Small Business Economics最新文献

We adopt a pluralistic view of productive entrepreneurship to examine how various elements of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) affect both performance-based (high-growth entrepreneurship) and non-performance-based (proprietorship rate and new venture creation) outcomes. Our theoretical framework is guided by the recently developed three-step configurational approach, and our analysis employs fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on a comprehensive sample of U.S. regional EEs. We identified five types of EEs—Bottom-Up Ecosystem, Top-Down Ecosystem, Free Enterprise Foundation, Collectivistic VC-backed Ecosystem, and Individualistic VC-backed Ecosystem—highlighting diverse ways in which local resource endowments (e.g., talent and finance) and institutional arrangements (e.g., formal institutions and culture) combine to foster different entrepreneurial outcomes. This study broadens the applicability of the EE configurational approach, moving beyond the “Silicon Valley” model to embrace a more inclusive “Main Street” perspective, addressing the call for a more nuanced understanding of entrepreneurship determinants and outcomes across different contexts.

This paper explores the geography of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) and provides a typology of how EEs are connected trans-locally. Although the literature has mainly focused on the place-specificities of EEs, there is limited research on the trans-local connections established by entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs) that foster exogenous dynamics. Exploiting a longitudinal dataset of European startups participating in accelerator programs embedded within EEs, this study disentangles patterns of temporary relocation and maps the centrality of EEs through both network and cluster analysis. Our results support the notion of startups being locally embedded but also emphasize the flow of knowledge and resource exchange across different EEs. Eventually, the spatial network of temporary relocations highlights a mix of EE profiles, indicating that trans-local exchange through accelerator participation is the norm rather than the exception within EEs. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of EEs and the role of accelerators in facilitating and shaping trans-local entrepreneurial activities.

Both urban and rural firm entry rates have declined over the last three decades, and the urban–rural gap in firm entry rates has increased. We investigate which local market factors are associated with the divergence between 1993 and 2019. Our model includes local measures of firm agglomeration, population agglomeration, human capital, consumption demand, government fiscal policies, and natural amenities. Their effects on firm entry are consistent over time and have similar signs in both rural and urban markets. While the magnitudes of these factors have remained fairly stable over time, their impact on firm entry has diminished in both markets, which has lowered the rate of firm entry overall. Larger rural market declines in the importance of firm agglomeration, population agglomeration, and educated labor supply are the main factors driving the rising gap in urban–rural firm entry.

The entrepreneurial ecosystem concept has gained significant traction in both academic and policy discussions. However, the internal mechanisms and interrelations within and between entrepreneurial ecosystems are not fully understood: entrepreneurial ecosystem black boxes need to be opened. To advance the field, this special issue identifies key research themes essential to developing a rigorous and transdisciplinary entrepreneurial ecosystem research program. The first theme explores the configurations of entrepreneurial ecosystem elements, focusing on their structure, composition, and impact on different types of entrepreneurship. The second theme examines social interactions within and across entrepreneurial ecosystems, analyzing network characteristics, relationships, and temporal dynamics. The third theme investigates ecosystem outcomes, assessing entrepreneurial outputs and their contributions to aggregate welfare and sustainable development. The fourth theme delves into entrepreneurial ecosystem evolution, including mechanisms like entrepreneurial recycling and the feedback loops that drive ecosystem transformation. The fifth theme addresses entrepreneurial ecosystem boundaries, emphasizing the need for clear delimitation while recognizing inter-ecosystem connectivity. Finally, the sixth theme highlights the measurement of entrepreneurial ecosystems, advocating for standardized metrics to ensure comparability and the accumulation of knowledge. The special issue includes six original studies that contribute to opening these entrepreneurial ecosystem black boxes, employing diverse methodologies and addressing significant gaps in entrepreneurial ecosystem research. By fostering cumulative scholarship, this collection aims to enhance understanding and inform evidence-based policy and practice in entrepreneurial ecosystem development.

The quality of entrepreneurial ecosystems not only enables local startups, but also affects the attraction and supply of non-local founders. We conceptualize entrepreneurial ecosystems as open systems with inflows and outflows of entrepreneurial talent. Beyond individual agency, these talent flows are driven by the quality of the origin and destination entrepreneurial ecosystems. We use network analysis and gravity models to study the interregional flows of founders of non-local startups within Italy and find empirical evidence for the creation, attraction, and supply mechanisms of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Entrepreneurial ecosystems not only provide a supportive environment for the creation of local startups, but also attract non-local founders. In addition, we reveal an escalator mechanism: (prospective) entrepreneurs tend to move from good to better entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Whilst the literature on entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) predominantly concentrates on endogenously developed systems of entrepreneurial actors, this paper investigates the atypical emergence of EEs initiated by inward foreign direct investment (FDI). In these more deviant cases, international connectivity and public policy initiative are rooted in the ecosystem from the outset, but their interdependence has received only limited attention to date. This gap led to our research question: how does the interplay between public institutional support and international connectivity facilitate the emergence and growth of an entrepreneurial ecosystem in a ‘desert of knowledge’? An empirical analysis is undertaken on the development of the Medical Technology sector in two locations — Costa Rica Central Valley and the West of Ireland — where inward FDI from public policy initiative was the trigger for the genesis and subsequent growth of the sector in both regions. Despite having similar starting points, an entrepreneurial ecosystem has developed in one location (West of Ireland), whilst the other (Costa Rica Central Valley) has fallen short to date. By undertaking a comparative analysis, the main finding reveals that public institutional support must promote the local development of knowledge capabilities to absorb knowledge from abroad (outside-in) and transform knowledge to serve an international market through domestic new entrepreneurial firms and FDI (inside-out). The evolving nature, timing, and quality of public institutional support and international connectivity matters in hindering or promoting an EE from FDI.

We investigate the international network activity of entrepreneurial firms and its implications for the territorial boundaries of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Integrating the idea that territory and networks are distinct structures that can overlap with prior work suggesting that interorganizational networks formed by entrepreneurial firms pursuing opportunities transcend geographic boundaries, we focus on the antecedents to the international network activity of entrepreneurial firms in entrepreneurial ecosystems. We study how entrepreneurial ecosystem conditions, network embeddedness, and speed of firm growth influence the international network activity of 290 dedicated biotech firms located in four regional entrepreneurial ecosystems in Sweden over a period of 10 years. Descriptive data analyses reveal that the interorganizational networks created by the firms in our sample span territorial boundaries with more than half of all network activity involving a partner located in a foreign country. The results of a series of panel regression analyses further indicate that the conditions in the regional entrepreneurial ecosystems and firm characteristics influence the extent of international network activity. Through our work, we add to the scholarly understanding of the complex geography of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Our research highlights that the network activity of entrepreneurial firms oftentimes spans the territorial boundaries of entrepreneurial ecosystems and suggests that thinking outside the box of traditional predetermined administrative or political boundaries may inform more effective policy.

Public procurement can be defined as the process by which public contracting authorities purchase goods, services, and works from private suppliers, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The access of SMEs to public contracts is one of the objectives of public procurement policies, as they suffer from complex procedures and high transaction costs. At the same time, public procurement is increasingly being used as an instrument for environmental policies, through green clauses (i.e., mandatory specifications in the contract performance) and award criteria (i.e., the dimensions of the offers the contracting authority assesses). The objective of this empirical work is to determine whether environmental clauses and criteria have an impact on SME participation in award procedures. This paper assesses for the first time the compatibility between SME accessibility and environmental issues in public procurement with a dataset encompassing approximately 10,000 award procedures in France between 2022 and 2023. The findings indicate that green public procurement stimulates SME participation. The intensity of this effect may vary between environmental clauses and criteria across sectors, but there is no evidence of a deterrent effect of green public procurement on SMEs.

We examine immigrant self-employment in Sweden during the turbulent decade 2011–2021. This is done for different cohorts of immigrants from Africa and Asia and for unincorporated and incorporated firms. Immigrants have lower business earnings and higher exit rates from self-employment than natives, which is in line with previous research. The period in which the immigrants arrived in Sweden and the type of business they are engaged in have important implications for outcomes. In most cases, outcomes are more favorable for those who came to Sweden up to the turn of the millennium, and less so for the latest arrivals. Even so, a closer look at outcomes by organizational form reveals that immigrants who arrived during 2011–2021 suffered less in terms of lower business earnings compared to earlier cohorts if they were in incorporated instead of unincorporated self-employment. Switching organizational form is not associated with catching up on business earnings for immigrant self-employed vis-à-vis Swedish-born.

Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (EEs) are embedded in a global network of resource exchange relationships. To explain how EEs develop, one must consider the dynamics of resource exchanges. To do this, we combine a social capital perspective with the concept of strategic action fields in an abductive study of six cases of EEs. We find three dynamics of resource exchange, each drawing on a specific type of social capital and fostering either optimization or innovation of EEs’ offer to entrepreneurs. These findings contribute to the EE field by highlighting the relevance of inter-EE resource exchanges for developing competitive EEs. EE practitioners find that strategically managing the exchange of resources across the boundaries of their ecosystem is vital to balancing optimization of the established offer and innovating for enriched offers to entrepreneurs in their location.