Small-medium enterprises and innovative startups in entrepreneurial ecosystems: exploring an under-remarked relation

To date, contributions in the field of entrepreneurial ecosystems have mainly focused on definitions, actors, key attributes, consequences on startups’ creation and growth, while conceding less space to key relations among actors. This study contributes to filling this gap by exploring the relation in entrepreneurial ecosystems between small-medium enterprises and a relevant class of startups: innovative startups. We take stock of extant knowledge to discuss the challenges and benefits of this relation. Then, we document that innovative startups tend to locate within Italian industrial districts, a peculiar case of entrepreneurial ecosystems where Italian small-medium enterprises tend to agglomerate, despite there is no evidence that they operate in the same industry of specialization of the Italian industrial districts. We interpret these results as a possible indication that innovative startups value the relation with small-medium enterprises. We provide an original review and illustrative evidence on small-medium enterprises and startups relations as few studies have done so far. Finally, the study presents a research agenda for stimulating novel directions for academic research and practice-oriented conversations on the role of small-medium enterprises and innovative startups in entrepreneurial ecosystems. We deem this is a relevant topic, given the importance of these relations, especially within entrepreneurial ecosystems located in countries where small-medium enterprises (often operating in traditional industries) are the main engine of local and regional development.

• Publication year

  2020

• Venue

  The International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal

• Publication date

  2020-10-02

• Fields of study

  Business, Economics

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1007/s11365-020-00698-3
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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