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Small Business Economics

, Volume 52, Issue 2, pp 419–428 | Cite as

The governance of entrepreneurial ecosystems

  • Massimo G. Colombo
  • Giovanni Battista Dagnino
  • Erik E. LehmannEmail author
  • MariPaz Salmador
Article
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Abstract

The “entrepreneurial ecosystem” metaphor is capturing attention in academia, industry, and government. The entrepreneurial ecosystem approach is used in corporate, national, or local contexts, and has grown in prominence given the vital need to transform economies around the creation of innovative ideas, products, services, and technologies. Entrepreneurial ecosystems involve a network, a system, of interactions of individuals and organizations, like financial intermediaries, universities and research institutions, suppliers and customers, multinational companies, or the government. The entrepreneurial ecosystem literature has thus mainly focused on identifying the relevant stakeholders like entrepreneurial firms and entrepreneurs and how they interact with other stakeholders within a more or less defined system. Despite the popularity of the entrepreneurial ecosystem approach, the literature has almost overlooked and largely ignored the governance of entrepreneurial ecosystems. This special Issue of Small Business Economics critically examines issues concerning the governance of entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Keywords

Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Governance 

JEL classification

L26 R1 
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  • Massimo G. Colombo
    • 1
  • Giovanni Battista Dagnino
    • 2
  • Erik E. Lehmann
    • 3
    Email author
  • MariPaz Salmador
    • 4
  1. 1.Department of Management, Economics, and Industrial EngineeringPolitecnico di MilanoMilanItaly
  2. 2.Department of Economics and BusinessUniversity of CataniaCataniaItaly
  3. 3.Augsburg UniversityAugsburgGermany
  4. 4.Universidad Autónoma de MadridMadridSpain

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