New article by Storm external member Alan R. Johnson in Small Business Economics.
Entrepreneurial ecosystem measures should combine archival civic and self-reported entre- preneur data. This combination helps to overcome the limitations of aggregated archival data that affect our collective capacity to derive actionable insights for research and policy. Previous measurement approaches lack consistency with entrepreneurial eco- system theory because they do not capture data at a sufficiently local level or data about entrepreneurs’ values, beliefs, and attitudes. This paper proposes a new measurement approach for EE elements at the district level (NUTS-3), facilitating comparisons of local geographic EE properties and measuring rela- tions between entrepreneurs, new ventures, and their ecosystems. Using confirmatory factor analysis, we combine self-reported and archival data to connect the micro and macro dimensions of the entrepreneur- ial ecosystem phenomenon. Analyzing survey data from 257 founders of innovative startups across 29 NUTS-3 districts in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, our findings support the “substitutability logic” among ten entrepreneurial ecosystem elements and uncover district-level geographic properties. Our study offers replication possibilities, recommendations for entre- preneurs’ actions, and policy monitoring.
Reference:
Sophia Hess, Andreas Wahl, and Alan R. Johnson. Measuring entrepreneurial ecosystems across levels: a district approach. Small Business Economics, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-025-01041-2
