Knowledge Intensive Entrepreneurship

Abstract

How and why are firms created, expanded and terminated by entrepreneurs in the knowledge intensive economy? The authors show these entrepreneurship processes are firmly embedded in a given social and economic context, that shapes the process by which some individuals discover entrepreneurial opportunities, creating new firms that sometimes grow to remarkable size, but more often stay mundane or eventually exit.

The authors expertly provide a theoretical and empirical examination of new knowledge intensive firms over their whole life cycle using a unique set of matched employee–employer data containing over three million individuals and over 200,000 firms. With theoretical pillars anchored in industrial organization economics, evolutionary organization theory, and entrepreneurship research, this book presents a detailed investigation of the entrepreneurial processes of firm entry, growth, and their eventual demise.

This insightful book will prove to be invaluable for business policymakers as well as postgraduate students and researchers in management, economics, and entrepreneurship.

Abstract

This insightful book will prove to be invaluable for business policymakers as well as postgraduate students and researchers in management, economics, and entrepreneurship.

Qualitative Comparative Analysis in Entrepreneurship Research

Article (with peer review)Publication

Rönkkö, M., Maula, M., Wennberg, K.

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Publication year

2025

Published in

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (ETP)

Abstract

Configurational research has great promise in entrepreneurship. There are few universal laws or relationships that hold under all circumstances. More often, optimal entrepreneurial outcomes are contingent on many factors. Consequently, configurational analysis using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) has become increasingly popular. However, methodological research in sociology and political science has raised concerns about possible false positive findings produced by this method. In this editorial, we explore the potential and the common pitfalls of QCA in entrepreneurship research, as well as guidelines for its use.

Seeking opportunity or socio-economic status? Housing and school choice in Sweden

Article (with peer review)Publication

Andersson, F. W., Mutgan, S., Norgren, A., & Wennberg, K.

Publication year

2025

Published in

Urban Studies, 62(2), 367-386.

Abstract

Residential choices and school choices are intimately connected in school systems where school admission relies on proximity rules. In countries with universal school choice systems, however, it remains an open question whether families’ residential mobility is tied to the choice of their children’s school, and with what consequences. Using administrative data on all children approaching primary-school age in Sweden, we study to what extent families’ financial and socio-economic background affects mobility between neighbourhoods and the characteristics of schools chosen by moving families. Our findings show that families do utilise the housing market as an instrument for school choice over the year preceding their firstborn child starting school. However, while families who move do ‘climb the social ladder’ by moving to neighbourhoods with more households of higher socio-economic status, their chosen schools do not appear to be of higher academic quality compared to those their children would otherwise have attended.

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Does local government corruption inhibit entrepreneurship?

Article (with peer review)Publication

Wittberg, E., Erlingsson, G. Ó., Wennberg, K.

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Publication year

2024

Published in

Small Business Economics, 62(2), 775-806

Abstract

The dominant ‘sand in the wheels’ view holds that entrepreneurship is strongly inhibited by corruption. Challenging this, the ‘grease the wheels’ view maintains that corruption might increase entrepreneurship in highly regulated economies. We extend the basic predictions of these theories by examining entrepreneurs’ start-up decisions, as well as their location choices, in a seemingly low-corruption environment: Swedish municipalities. Combining a validated index of corruption perceptions in local government with population data on new entrepreneurs, nested logit models reveal that even in a low-corruption setting such as Sweden, perceptions of corruption can deter latent entrepreneurs. We also find that a minority of entrepreneurs relocate from their home municipalities to establish their start-ups elsewhere. Surprisingly and contrary to expectations, these relocating entrepreneurs often relocate from relatively low-corruption municipalities to others that are more corrupt. Implications for future research and public policy are discussed.

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