Entrepreneurship and regional knowledge dynamics - empirical evidence from Germany

Abstract

The present thesis consists of four empirical papers dealing with the topic of entrepreneurship and its interdependence with regional knowledge dynamics in Germany. The papers examine the role of regional embeddedness on opportunity perception, the relevance of narratives in business ideas for their incorporation, the complex relation between regional innovation system characteristics and the absorption of knowledge as well as the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on business model preferences. The combination of three approaches – Schumpeterian tradition, regional innovation systems, and evolutionary economics – enables the analysis of entrepreneurship in the regional context and its relation to innovation policy rationales and different types of knowledge.