Shared identity, says who? How diverse organizations interact in entrepreneurial ecosystems

Abstract

Entrepreneurial ecosystems are comprised of a diverse and interacting set of organizations which aim to support and develop new ventures and their surrounding regions. Although prior research has celebrated the diversity of these support organizations as a necessary enabler of entrepreneurial capacity in a region, such diversity can at times introduce liabilities given different motives and interests. In this study, we explore how different organizations orient toward such diversity, thereby enabling or constraining the capacity for collaboration across ostensible divisions. Through an inductive case analysis of 15 organizations, we surface an inductive model of how leaders’ perceptions of a regional ecosystem identity combine with their organizations’ identity orientation to influence their interactions across the ecosystem. Based on this model, we propose a typology of organizational sponsorship, which characterizes organizations as either builders, partners, participants, or bridgers. This model and typology extends our understanding of the differences between organizational sponsors within entrepreneurial ecosystems, while bridging the study of organizational identity, categories and ecosystems.