Fostering conditions for digital entrepreneurship: The role of institutional entrepreneurs in driving FinTech ecosystem development

Stein, L.; Evers, N.; O’Gorman, C. Technovation. DOI: 10.1016/j.technovation.2025.103386.

This paper explores the role of institutional entrepreneurship in developing Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (DEE). With much of the literature on DEE focused on organisational-level analysis, there is a need for further research that includes system-level analysis, and specifically research that explores how ecosystem actors support Digital Entrepreneurship (DE) by facilitating adaptation of the institutional environment. We analyse a single longitudinal case study of the Danish FinTech ecosystem, a DEE that developed in the context of a traditional, highly regulated industry and a turbulent global FinTech scene. FinTech DEEs have emerged across the world as a response to a global reshaping of financial institutions that resulted from the global financial crisis and ongoing technological shifts. We use this case to explore two questions: “what institutional forces influence the development of the DEE?”, and “how do institutional entrepreneurs facilitate institutional changes to develop a DEE?” We find the development of the Danish FinTech DEE was enabled and shaped by changes to institutions that support: (i) new collaboration dynamics and mechanisms, particularly between incumbent firms and start-ups, (ii) adaptations to the regulatory framework, and (iii) the development of global connections. Institutional change required collective efforts, depending on different institutional entrepreneurs at different times. Neutral leadership of institutional entrepreneurs became crucial for institutional change. Furthermore, both system and organisation-level agencies influenced institutional change during the development of the DEE. As such, this study contributes to a better understanding of DEE development and, therefore, the conditions that foster DE in the FinTech field. © 2025 The Authors

Structure and dynamics of a precarious entrepreneurial sub-ecosystem in a developed country

Douaihy, C.; Messeghem, K.; Nakara, W.A. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development. DOI: 10.1080/08985626.2025.2600017.

Entrepreneurial ecosystem research increasingly recognizes the importance of sub-ecosystems, yet their dynamics in contexts of precarity remain underexplored. This article introduces the concept of precarious entrepreneurial sub-ecosystems and examines how entrepreneurship unfolds under conditions of resource scarcity and social vulnerability in Montpellier, France. By mobilizing a complex adaptive systems perspective, we develop a multilevel model of a entrepreneurial sub-ecosystem. The analysis shows how such sub-ecosystems build solidarity-based coordination and navigate spatial, social and institutional boundaries to support precarious entrepreneurs. In doing so, the study extends entrepreneurial ecosystem theory to more fragile settings and refines the sub-ecosystem construct as a nested, adaptive, context-dependent system. It shows that even in constrained, marginalized contexts, entrepreneurial activity can be sustained through continuous adaptation, resource mobilization, and inclusive institutional frameworks. © 2026 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Preincubation practices as sourcing in entrepreneurial ecosystems: A dynamic capability perspective

Nana, A.; Laviolette, E.M.; Theodoraki, C. Journal of Business Research. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115829.

Previous research has highlighted the strategic role of incubators in entrepreneurial ecosystems, but has often overlooked their evolving nature, offering paradoxical results on preincubation practices such as tenant identification and screening. To address this gap, this paper presents an in-depth case study of a public regional incubator, analyzing preincubation through the lens of dynamic capability theory. The findings conceptualize tenant identification and screening as sensing and seizing capabilities which contribute to ecosystem reconfiguration dynamics by fostering collaboration, mutualizing and endowing resources, forming tenants, and transferring technology. By framing these practices as entrepreneurial sourcing − an evolutionary and cross-boundary process − the study advances understanding of how incubators continuously adapt with(in) their ecosystems. It also extends dynamic capability theory to the preincubation stage, revealing how incubators align their organizational processes with ecosystem-level transformation. © 2025 Elsevier Inc. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

Shaping Ecosystem Rules: Complementarities, Interdependencies, and Firms’ Success in Coordinating Ecosystems Via Standard-Setting

Ranganathan, R.; Chen, J.S.; Ghosh, A. Organization Science. DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2022.16136.

In ecosystems characterized by distributed authority, each firm competes with others to shape the ecosystem’s rules to its advantage while navigating complex interorganizational interdependencies. This creates a coordination problem best exemplified within consensus standards-setting organizations, where different firms present technical proposals and attempt to shape the specifications that dictate how the ecosystem’s technological components must work together. In this paper, we examine what factors determine a firm’s shaping success in such contexts by integrating two major perspectives, one rooted in interfirm social relations and the other that views an ecosystem as a structure of technological interdependence. In so doing, we identify a socio-technical trade-off between the extent of a firm’s relational influence and its efforts to shape core technical proposals (i.e., those that affect many interdependent ecosystem components). A firm with many existing relational ties holds influence that increases its success at shaping, but if such a firm’s proposals are at the core, some of its partners will invariably face high adjustment costs because of the proposal’s wide-ranging impact. Interestingly, a firm with greater prospects for engaging with future complementary partners does not face this trade-off and indeed benefits from shaping at the core. Additionally, value capture considerations also affect how other firms weigh these socio-technical trade-offs, with support for the firm’s shaping attempts dampened among potential future complementors but strengthened among current partners. We provide evidence for these arguments by applying machine-learning techniques on fine-grained data from two prominent wireless telecommunications standards. Our work brings a fresh perspective to a growing ecosystems literature by illuminating both social and technological factors that affect firms’ shaping success. © 2025 INFORMS.

Fostering regional entrepreneurial ecosystem development: the role of science and technology park networks

Ancona, A.; Ceci, G. Journal of Technology Transfer. DOI: 10.1007/s10961-025-10308-5.

Science and Technology Parks (STPs) are recognized as key drivers of regional development, although their relationship with regional entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) remains underexplored, particularly in terms of longitudinal and comparative analyses. This study addresses these gaps by examining how participation in a global STP network impacts regional EE development. Using a longitudinal dataset on STPs’ entry and exit dynamics in the International Association of Science and Technology Parks and Areas of Innovation (IASP) across multiple European regions, we analyze the effects of joining a global STP network on key EE dimensions. To do so, we apply a non-parametric generalization of the difference-in-differences estimator for time-series cross-sectional data. The results reveal that joining IASP strengthens the intermediary dimension of regional EEs where parks are located, facilitating talent attraction and enhancing cross-regional knowledge spillovers. These effects are both immediate and context-dependent, with more pronounced impacts observed in regions with lower GDP per capita and outside the European Union. Theoretically, the study advances the STP literature by adopting a dynamic, macro-regional perspective, extending micro-level findings and linking STPs’ increased R&D efficiency to international collaboration. Additionally, it bridges STP and EE literatures, emphasizing the role of STPs as catalysts of regional EE development. Practically, our findings provide insights for policymakers and STP managers, highlighting the importance of supporting not only the creation of STPs but also their participation in global networks to foster innovation, especially in regions with fragmented or underdeveloped policy frameworks. © The Author(s) 2025.

The Next Catch: spotting surging entrepreneurial ecosystems

Belfanti F.; Riva M.; Alberti F.G. European Planning Studies. DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2025.2597248.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems are powerful engines of regional innovation, competitiveness, and transformation. While established hubs like Silicon Valley and Shenzhen are well studied, identifying emerging ecosystems with high growth potential remains a challenge. This study introduces the Surge Ecosystems Index, a forward-looking tool for detecting surging entrepreneurial activity at the sub-regional level. The index evaluates six dimensions – Innovation Capacity, Capital Fluidity, Skills Development, Market Reach, Entrepreneurial Culture, and Visibility – over a five-year period. Using Italian provinces (NUTS-3) as the empirical context, we integrate official statistics and web-scraped data to construct and validate the index. Results reveal geographical heterogeneity, with several provinces showing strong upward momentum despite not being traditional entrepreneurial hotspots. The index correlates positively with high-growth firm density, confirming its potential as an early-stage detection tool for policymakers and investors. This study advances entrepreneurial ecosystem theory by integrating temporal and micro-foundational perspectives, shifting from static assessments to dynamic, predictive analysis. The Surge Ecosystems Index offers a novel approach to identifying and supporting emerging entrepreneurial ecosystems, with implications for both research and policy. Future work should explore cross-contextual validation and refinement for broader applicability. © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Neighborhood clusters and citywide technological diversification

Chen, Z.; Zhang, X.; van der Wouden, F. Research Policy. DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2025.105397.

The clustering of economic activities is widely considered to be a key driver of economic competitiveness. However, little is known how technological activities are clustered within cities and how such neighborhood concentration is associated with citywide technological diversification, as the existing literature tends to treat cities as homogenous units, neglecting their neighborhood dynamics and heterogeneity. To fill this gap, we develop a novel measurement framework to identify neighborhood-level technology clusters within 260 Chinese cities, using 16 million geo-coded patents from 2003 to 2018. We then link this neighborhood-level clustering measure with the rate, direction, and complexity of citywide diversification in patenting activities. We measure technological diversification as the entry of a new revealed comparative advantage in a city's patenting portfolio and find that neighborhood-level clusters (1) contribute to an increasing rate of diversification at the city level; (2) channel diversification toward technologies related to existing specializations; (3) are associated with more complex diversification. Our results suggest that zooming in on the micro-dynamics of tech clusters provides a more nuanced view of their advantages than is typically assumed. © 2025 The Authors

Industrial districts in medieval England: Examining the significance of the ‘elementary localisation of industry’

Casson, C.; Casson, M. Business History. DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2025.2597763.

In Principles of Economics and Industry and Trade, Marshall considered how the localisation of industry in medieval England, c.1100 to 1560, could inform on subsequent agglomerations, but since then scholarship has focused mainly on Marshall’s findings on nineteenth–century manufacturing districts. This article seeks to redress the balance. It makes three contributions to the existing literature. Firstly, it extends the range of districts by focusing on the extractive industries of iron and salt; secondly, it relates evidence on medieval districts to Marshall’s earlier analysis; and thirdly it identifies the specific strengths and weaknesses of medieval districts relative to more modern ones. It identifies the main factors that boosted performance in medieval extractive districts: access to complementary resources, such as fuel, proximity to customers and royal patronage. The major weaknesses of medieval extractive industries were their ‘boom and bust’ lifecycle and the absence of a pool of hereditary knowledge. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The Contribution of Digital Technologies to Improving the Competitiveness of the Tourism Sector in European Union Countries

Maráková, V.; Wolak-Tuzimek, A.; Brożek, K.; Sieradzka, K.; Krištofík, P.  Administrative Sciences. DOI: 10.3390/admsci15120486.

Digitalization is one of the key phenomena shaping the modern world, and its impact on various sectors of the economy is increasingly important. The development of the tourism sector is inextricably linked to the development of digital technologies. This study investigates the relationship between the level of digitization and the competitiveness of the tourism sector across European Union countries. Drawing on the literature review, the research hypothesis posits a significant association between these two variables. Using the statistics obtained from Eurostat on digitization, the synthetic Hellwig measure was calculated to create a ranking of the level of digitization of EU countries. Then, the Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated; that is, the relationship between the ranking of digitization and the ranking according to the synthetic Travel & Tourism Development Index 2024 (TTDI) was examined. The study shows a positive correlation between the level of digitization and the competitiveness of the tourism sector in European Union countries. Countries with higher levels of digitization tend to perform better in the TTDI rankings. The study contributes to the academic discussion focusing on building competitive and resilient tourist destinations. © 2025 by the authors.

Cluster strength and regional resilience: the case of the USA in the Great Recession

Zárate-Mirón, V.E.; Moreno, R. Competitiveness Review. DOI: 10.1108/CR-08-2024-0152.

Purpose – This paper aims to evaluate the role of cluster strength on regional resilience. Previous literature shows that the industrial composition of a region, measured with indicators of its specialization, diversity and related and unrelated variety, is a crucial determinant of resilience. In this paper, the authors aggregate cluster-level data into several indicators of regional cluster strength to proxy for different aspects of the cluster portfolio of a region. Design/methodology/approach – In particular, the authors consider the role of the presence of strong clusters in a regional economy as well as the mix of clusters in which the region has main relevance. On the one hand, the authors assume that the agglomeration forces arising in regions specialized in certain clusters could mitigate the effect of recessions. However, these strong industrial linkages may increase the diffusion of the economic shock from one industry to the rest. To check which of these two forces dominates, the authors consider the resilience of the US states over the Great Recession period and use a cluster definition that classifies traded industries into 51 clusters. Findings – This study’s findings suggest that the presence of a portfolio of strong clusters allows mitigating economic shocks. Practical implications – Resilience mechanisms must be identified in the face of future economic shocks or pandemics like COVID-19. Originality/value – Some research works have demonstrated that strong clusters help make other clusters resilient. However, the effects they can have on the entire region have not been analyzed, as in this study. © 2024 Emerald Publishing Limited

Government influence on national competitiveness (evidence from the COVID era)

Chikán, A.; Kiss-Dobronyi, B.; Homoki-Szabó, E.; Molnár, B. Competitiveness Review. DOI: 10.1108/CR-01-2024-0008.

Purpose – This paper aims to examine how government policy and institutions affect national competitiveness. A combined microeconomic and institutionalist model of competitiveness is applied. This structure is suitable for incorporating factors considered by global competitiveness rankings. The paper proposes that there are various possible government policy “configurations” leading to similar competitiveness outcomes, but different resilience outcomes during a crisis. Design/methodology/approach – Using the Institute for Management Development competitiveness rankings, covering 62 countries, between 2010 and 2019 the authors first build clusters based on observed “government policy configurations”. These clusters show an interpretable pattern: except for a few outliers, individual clusters contain countries that are economically and culturally similar. Then the authors examine how different clusters, with similar overall competitiveness scores, have performed in 2020–2021 during the COVID pandemic. Findings – The analysis shows that government efficiency is correlated with other factors of overall competitiveness. It shows that while similar levels of competitiveness are possible with different government “configurations”, it provides evidence that more welfare-oriented government “configurations” during the crisis led to a higher resilience of national competitiveness. Originality/value – The paper connects an institutionalist and microeconomic view of competitiveness in a unique model and embeds government policy in this structure. It shows that a similar level of competitiveness is possible through different government policy “configurations” and exploits the COVID shock to analyse resilience of these “configurations”. © 2024 Emerald Publishing Limited

Identifying key factors of city resilience supporting competitiveness of destinations: a tourism perspective

Plzáková, L.; Smeral, E. Competitiveness Review. DOI: 10.1108/CR-09-2025-0299

Purpose – This study aims to examine the recovery patterns and competitive performance of city tourism between 2019 and 2023, with a focus on the role of resilience factors in supporting competitiveness during the post-crisis recovery process. Design/methodology/approach – The authors used a cross-sectional econometric approach covering 17 European cities to analyse the influence of factors such as economic diversity, social support and education levels on tourism recovery. Recovery is measured through changes in the market share of overnight stays by both domestic and foreign visitors, indicating the relative resilience of city destinations. Findings – The findings demonstrate that the size of the tourism sector, the degree of market diversification, the availability of social support systems and education levels significantly impact market-share development and recovery patterns, particularly in relation to international tourism. Recovery trajectories varied considerably across the cities. Prices and cost factors were not found to be significant during the observation period. Originality/value – This research makes a valuable contribution to the limited body of literature on crisis recovery in city tourism by identifying the necessary resilience factors that support competitiveness and by closing the gap in econometric analysis of this phenomenon. The findings offer policymakers insights into strengthening the resilience and competitiveness of city tourism through targeted investments in diversification, social support and education. © 2025 Emerald Publishing Limited

Impact of technological development on national competitiveness: empirical evidence from developing countries

Thanh Tung, L.; Thang, P.N.; Tram, T.H.M. Competitiveness Review. DOI: 10.1108/CR-01-2025-0029.

Purpose – This paper aims to shed light on the impact of technological development on the competitiveness of 38 developing countries. These countries are experiencing rapid growth and have the potential to transition to a high-income level. However, the impact of technological development on national competitiveness is not the same when classified by region, such as in the case of Asian and American countries. This paper explores how technological development influences national competitiveness. Furthermore, the empirical results have been compared and analyzed to evaluate the effects and the different levels of impact of the independent variables on the dependent variable in Asian and American countries, thereby proposing appropriate policy implications. Design/methodology/approach – The econometric models are developed based on Porter’s Diamond Model. This study uses the Generalized Method of Moments for regression analysis, using a data set covering the period from 2005 to 2022. Findings – The study’s findings provide valuable insights into the competitiveness of different groups of countries, highlighting both similarities and differences in their development trajectories influenced by technological factors. Control variables, created by merging of technological factors and other independent variables, are used in the models to identify how the impact changes when technological factors are combined with other variables affecting national competitiveness. The results unveil that technology development has positive effects on national competitiveness, not only directly by itself but also indirectly through interactions with other variables. Practical implications – Technological development is a long-term national strategy and is essential for sustaining and improving national competitiveness. Investment in technology should be diversified, funding from public, private and foreign sources. Governments should prioritize and promote key areas such as basic research, research and development, innovation and patent creation, as well as technology transfer activities. Originality/value – This paper highlights the critical role of technological development in strengthening national competitiveness. Unlike previous studies, it unveils that the positive impact of technology development on competitiveness is robust not only in direct ways but also indirectly through interactive effects. Based on the findings, policy recommendations are provided to help countries enhance competitiveness, productivity and achieve fast growth in the future. © 2025 Emerald Publishing Limited