A social capital approach to the development of sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems: an explorative study

Christina Theodoraki (), Karim Messeghem () and Mark P. Rice ()
Additional contact information
Christina Theodoraki: Montpellier Management Institute
Karim Messeghem: Montpellier Management Institute
Mark P. Rice: Foisie Business School, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Small Business Economics, 2018, vol. 51, issue 1, No 7, 153-170

Abstract: Abstract The entrepreneurial ecosystem, an emerging and developing theoretical stream, has the potential to expand our understanding of entrepreneurship. In previous research, this concept has been studied from the university perspective, but it has not yet been introduced in the field of entrepreneurial support. Additionally, the growing number of university business incubators has led to increasing research interest in the entrepreneurial support field. This research project seeks to develop a more robust understanding of sustainable university-based entrepreneurial ecosystems through an in-depth analysis of an essential entrepreneurial support element: the university business incubator. Our exploratory research study draws on 48 face-to-face interviews with key members of university-based entrepreneurial ecosystems to explore the operation of three cases through the lens of social capital theory. Our analysis suggests that all three social capital dimensions are relevant to the effective functioning of the university-based entrepreneurial ecosystem and contribute to its sustainability: applying the structural dimension of social capital enhances access to resources; addressing the cognitive dimension strengthens relationships among ecosystem members; and investing in the relational dimension enhances complementarity and trust while the ecosystem evolves. Thus, the interaction of these dimensions may further contribute to the sustainability of the university-based entrepreneurial ecosystem. Enhancing the development and application of the three social capital dimensions as an aspect of proactive management of the entrepreneurship ecosystem has the potential to improve outcomes for ecosystem members.

Keywords: Ecosystem; Entrepreneurial support; University business incubators; Social capital approach; Sustainability; L26; L22; L29 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (66)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11187-017-9924-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:51:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s11187-017-9924-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... 29/journal/11187/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11187-017-9924-0

Access Statistics for this article

Small Business Economics is currently edited by Zoltan J. Acs and David B. Audretsch

More articles in Small Business Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().