Our paper investigates the interaction of mechanisms that drive the emergence and development of a sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem (SEE). We study a specific geographic context, the Amsterdam metropolitan area, and a specific industrial context, the denim industry. We conducted a qualitative, inductive study to understand how SEEs emerge and develop. We used data from longitudinal observations, semi-structured interviews and archival documentation to examine the emergence and development of the Amsterdam SEE in the denim industry. We show that the local culture that supports sustainability values is essential to attracting sustainability support organisations and acts as a catalyst for growth. By focusing on a specific sustainable innovation project as a case study, we also find that collectively engaging in innovation projects spurs the growth of an SEE and aids legitimization of SEE actors. Our study provides contributions to the nascent branch of literature on sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystems and has implications for practitioners and policy makers.
This paper investigates how firms adapt their innovation strategies to cope with constraints in national institutional environments. It is a comparative case study of Dutch and British dedicated biotechnology firms focusing on a particular type of strategy, the hybrid model. Patterns of skill accumulation and learning present in the Dutch hybrids are indications of how they use institutional advantages to focus on low-risk innovation and build deeper competences while also pursuing high-risk innovation strategies. The Dutch hybrid model offers insight into how firms comply with the dominant logic of the biotechnology field even when their institutional frameworks encourage the pursuit of low-risk innovation strategies.
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