Entrepreneurship has attracted the attention of researchers and management practitioners since the early 1990s (Bhide, 1992). Most existing studies on entrepreneurship are motivated by the substantial

No abstract

Purpose This paper aims to explore coopetition within the entrepreneurial ecosystem and answer the following two fundamental questions: How does coopetition affect the entrepreneurial learning and performance of startups? and What learning strategies should startups adopt to promote their growth in the coopetition activities? Design/methodology/approach Using the structural equation model and instrumental variable, this study used a sample of 371 startups to test the hypotheses. Data comes from startups in Jiangsu, Shanghai and Zhejiang, China. Findings This study finds that the coopetition-performance relationship of startups is marginally negative. This study also finds that exploitative learning and exploratory learning positively mediate this relationship. Ecosystem’s social capital can enhance the coopetition-exploration relationship, but the coopetition-exploitation relationship is not affected. Originality/value Many studies propose that the coopetition-performance relationship is ambiguous, which makes it meaningful to explore startups individually. Based on the resource-based view and the knowledge-based view, this study deepen the works of Bouncken and Fredrich (2016c), that is, how startups can learn and grow through coopetition activities. This study proposes that coopetition is one of the foundations of the ecosystem and explore the coopetition-performance relationship in this special context. Thus, the present paper adds to the budding literature on the effects of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and to the literature on coopetition.

Technology that develops rapidly has profoundly affected the business field and reshaped some behaviours of corporations, and the discussion on startup risk-taking behaviour in the new era is still insufficient. Based on social network theory and social capital theory, this article studies how social networks and entrepreneurial ecosystems support startup risk-taking behaviour. This article cuts into this issue through the perspective of coopetition. Based on 737 responses, this article employs regression and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to explore the relationships between networks, ecosystem coopetition, and risk-taking behaviour. Results indicate that networks and coopetition may stimulate startup risk-taking behaviour, and coopetition may weaken the impacts of networks. There are replacement effects between different characteristics of networks, and there are several configurations, which may lead to high-level risk-taking. This article may help us understand startup risk-taking behaviour in the digital era and the positive impacts of ecosystems.

No abstract