Creating Sustainable and Thriving Teams: Teachers’ Driven Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

To improve their practices, teachers need to regularly develop and practice teaching innovations. Hence, this study examines such practices via the relations between entrepreneurial teachers and their entrepreneurial ecosystem, including schools’ formal structures and informal collegiality. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the survey responses of 734 teachers from 30 Hong Kong primary and secondary schools examined the structure of their entrepreneurial attributes and competencies. The results revealed hierarchical structures for entrepreneurial attributes (Mitigating Risk and Contriving Humility) and competencies (Advocating Innovation and Seeking Resources). The entrepreneurial ecosystem has a two-factor structure, comprising formal structure and community. Structural equation modeling showed that entrepreneurial teachers’ attributes were linked to entrepreneurial teachers’ competencies, which in turn were linked to the entrepreneurial ecosystem’s formal structures and informal community. Further, teachers with more than 3 years of teaching experience had more teacher entrepreneurial competencies than less experienced teachers. This study offers insights into (a) how teachers foster innovative and entrepreneurial teams within EEs, (b) strategies to integrate entrepreneurial thinking and innovative practices, (c) promoting innovation, and (d) forming entrepreneurial teams.