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

Abstract

This special issue tackles two “trendy” topics much discussed at present by the community of scholars (and practitioners too) interested in regional economic development: systems and ecosystems. These metaphors have proved popular, and enduring, currently experiencing something of a buzz or moment in the sunshine. This special issue pushes them out of their comfort zone to explore contexts, elements, and approaches that have not yet been well explored in the literature to date. Contributions in this special issue cover a wide range of international cases and explore systemic perspectives on economic development placing institutional context and evolutionary dynamics at the core.

Regional entrepreneurial ecosystems: learning from forest ecosystems

“…We extract, through a more literal extension, an alternate organisation and framework of ideas (Cronin et al, 2021 ) with respect to the ecological view of entrepreneurship and its application in regional economies. We embrace the suggestion by Pugh et al ( 2021 ) to move beyond our comfort zone and grapple with how a different approach challenges the way the current literature is evolving. We also follow the call to explore more open ideas about the EE and what productive entrepreneurship means with respect to the value it creates (Wurth et al, 2021 ).…”