Sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem is one of the latest trends for researchers and practitioners (see TBSearch, 2019). Every institution and every city wish to become a successful entrepreneurial ecosystem. A fantastic place where second chances are welcomed, where innovation is a personal and collective goal, where the entrepreneurial spirit is cultivating in educational institutions, where risk taking and proactiveness are key characteristics. But how can it be possible?

Entrepreneurial ecosystems are sets of interdependent species connected through various interactions within a specific geographic area to foster entrepreneurship and new business creation.

What about successful ecosystems?

Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv, Boston’s Route 128, North Carolina’s Research Triangle, Waterloo, Boulder, Sophia Antipolis are some of the famous entrepreneurial ecosystems that succeeded to create this entrepreneurial mindset. Most research discussions focus on these successful ecosystems by describing their configuration to inspire other cities to do the same. Other discussions take for granted that these successful ecosystems just happened, without investigating the nature and birth of these ecosystems. Furthermore, these latest debates fail to explain why these ecosystems succeeded better than others and how successful entrepreneurial ecosystems could be created in other places while considering local specificities. (Read more…).

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This relationship between climate and innovative behavior has led to interest in the field of micro and small business entrepreneurship.

A plethora of new reports, materials, products, new financial networks, coupled with new joint venture possibilities, affect the way Micro, Small, and Mediumsized Enterprises (MSMES) do business globally. The number of articles, books, and symposia written on the role of the MSMEs in developing change and innovation is overwhelming. However, the literature fails to examine the affect national, city, and organizational climates have on entrepreneurs and the MSME’s ability to prosper in a very dynamic marketplace. For those of us involved and concerned about innovation and change, to overlook the key elements of climate distorts our understanding of the critical elements needed to foster entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystems.

This report will attempt to add to our understanding of how entrepreneurs and MSMEs interrelate with their climate to create innovative products and services. Researchers, managers, and government officials are becoming increasingly interested in examining how individuals and MSMEs can create an innovative and creative climate. This interest is fueled by the desire to understand the link between climate and the influence it has on individuals to develop and initiate new products, services, and systems. This relationship between climate and innovative behavior lead to interest in the field of micro and small business and entrepreneurship. This report will attempt to further explain this phenomenon from the perspective of the entrepreneur and the impact on the company. (Read more…)

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The future generation of entrepreneurs: Demands to set up the next entrepreneurial generation is setting already a green and sustainable agenda

In the European countries, the next generation of entrepreneurs sets highly selfconfident and strong-minded the agenda for future entrepreneurial activities. The source for the awakening can be traced back to the activities of Greta Thunberg of Sweden. In the pursuit of the objective to stop a global warming, students left the school on Fridays and demonstrated for measures to reduce CO2-emissions. This collective power and determination of the youth swirled together the national agenda. Previous discussion of market protectionism, the refugee crisis, or the debt problems of various members within the European Community were losing their impact on the political agenda power. The focus is now clearly laid on climate change and sustainability.

Moreover, their initiatives changed the perceptions of the next generation within society. The values and behaviours of European citizens changed within a few months and one could tell that their initiatives decided the recent election towards the European Parliament as was the case in the Germany demonstrates.

Although the need to take action to reduce the risk of a global warming as such are not new, national governments so far managed to define global treaties and goals. According to individual timetables, the implementations of the necessary measures were taken reluctantly due to the attempt to balance the requirements between the environment and the industry. (Read more…)

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In the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development the role of entrepreneurship in improving the quality of life for ordinary people, including disadvantaged groups is recognized, as it contributes to building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and fostering innovation. In regard to the SDGs under review in 2019, entrepreneurship is linked to SDGs 4 and 8. SDG target 4.4 aims to substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment and decent jobs and entrepreneurship. Concurrently, SDG target 8.3 sets out to promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), including through access to financial services. MSMEs are a key part of the equation as agents for and beneficiaries of inclusive development. In most countries, MSMEs are the main drivers of employment and important facilitators of income generation, poverty eradication and inequality reduction for the majority of the population, including disadvantaged groups. MSMEs are one of the best tools to address the challenge of creating 600 million new jobs by 2030, particularly for the youth as they provide sixty to seventy percent of formal employment in developing countries and eighty percent in subSaharan Africa. Moreover, transformational entrepreneurs create new products and business models and offer dignified employment, and their success leads to broader improvements in the quality of life and even bolsters fiscal sustainability. (Read more…)

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