Entrepreneurship Ecosystem: A Working Definition

To put the whole notion of an entrepreneurial ecosystem in perspective, it is crucial to be clear about the key terms making up such a concept. The objective here is to make a seemingly jargon-laden concept more relatable and understandable and, therefore, more appreciable.

According to Howard Stevenson of Harvard Business School, entrepreneurship is “the pursuit of opportunity beyond resources controlled.”[1] And, an entrepreneur is defined as “someone who perceives an opportunity and creates an organization that pursues it.” The entrepreneurial process includes all the functions, activities and actions associated with perceiving opportunities and creating organizations to pursue them.[2]

In order to better understand any entrepreneurial environment, one needs to think in terms of ecology wherein if a specific element is removed, the entire chain will be disrupted. Similarly, an entrepreneurial ecosystem ingrains all the components necessary for entrepreneurs to flourish and succeed.

Amalgamating the two terms, an entrepreneurship ecosystem could be thought of as a system whose domains (e.g., policy, markets, human capital, and financial capital) must interact in a coherent way with the purpose of creating an enabling environment where entrepreneurs can thrive and prosper. It is not merely about the coexistence of those domains, but rather the interdependencies amongst them that determine the purpose and produce the outcomes of the ecosystem. In such an ecosystem, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, meaning that participants within an entrepreneurial ecosystem must work together towards building and maintaining an environment conducive to starting and growing businesses.

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[1] Eisenmann, T.R. (2013, January 10). Entrepreneurship: A Working Definition. HBR blog.

[2] Bygrave W. & Zacharakis A. (2011). Entrepreneurship. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons, Inc.