The role of entrepreneurial support organisations in ecosystem sustainable transitions

Le rôle des structures d'accompagnement entrepreneurial dans les transitions soutenables d'écosystèmes

Aveline Cloitre, Victor dos Santos Paulino and Christina Theodoraki ()
Additional contact information
Aveline Cloitre: SIRIUS Chair, Toulouse, France
Victor dos Santos Paulino: TBS Business School, TBS Education Research Centre, Toulouse, France
Christina Theodoraki: AMU IAE - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Aix-en-Provence - AMU - Aix Marseille Université, CERGAM - Centre d'Études et de Recherche en Gestion d'Aix-Marseille - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - UTLN - Université de Toulon, University of Nicosia, UNIC Athens, Athens, Greece

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Although the literature on Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (EEs) has shown conceptual interest in studying Entrepreneurial Support Organizations (ESOs), their role in EE sustainable transitions remains understudied. The primary objective of this study is to deepen the research dealing with ESO roles vis-à-vis the institutional pressure they undergo for sustainable entrepreneurship. We rely on an abductive qualitative study based on 45 semi-structured interviews. Our findings show ESOs perform two main roles towards EE sustainable transitions, first as sustainable entrepreneurship enablers, and second as EE sustainable transition interfaces, thereby contributing to the development of sustainable EEs. However, ESOs are undergoing a dual institutional pressure which generates institutional misalignments in their actions, in turn causing ineffective support solutions with risks of greenwashing. We contribute to the literature on EEs by demonstrating ESOs act as core actors of EE sustainable transitions, but also by highlighting their limits in this process due to the institutional context.

Keywords: Space sustainability; Space entrepreneurship; Sustainable transitions; Entrepreneurial Support Organizations; Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-07-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Industry and Innovation, 2026, 33 (6), pp.700-721. ⟨10.1080/13662716.2026.2683378⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:hal:journl:hal-05754528

DOI: 10.1080/13662716.2026.2683378

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().