Resumo

The concept of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EE) has garnered increasing significance. It provides a comprehensive framework for understanding entrepreneurial activities by highlighting the significance of contextual and temporal elements, considering entrepreneurs and new ventures as interconnected with various agents and institutions.

However, despite longstanding discourses surrounding the challenges of delineating the spatial scale of EE, this aspect remains largely unexplored in the literature. This study seeks to address this gap by examining the influence of some predictors within the geographic dimensions of EE – namely regional, national, and international – while highlighting the analytical and methodological complexities inherent in assessing environmental, social, and economic value creation within EE.

The spatial dimension of EE has emerged as a focal point in academic discourse, reflecting the intricate interplay between geography and entrepreneurship.

Employing regression models such as ordinary least squares (OLS) and random forest (RF), we offer insights based on the perspective of 146 entrepreneurs in Brazil concerning their appraisal of EE factors of influence across geographical dimensions. Additionally, an in-depth abductive exploration through semi-structured interviews with 17 entrepreneurs was carried out to further understand such spatial dynamics.

Our analyses reveal a pronounced association between the prevalence and influence of cultural, social, institutional and financial factors within the spatiality of EEs. However, some discrepancies among spatial elements underscore the interdependence and the imperative of adopting a contextual perspective in fostering value creation, warranting the need to perceive EE as multiscale structures that are integrated across geographical dimensions.

This study contributes with original insights by systematically examining the spatiality of various predictors on value creation within EE, shedding empirical light on previously unexplored facets of these dynamics in entrepreneurial research.

Schäfer, S., Fischer, B., Rücker Schaeffer, P., Balestrin, A., 2024. Beyond local boundaries: Unraveling the spatiality of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Journal of Business Venturing Insights 22, e00478. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00478 Fischer, B., Meissner, D., Vonortas, N., Guerrero, M., 2022. Spatial features of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Journal of Business Research 147, 27–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.04.018