Andrea Ancona

Entrepreneurship research is increasingly evolving towards the theme of sustainability. At the same time, the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem perspective is progressively extending its focus to sustainable development. Despite these parallel advances, the two literatures have remained largely disconnected. This paper addresses this gap by examining which ecosystem dimensions, measured at the regional level, are most relevant in enabling the transition towards Sustainable Entrepreneurial Ecosystems. By integrating complementary frameworks and databases, we conduct a cluster analysis of 217 European regions to explore the overlaps between regional SDG coverage and Entrepreneurial Ecosystem dimensions. Our results reveal a positive association between overall ecosystem development and a high concentration of sustainable startups, with finance and talent emerging as the most relevant dimensions, robust to regional scale. Interestingly, the network dimension – capturing regional connectedness – exhibits an inverse relationship with sustainability- oriented entrepreneurship. Moreover, the effects of institutional arrangements are less pronounced than those of resource endowments in fostering sustainable startups, whereas resource endowments appear more sensitive to regional scale. This misalignment is especially evident in regions with mature institutional and cultural frameworks, such as those in Northern and Western Europe, highlighting the need for differentiated policy approaches to support Sustainable Entrepreneurship across diverse regional contexts.

The entrepreneurial ecosystem concept has gained increasing popularity for its ability to capture the complex dynamics of entrepreneurial systems. While entrepreneurial ecosystems have been conceptualized as complex systems, existing research often oversimplifies their complexity, adopting the 'complex system' label metaphorically without fully engaging with its theoretical and analytical implications for entrepreneurial ecosystem research. This paper addresses these gaps by employing an integrative, theory-driven review approach that synthesizes prior entrepreneurial ecosystem studies engaging with key concepts from complex systems research through an abductive logic. Building on this synthesis, we develop conceptual and analytical frameworks that preserve the holistic and aggregate complexity of entrepreneurial ecosystems, encompassing micro-, meso-, and macro-level dynamics. Specifically, the proposed frameworks on ecosystem emergence, co-evolutionary dynamics, and resilience provide foundational models for theory building on entrepreneurial ecosystem complexity, while advancing the translation of core concepts from complex systems theory into actionable insights for policymakers.

The increasing complexity of innovation processes has led to the conceptualization of innovation ecosystems as complex systems. This study focuses on one underexplored property of such systems: their resilience to exogenous shocks. Specifically, we explore how digital platform adoption – accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic – can facilitate internal reorganization within ecosystems following a shock by examining its effect on key systemic properties such as openness, diversity, coherence, and flexibility. Using network-based metrics and tests, we analyze a startup ecosystem on Twitter, advancing theoretical understanding of innovation ecosystem resilience and offering practical insights into the role of digital platforms.

Policymakers have increasingly supported collaborative R&D, recognizing its role in enhancing the innovation performance and scientific reputation of organizations. This paper proposes a three-step procedure to examine collaborative patterns and participation dynamics over consecutive research programs by integrating Social Network Analysis and statistical methods. First, participants in R&D projects are ranked based on their centrality in the collaborative network. Second, transition probabilities between classes of centrality across consecutive programs are estimated. Third, the Markovian nature of collaborative patterns, which is controversial across methodological, theoretical, and empirical contributions, is tested. Using data from the first eight European Union Framework Programmes (EU FPs), we analyze the relationship between EU funding mechanisms and the micro-level behaviors of participants. Our findings provide an integrated understanding of co-evolving micro- and macro-level dynamics, reflected in the emergence of core-periphery structures, and emphasize the role of EU-funded projects in strengthening organizations' popularity. However, these dynamics also highlight the risk of "oligopolistic" behaviors that may limit the European Research Area. Exogenous mechanisms, such as R&D policies and funding, emerge as crucial mechanisms in shaping participation dynamics and organizational positions, emphasizing the need to promote openness and democratization in research funding.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) and innovation ecosystems (IEs) are conceptualised as distinct constructs, yet their interplay remains theoretically fragmented. This study addresses this gap through a scoping review of 48 peer-reviewed publications, investigating how the literature conceptualises their intersection. Guided by complex systems theory, our analysis reveals four nested configurations that emerge from the selected papers: startup ecosystems, entrepreneurial university ecosystems, entrepreneurial innovation ecosystems, and regional innovation ecosystems. These configurations are classified along two dimensions: (i) the dominant orientation of the ecosystem, which leans towards either an entrepreneurial or innovation logic; and (ii) the prevailing form of complexity, shaped by bottom-up or top-down dynamics. Our findings reveal that each configuration varies to the extent to which entrepreneurial processes are embedded within broader innovation structures or how innovation dynamics are driven by entrepreneurial foundations. We also identify systems where complex dynamics originate either at the micro-level or at the macro-level, subsequently influencing the other dimension. Thus, by showing that EEs and IEs can coexist within nested configurations than as separate domains, this study contributes to ecosystem literature and to the theoretical development of complex systems theory. The analysis advances conceptual understanding by explaining how these configurations are shaped by different forms of complexity: bottom-up dynamics are grounded in effectuation logics, and top-down patterns reflect causation and coordinated strategies. The study offers practical guidance for policymakers and ecosystem orchestrators, as it shows how governance strategies can be aligned with the specific systemic dynamics of each configuration.

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 selection of partners plays a crucial role in determining the success of collaborative projects. This study makes a valuable contribution to the existing literature on collaborative research and development by examining the impact of different partner selection strategies on the funding received in collaborative research projects. Previous studies have not shown sufficiently how collaborating with new partners as opposed to existing ones influences the amount of funding received. To bridge this gap, we use the innovative dual-projection approach from Social Network Analysis. Specifically, we analyze the network structure of projects funded by Horizon 2020, the eighth European Framework Programme. Our findings show that compared to collaborating with established partners, collaborating with new ones increases the likelihood of securing more funding when entering a new project. Moreover, projects coordinated by private or public organizations rather than research centers and higher education institutions have a higher probability of obtaining greater funding. However, the significance of partner connections diminishes with decreasing proximity to the focal organization. Ultimately, our results offer valuable insights into the effectiveness of the European Research and Technological Development Policy in fostering excellent science through cross-collaboration among a diverse group of actors.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems are wealthy environments in which entrepreneurs, firms, and governments can operate frictionless, contributing to innovation and economic growth. The investigation of the structure of such systems is an open issue. We provide insights on this aspect through the formulation of seven network-based principles associating specific network metrics to distinct structural features of entrepreneurial ecosystems. In this way, we aim to support the measurement of the structural characteristics of an entrepreneurial ecosystem and the design of policy interventions in case of unmet properties. The proposed methodology is applied to an original network built on the relationships occurring on Twitter among 612 noteworthy start-ups from seven different European countries. This is a novel way to conceptualize entrepreneurial ecosystems considering online interactions. Thus, this work represents a first attempt to analyze the structure of entrepreneurial ecosystems considering their network architecture to guide policy-making decisions. Our results suggest a partial ecosystem-like nature of the analyzed network, providing evidence about possible policy recommendations.

The concept of collaborative R&D has been increasing interest among scholars and policy-makers, making collaboration a pivotal determinant to innovate nowadays. The availability of reliable data is a necessary condition to obtain valuable results. Specifically, in a collaborative environment, we must avoid mistaken identities among organizations. In many datasets, indeed, the same organization can appear in a non-univocal way. Thus its information is shared among multiple entities. In this work, we propose a novel methodology to disambiguate organization names. In particular, we combine supervised and unsupervised techniques to design a "hybrid" methodology that is neither fully automated nor completely manual, and easy to adapt to many different datasets. Thus, the flexibility and potential scalability of the methodology make this paper a worthwhile contribution to different research fields. We provide an empirical application of the methodology to the dataset of participants in projects funded by the first three European Framework Programmes. This choice is because we can test the quality of our procedure by comparing the refined dataset it returns to a well-recognized benchmark (i.e., the EUPRO database) in terms of the connection structure of the collaborative networks. Our results show the advantages of our approach based on the quality of the obtained dataset, and the efficiency of the designed methodology, leaving space for the integration of affiliation hierarchies in the future.