Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and Behavioural Change: Policy Architecture, Diaspora Capital and SDG 8 in India

India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem has changed alongside policy intervention and transnational resource flows; yet scholarship still emphasises ecosystem inputs and outputs rather than how domestic and diaspora-linked mechanisms relate to entrepreneurial behaviour and employment quality. This conceptual article develops six theorised behavioural transformations linking ecosystem architecture to SDG 8 outcomes; synthesises resource-based view, Social Capital Theory, and Signalling Theory within an institutional context; and theorises diaspora entrepreneurs, returnee founders, professional networks, and investors as connectors through which transnational social capital, knowledge, legitimacy, and entrepreneurial norms enter the domestic ecosystem. The diaspora lens extends the three-mechanism model by identifying connectors as microfoundations linking transnational networks to founder-level patterns. Mapping India’s flagship programmes to SDG 8 suggests a proposed Layer 3 insufficiency. Drawing on secondary evidence (2014–2024), the framework advances falsifiable propositions for future testing rather than validated causal findings.