Entrepreneurial ecosystems are becoming a widely-used approach by policy makers to stimulate regional economic development. The concept itself follows a long history of territorial models of innovation and entrepreneurship. While there is a growing consensus on what an entrepreneurial ecosystem is, there is still a gap in the literature with regard to how different ecosystem ‘configurations’ lead to different outputs. In particular, how do ecosystems, which are inherently based on the role of ‘place’ and cross-industry fertilisation, interact with regional clusters as well as innovation ecosystems/platforms that are not geographically bound?
The specific research questions will be developed by the successful applicant and the supervisory team. Potential research questions include, but are not limited to:
How is the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem related to the development of the involved clusters?
What role does policy play in growing local innovative and entrepreneurial activity?
What resources do entrepreneurs rely on when growing their business and how do they engage with other ecosystem and cluster actors/resources?
What role do industry- or technology-specific and cross-industry fertilisation polices play in growing entrepreneurial ecosystems?
Which institutional factors are required to support ‘place-based’ entrepreneurial ecosystems?
How can the complex networks of different actors and factors in ecosystems and clusters be conceptualised and measured? Do actors change roles over time and why?
