Entrepreneurial ecosystem performance in advanced and emerging economies: the role of contextual factors

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to delineate the differences in how contextual factors (i.e. funding, market reach and talent) influence performance of entrepreneurial ecosystems in advanced and emerging economies.Design/methodology/approachBuilding upon the biological perspective on entrepreneurial ecosystems, in this study we conduct the fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) on the sample of 100 entrepreneurial ecosystems across 25 advanced economies and 21 emerging economies. The fsQCA allows us to embrace the causal complexity that characterizes the relationship between multiple contextual factors and ecosystem performance in countries with different levels of economic development.FindingsThe results elucidate how the level of a country’s economic development influences the interplay of contextual factors and their collective impact on the performance of entrepreneurial ecosystems across advanced and emerging economies.Practical implicationsOur findings provide useful guidance for practitioners and policymakers aiming to cultivate conducive environments for nurturing new ventures within local ecosystems, which will stimulate the economic growth of the regions and narrow the gap between advanced and emerging economies.Originality/valueThis study delineates the complex interactions of key contextual factors and their joint impact on ecosystem performance in emerging economies, in comparison to ecosystems in advanced economies. By looking into differences of antecedents of high and low performance of ecosystems embedded in countries with distinctive level of economic development, this study goes beyond prior research that primarily focused on singular countries or regions.