How knowledge affects resource acquisition: Entrepreneurs’ knowledge, intra-industry ties and extra-industry ties
Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies
ISSN: 2053-4604
Article publication date: 1 June 2015
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine how the interactions between the entrepreneur’s technical and market knowledge and the intra- and extra-industry ties affect resources acquisition.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors made a questionnaire from a sample of 300 high-technology companies located in the incubator in Xi’an, of which 165 were usable, and the final response rate was 55 per cent, the authors used optimal scaling regression analyses to analyze the data and test the hypotheses.
Findings
There is a positive relationship between the entrepreneurs’ knowledge and the resources acquisition. The effects of the technical knowledge and the market knowledge are contingent on the intra-industry ties and the extra-industry ties in different ways. In particular, an entrepreneur with technical knowledge has an easier access to required resources from the intra-industry ties than extra-industry ties. In contrast, an entrepreneur with market knowledge can obtain more easily the needed resources from the extra-industry ties than the intra-industry ties.
Originality/value
The paper conducted an empirical test of how the interactions between the entrepreneurs’ knowledge and industry ties affect the resources acquisition in the context of China’s emerging economy, which has not been studied in the current literature. This paper provides implications for entrepreneurs with technical and market knowledge in finding the right way to obtain needed resources through their industry ties.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71072133, 71372165) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. The authors gratefully acknowledge research support provided by the School of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Shaanxi, China. The authors are grateful to the anonymous referees and editors for their constructive and helpful suggestions.
Citation
Zhao, W. and Wang, L. (2015), "How knowledge affects resource acquisition: Entrepreneurs’ knowledge, intra-industry ties and extra-industry ties", Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 115-128. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEEE-11-2014-0040
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited