Innovation and networking among entrepreneurs across generations of Asian tigers

Abstract

Much attention has been paid to analysing the determinants of the economic development in the different generations of Asian tiger economies. This stream of research has provided valuable insights on the particular generational challenges, the tigers face in implementing successful catching up-strategies. The literature has, however, not paid much systematic attention to generational differences in connection to moving from an imitation-based strategy towards an innovation-based strategy. This is especially the case concerning the entrepreneurial companies. On the basis of the global entrepreneurship monitor (GEM) data, this paper aims at reducing this research gap by conducting an analysis of the generational differences between the tiger economies entrepreneurs in respect to their innovative performance, their inclination to network and the importance of the quality of the network for their innovative performance. The paper finds a significant difference in the quality of the networks and its impact on innovation across the tiger generations.