Resource acquisition and co-production in entrepreneurial ecosystems

Entrepreneurial ecosystems have emerged as a key topic of research and debate amongst both researchers as well as policymakers and entrepreneurs themselves. Current research on entrepreneurial ecosystems have focused primarily on identifying the core attributes or factors associated with strong ecosystems and in developing new methods to identify the strengths and weaknesses of various ecosystems. Less has been done on how entrepreneurs engage with and draw resources from their ecosystem. This paper reports results from a pilot study with 8 high- growth entrepreneurs in Edinburgh, Scotland. Interviews suggest that knowledge about the entrepreneurship process itself is a crucial resource in ecosystems and that the types of resources entrepreneurs gather from their ecosystem changes as the firms grow and based on the entrepreneurs’ backgrounds. This suggests that entrepreneurial ecosystems are dynamic and heterogeneous and that entrepreneurs engage with them differently based on their unique needs.