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.

中文翻译：

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创业生态系统：走向创业的系统方法？

摘要 尽管创业生态系统 (EEs) 相对较新，但已经引起了研究和政策的广泛关注，但人们认为它们在很大程度上没有理论化。据称，将 EE 视角与其他与商业环境相关的视角区分开来的一个方面是它的系统方法；然而，仍有许多系统方法需要研究。因此，本文的目的是研究如何在理论上加强 EE 的系统性和复杂性方法。我们通过调查复杂适应系统理论对于推进 EE 观点的价值观来做到这一点。我们强调了对加强 EE 的系统方法特别重要的四个命题：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；以及系统的进化。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，无法捕获所有组件和所有交互，仅研究单个活动将无法使我们完全了解系统的行为。