Knowledge Intensive Entrepreneurship and engineering graduates in Greece

Knowledge intensive entrepreneurship (KIE) can be considered as a type of high potential entrepreneurship and indicates ventures whose initiation or expansion is based on the dynamic application of new knowledge. One of the... [ view full abstract ]

Knowledge intensive entrepreneurship (KIE) can be considered as a type of high potential entrepreneurship and indicates ventures whose initiation or expansion is based on the dynamic application of new knowledge. One of the key enabling factors of KIE is human capital. In this context the pool of tertiary education graduates that may opt for an entrepreneurial career, explore a potential business opportunity or even decide to bring into the market the research that they have undertaken during their post graduate studies, represent an important source of this special type of new venture creation (KIE).
This paper focuses on engineering graduates and the specific role of Universities’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Units in supporting them to become entrepreneurs. We argue that encouraging this pool of human capital that is most exposed to scientific and technological knowledge towards entrepreneurship may increase the specific weight of KIE to the overall new entrepreneurship creation
Our empirical assessment is based on a field research conducted among 1500 engineers that have graduated from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in the 2001-2010 period. NTUA represents one of the oldest and most prestigious educational institutions in the field of technology in Greece.