Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and Quadruple Helix: A Sub-ecosystem Approach

While the concept entrepreneurial ecosystem is rapidly evolving, the academic literature highlights the lack of theoretical and methodological frameworks. This chapter aims to address these shortfalls by proposing a dynamic model of the ecosystem in the form of sub-ecosystems. This approach broadens the theoretical spectrum of the concept and highlights a new perspective of understanding. Building on the literature on the Quadruple Helix model, 1 a conceptual framework is developed to revisit the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem by highlighting five structuring sub-ecosystems. Our exploratory empirical study shows how the sub-ecosystems and their interactions have contributed to the dynamics of entrepreneurship in the South of France. This chapter thus strengthens the theorization of the ecosystem and provides useful recommendations for policymakers in designing entrepreneurship strategy.