Entrepreneurial ecosystems are the focus of government economic policies around the world for their potential to generate entrepreneur-led economic development. The paper identifies key research questions and challenges to building effective public policy: (i) the limitations of existing data sources, (ii) the need to balance findings from quantitative and qualitative studies, (iii) the danger that entrepreneurial ecosystems will be just a policy fad, (iv) the narrow focus of policy and research on high tech firms and scale-ups, and (v) the need to balance research approaches between simplified models and a complex systems approach. There is a need for a better understanding of the diversity of policy contexts (level of government, country context) and model of ecosystem governance. A more granulated understanding of ecosystem thinking is required, with greater consideration of the diversity of actors and the institutional context, with more attention given to the heterogeneous nature of places and complex interactions between actors and networks. Looking to the future, the potential of new data sources and methodologies is identified. Future research should give greater consideration to the institutional context to understand how policy can better support entrepreneurial activity and the extent to which specific policies can be replicated elsewhere.

企业家生态系统是全球政府经济政策的重点，因为它们具有产生企业家主导的经济发展的潜力。本文确定了关键的研究问题和建立有效公共政策的挑战：（i）现有数据源的局限性，（ii）平衡定量和定性研究结果的必要性，（iii）企业家生态系统将仅仅是一个风险。政策风尚；（iv）政策和研究的重点集中在高科技公司和规模扩大上；（v）需要在简化模型和复杂系统方法之间平衡研究方法。有必要更好地了解政策环境（政府级别，国家环境）和生态系统治理模式的多样性。需要对生态系统思维有更细致的理解，更多地考虑了行为者的多样性和制度背景，更多地关注了地点的异质性以及行为者与网络之间复杂的相互作用。展望未来，新的数据源和方法论的潜力已被确定。未来的研究应更多​​地考虑制度背景，以了解政策如何更好地支持企业家活动以及在其他地方可以复制特定政策的程度。