Mapping entrepreneurial ecosystem: identification of major drivers in developed and developing countries

Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) are viewed as the source of economic growth, revitalization, and means of creating jobs, attracting human talent from other regions and bring innovation into a community. The concept of entrepreneurial ecosystems has been used as a framework, consists of attributes, elements, actors, pillars to explain entrepreneurial activities within regions and industrial sectors. Current work on EEs, however, focuses on documenting the list of elements of system, which means that rare investigation is made in examining the individual contribution of the drivers in the development of entrepreneurial ecosystem. Notwithstanding the usefulness of this approach, the concept is not developed yet, especially with regard to the measurement of the individual functionality of each driver in the development of entrepreneurial ecosystem in developing as well as in developed nations. To address this issue, the research study in hand deployed a mixed method approach, in two stages, to answer the research questions. The first stage was qualitative phase in which total 17 semi-structure interviews (9 in Pakistan and 8 in Italy) were conducted. The data generated from the first phase was not only used as an input for the development of survey instrument for the second quantitative phase but also resulted in one additional element, for instance, social media to the existing EE attributes. Based on extant literature and results of the qualitative phase, various hypotheses were developed to measure the individual effect of each attribute on EE development. At the quantitative stage, 309 and 167 useable questionnaires from entrepreneurs/SMEs’ managers in the context of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan and Molise Region, Italy respectively were collected through drop and collect method to test the developed hypotheses. The theoretical model was tested by analyzing survey responses, using structural equation modelling (SEM). The measurement model shows a good fit with the data and good convergent, discriminate and composite reliability. The results of structure model of SEM analysis suggest that all hypotheses in the context of Italy and eight hypotheses in the context of Pakistan were supported. The results of this research study offer new insights for both academics and practitioners and add to the existing body of knowledge on EE attributes and the role of individual attribute in the development of entrepreneurial ecosystem in developing and developed contexts simultaneously. The study made some methodological as well as theoretical contributions as it is the first of this kind in Pakistani and Italian perspective.