Knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship: sectoral patterns in a sample of European high-tech firms

This paper studies the relative importance of prior knowledge and resources available to a startup at the time of its founding across technologies. Our analysis is based on a survey submitted to the founders of new innovative ventures patenting in the biotech, electronics and medical devices technologies. Our findings show that pre-entry knowledge about customers’ needs and characteristics, about the technology and about potential suppliers and competitors differentially affect the technological and market entrepreneurial choice of the surveyed firms. These results suggest the existence of patterns of entrepreneurial activities that are technology-specific.