“Entrepreneurial ecosystems” gain increasing attention and popularity as a conceptual basis for regional economic development strategies. Political instruments derived from the concept address primarily startup entrepreneurs, freelancers, micro-entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurship in a broader sense. In contrast to clusters, entrepreneurial ecosystems do not focus on specific industries. The metaphor “ecosystem” – a dynamic time-spatial interplay between actors and institutions – inspires practitioners (e.g. in regional development) to support an entrepreneurial climate as well as academic scholars to better understand these dynamics. The entrepreneurial ecosystem strand of research is in fact comparatively new. However, policy makers already apply the concept, both at international and local level, although significant conceptual weaknesses remain. For instance, entrepreneurial and social networks as well as spatial and temporal dynamics are so far inadequately integrated into the entrepreneurial ecosystem concept. 

The symposium addresses these conceptual weaknesses. Academic scholars at different career stages from economics and social sciences contribute to a theoretical, conceptual, and empirical focusing of the concept by deploying interdisciplinary exchanges. The interdisciplinary exchange will be opened by an interdisciplinary panel. In pitch-sessions andbreak-out sessions, participants highlight their hypotheses, critiques, or ideas, which are then discussed in the plenum. By this measure the symposium provides a forum for yet unfinished sketches, work in progress, and unique ideas, which can be discussed with experts from neighboring disciplines. To continue this dialogue, the future project generatorenables participants to plan future projects with an interested group (e.g. hosting sessions on international conferences, junior research networks, or publications). Since interdisciplinary writing projects face specific challenges and pitfalls, we discuss possible publishing strategies in a meet-the-editor-session.

The symposium will take place in Hannover on July, 1^stand 2^nd 2019.