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Entrepreneurial activity is currently a primary concern of many developed economies that struggle with changes in their industrial structures. Many of the traditionally strong industries are encountering strong global competition and declining markets, and national competitiveness is often said to be built on new entrepreneurial firms that are able to grow in global markets. The facilitating national systems for these firms are covered in the emerging start-up ecosystem discussion. This chapter aims to contribute to this discussion by incorporating an analysis of the variety of actors and activities needed in start-up industries that rely on competence bloc theory. Furthermore, inspired by cultural-historical activity theory, the study specifies the contextual-, temporal- and renewal-related determinants of the activity of start-up ecosystems. As a result, a framework for examining start-up ecosystems as platforms for high-growth entrepreneurship is proposed in terms of its core constituencies that influence the emergence and non-emergence of high-growth firms.

The study, which compares the success factors for eco‐innovations with those factors for other innovations, is intended to improve understanding of how eco‐innovations achieve market success.

A case study design is used. Six eco‐innovations cases and six other innovations cases are compared. Data were obtained mainly from interviews with the eco‐innovators and the other innovators, written materials about the innovations, and secondary data from an earlier quantitative study.

The study shows that there are both similarities and differences in the success factors for the two types of innovations. One similarity is that a network with diverse competences supports successful innovators. However, for eco‐innovators the network is used more for solving technological problems. Other innovators use the network to a greater extent for assistance with financing and marketing. In addition, eco‐innovators have greater difficulty than other innovators in attracting venture capital for development.

The results indicate that an interesting approach for future research would be to take a life‐cycle perspective that identifies the factors that influence the further growth and development of eco‐innovative firms.

The identification of the success factors for eco‐innovations' development may improve their chances of success. Furthermore, the results can help policy‐makers improve the support system for commercialization of eco‐innovations.

As a comparative study of success factors for eco‐innovations and other innovations, the study presents a new way to identify such factors for eco‐innovators.

Bangalore has gained international recognition as a technology start-up hub for its vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. Against this backdrop, this paper attempts to explore the structure and gap that exist with respect to the entrepreneurial ecosystem for tech start-ups in Bangalore.

A Delphi technique based four stage interaction with the experts/stakeholders belonging to different components of the entrepreneurial ecosystem (as identified from the literature) in the context of Bangalore is conducted, to gather primary data. This enabled us to define the structure of entrepreneurial ecosystem and analyse the gap that exists between an ideal ecosystem feasible in the Indian context and that one that prevailed in Bangalore.

The prevailing entrepreneurial ecosystem for tech start-ups in Bangalore is significantly different (lower) relative to an ideal ecosystem feasible in the Indian economic environment, as prescribed by the Delphi experts, both at the aggregate level and at an individual component level. The step-wise (backward) logistic regression analysis revealed that Bangalore ecosystem is primarily lacking in terms of one of the Triple Helices, namely, role of education and research institutions, and two of the five indispensable components, namely, market maturity and mentorship.

It is essential to strengthen and promote the Triple Helix base and the five indispensable components in an entrepreneurial ecosystem, to accelerate the emergence and growth of tech start-ups.

It brings out the nature of entrepreneurial ecosystem structure and the gap between what can be considered an ideal ecosystem and what prevails in Bangalore currently.

This is a primary data based study, which has value for regional policy makers in strategizing to promote Bangalore ecosystem, and for researchers in undertaking “ecosystem gap analysis”.

Entrepreneurship ecosystems have become ubiquitous in the discussions around economic growth and new venture creation. Despite growing scholarly interest, however, the theoretical and conceptual foundations are still rudimentary, causing much debate among researchers and practitioners. At the center of these debates are questions like What are the boundaries of ecosystems? Are ecosystems build from the top-down or from the bottom-up? Or How can we measure the success of ecosystems? In this chapter, we summarize these discussions, present an overview of the existing research, and give an outlook on future directions.

This paper aims to clarify the impact of the entrepreneurial training on a Tunisian trainee’s entrepreneurial cognitions and intention. An interactive cognitive perspective was adopted to test the interaction effect between the entrepreneurial cognitions: the perceived entrepreneurial self-efficacy, the perceived entrepreneurial feasibility and entrepreneurial desirability. A research model was built showing several relationships between entrepreneurial training, cognitions and intention.

A survey was conducted on a convenience sample of 240 participants in four business incubators. The maximum-likelihood test was used as a structural equation modeling method to test the model.

The results show the importance of the entrepreneurial training in the development of entrepreneurial cognitions. Further, the findings, to some extent, validate the interaction between the entrepreneurial cognitive patterns. However, entrepreneurial intention was only predicted through the entrepreneurial desirability. Several implications are discussed at the end of this paper.

The findings seem interesting insofar, as they show the importance of entrepreneurial trainings in the entrepreneurial intention development through the enhancement of desirability. This process can be triggered by a training program that contains case studies, success stories and conferences to make the youth enthusiastic about self-employment.

The significant impact of the entrepreneurial training on trainees’ cognitions should encourage governments and incubators to promote entrepreneurial training programs to enhance the youths’ willingness to create their own businesses. The findings in this paper seem interesting insofar as they show the importance of entrepreneurial trainings in the entrepreneurial intention development through the enhancement of desirability. This process can be triggered by a training program that contains case studies, success stories and conferences to make the youth enthusiastic about self-employment.

Third‐generation mobile networks will be characterized by the convergence of the wireless, the fixed Internet and the media industries. Expectations on agents’ ability to generate revenues (and profits) within this technological intersection are high and will be further geared up by the future broadband capacity. Previous experience from the fixed side points to problems for content providers to charge for their products. The easy reproducibility of content has often forced its providers to offer it free of charge. It has therefore generated little revenue. The question, however, is whether this pricing problem will continue on the wireless side with the introduction of mobile Internet. This paper examines the revenues of I‐mode for an answer and uses the theory of the experimentally organized economy and innovative pricing to arrive at an answer. The conclusions are supported by 650 interviews, 450 of which are I‐mode users and 200 potential users of the service.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the operational performance of industrial park infrastructures in Germany to find first indications for cost saving potentials.

Between 2006 and 2007, six chemical parks and chemical related industrial parks in Germany participated in a benchmarking study with focus on operation and maintenance of buildings, communication infrastructures and traffic infrastructures. Based on data analysis in combination with workshops, numerous key performance indicators were defined and calculated.

To compare the different complexities of the analysed infrastructures, the most important key performance indicators were adjusted using correction factors defined and verified during the workshops. This made a discussion based on comparable and comprehensible figures possible which increased the acceptance and applicability of the benchmarking methodology. The benchmarking results showed large differences in performance levels, indicating that there are significant cost saving potentials in some industrial parks.

The comparability may remain limited due to the partly insufficient availability of data from the participants. Other limitations are due to the small number of investigated industrial parks and the focus of the benchmarking study on Germany.

The developed benchmark and best practice methodology is well suited to evaluate best practice in the field of industrial park infrastructures. It is important for industrial parks to understand the individual performance level and to adapt best practice in all areas.