Who supports what? How startups navigate through the support organizations of an entrepreneurial ecosystem

Abstract

The role of entrepreneurial ecosystems in creating and nurturing new businesses in various regions has been scrutinized for the most part through a macro lens; only a few studies have shed light on the micro-foundations of such systems. What occurs in entrepreneurial eco­systems and how the different actors in them support and affect entrepreneurial journeys has only been researched selectively. Adopting a practice-based perspective that complements current evolutionary and institutional approaches, we will focus on the early journey of business ideas and elucidate how different ecosystem components affect the development and implementation of these ideas in the entrepreneurial process. Using a multiple-case panel design, we studied six startups in the Berlin ecosystem over a two-and-a-half-year period. The findings unveil not only different pathways for enacting support practices, but also that what is provided as support by the ecosystem is not always considered to effectively support entrepreneurial actions.