AUTOTELIC CAPABILITIES AND KNOWLEDGE INTENSIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN LOW TECH SECTORS

In this paper Autotelic Capabilities (ACs) are introduced as the necessary abilities for the individual firm to create new forms of competitive advantage based on knowledge, in order to survive early death and prosper in the mature business ecosystems of low tech sectors, in a first attempt to shed light on the unexplored strategic side of the entrepreneurial start up activity in low tech sector within the notion of knowledge intensive entrepreneurship (KIE). The logic of grounded theory was followed in the analysis of multiple exploratory case studies with the individual low-tech company as the unit of analysis. Companies of the three most representative low tech sectors in Greece were selected from databases after sectoral experts’ recommendation. Triangulation through the use of multiple data sources, theoretical perspectives, and methods increased the credibility and validity of the results.