Linkage and coordination: Industrial digital transformation from the perspective of innovation ecosystem

Wang Y.; Huang C.; Ye X.; Zhang J. 2025. Technovation. DOI: 10.1016/j.technovation.2025.103228

The topic of industrial digital transformation (IDT) is garnering prominence in both industry and academia. Current discussions on IDT are most concentrated within specific business disciplines but remain fragmented, lacking a broader systemic perspective that integrates digital technology adopters, collaborative value co-creators, and the regulating external techno-economic environment. This paper explores innovation ecosystem theory to construct a “technology-organization-market” integrated analysis framework, understanding IDT's multi-field linkage and cross-field coordination characteristics. We apply this exploratory framework to the Chinese urban rail transit industry as a case study, analyzing the interlinkages and collaborative dynamics in the digital transformation across various functional areas over the past decade. We observe that notable advancements in technological upgrading, organizational systems, and market performance within the industry, yet potential constraints at the technical field. Moreover, we observe a coordinated effect of chain optimization among different fields. However, a long-term negative impact is observed between technology and organization fields, possibly linked to recent industrial technology development decline.

Ecosystems cast a shadow: How high-quality entrepreneurial ecosystems hamper productive entrepreneurship in neighboring regions

Leendertse J.; van Rijnsoever F.; Oostveen B. Journal of Business Venturing Insights. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00533

The entrepreneurial ecosystem framework describes how entrepreneurs in a region are influenced by their environment. The quality of regional entrepreneurial ecosystems has a positive influence on the occurrence of productive entrepreneurship, often proxied through innovative start-ups. However, existing research only looks at entrepreneurial ecosystems in isolation and does not account for the influence of neighboring entrepreneurial ecosystems. We study whether neighboring entrepreneurial ecosystems influence the prevalence of productive entrepreneurship in a focal region and whether this effect is positive, a ‘borrowed size’ effect, or negative, an ‘agglomeration shadow’ effect. We use spatial regression analyses and find clear evidence that high-quality neighbors cast agglomeration shadows, or in this case, ‘ecosystem shadows'. This suggests that regions lose entrepreneurial opportunities to neighbors with higher quality EEs. Our study is the first to study spillover effects between regional entrepreneurial ecosystems. Policymakers can use our findings to choose where to strategically deploy their resources to foster a more entrepreneurial society. © 2025 The Authors

Resource endowments as antecedents of high-impact entrepreneurship: Embracing the complexity of entrepreneurial ecosystems

Tekic A.; Tekic Z. Journal of Business Research. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115444

Entrepreneurial ecosystems, as spatially bounded resource allocation systems, are vital for the growth and scale-up of new ventures by facilitating access to financial, human, and social resources, which are considered to be essential for fostering Schumpeterian entrepreneurship. However, there is significant heterogeneity in resource endowments of high-impact ecosystems, challenging the prevailing thesis in entrepreneurial ecosystem research that posits a balance and completeness among ecosystem elements, including resources, as a prerequisite for outstanding entrepreneurial performance. In this study, we draw on complexity theory to explore how financial, human, and social resources interact and combine to influence high-impact entrepreneurship within ecosystems. Employing fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) on a sample of 139 ecosystems across 47 countries, we identify both effective and ineffective ecosystem resource bundles. Highlighting their polarized nature, we develop a typology of high- and low-impact entrepreneurial ecosystems based on the complex patterns of substitutability and complementarity in their resource endowments. © 2025 Elsevier Inc.

Understanding the role of place in emerging organisational fields: a comparative analysis of nascent ICT entrepreneurial ecosystems in Japan

Kapturkiewicz A. Small Business Economics. DOI: 10.1007/s11187-025-01024-3

Abstract: This paper contributes to a better understanding of how place matters for the development of nascent Information and Communication Technology (ICT) entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs). This qualitative study adopts a lens of neo-institutional theory, looking at EEs as organisational fields, and focuses on two comparative cases in Japan—Osaka-Kyoto and Fukuoka, which are developing “in the shadow” of the more established Tokyo EE. The data is based on semi-structured interviews and participant observations generated during fieldwork research in 2016–2020, analysed together with a set of archival data. The findings reveal similar gaps in the institutional infrastructure of the nascent EEs of Osaka-Kyoto and Fukuoka (for example, in funding, in the access to information and expertise from successful startups), in response to which their stakeholders engage undertake similar types of actions to obtain the missing/underdeveloped elements, including creating network connections within and between EEs (with particularly important links to Tokyo EE). However, the study shows that the existing and expected outcomes of these actions are moderated by certain elements underlying the EEs’ institutional infrastructure—local resources (stronger in Osaka-Kyoto) and place cohesion (stronger in Fukuoka). The latter concept is newly identified and defined in the paper. The findings of this paper become the basis for a process model of the nascent EEs’ development, have theoretical implications for research about EEs and for the comparative study of organisational fields, and offer insights for policy and practice. Plain English Summary : Place continues to be critically important for the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs), even those focused on technology-related startup entrepreneurship that might be expected to be less dependent on place. By comparing the cases of two Information and Communication Technology (ICT) EEs in Japan (Osaka-Kyoto and Fukuoka, developing “in the shadow” of the more established Tokyo), the study shows the significant role of place cohesion (a newly defined concept, consisting of place-based collective identity and locations’ internal centralisation) and local resources in the nascent EEs’ development. The findings also confirm that various developmental pathways and configurations exist but note possible dangers (e.g. brain drain) when some key elements (e.g. funding) are accessed from another EE, even in the same country. Policymakers and practitioners should consider that intentionally working on strengthening place cohesion and local resources could help EEs’ development and that developing at least some locally based funding opportunities seems important for nascent EEs. © The Author(s) 2025.

Greening pastures: Ecosystems for sustainable entrepreneurship

Leendertse J.; van Rijnsoever F. Small Business Economics. DOI: 10.1007/s11187-025-01040-3

Sustainable entrepreneurs introduce new sustainable technologies and business models to the market. They thereby can help with tackling grand environmental challenges. Regional governments are increasingly implementing policies to develop a supportive ecosystem for sustainable entrepreneurship in their region. For these policies to be effective, policy makers need to understand which regional factors influence the founding of sustainable start-ups by these entrepreneurs. We build on the sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem and innovation system literatures to develop hypotheses about which factors could influence the presence of sustainable start-ups in a region. We test these hypotheses on data from 273 European NUTS-2 regions containing 46,741 start-ups. We use text analysis to identify which start-ups are environmentally sustainable. We find strong evidence that the quality of an entrepreneurial ecosystem is important for the presence of sustainable start-ups, even more so than for their regular counterparts. Furthermore, we find that the presence of sustainable start-ups is positively influenced by the presence of fellow (regular) start-ups, the presence of sustainability-oriented formal institutions, and to some extend sustainability-oriented resource endowments and sustainability-oriented informal institutions. We make two contributions to the literature. First, our research contributes to structuring the debate on generic versus specific entrepreneurial ecosystems using insights from the innovation systems literature. Second, we apply these insights to propose a novel conceptual framework for sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems. We show how sustainable entrepreneurship is influenced by both the generic entrepreneurial ecosystem and through a sustainability specification. Policy makers can use our results to establish policies that help improve ecosystems for sustainable entrepreneurship in their region. © The Author(s) 2025.

Stagnating or flourishing? How entrepreneurial support organizations navigate constraints in nascent ecosystems

Negri G.; Ciambotti G.; Theodoraki C.; Littlewood D. Small Business Economics. DOI: 10.1007/s11187-025-01042-1

Entrepreneurial support organizations can play an important role in nascent entrepreneurial ecosystems by enabling productive and sustainable entrepreneurship. However, in such ecosystems, entrepreneurial support organizations may struggle to access the resources they need to activate their support. Drawing upon inductive qualitative research with 31 entrepreneurial support organizations and 40 interviews in Uganda, we examine how entrepreneurial support organizations navigate challenges of resource-constraints in nascent entrepreneurial ecosystems. A conceptual model is developed, depicting (1) key challenges entrepreneurial support organizations face in resource-constrained nascent entrepreneurial ecosystems, (2) the practices they enact to navigate such challenges, and (3) the implications of these practices at the meso-level of the “entrepreneurial support ecosystem.” We find that some entrepreneurial support organizations use adaptation practices to navigate challenges in nascent entrepreneurial ecosystems, while others deploy more agentic collaboration and transformation practices. We describe the latter as “ecosystem work” defined as efforts to create, maintain, and disrupt entrepreneurial support ecosystems. Finally, our model depicts how different navigating practices may influence entrepreneurial support dynamics. We suggest that while adaptation alone may result in stagnating entrepreneurial support ecosystems, “ecosystem work” may engender flourishing entrepreneurial support ecosystems. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025.

Measuring entrepreneurial ecosystems across levels: a district approach

Hess S.; Wahl A.; Johnson A.R. Small Business Economics. DOI: 10.1007/s11187-025-01041-2

Entrepreneurial ecosystem measures should combine archival civic and self-reported entrepreneur data. This combination helps to overcome the limitations of aggregated archival data that affect our collective capacity to derive actionable insights for research and policy. Previous measurement approaches lack consistency with entrepreneurial ecosystem theory because they do not capture data at a sufficiently local level or data about entrepreneurs’ values, beliefs, and attitudes. This paper proposes a new measurement approach for EE elements at the district level (NUTS-3), facilitating comparisons of local geographic EE properties and measuring relations between entrepreneurs, new ventures, and their ecosystems. Using confirmatory factor analysis, we combine self-reported and archival data to connect the micro and macro dimensions of the entrepreneurial ecosystem phenomenon. Analyzing survey data from 257 founders of innovative startups across 29 NUTS-3 districts in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, our findings support the “substitutability logic” among ten entrepreneurial ecosystem elements and uncover district-level geographic properties. Our study offers replication possibilities, recommendations for entrepreneurs’ actions, and policy monitoring. © The Author(s) 2025.

How platform enterprises compete through suppliers: the mediation role of supplier value co-creation between digital platform capabilities and competitive advantage

Liu Y.; Zhu X.; Deng S. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2025.124142

Despite growing research interests in a single enterprise-based competition, the existing literature has primarily focused on the emergency of competitive advantage. The digital platform offers unprecedented opportunities for competition between enterprises, with only a limited understanding of whether, how and when digital platform capabilities affect platform enterprises' competitive advantage. This study investigates how the digital platform capabilities of platform enterprises contribute to their competitive advantages through supplier value co-creation. The study also examines how digital market exploration moderates this relationship. Based on an analysis of 386 valid questionnaires, the results indicate that digital platform capability positively affects platform enterprises' competitive advantage, supplier value co-creation mediates the relationship between digital platform capability and platform enterprises' competitive advantage, and digital market exploration positively moderates the relationship between digital platform capability and supplier value co-creation. The findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of why platform enterprises with digital platform capabilities perform better in building competitive advantage and provide new insights on how a platform enterprise can achieve better competitive advantage to address competitive challenges effectively. © 2025 Elsevier Inc.

Structural Model of Technological Collaboration within a Manufacturing Cluster

Krawczyk-Dembicka E.; Urban W. Management and Production Engineering Review. DOI: 10.24425/mper.2025.153934

The aim of this study is to examine the collaboration among members of a business cluster in the field of technology management, specifically focusing on the Metal Processing Cluster operating in Poland. Utilizing survey data, a structural model is developed through the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling technique. The resulting statistically valid model elucidates several significant relationships that are crucial for fostering collaboration within a business cluster, while simultaneously affirming the advantages associated with membership in such an organizational structure. Participation in a cluster has the potential to expedite information acquisition, cultivate valuable new knowledge within firms, and yield both operational and strategic benefits. Although knowledge that facilitates and supports innovation is deemed essential for maximizing the advantages of cluster participation, a significant number of surveyed cluster companies have yet to implement such knowledge, suggesting the existence of untapped opportunities for further benefits among members. © 2025 The Author(s).

Capabilities and collaborative marketing practices among rival cluster-based wine producers. 

Crick J.M.; Crick D. Journal of Marketing Management. DOI: 10.1080/0267257X.2025.2499105.

This study investigates how owner-managers of wine producers that participate in coopetition relationships (cooperation with competitors) can effectively implement collaborative marketing practices with their cluster-based rivals to facilitate regional sales as a specific place-related strategy. Data collection featured interviews with owner-managers of smaller-sized, independent, family-owned, wine producers in New Zealand, alongside secondary data. Contributions are offered first, by profiling firms via a 2 × 2matrix, regarding decision-makers’ capabilities associated with gaining either a high/low recognition of types of customers’ knowledge and purchase intentions, also, by exhibiting a high/low competitor orientation. Second, unique insights emerge concerning the capability to be strategically flexible in response to environmental conditions. Third, new evidence indicates that capabilities vary, but some are of a lower-order ‘threshold’ rather than higher-order ‘dynamic’ nature. © 2025 Westburn Publishers Ltd.

Analyzing industrial interconnections and shocks: insights from it and automotive clusters in Mexico

Mendoza-Velazquez A.; Zárate-Mirón V.E. Competitiveness Review. DOI: 10.1108/CR-08-2024-0150

Purpose: This study aims to understand the impact of shocks on industrial clusters, by analyzing interindustry linkages and complementary activities within clusters. Design/methodology/approach: This analysis explores industrial interconnectedness and impact evaluation using input-output analysis and their impact on the overall economic performance by adopting the cluster mapping classification by Delgado et al. (2016) and Sintonía (2023) for Mexican industries. Findings: While the analysis focuses on semiconductors and automotive clusters, the findings reveal that Information Technology (IT) cluster, which embeds semiconductors, have a limited capacity to pull or push the economic activity of other clusters. On the other hand, automotive clusters demonstrate significant relevance, with strong linkages to various industries and a high capacity to pull and push the economy. Practical implications: To capitalize on nearshoring trends, industrial policies in Mexico should focus on increasing semiconductor production to leverage technological spillovers and strengthen the cluster’s influence on other sectors. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that analyzes this cluster classification based on an input-output matrix for the Mexican Economy. Furthermore, the results of this study are relevant to the Mexican economy due to the recent increase in nearshoring in this country. © 2025, Emerald Publishing Limited.

The mediating role of integrated agritourism cluster development on regional development in Indonesia

Marpaung M.; Nasution Z.; Sirojuzilam S.; Andayani L.S. Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events. 10.1080/19407963.2023.2230582

The advancement of agritourism is a crucial component of regional economic growth, but the integration of the cluster development has received insufficient attention. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the role of integrated agritourism cluster development in mediating the role of the government in regional growth. It used a quantitative approach in contrast to previous study, which adopted a qualitative approach. Data were gathered from 400 respondents in North Sumatra Province, Indonesia, through structured questionnaires and subsequently analyzed using path and regression analyses. The results showed that integrated agritourism cluster development positively mediates the role of the government in regional growth. Furthermore, the provincial government should construct tourism infrastructures and facilities, formulate a legal framework for integrated agritourism cluster development to create more opportunities and benefits, promote the integration of the local governments, raise public participation, and improve regional development. Future study could examine the most significant aspects of agritourism clusters that impact regional development by exploring additional independent variables such as social capital, information technology, and diverse resources. The finding contributes to the existing literature as the first study to evaluate the mediating role of integrated agritourism cluster development regarding community empowerment and policy setting. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.