A Country’s Knowledge Stock and Entrepreneurial Growth Aspirations

This research examines the effect of a country’s knowledge stock on entrepreneurial growth aspirations and the moderating impact of uncertainty avoidance in this relationship. Drawing on the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship, we argue that a country’s knowledge stock positively affects entrepreneurial growth aspirations. Based on institutional theory, we also suggest that uncertainty avoidance negatively moderates the relationship between a country’s knowledge stock and entrepreneurial growth aspirations. By analyzing data that combines individual and country-level information from 36 countries between 2009 and 2012, this study found that there is an interaction effect of knowledge stock and uncertainty avoidance on entrepreneurial growth aspirations, such that the effect of knowledge stock on entrepreneurial growth aspirations is positive when uncertainty avoidance is low and negative when uncertainty avoidance is high.