Exploring the Structure of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Stakeholder Perception from Emerging European Economies

Despite recent progress in measuring entrepreneurial activity in the entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) of cities and regions in developed countries, the ‘black box’ of entrepreneurial ecosystem elements remains largely unexplored in emerging economies. This study addresses this gap by developing and comparing latent dimensions of entrepreneurial ecosystems using partial least squares analysis applied to perception-based data on the quality of entrepreneurship. The dataset contains survey responses from 1789 ecosystem stakeholders with different roles within the EE across seventeen cities in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Our exploratory analysis identifies four strongly associated ecosystem dimensions emerging from stakeholders’ perceptions: quadruple helix collaboration (university–industry–government–formal networks); informal networks; culture; and the perceived rate and quality of entrepreneurship, highlighting the systemic and complex nature of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Also, we highlight that EE effectiveness depends not on isolated dimensions but on how government – as a key bridging mechanism – enables complementarities across formal and informal layers of EEs. Implications for entrepreneurs and policymakers are discussed.