Entrepreneurial ecosystems are wealthy environments in which entrepreneurs, firms, and governments can operate frictionless, contributing to innovation and economic growth. The investigation of the structure of such systems is an open issue. We provide insights on this aspect through the formulation of seven network-based principles associating specific network metrics to distinct structural features of entrepreneurial ecosystems. In this way, we aim to support the measurement of the structural characteristics of an entrepreneurial ecosystem and the design of policy interventions in case of unmet properties. The proposed methodology is applied to an original network built on the relationships occurring on Twitter among 612 noteworthy start-ups from seven different European countries. This is a novel way to conceptualize entrepreneurial ecosystems considering online interactions. Thus, this work represents a first attempt to analyze the structure of entrepreneurial ecosystems considering their network architecture to guide policy-making decisions. Our results suggest a partial ecosystem-like nature of the analyzed network, providing evidence about possible policy recommendations.

创业生态系统是丰富的环境，企业家、公司和政府可以在其中无摩擦地运作，为创新和经济增长做出贡献。对此类系统结构的研究是一个悬而未决的问题。我们通过制定将特定网络指标与创业生态系统的不同结构特征相关联的七项基于网络的原则来提供这方面的见解。通过这种方式，我们旨在支持对创业生态系统结构特征的衡量以及在未满足属性的情况下设计政策干预措施。拟议的方法适用于一个原始网络，该网络建立在 Twitter 上来自七个不同欧洲国家的 612 家值得注意的初创企业之间发生的关系之上。这是一种将在线互动概念化的创业生态系统的新方法。因此，这项工作代表了第一次尝试分析创业生态系统的结构，考虑到他们的网络架构来指导决策。我们的结果表明所分析网络的部分生态系统性质，为可能的政策建议提供了证据。