Ecosystems have emerged as new perspective and tool to facilitate entrepreneurship and SMEs in the face of competitive environments and societal challenges.
The term refers, analogous to biologics, to interacting organizations or ‘factors’ that rely on each other’s activities. Whereas for stimulating entrepreneurship attention was traditionally paid to a limited set of factors (e.g. access to finance) and often aiming for specific target groups (e.g. women entrepreneurs), now a more systemic perspective that acknowledges the interplay of various actors and factors appears to resonate among both academics and policy makers.
For effective use of local entrepreneurial ecosystem tools, local actors including entrepreneurs and policy makers need to align on a socio-economic vision for the region, taking into account the local institutional heritage.
Based on this they can diagnose to what extent specific conditions and/or linkages between different actors and factors should be improved in their local territory. However, at present local decision makers are ill-equipped to make appropriate diagnoses.
A harmonized approach on local entrepreneurial ecosystems, firmly rooted in the academic literature and combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, is an important if not necessary ingredient to advance economic performance and wellbeing through entrepreneurship in local areas. (Read more…)
