The entrepreneurial ecosystem of cultural and creative industries in Porto: A sub‐ecosystem approach

Abstract

It is still a matter of dispute whether entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) frameworks can be confined to a single industry in isolation, let alone whether such a sub‐ecosystem approach can be employed in a domain that is distinct from the high‐growth industries usually scrutinised in the literature. This article seeks to apply a systemic and dynamic EE perspective to the development of cultural and creative industries (CCIs) within an urban context, with a particular focus on how urban development interacts with the sub‐ecosystem of this sector over time. An in‐depth case study in the city of Porto (Portugal) revealed that existing EE frameworks are well‐suited to research on creative sub‐ecosystems. It also enabled us to flesh out associations with other entrepreneurial activities and policy domains within the city. We highlight the prominent roles of local culture and policies when the context is resource‐constrained: policy led to an upward, positive spiral that moved Porto’s EE in relation to CCIs into a growth stage, during which it began to interact with, and faced resource competition from, high‐tech entrepreneurship. We argue that having an integrated view of the dynamics of entrepreneurial sub‐ecosystems and urban affairs can improve what is understood of productivity and causality in entrepreneurship.

Coming into fashion: Expanding the entrepreneurial ecosystem concept to the creative industries through a Toronto case study

“…Nonetheless, recent studies have attempted to expand the EE concept beyond the usual cases (Freire‐Gib and Gregson 2020; Loots et al 2020; Tsvetkova, Pugh, and Schmutzler 2020; Tsvetkova, Schmutzler and Pugh 2020). We situate our paper within this body of work that seeks to make the framework more relevant to a wider set of people and places.…”

“…We situate our paper within this body of work that seeks to make the framework more relevant to a wider set of people and places. Although we study CCIs, via the fashion industry, our research speaks to recent contributions unpacking the EE approach in various contexts, such as maternal healthcare in South Africa (Grobbelaar and Uriona‐Maldonado 2020), Porto's cultural and creative economy (Loots et al 2020), and efforts to orchestrate EEs in Colombia (Porras‐Paez and Schmutzler 2020) and Finland (Nordling 2019).…”

“…Accordingly, with our focus on CCIs and the fashion industry specifically, we see this paper countering a trend in the EE literature. Current studies have been expanding the concept's applications within a global and wide sectoral perspective (Nordling 2019; Freire‐Gib and Gregson 2020; Grobbelaar and Uriona‐Maldonado 2020; Loots et al 2020; Porras‐Paez and Schmutzler 2020; Tsvetkova, Pugh, and Schmutzler 2020; Tsvetkova, Schmutzler and Pugh 2020). However, we believe that this research, with its narrow focus on high‐tech industries, is missing out on important influences and dynamics in the contemporary economy.…”

Taking the systems approaches out of their comfort zones: Perspectives from under explored contexts

“…The emerging economy context is surely a highly promising setting for exploring the dynamics of entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems in coming years, and an important step forwards for the field to move away from the North American and European focus. In addition to this paper, the contribution by Loots et al (2020) also examines the ecosystems approach with reference to cultural and creative industries, with Porto as the case in focus. Specifically, the authors explore an interaction between urban development and the dynamics of a sector‐specific ecosystem over time.…”

Urban alternative cultural production in Turin: An ecological community approach

“…The article adds to this scholarship by proposing a conceptual and empirical framework to analyze urban alternative cultural production according to an ecological perspective. Instead of following an ecosystemic approach for addressing the relationships and the interaction with a cultural and creative subsystem with other urban resources and policy domains (see, for example, Loots et al, 2021), we propose to adopt an ecological community perspective to study the internal structure and dynamics of urban alternative cultural production. In ecology, a community is defined as a group of various organisms interacting in a common location (Morin, 2009; Whittaker, 1970).…”