Regional systems of entrepreneurship: The nexus of human capital, knowledge, and entrepreneurial activity

The principal purpose of this dissertation is to systematically explain regional variation in entrepreneurial activity in the knowledge economy context. It puts equal emphases on conceptual development, theory building and empirical tests. The dissertation starts by introducing a systems approach to entrepreneurship. The concept of regional systems of entrepreneurship addresses all the important regional factors that may interactively influence the creation, discovery and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities. Within this conceptual framework, a three-phase structural model for knowledge-based regional entrepreneurship systems is proposed, in which human capital attraction and knowledge production pave the way for the boom of new firm formation. To build the theoretical foundation for this model, the dissertation develops an absorptive capacity theory of knowledge spillover entrepreneurship that highlights the role of new knowledge in creating entrepreneurial opportunities and the role of human capital in building absorptive capacity for entrepreneurial discovery and exploitation. The three-phase model is further empirically tested based on data at the US Metropolitan level using path analysis/structural equation modeling (SEM). The conceptual framework of systems of entrepreneurship addresses the importance of entrepreneurs and new firms in knowledge economies, which has been overlooked by the literature on systems of innovation. The structural model is among the first attempts to endogenize the creation of entrepreneurial opportunities in the entrepreneurship literature. And the empirical results shed light on urban policies made to build a vibrant entrepreneurship system.