Knowledge intensive entrepreneurship in Central and Eastern Europe: results of a firm level survey

New firms formation, as one of the key mechanisms of entrepreneurship, is relatively high in the region though slowing down in all countries in recent years. This dynamism shows two faces. On one hand, we observe very limited KBE, which is confined on few sectors, among which software is the most common. On the other hand, entrepreneurship is very often expression of survival rather than of new opportunities as new firms formation is not followed by investments. In particular, KEINS has explored network requirements in EE Countries for start-up entrepreneurship and for academic entrepreneurship. Indeed, in some sectors conditions for KBE are more favourable than in others i.e. common differences, which arise from low levels of development, are found to be significantly smaller in some sectors than in others. This research has also generated a critical new mass of understanding of KBE in EE so that it will inform EU structural policy.