Which Types of Institutions Influence the Development of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems? A Legal Systems Perspective

Abstract

This paper presents a critical literature review of academic articles that analyze the role of formal and informal institutions in entrepreneurial ecosystems. It discusses which types of formal and informal institutions matter for the development of ecosystems, highlighting the importance of considering the specific type of legal system of the country in which they develop, i.e. its legal origin (civil, common and mixed legal systems). The overall assumption of the paper is that entrepreneurial ecosystems are embedded in a certain type of institutional environment, while at the same time each institutional environment is on its turn embedded in a certain type of legal system. The paper finds that existing studies show a high degree of heterogeneity in the types of formal institutions that are found to matter for ecosystems, according to the type of legal system. In particular, entrepreneurial ecosystem-researchers seem to focus more on formal macro level institutions in civil legal systems, such as top down government policies, especially when compared to developed common law countries. This suggests a more limited role for the state and its intervention in the governance of entrepreneurial ecosystems in developed countries with common legal systems, compared to countries with civil legal systems. On the contrary, there is much more consensus in the literature on the types of informal institutions that matter for entrepreneurial ecosystems, regardless of the legal system.