关键词: 创业知识运用, 创业教育, 创业自我效能, 创业激情, 潜变量增长模型

Abstract: Nascent entrepreneurs often join entrepreneurial training to capture relative knowledge for venture survival. Nonetheless, in addition to capturing entrepreneurial knowledge, transferring entrepreneurial knowledge throughout whole venture process is more crucial for new venture development. Specifically, the keeping and growth of entrepreneurial transfer plays an important role in whole entrepreneurial process. However, no, if any, research has been done to explore how entrepreneurial knowledge transfer will continuously unfold over time. To address the gap, the study conducted six-wave repeated measures and investigated within-person variability in the transfer of entrepreneurial knowledge after entrepreneurial training. Following the self-regulation theory, the research theorizes and examines how entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and passion (EP) influence the dynamics of entrepreneurial knowledge transfer. Due to the time-varying nature of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and passion, the research also examined whether ESE and EP have differential short- and long-term impacts on the transfer of entrepreneurial knowledge. Furthermore, the study clarified the relationship between entrepreneurial knowledge transfer and venture progress since entrepreneurial knowledge has been shown to enhance venture progress. Our study collected data from 180 nascent entrepreneurs in eight incubators and used a six-wave longitudinal study over 18 months to examine the dynamics of entrepreneurial knowledge transfer. Of the nascent entrepreneurs, 35 percent were female, the average age was 31.07 years (SD = 2.67). After nascent entrepreneurs have joined entrepreneurial training over a period, the survey first measured their ESE and EP. And then, the study repeated measures their entrepreneurial knowledge transfer and new venture progress at each three months. Our study adopts the latent growth model to clarify the mean level and subsequent development of entrepreneurial knowledge transfer and examine how ESE and EP relate to the mean level and subsequent development. The study also examines how the subsequent development (the mean level) of entrepreneurial knowledge transfer influences the subsequent growth (the mean level) of new venture progress. The results showed that ESE was positively related to the subsequent development of entrepreneurial knowledge transfer (β = .04, p < .05), whereas there is no significant effect on the mean level (β = -.06，p > .05). On the other hand, EP was positively related to the mean level of entrepreneurial knowledge transfer (β = .16, p < .05), but there is no significant effect on the subsequent development of entrepreneurial knowledge transfer (β = -.02, p > .05). The finding also showed that the subsequent development of entrepreneurial knowledge transfer was positively related to subsequent growth of new venture progress (β = 1.25, p < .05); however, there is no significant relationship between the mean level of entrepreneurial knowledge transfer and the mean level of new venture progress (β = .47, p > .05). The research extended existing understanding by exploring the dynamics of entrepreneurial knowledge transfer after entrepreneurial training. Furthermore, the study provided a new insight regarding the differential effects of ESE and EP on entrepreneurial knowledge transfer by which future research should consider the time-varying nature of ESE and EP. Finally, departing from existing research that focused on student population, the study examined the temporal dynamics of entrepreneurial knowledge transfer in the nascent entrepreneur population, which can provide more practical implications.

Key words: entrepreneurial knowledge transfer, entrepreneurial training, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial passion, latent growth model