Sustainable Entrepreneurship And Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

The construction of a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem is critical for every country in the world, with Silicon Valley an example of a successful entrepreneurial ecosystem that determines the level of national innovation capability and sustainable global competitiveness for the United States. However, at present, the research on entrepreneurial ecosystems in academia is still in its primary stage with few scholars studying the characteristics, composition, and sustainability of the ecosystem. Sustainability in the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: Operating Mechanisms and Enterprise Growth is a collection of innovative research that systematically explores the operation mechanism of sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem from macro and micro aspects so as to provide value for promoting economic vitality and regional economic development. Covering a broad range of topics including sustainability, economic development, and stakeholder management, this book is ideally designed for entrepreneurs, managers, investors, analysts, academicians, researchers, and students.

Sustainable entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystems research is ever evolving and this timely book stimulates further exploration, offering a research agenda and alternative approaches. Presenting new scientific evidence together with policy and other practical implications, chapters demonstrate the vibrancy and diversity of approaches in the field.

This book presents a multidimensional approach by providing a state of the art on EIS ecosystems, as well as structural and changing dynamics and its impact on citizens’ quality of life. It provides a set of international benchmarking case studies on good practices and initiatives aimed at creating and fostering EIS ecosystems. It shows how these international benchmarks can be replicated to foster the creation of entrepreneurial and innovative units and promote sustainable practices, under an open innovation paradigm, which conjoins the participation of both public and private stakeholders, using co-creation, transparency and participatory budget practices the jointly improve accountability and public management. This book is a true reference guide for scholars, policy makers and practitioners interested on entrepreneurship, public procurement, innovation and sustainability engaged in building EIS ecosystems, which can enhance citizens’ quality of life.

This volume presents theoretical and empirical research on universities and their entrepreneurial ecosystems to better grasp the connections between universities and their surrounding environments and their engagement with sustainability. The book provides a better understanding of the entrepreneurial characteristics of universities. It examines the ways in which universities’ collaboration and participation in an ecosystem support business and industry transformation. It also investigates how universities function within the university/industry/government/third sector relationship nexus. The book enables the systematisation of the literature while simultaneously builds theory, empirically testing existing theories, and contributes towards a future research agenda geared towards sustainability. The book gathers contributions from varied geographical contexts providing an international perspective.

This is a guide to understanding entrepreneurial ecosystems: what they are, why they matter, and to whom they matter. Ben Spigel explores this popular new theory of economic development, locating the intellectual roots of ecosystems, explaining the practices and processes that allow ecosystems to support the creation and growth of innovative entrepreneurial firms.

Sustainable Entrepreneurship: How entrepreneurs create value from sustainable opportunities offers unique new insights, represents a step towards the development of a more comprehensive analysis of sustainable entrepreneurship.

“The fourth sector” is a relatively new sector that consists of for-benefit organizations that combine market-based approaches of the private sector with the social and environmental aims of the public and non-profit sectors. This book examines trends of entrepreneurship in the fourth sector, describes specific ecosystems fostering new ventures around the world, and characterizes the most common and innovative business models. It covers as well the main effects, among others, of technological change, innovation, and institutional behavior on the sector in the last years.

This thesis examines stakeholder relationships in entrepreneurial ecosystems by focusing on the importance of sustainability, education and culture in this context. A three-staged research approach on the topic is employed. First, based on a systematic literature review the relevance of stakeholder theory for the creation of sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems that encourage sustainable entrepreneurship is examined as conceptual approach. Second, a qualitative empirical stance is used to investigate stakeholder involvement from the entrepreneurial ecosystem at 20 higher educational institutions in 19 European countries with regard to entrepreneurship education. Third, comparative, quantitative empirical research is conducted to identify cross-cultural and stakeholder-related factors that determine the perceived strength of the sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems in Austria and Germany. The findings of this thesis indicate that stakeholder theory, sustainability, education and culture all matter for developing strong entrepreneurial ecosystems. These results can be of interest for policy makers, entrepreneurship educaters, entrepreneurs and other entrepreneurial stakeholders, who aim at strengthening regional entrepreneurial ecosystems.