Innovation dynamics within the entrepreneurial ecosystem: a content analysis-based literature review

Abstract Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) delineate concepts from varied streams of literature originating from multiple stakeholders and are diagnosed by different levels of analysis. Taking up a sample of 392 articles, this study examines how innovation fosters the emergence of self-operative and self-corrective entrepreneurial ecosystems in the wake of automatic market disruptions. It also finds that measures lending vitality and sustainability to economic systems across the world through a mediating role played by governments, along with synergies exhibited by academia and “visionpreneurs” at large, give rise to aspiring entrepreneurs. The study also aligns past practices with trending technologies to enrich job markets and strengthen entrepreneurial networks through spillover and speciation. The research offers valuable insights into entrepreneurial ecosystems’ practical policy implications and self-regulating mechanisms, and it suggests that governments overseeing these entrepreneurial ecosystems should identify and nurture the existing strengths within them. Additionally, entrepreneurial ecosystems can benefit from government support through subsidies and incentives to encourage growth. In collaboration with university research, specialized incubation centers can play a pivotal role in creating new infrastructures that foster current and future entrepreneurial development.