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Prior Knowledge And New Product And Service Introductions By Entrepreneurial Firms: The Mediating Role Of Technological Innovation., Patrick Murphy, Jintong Tang

Patrick J. Murphy

Most research on new product and service development by entrepreneurial firms takes an individual-level, pre-launch perspective or firm-level post-launch perspective. Our study examines two components of the new product and service introduction process: how entrepreneurs’ prior knowledge underpins (1) firm technological innovation prior to the introduction of new products and services (pre-launch) and (2) post-launch viability of those new products and services. Our findings, based on a series of analyses of data from 158 entrepreneurial firms, show that formal technological innovation fully mediates the relation between prior knowledge and the introduction of viable new products and services.