Resumo

The entrepreneurial ecosystem offers a vision of the company that looks at it no longer just as a single entity, but as part of an ecosystem in which it is inserted, and the relationships that follow can strongly influence the performance of firms. This approach emphasizes the presence of entrepreneurs within ecosystems, which come to be seen as central pieces both for the initial development of these sites and for their conservation over time (Stam, 2015). However, there is not a concise comprehension of entrepreneurial ecosystem by scholars and a better holistic understanding is needed.

There are a sort of attributes, principles and pillars (Stam, 2015) associated with the entrepreneurial ecosystem, which leads to the lack of a broadly accepted definition and understanding (Kansheba & Wald, 2020; Roundy et al., 2018). Moreover, studies are needed to strengthen the clear understanding of this phenomenon (Kansheba & Wald, 2020). The research focused on investigating the various definitions given to entrepreneurial ecosystems throughout literature to propose a synthesized conceptualization of its definition, elements, and research opportunities.

The ecosystem term was first used to refer to the business field, by James Moore in 1993. With the publication of this article, the term ecosystem associated with business became part of the academic and institutional investigations (Voicu-Dorobanțu, 2016). The entrepreneurial ecosystem offers a vision of the company that looks at it no longer just as a single entity, but as part of an ecosystem in which it is inserted, and the relationships that follow can strongly influence the performance of firms (Mason & Brown, 2014).

This research focused on analyzing the various definitions given to entrepreneurial ecosystems and related concepts, as well as propose a synthesized conceptualization of definition, elements and research opportunities. To this end, a systematic literature review with hybrid methodology was performed using the Scopus database. This study dove into Entrepreneurial Ecosystem publications at Elsevier’s Scopus database from 2011 to 2021 and, after refinements, the query resulted in 68 articles, which were analyzed with bibliometric and content evaluation.

As a result, there is a synthesized definition of entrepreneurial ecosystem, an assessment of keywords network and research prospects. It is understood that entrepreneurial ecosystem is formed by a sort of attributes coordinated/combined to produce entrepreneurship, influenced by different factors, that may be limited to a geographic boundaries. (Mason & Brown, 2014; Stam, 2015).

Isenberg, D. (2011). The Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Strategy as a New Paradigm for Economic Policy: Principles for Cultivating Entrepreneurship 1. Kansheba, J. M. P., & Wald, A. E. (2020). Entrepreneurial ecosystems: a systematic literature review and research agenda. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 27(6), 943–964. Mason, C., & Brown, R. (2014). Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and Growth oriented Entrepreneurship. Stam, E. (2015). Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and Regional Policy : A Sympathetic Critique. European Planning Studies, 23(9), 1759–1769. Voicu-Dorobanțu, R. (2016).