Helping Entrepreneurs Help Themselves: A Review and Relational Research Agenda on Entrepreneurial Support Organizations

Abstract

Entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs), such as incubators and accelerators, are now ubiquitous. Despite this proliferation, their impact on entrepreneurs, ventures, and communities remains unclear, while academic research remains disjointed and largely descriptive, limiting understanding of the entrepreneurial support process and the influence of ESOs on it. Conducting a systematic review of 337 peer-reviewed articles involving five ESO forms—incubators, science parks, accelerators, maker spaces, and co-working spaces—we find that the literature’s conception of support is under-socialized such that there is a need for longitudinal, processual, and experimental examination of changes in the rich relationships between entrepreneurs and their ventures, entrepreneurs and other entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs and ESOs, and ESOs and external stakeholders. Conceiving of support as help to become self-sufficient, we offer an alternative, relational approach to research on entrepreneurial support and those organizations seeking to provide it.

The effectiveness of education with the STEM approach in the development of entrepreneurial thinking in chemistry students

“…One of the most important issues in entrepreneurship debates is to strengthen entrepreneurial behavior in people (Bergman and McMullen, 2021). Different people have different entrepreneurial qualities, which make different forms of entrepreneurial behavior in similar situations (Rabin et al, 2021).…”

Knowledge Accumulation in Entrepreneurship

“…ESOs exist to provide tangible and intangible assistance to overcome these deficiencies, and the efficacy of such provisions can be identified via an increase in some desired outcomes (e.g., venture revenues, or employment growth). Like Bergman and McMullen (2022), we agree this unidirectional path of influence is limited as both parties (i.e., the ESO and the entrepreneur/ venture) in the relationship are informed, influenced, and educated through their shared interactions over time. Entrepreneurs and ventures exist and interact with others in a shared ESO environment, and ESOs exist within a larger entrepreneurial ecosystem.…”

“…Three articles review the literature on various aspects of the entrepreneurial environment. Kimjeon and Davidsson (2022) lead off by examining environmental factors that enable entrepreneurship, followed by Bergman and McMullen (2022), who probe the literature on entrepreneurial support organizations (ESO). A third article by Wurth et al (2022) examines the literature from an entrepreneurial ecosystems perspective.…”

“…This review offers a rich relational and dynamic view of entrepreneurial support processes across ESOs and highlights five levels of analysis examined in that work (i.e., ESOs, individuals engaging with ESOs, ventures engaging with ESOs, ESO sponsors, and ESO systems). Bergman and McMullen (2022) suggest there is conceptual ambiguity in the literature over the notion of "support" as ESOs and their researchers tend to focus on the provision of administrative, technological, or network resources while the public and entrepreneurs view ESOs as providers of help. The authors lament that metaphors, theories, and methods associated with relationships, such as parenting, coaching, and mentoring, as well as theories and/or processes associated with learning, are largely absent in the ESO literature.…”

“…As a result, we believe that research of ESOs would benefit from taking a closer look at the research within the entrepreneurial ecosystem stream. Many of the criticism forwarded by Bergman and McMullen (2022) (e.g., assumed homogeneity of system actors, failures to consider relationships among actors, and lack of consideration of learning constructs such as coaching) have all been considered in prior entrepreneurial ecosystem research (see Feldman & Lowe, 2018;Neck et al, 2004;and Colombo & Grilli, 2010, as examples). Wurth et al (2022) conclude their review with a comprehensive, transdisciplinary research program for entrepreneurial ecosystems and offer a plethora of potential research questions to consider.…”