ABSTRACT

Despite its relative newness, entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) have attracted much attention from research and policy but they are recognized to be largely untheorized. It is claimed that one aspect which distinguishes the EE perspective from other perspectives related to business environments is its systemic approach; however, much of the systemic approach still needs to be investigated. The aim of this paper is therefore to investigate how the systemic and complex approach of EEs can be theoretically strengthened. We do this by investigating what values complex adaptive system theory holds for advancing the EE perspective. We highlight four propositions which are of particular importance for strengthening the systemic approach of EE: spatial and component boundaries of the system; self-governance; the relational dimension between system components and the system; and the evolution of the system. We propose that boundaries should be seen as a natural part of the system, that a complex system is too complex to capture all components and all interactions, and that studying only individual activities will not enable us to fully understand the system’s behaviour.

摘要

尽管相对较新，但企业家生态系统（EEs）已引起研究和政策的极大关注，但人们公认它们在很大程度上没有理论依据。据称，将EE观点与与业务环境相关的其他观点区分开的一个方面是其系统方法。但是，许多系统方法仍需要研究。因此，本文的目的是研究如何从理论上增强EE的系统性和复杂性。为此，我们研究了复杂的自适应系统理论对于推进EE观点具有什么价值。我们重点介绍四个对加强EE的系统方法特别重要的命题：系统的空间和组件边界；自治 系统组件与系统之间的关系维度；以及系统的发展。我们建议将边界视为系统的自然组成部分，一个复杂的系统过于复杂以至于无法捕获所有组件和所有交互，并且仅研究单个活动将无法使我们充分理解该系统的行为。