KNOWLEDGE CREATION, KNOWLEDGE EXPLOITATION, AND EMPLOYEE VENTURING BEHAVIORS AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL: THE MODERATING ROLE OF NATIONAL ENTREPRENEURIAL VALUES

The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship (KSTE) posits that knowledge created but underexploited in knowledge-creating organizations endogenously generate entrepreneurial opportunities through knowledge spillovers, such as employee venturing behaviors (EVBs). Although prior KSTE studies have examined the impact of a country’s entire knowledge stock on its total entrepreneurial activities, it remains unclear how national EVBs are influenced by knowledge creation and knowledge exploitation at the national level and how such influences vary across nations with differing entrepreneurial values (NEVs) that include innovative, proactive, and risk-taking values. By analyzing a multi-source dataset from 52 countries ranging from 2011 to 2017, this study reveals that knowledge creation positively influences knowledge exploitation at the national level with a diminishing marginal effect, while the latter negatively affects national EVBs. Additionally, knowledge creation has a U-shape relationship with EVBs at the national level, and this U-shape relationship is strengthened by national entrepreneurial values. This article is among the first to conduct a cross-country study on national EVBs by elaborating on the different driving effects of knowledge creation and knowledge exploitation and specifying national entrepreneurial values as important boundaries of these driving effects.