«ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEMS MEET INNOVATION SYSTEMS»
Editors: Alexandra Tsetkova, Jana Schmutzler, Rhiannon Pugh
Submission deadline for Chapter proposal (2-3 pages): August 19, 2018
Preliminary approval received from Edward Elgar Publishers for an edited book
The concept of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EE) has gained popularity since the publication of the mainstream book “Startup Communities” (Feld, 2012) and Isenberg´s (2010) piece in the Harvard Business Review. Both authors highlight the importance of a supportive community as well as an enabling economic environment for the entrepreneur. As such, these publications embody a changing research focus in the entrepreneurship literature: away from personality-based explanations toward investigations of the entrepreneurial process in its broader social and
economic environment (Spigel, 2017). The EE concept has proved particularly popular amongst scholars in entrepreneurship, management, and economic geography also due to its focus on the local and regional environment.
However, the idea that a place’s community, its economic and social context matter is not new. To the contrary, social science research has been increasingly encompassing the “systems”
approach for some time already. Focusing on the multitude of actors, the environment and their dynamic network-like interactions to explain and predict socioeconomic outcomes within and
across regions has given rise to concepts such as industrial districts (Marshall, 1920), industrial clusters (Porter, 2000), innovative milieu (Camagni, 1991) and, lately, the concept of (regional) innovation systems (Lundvall, 1992; Asheim et al., 2011). These concepts have proved enduringly popular, perhaps due to their ability to capture and explicate mechanisms usually
assumed away in static analyses within the classical economics.
As of today, the innovation systems (IS) and entrepreneurial ecosystems (EE) literatures have established themselves in their own right. Despite the obvious overlap in the topics covered and approaches taken, it appears that the two frameworks mainly evolve along parallel lines with limited dialog even though the innovation systems approach is considered a predecessor of the entrepreneurial ecosystems approach (Stam & Spigel, 2016).
In a new edited book we seek to explore the similarities and differences between the IS and EE approaches in their treatment of common research topics. Our broader goals are (1) to advance the discourse by bridging the two research traditions through the lessons one perspective can learn from the other and (2) to expand the frontiers of current knowledge by encouraging research into previously unexplored areas.
To this end, we invite extended abstract submissions for empirical, theoretical and review chapters that try to bridge the literatures on innovation systems (IS) or entrepreneurial ecosystems
(EE) within the blocks of topics listed below.
We particularly encourage submissions, which treat these topics within the Global South context, as well as submissions from female researchers.
Block I – Bridging the IS and EE perspectives
Block II – Sustainable development and inclusive growth
Block III – The informal economy
Submission, review and publication
Please submit extended chapter abstracts (800-1,000 words) together with a full list of contributors and a tentative title to Alexandra Tsvetkova (tsvetkova.1@osu.edu) no later than Sunday,
August 19th, 2018. The title, the list of authors, their affiliations and references (if any) are excluded from the word count.
The editors will screen all submissions for clarity, relevance and expected contribution to the book theme. Selected abstracts will be incorporated into book proposal to be submitted to Edward Elgar Publishers. We have discussed the book plan with the editor and received a preliminary approval. We expect to sign a book contract in October 2018.
We expect to follow this timeline:
- Chapter proposal (500 – 1,000 words) submission deadline: August 19th, 2018
- Acceptance notification: September 3rd, 2018
- Chapter submission deadline: January 13th, 2019
- Expected publication: Fall 2019 –Winter 2010.
Once the contract is signed, all details of the book publication timeline will be sent to participating authors. Please be aware that the chapters must be original and comply with Edward
Elgar’s submission guidelines (more information will be provided at the time of chapter acceptance). All chapters will undergo a double-blind review process and will be checked with
specialized software for plagiarism.
We appreciate your time and are looking forward to our future collaboration.
