Sophie Boutillier & Denis Carre 
Entrepreneurial Ecosystems 

In today’s rapidly changing business landscape, entrepreneurship is growing and actively promoted by policy makers. Several reports explore the influence of entrepreneurship on the economy and put some emphasis on its positive influence GDP per capita, unemployment and exports. However, entrepreneurship does not go per se and it is now broadly admitted that the decision of the entrepreneur is narrowly connected with its environment, the so-called entrepreneurial ecosystem. This book show why policymakers, entrepreneurship supporters, and entrepreneurs themselves should keep in mind the locally structured nature of entrepreneurial networks.

Even if the notion of Entrepreneurial Ecosystem has become quite popular, among the international organization, development agencies and public administrations, this concept is often considered as a new one having its origins in very recent publications. This books aims at showing that entrepreneurial ecosystems have their roots in the history of economic thought and that scholars have long been conscious of their importance. Instead of insisting upon the diversity of agents involved in these organizations, it also put some emphasis on the importance of the linkages and sharing between them and suggests some orientations in view of a performing evaluation system.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface vii

Introduction ix

Chapter 1. Reputed Authors in the Field of Territorial Economics 1

1.1. The founding fathers of territorial economics 2

1.1.1. The disappearance of the concept of territory 2

1.1.2. The precursors to territorial thinking; distance and organization of economic activity 8

1.1.3. The founders of economic analysis from the territory to growth poles 12

1.1.4. Marshall: agglomeration effects, industrial atmosphere and industrial districts, fundamental elements of an economic interpretation of the territory 13

1.1.5. Hotelling’s law and straight-line competition 16

1.1.6. Perroux’s growth poles 18

1.2. Contemporary theories 22

1.2.1. The Italian district 23

1.2.2. The innovative milieu of the groupe de recherche europeén sur les milieux innovateurs (GREMI) 25

1.2.3. The regulatory approach 27

1.2.4. Theory of transaction costs devised by the University of California 29

1.2.5. Krugman and the New Economic Geography 31

1.2.6. Clusters and areas of expertise at the heart of global competition 33

1.2.7. The theory of spatial proximity or the actor strategy 35

1.2.8. From the territory to the city – what are the new economic challenges? 38

Chapter 2. The Key Concepts of Territorial Analysis: from the Actors to the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem 43

2.1. The actors and components within the entrepreneurial ecosystem 47

2.2. The operation of the entrepreneurial ecosytem 57

2.3. Strategies and public policies favoring entrepreneurial ecosystems 65

2.3.1. Definite risks of business creation 65

2.3.2. A wide range of state assistance 67

Chapter 3. From Implementation to Evaluations: Trajectories and Coordination 73

3.1. Territorial performance: from statistical correlations to complex causal mechanisms 75

3.1.1. Density effects of economic activities upon the performance of employment areas 76

3.1.2. Regional territorial performance: from technology grants to socio-economic links 79

3.2. The diversity of local productive ecosystems illustrated by case studies 85

3.2.1. Converting territories in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais: the case of Valenciennes 85

3.3. From policies to evaluation tools 103

3.3.1. General principles 103

3.3.2. In favor of a systems-based evaluation perspective 105

Conclusion 109

Bibliography 113

Index 123

Über den Autor

Sophie Boutillier, MCF-HDR/Associted Profesor, Clersé (UMR-CNRS 8019), Université du Littoral-Côte d’Opale, France

Nadine Levratto, Chargée de recherche, Economix, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense

Denis Carré, Chargée de recherche, Economix, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense