Connected entrepreneurial ecosystems and (unbounded) innovative entrepreneurship

The entry of innovative firms can introduce new products, processes, or business models that form the basis of productivity and growth and the development of new markets. Such innovative entrepreneurship depends on a large set of interdependent local actors and factors in national and regional entrepreneurial ecosystems. In this project we propose a novel conceptualization of entrepreneurial ecosystems - not as closed systems but as interconnected - and entrepreneurial activity - not as locally bounded but as mobile across regional and national borders. We contribute by 1) extending the entrepreneurial ecosystem measurement framework to include inter-ecosystem connectivity for European regions; 2) examining the consequences of inter-ecosystem connectivity for innovative entrepreneurship (entry and growth of startups) in regions given the competition among regional ecosystems for entrepreneurial innovative entry; 3) examining the influence of the ecosystem connectivity on the interregional and transnational mobility of individual entrepreneurs. Our findings will have important consequences for academic research on entrepreneurship as well as regional development policies.