Applying the Ecosystem Metaphor to Entrepreneurship

• Author: Daniel J. Isenberg
• Date: 01 December 2016
• DOI: 10.1177/0003603X16676162
• Published date: 01 December 2016

Article

Applying the Ecosystem

Metaphor to Entrepreneurship:

Uses and Abuses

Daniel J. Isenberg*

Abstract

This article uses a comparison of the generic features of natural ecosystems and the popular use of the

term ‘‘entrepreneurship ecosystems’’ and identifies five mistakes in the way the ecosystem metaphor is

applied from the natural sciences: the creation mistake, the centralized control mistake, the geography

mistake, the intention mistake, and the entrepreneur-centrality mistake.

Keywords

entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship ecosystems, entrepreneurshi p policy, economic development,

economic policy

I. Introduction

Since the appearance of How to Start an Entrepreneurial Revolution

1

in the Harvard Business Review

six years ago, the use of the term ‘‘entrepreneurship ecosystem’’

2

has become commonplace : A

January 2016 Google search yielded 10 million results.

3

The World Economic Forum has published

*Babson Executive Education, Wellesley, MA, USA; Columbia Business School, New York, NY, USA; and Harvard Kennedy

School Center for International Development, Cambridge, MA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Daniel J. Isenberg, c/o Babson Executive Education, Babson Park, MA 02457, USA.

Email: disen@babson.edu

1. Daniel Isenberg, How to Start an En trepreneurial Revolution,HARV.BUS.REV., June 2010, at 51– 60. See also Daniel

Isenberg, What an Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Actually Is,H

ARV.BUS.REV., May 2014, https://hbr.org/2014/05/what-an-

entrepreneurial-ecosystem-actually-is.

2. Sometimes also called an ‘‘entrepreneurial ecosystem.’’ In my view, entrepreneurship ecosystem is preferred because the

ecosystem is itself not ‘‘entrepreneurial’’; rather, it fosters entrepreneurship. But the terms are used interchangeably.

3. See Collin Mason & Ross Brown, Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and Growth Oriented Entrepreneurship (Org. Econ.

Cooperation & Dev. Background Paper, 2014), http://www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/entrepreneurial-ecosystems.pdf; and Erkko

Autio & Jonathan Levie, Management of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (Imperial College Bus. Sch. Working Paper, 2015)

(on file with author).

The Antitrust Bulletin

2016, Vol. 61(4) 564-573

ªThe Author(s) 2016

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DOI: 10.1177/0003603X16676162

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