This paper investigates the impact of returnee entrepreneurs and their knowledge spillovers on innovation in high-tech firms in China. Using panel data for 1,318 high-tech firms in Beijing Zhongguancun Science Park (ZSP) we find that returnee entrepreneurs create a significant spillover effect that promotes innovation in other local high-tech firms. The extent of this spillover effect is positively moderated by the non-returnee firm's absorptive capacity approximated by the skill level of employees. Multinational enterprises' R&D activities positively affect the innovation intensity of non-returnee firms only when these local firms possess the sufficient level of absorptive capacity. Our findings have important policy and managerial implications for policy-makers and practitioners.

本研究是針對原產業成長期創業差異化階段的探索性研究。原產業成長期創業可定義為：創業者或團隊離開原來的事業後，在原產業的成長期，獨立創立了一個新事業。例如，華碩、雅姿舞蹈社（亞力山大的前身）都屬於原產業成長期創業。 由於創業開始後，新事業要做出產品，然後才能產生後續績效，因此依照時間軸可以將創業理論分解為：初始因素→新產品→創業績效。現有創業理論對原產業成長期創業現象並沒有提供完整的解答，但已得出的部份結果可以引導我們對此現象進一步聚焦。第一，新事業策略層次的研究已發現，新事業產品的差異性和稀少性顯著影響新事業績效。由於上述因果關係的後段已解決，因此指導我們探索前段的問題：什麼初始因素產生差異性產品？即應該聚焦到產品差異化階段研究。第二，過去創業者層次的研究已發現，以相同產業「工作年數」代替的「產業特殊經驗」顯著影響創業績效的高低。因為經驗是實務的知識，因此這類研究結果顯示知識是一項初始因素，值得進一步研究創業者的初始知識。第三，奧地利經濟學者和一些創業學者指出，創業機會是影響創業成敗的一項初始因素，但迄今沒有學者清楚地描述出創業機會的樣子和它對績效的影響。這些文獻顯示應進一步探索初始創業機會和它對產品差異化的影響。文獻已顯示創業者知識和創業機會是解釋產品差異化的初始因素，但二者下層的因素仍未充分揭露出來。由於過去的創業研究沒有聚焦在差異化階段，仍存在許多未解開的問題，因此本研究聚焦在原產業成長期創業的主要產品差異化階段進行研究。 對於本研究聚焦的現象，本研究問題為：在原產業成長期創業的差異化階段，哪些知識和機會構念下層的因素透過差異化過程產生產品屬性與競爭優勢？本研究的目的為：經由對此現象進行深入的探索，揭露出影響產品差異化的知識與機會的深層原因，建立整合知識與機會解釋產品差異化及利潤的理論。 本研究採用Eisenhardt(1989)描述的探索性個案研究方法，從個案研究建立理論。本研究針對原產業成長期創業現象，聚焦在主要產品差異化過程。總分析單位是在主要產品線層次。本研究接觸到3家原產業成長期創業廠商，取得了3個成功個案和1個失敗個案資料。資料收集包含訪問二位以上創業團隊成員、競爭廠商中的管理者和收集產業次級資料。 本研究經由分析四個個案的主要產品線資料，得出以下命題與發現。 命題一：產品有價值的差異程度愈大、產品稀少程度愈大、產品需求強度愈大，則產品競爭優勢程度愈大。 命題Ⅱ：若創業者的產業內通用知識強度小，則有產品競爭劣勢。 本研究發現，原產業成長期的創業機會為產業環境中存在的一種情境結構，本研究定義並命名為「創業機會結構」，它由以下項目構成：(1) 存在上游差異性新要素；(2) 存在下游市場需求；(3) 存在有利的競爭情勢，包含(a)既有競爭廠商數量小，(b)既有競爭廠商利用程度小，(c)潛在競爭廠商延遲行動；(4)存在功能互補廠商。 創業者知識與創業機會對於產品差異化的影響關係如下： 命題二：在創業者的產業內通用知識強度大的條件下，若創業者有異質的知識，或產業環境中存在創業機會，或二者都存在，則新事業可推出差異性與稀少性的產品。 命題二A：在創業者的產業內通用知識強度大的條件下，若創業者僅有產業內通用知識，且產業環境中存在創業機會，則新事業可推出差異性與稀少性的產品。 命題二B：在創業者的產業內通用知識強度大的條件下，若創業者僅有產業內通用知識，且產業環境中不存在創業機會，則新事業不能推出差異性與稀少性的產品。 命題二C：在創業者的產業內通用知識強度大的條件下，若創業者有異質知識，且產業環境中存在創業機會，則新事業可推出差異性與稀少性產品。 命題二D：在創業者的產業內通用知識強度大的條件下，若創業者有異質知識，且產業環境中不存在創業機會，則新事業可推出差異性與稀少性產品。 創業者異質知識屬性對產品屬性的影響關係如下： 命題三A：異質知識有價值的差異程度愈大，則產品有價值的差異程度愈大。 命題三B：異質知識稀少程度愈大，則產品稀少程度愈大。 命題三C：異質知識難以模仿程度，正向調節產品競爭優勢程度與產品利潤間的正向關係。 命題三：創業者知識的有利程度愈大，則產品利潤愈大。 創業機會結構中各項目的屬性程度對產品屬性的影響關係如下： 命題四A：要素有價值的差異程度愈大，則產品有價值的差異程度愈大。 命題四B：整體市場需求強度愈大，則產品需求強度愈大。 命題四Ca：既有競爭者的數量愈小，則產品稀少程度愈大。 命題四Cb：既有競爭者資源利用程度負向調節，整體市場需求強度與產品需求強度的正向關係。 命題四Cc：潛在競爭者行動延遲程度，正向調節產品競爭優勢程度與產品利潤的正向關係。 命題四：創業機會結構的有利程度愈大，則產品利潤愈大。 本研究對創業理論的貢獻包含以下幾方面。主要貢獻包含：第一，建立了整合理論。本研究在原產業成長期創業情境對交集現象，建立了以創業者知識、創業機會解釋產品差異化與利潤的整合理論。本研究針對創業最核心的差異化階段，建立了整合理論，使創業理論有了核心。第二，發現了創業機會結構。本研究經由探索發現了創業機會結構，描述出了創業機會的樣子，並分析清楚了構成它的項目對差異化相關的產品屬性和競爭優勢的影響。第三，橋接了創業與策略，引導二個領域的學者對話。本研究運用策略理論觀引導分析資料與建立理論的過程，因此本研究橋接了創業與策略，引導二個領域的學者對話。次要貢獻包含：第一，釐清了產品層次的構念和構面。第二，本研究以資源基礎觀引導，釐清了創業者知識下層的概念，並分析清楚了它們對產品屬性和競爭優勢的影響。 本研究建立的理論有實務含義，可以使產業成長期的潛在創業者（既有企業管理者）的策略思考更有效，因此對企業實務界人士有價值。概括而言，本研究對實務人士的啟示如下：(1)創業者擁有夠強的產業內經營知識是能夠創業成功的基本條件；(2)在產業內通用知識強的條件下，若創業者有異質知識或外部存在創業機會能使差異化成功，因此值得投入創業；若創業沒有異質知識及外部不存在創業機會，則創業者不應投入創業(3)本研究提出的創業機會結構，可以協助潛在創業者在創業決策階段辯認是否存在創業機會，避免創業時沒有機會或利用的不是創業機會。 / Starting new businesses in the growth stage of an industry is a special type of entrepreneurship as identified in this study. The same industry-growth stage entrepreneurship is defined as the following: after an entrepreneur (or entrepreneurial team) leaves a prior business, he/she then founds a new venture in the same industry which his prior work is in and is in the growth stage. The cases of ASUS(?) and Alexander are examples. The life of a start-up, as depicted by entrepreneurial studies, can be decomposed as: initial factors→product→performance. Current entrepreneurship studies have offered some answers to this phenomenon. First, studies have shown that a product’s extent of differentiation and rarity can predict performance. These findings prompt us to explore the question of which initial factors producing differentiated products (i.e., focusing on the product differentiation stage). Second, previous studies have found that an entrepreneur’s industry experience or industry-specific experience (using the years of work as a proxy) significantly affects performance. Because experience is a kind of knowledge, these results point out that knowledge can be regarded as an initial factor and thus it highlights the importance of exploring an entrepreneur’s knowledge. Third, Austrian economists point out that entrepreneurial opportunity is an initial factor and it influences entrepreneurial success. Up to now no studies illustrates the shape of entrepreneurial opportunities and explain how it influences entrepreneurial performance. Thus further exploration of entrepreneurial opportunities and how they affect product differentiation is needed. Although we already known an entrepreneur’s knowledge and entrepreneurial opportunity are major initial factors, we have no knowledge of lower level factors. Because the researches have not focused on the product differentiation stage, this research will concentrate on the product differentiation stage. The research question of the study is: in the differentiation stage of the same industry-growth stage start-ups, what lower level factors of knowledge and opportunity produce product competitive advantages? The objective of the research is: by identifying the lower factors, entrepreneurs’ knowledge and opportunities can be integrated into theories of entrepreneurship to explain product differentiation and profits. This research adopted the exploring theory building case study proposed by Eisenhardt (1989). The level of analysis was the main product line of a start-up. The data of three firms, in the form of 3 successful cases and 1 failed case, were collected. In addition to secondary data, at least two executives, either were founding team members or high-level managers, were interviewed for gathering the primary data. Through data analysis enable us to offer the following propositions: Proposition 1: The higher the levels of the value of product differentiation, product rarity and product demand intensity, the higher the product competitive advantage. Proposition Ⅱ: The lower the level of an entrepreneur’s industry-specific knowledge, the lower the product competitive advantage. We discovered that entrepreneurial opportunity is a specific situational structure in an industry. We termed it ‘entrepreneurial opportunity structure’. It is composed of four items: (1) the existence of upstream differentiated and new factors; (2) the existence of downstream market demands; (3) the existence of favorable competitive situation, including few competitors, less extent of action by competitors, late actions by competitors and more availability of complementary firms. Relationships among entrepreneurs’ knowledge, entrepreneurial opportunity, and product differentiation are indicated below. Proposition 2: When an entrepreneur has a high level of industry-specific knowledge, higher level of heterogeneous knowledge or the existence of an entrepreneurial opportunity (or both) makes it possible to launch a differentiated and rare product. Proposition 2A: When an entrepreneur has a high level of industry-specific knowledge, industry-specific knowledge, coupled with the existence of an entrepreneurial opportunity, makes it possible to launch a differentiated and rare product. Proposition 2B: When an entrepreneur has a high level of industry-specific knowledge, industry-specific knowledge, coupled with the non-existence of an entrepreneurial opportunity, makes it impossible to launch a differentiated and rare product. Proposition 2C: When an entrepreneur has a high level of industry-specific knowledge, higher level of heterogeneous knowledge and the existence of an entrepreneurial opportunity makes it possible to launch a differentiated and rare product. Proposition 2D: When an entrepreneur has a high level of industry-specific knowledge, higher level of heterogeneous knowledge and the non-existence of an entrepreneurial opportunity makes it possible to launch a differentiated and rare product. The relationship between heterogeneous knowledge and product attributes are listed below: Proposition 3A: The higher the value of heterogeneous knowledge, the higher the valuable difference of a product. Proposition 3B: The higher the rarity of heterogeneous knowledge, the higher the rarity of a product. Proposition 3C: The level of difficulty of imitation of heterogeneous knowledge moderates the positive relationship between product competitive advantage and product profit. Proposition 3: The higher the usefulness of an entrepreneur’s knowledge, the higher the product profit. The relationships between attributes of entrepreneurial opportunity structure and product attributes are listed below: Proposition 4A: The higher the valuable difference of a factor, the higher the valuable difference of a product. Proposition 4B: The higher the market demand intensity, the higher the product demand intensity. Proposition 4Ca: The less the number of competitors, the higher the rarity of a product. Proposition 4Cb: The degree of exploitation of resource by competitors negatively moderates the positive relationship between the market demand intensity and product demand intensity. Proposition 4Cc: The extent of delayed actions by competitors positively moderates the positive relationship between product competitive advantage and product profit. Proposition 4: The higher the potential of profitability of entrepreneurial opportunity structure, the higher the product profit. The major contributions of the research to entrepreneurship theories include the following: First, we built a integrated theory including entrepreneurs’ knowledge and entrepreneurial opportunities to explain product differentiation and profit. Because differentiation is the core to entrepreneurship, our integrated theory emphasizes the core of the theory. Second, this research identified entrepreneurial opportunity structure, and illustrated that entrepreneurial opportunity structure influences product attributes and competitive advantage. Entrepreneurial opportunity structure reflects the shape of entrepreneurial opportunity. Third, this research bridged entrepreneurship and strategy strategies, making the conversion between the two streams of research possible. Fourth, we clarified the construct and dimensions of product in start-ups. Lastly, we clarified the sub-constructs under entrepreneurs’ knowledge and their impact on product attributes and competitive advantage. The findings of the research have practical implications. It can make strategic thinking of potential entrepreneurs in the same industry-growth stage more effective. The implications are: (1) It is a necessary condition that an entrepreneur has enough industry-specific knowledge to be successful; (2) When an entrepreneur has a high level of industry-specific knowledge, if entrepreneur have heterogeneous knowledge or there is an entrepreneurial opportunity in industry environment, then differentiation can success, thus he worth to take entrepreneurial action. If entrepreneur have not heterogeneous knowledge and there is not an entrepreneurial opportunity, then he should not take entrepreneurial action; (3) Discovered entrepreneurial opportunity structure can help potential entrepreneur identify entrepreneurial opportunity in entrepreneurial decision stage, and avoid exploiting a non-entrepreneurial opportunity.