavioral perspective on boards and governance in exploring the influence of board control on corporate innovation in small technology-based firms. An analysis of 135 Swedish technology-based firms suggests that board involvement in decision control may influence corporate innovation. The results suggest that board involvement in strategic decision control is positively associated with process innovation, while board involvement in financial decision control is positively associated with organizational innovation. No association is found between board involvement in decision control and product innovation.

This paper follows a behavioural perspective on boards and governance in exploring the influence of board control on corporate innovation in small technology-based firms. An analysis of 135 Swedish technology-based firms suggests that board involvement in decision control may influence corporate innovation. The empirical results show that board involvement in strategic decision control is positively associated with process innovation, while board involvement in financial decision control is positively associated with organizational innovation. No association is found between board involvement in decision control and product innovation. Overall, the findings suggest that board involvement in decision control may promote corporate innovation but that different kinds of decision control influence different forms of innovation.

In this article we examine the influence of board control on innovation in small technology-based firms. An analysis of 135 Swedish technology-based firms suggests that board involvement in the control over strategig decisions and outcomes can have a significant influence on innovation. The empirical results suggest that board strategic control involvement is positively associated with process innovation, while board involvement in financial control is positively associated with organizational innovation. No association is found between board control and product innovation. In all, our findings contribute to a better understanding of how bords may contribute to value creation in small technology-based firms and also suggest some areas where further scholarly inquiry is highly warranted.

The influence of entrepreneurs' career motives is examined on two alternative modes of decision-making logic; causation and effectuation. Based on Sarasvathy's (Acad Manage Rev 26(2):243-288, 2001) seminal study, causation is defined as a decision-making process that focuses on what ought to be done given predetermined goals and possible means, and effectuation as a decision-making process emphasizing the question of what can be done given possible means and imagined ends. Analysis suggests that entrepreneurs who identify themselves with linear or expert career motives have a higher preference for causal decision-making logic. Entrepreneurs who identify themselves with spiral or transitory career motives have a higher preference for effectual decision-making logic. In addition, indications that prior start-up experience moderates the relationship between career motives and effectual decision-making logic for spiral-minded entrepreneurs is found. The overall results give ample support for the assumption that entrepreneurs' career motives influence their decision-making.

The relation between entrepreneurial learning and innovation is poorly understood – especially with respect to how entrepreneurs build up their capability to create new ventures. In this chapter we employ arguments from theories of experiential learning to examine the extent to which entrepreneurs’ prior career experience is associated with entrepreneurial knowledge that can be productively used in the new venture creation process. We relate entrepreneurial knowledge to two distinct learning outcomes: the ability to (1) recognize new venture opportunities, and (2) cope with liabilities of newness. Based on analysis of data from 291 Swedish entrepreneurs, we provide novel insights into how and why entrepreneurs differ in their experientially acquired abilities in different phases of the new venture creation process. © 2012, IGI Global.