Contextual and evolutionary perspectives on entrepreneurial ecosystems. Insights from Chris Freeman’s thinking

In recent years a concept gaining much traction amongst both economic and policy communities is that of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (EE). We are interested in this concept because it has clear roots in innovation system thinking and can be argued to represent a contemporary iteration of ideas around systemic understandings and policy approaches to economic development, innovation, and entrepreneurship. In our work we have been exploring the links between earlier innovation systems and newer entrepreneurial ecosystem concepts. In this essay, we expand this line of thinking by interrogating the EE concept from the perspective of the work of Christopher Freeman, often called the father of innovation studies. It is our argument that by combining contemporary debates in EE with the more ‘classic’ literatures from the innovation systems cannon, we can gain a deeper understanding of the trinity of economic development, innovation, and entrepreneurship to be of benefit both to the research and policy communities. Specifically, in this paper we zoom in on two specific elements of Freeman’s thinking on innovation systems: context specificity and evolutionary dynamics and push EE thinking forward using these insights.