Knowledge-Based Entreprenuership in Poland

66 Pages Posted: 3 Sep 2010

See all articles by Wojciech Pander

Wojciech Pander

CASE - Center for Social and Economic Research - CASE-Advisors

Richard Woodward

Centre for Social and Economic Research (CASE); University of Edinburgh - Business School

Patryk Koc

Industrial Research Institute for Automation and Measurements

Deniz E. Yoruk

University of Sussex

Date Written: August 1, 2010

Abstract

The importance of new firm creation in the post-Communist economies of East Central Europe (ECE) has been subject to extensive research. This paper focuses on an area of entrepreneurship which has received relatively little attention in the transition economy context but which is of particular importance for the modernization of the transition economies: knowledge-based entrepreneurship (KBE), or new firm creation in industries considered to be science-based or to use research and development (R&D) intensively. We begin by sketching the situation in Poland's small and medium-sized business sector, then proceed to outline the National Innovation System, with particular attention devoted to the question of finance and policy initiatives. We then turn to the analysis of a series of case studies in industries such as information technology, life sciences, digital navigation technology (mobile mapping systems), aviation, and other industries considered to be science-based or R&D-intensive. Among the issues treated are the resources and strategies involved in KBE in Poland, the relationships (networks) of the firms in question and how they are used for knowledge acquisition, and barriers to innovation. We find that overall Poland appears to be a relatively poor location for KBE. The knowledge resources of the firms studied here are largely in-house; there is very little evidence of distributed, or open, innovation here. These firms have also managed to achieve their successes with little or no help from the state, and have, in most cases, had to rely on networks of families or friends (including those in local industrial clusters) in order to sustain and develop their business.

Keywords: Knowledge-Based Economy, Entrepreneurship, Transition, Post-Communist, SMEs, Poland

JEL Classification: L26, O31, O52, P27

Suggested Citation

Pander, Wojciech and Woodward, Richard and Koc, Patryk and Yoruk, Deniz E., Knowledge-Based Entreprenuership in Poland (August 1, 2010). CASE Network Studies and Analyses No. 408, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1670141 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1670141

Wojciech Pander (Contact Author)

CASE - Center for Social and Economic Research - CASE-Advisors ( email )

Sienkiewicza 12
Fourth Floor
Warsaw, 00-010
Poland

Richard Woodward

Centre for Social and Economic Research (CASE) ( email )

Al. Jana Pawła II 61/212
00-944 Warsaw, 01-031
Poland

University of Edinburgh - Business School

University of Edinburgh
29 Buccleuch Place
Edinburgh, Scotland EH8 9JS
United Kingdom

Patryk Koc

Industrial Research Institute for Automation and Measurements ( email )

Warsaw
Poland

Deniz E. Yoruk

University of Sussex ( email )

Sussex House
Falmer
Brighton, Sussex BNI 9RH
United Kingdom

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
98
Abstract Views
1,000
Rank
486,005
PlumX Metrics