Academic entrepreneurship as a factor of knowledge spillovers in the regions – the case of Malopolska region

With the transition towards a knowledge-based economy, entrepreneurship has become a focus of public policy, especially on the regional level, as one of the most significant factors of economic growth. The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship is based on the assumption that entrepreneurs act as a missing link in the knowledge-based economy, by converting incompletely commercialized knowledge into economically significant one. They do so by founding new ventures – start-ups – in order to exploit knowledge created in larger companies, which are unwilling to commercialize new ideas due to a high level of uncertainty. In this sense, starting up a new company acts as a conduit for the spillover of knowledge. The aim of the paper is to explain the foundations of the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship. In the second part of the paper, the analysis of the Małopolska region in the light of the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship is carried out. The special focus is on academic entrepreneurship in the region, since the theoretical concept of knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship may well serve as a framework to analyze knowledge-based ventures.