Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and Digitalisation: What Is Going on, and What Can (and Should) We Learn?

The interest for entrepreneurial ecosystems has over the last years increased dramatically. Policymakers and practitioners want to develop them to facilitate entrepreneurial start-ups and scale ups. Researchers are at the same time trying to figure out what is included and how they work.

In essence entrepreneurial ecosystems include structural elements such as accelerators, co-working and maker spaces, and innovation challenges. Well functioning entrepreneurial ecosystems also facilitate business model experimentation and associated experience sharing, rapid scale up of businesses and new ventures.

During this webinar professor Erkko Autio, Imperial College, England and one of the leading researchers on entrepreneurial ecosystems (EE) will present the latest research on the topic.

Among the topics he will address are:
• What is distinctive about EEs and how are they different from clusters, regional systems of innovation, etc.?
• How are EEs essentially enabled by digitalisation: they explore ‘what works’ in terms of harnessing digitalisation in new venture business models and supporting related start-up and scale-up processes?
• Typical structures and what accelerators etc. do: Why do they work the way they do?
• Implications for policy and practice

Participants will be able to ask questions.