Knowledge about connections within a local economic system holds implication for understanding the ways in which individuals and categories of entrepreneurs access the system itself and resources provided within. While scholars have recently found complex divisions of networks within local entrepreneurship ecosystems, we still have a limited understanding about why these chasms exist. We present a case study with qualitative research in the entrepreneurial ecosystem of St. Louis, Missouri, which identifies structural sources of divergence in networks. Specifically, we find a gender gap in the ecosystem that reveals patterns of difference in access to resources and in the experiences of women relative to men entrepreneurs. Thus, we contribute a more nuanced understanding of how discrete elements within a system’s networks diverge, as well as identifying the root causes of this divergence. The article concludes with implications for theories and practice.

有关本地经济系统内的联系的知识对于理解个人和企业家类别访问系统本身及其内部提供的资源的方式具有重要意义。尽管学者们最近发现了本地企业家生态系统中网络的复杂划分，但对于为什么存在这些鸿沟，我们仍然知之甚少。我们在密苏里州圣路易斯的创业生态系统中进行了定性研究的案例研究，该研究确定了网络差异的结构性来源。具体而言，我们在生态系统中发现了一个性别鸿沟，该鸿沟揭示了相对于男性企业家而言，女性在获取资源和体验方面存在差异。因此，我们对系统网络中的离散元素如何发散更加细致入微的理解，并找出造成这种分歧的根本原因。本文的结尾对理论和实践具有启示意义。