Financial Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: An Analysis of Urban and Rural Regions of Norway

Abstract

Based on the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) perspective, this paper examines the role of finance and interrelated value-adding activities in ecosystems. The study employs a multiple-case design and interviews with 11 rural and urban innovative start-ups and stakeholders in the Norwegian market for entrepreneurial financing. The analysis disentangles the term recycling of entrepreneurial resources in ecosystems, explained here as a self-enhancing cycle of finance under certain conditions that allows enhancement of the ecosystem and members. The aim is to explain these mechanisms in business-level ecosystems, why they are important, and how they are new to entrepreneurship theories. The study argues that the robustness of ecosystems is characterised by the extent of such activities and how they affect entrepreneurial and regional growth. Bottom-up ecosystems can be spatially scattered and enable start-ups in disadvantageous localities to harvest critical resources from more advantageous places. This study provides a theoretical extension of EEs.