From latent to emergent entrepreneurship: The role of human capital in entrepreneurial founding teams and the effect of external knowledge spillovers for technology adoption

Building on the latent-emergent entrepreneurship framework, we investigate how different type of skills and combination of skills within entrepreneurial founding teams (EFTs) affect the adoption of latent vs emergent technologies (ICTs). We also examine the role of knowledge spillovers on the firm’s adoption of different types of technologies and how their effect is moderated by the set of skills that are present within the EFT. We contribute by showing that latent and emergent entrepreneurs decide differently when it comes to whether they should adopt a latent or an emergent version of a technology, by identifying what type or combinations of skills differentiate between latent and emergent entrepreneurs when it comes to ICT adoption, and finally by showing how entrepreneurs, depending on their set of skills, are able to take advantage of the knowledge gathered from external spillovers to adopt different types of technologies.