Work

Entrepreneurial ecosystems and industry knowledge: does the winning region take all?

Year: 2022

Type: article

Abstract: Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EE) are composed not only of startups but also the organizations that support them. Theory has been ambivalent about whether an EE is spatially bounded or includes distant organizations. This exploratory study uses a time series of all Internet industry initial public offerings (IPO) to explore the locational changes not only of startups but also four key EE service providers: lawyers, investment bankers, venture capitalists, and board directors. We find that while the startups became only slightly more concentrated, the EE service providers concentrated more rapidly, as an industry center in Silicon Valley emerged. Our results suggest that over the industry life cycle, industry knowledge exhibits a tendency to spatially concentrate, and this results in a concentration of industry-specific EE service providers that is even greater than the more gradual concentration of startups. As a result, startups, wherever they are located, increasingly source EE services from the industrial knowledge concentration.

Source: Small Business Economics

DOI: 10.1007/s11187-022-00681-y

Authors: Yating Li, Martin Kenney, Donald Patton, Abraham Song

Institutions: Nanjing Audit University, University of California, Davis, Pepperdine University

Language: English

Topic: Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences

Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Decent work and economic growth, Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $2,890