TY - JOUR
T1 - Entrepreneurial ecosystems
T2 - towards a systemic approach to entrepreneurship?
AU - Fredin, Sabrina
AU - Lidén, Alina
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Despite its relative newness, entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) have attracted much attention from research and policy but they are recognized to be largely untheorized. It is claimed that one aspect which distinguishes the EE perspective from other perspectives related to business environments is its systemic approach; however, much of the systemic approach still needs to be investigated. The aim of this paper is therefore to investigate how the systemic and complex approach of EEs can be theoretically strengthened. We do this by investigating what values complex adaptive system theory holds for advancing the EE perspective. We highlight four propositions which are of particular importance for strengthening the systemic approach of EE: spatial and component boundaries of the system; self-governance; the relational dimension between system components and the system; and the evolution of the system. We propose that boundaries should be seen as a natural part of the system, that a complex system is too complex to capture all components and all interactions, and that studying only individual activities will not enable us to fully understand the system’s behaviour.
AB - Despite its relative newness, entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) have attracted much attention from research and policy but they are recognized to be largely untheorized. It is claimed that one aspect which distinguishes the EE perspective from other perspectives related to business environments is its systemic approach; however, much of the systemic approach still needs to be investigated. The aim of this paper is therefore to investigate how the systemic and complex approach of EEs can be theoretically strengthened. We do this by investigating what values complex adaptive system theory holds for advancing the EE perspective. We highlight four propositions which are of particular importance for strengthening the systemic approach of EE: spatial and component boundaries of the system; self-governance; the relational dimension between system components and the system; and the evolution of the system. We propose that boundaries should be seen as a natural part of the system, that a complex system is too complex to capture all components and all interactions, and that studying only individual activities will not enable us to fully understand the system’s behaviour.
KW - Entrepreneurial ecosystems
KW - complex adaptive systems
KW - complexity
KW - entrepreneurship
KW - systemic approach
U2 - 10.1080/00167223.2020.1769491
DO - 10.1080/00167223.2020.1769491
M3 - Article
SN - 0016-7223
VL - 120
SP - 87
EP - 97
JO - Geografisk Tidsskrift
JF - Geografisk Tidsskrift
IS - 2
ER -