How knowledge affects resource acquisition

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.