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Looking inside the spiky bits : a critical review and conceptualisation of entrepreneurial ecosystems

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BrownSBE2017_LookingInside_CC.pdf (801.5Kb)
Date
06/2017
Author
Brown, Ross Crawford
Mason, Colin
Keywords
Entrepreneurship
High growth
Entrepreneurial ecosystems
Entrepreneurship policy
HD28 Management. Industrial Management
T-NDAS
BDC
R2C
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Abstract
The concept of entrepreneurial ecosystems has quickly established itself as one of the latest ‘fads’ in entrepreneurship research. At face value, this kind of systemic approach to entrepreneurship offers a new and distinctive path for scholars and policy makers to help understand and foster growth-oriented entrepreneurship. However, its lack of specification and conceptual limitations has undoubtedly hindered our understanding of these complex organisms. Indeed, the rapid adoption of the concept has tended to overlook the heterogeneous nature of ecosystems. This paper provides a critical review and conceptualisation of the ecosystems concept: it unpacks the dynamics of the concept; outlines its theoretical limitations; measurement approaches and use in policy-making. It sets out a preliminary taxonomy of different archetypal ecosystems. The paper concludes that entrepreneurial ecosystems are a highly variegated, multi-actor and multi-scalar phenomenon, requiring bespoke policy interventions.
Citation
Brown , R C & Mason , C 2017 , ' Looking inside the spiky bits : a critical review and conceptualisation of entrepreneurial ecosystems ' , Small Business Economics , vol. 49 , no. 1 , pp. 11-30 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-017-9865-7
Publication
Small Business Economics
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-017-9865-7
ISSN
0921-898X
Type
Journal article
Rights
© The Author(s) 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Description
The authors wish to thank the Organisational for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for funding their original research on entrepreneurial ecosystems.
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/10785

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