Geographic boundaries of the entrepreneurial ecosystem

Laura I.H Bennett, Don J. Webber and Chay Brooks

Chapter 4 in Developing Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, 2026, pp 62-78 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter examines the spatial dimensions of an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Existing literature lacks detail on how the spatial dimension of an entrepreneurial ecosystem is theorised and understood. Understanding of these boundaries and spatial dimensions requires the ability to identify where the institutional elements are located geographically in and around the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Through an exploration of non-entrepreneur stakeholders’ perceptions of the geographic boundaries of the Bristol entrepreneurial ecosystem, we reveal that there is an official view of the entrepreneurial ecosystem but that even stakeholders’ views of the entrepreneurial ecosystem do not necessarily align closely with it. The resulting fuzziness around the spatial interpretation of the entrepreneurial ecosystem leads us to suggest that the boundaries of the entrepreneurial ecosystem do not align perfectly with regional administrative boundaries as they are delineated geographically, and this contrasts strongly with an implicit stylised fact present within the literature.

Keywords: Boundaries; Fuzziness; Geographies; Mapping; Place-based; Regions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035367009
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