IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i21p11762-d663917.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Within the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem: Is Innovation Clusters’ Strategic Approach Boosting Businesses’ Sustainable Development?

Author

Listed:
  • Oana Bărbulescu

    (Faculty of Economic Sciences and Business Administration, Transilvania University of Brașov, 500036 Brașov, Romania)

  • Cristina Nicolau

    (Faculty of Economic Sciences and Business Administration, Transilvania University of Brașov, 500036 Brașov, Romania)

  • Daniel Munteanu

    (Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Transilvania University of Brașov, 500036 Brașov, Romania)

Abstract

The article focuses on the creation and the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem around the innovation clusters. Clusters are believed to have a well-defined strategic approach aimed at boosting businesses’ sustainable development, especially if clusters are centred around small and middle-sized enterprises. Having undertaken a piece of phenomenological qualitative research, we found that large companies were more open to cooperation and sustainability than the small and middle-sized ones, thus initiating and developing innovation clusters around them (particularly in high-technologized industries such as the automotive and Information Technology). Additionally, we highlight that a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem is based on strong pillars, of which small companies’ capabilities, including the entrepreneurial ones, are innovation-driven, and place them in the centre of the innovation cluster. This piece of research also provides relevant insights for private and public organisations and policymakers in order to co-create a local innovation and entrepreneurship strategy. Our findings have implications for both cluster literature and the field of entrepreneurship.

Suggested Citation

  • Oana Bărbulescu & Cristina Nicolau & Daniel Munteanu, 2021. "Within the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem: Is Innovation Clusters’ Strategic Approach Boosting Businesses’ Sustainable Development?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:21:p:11762-:d:663917
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/11762/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/11762/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yael V. Hochberg, 2016. "Accelerating Entrepreneurs and Ecosystems: The Seed Accelerator Model," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 25-51.
    2. Florina BRAN & Cristina ALPOPI & Sorin BURLACU, 2018. "Territorial Development - Disparities between the Developed and the least Developed Areas of Romania," Book chapters-LUMEN Proceedings, in: Carmen NÄ‚STASE (ed.), The 14th Economic International Conference: Strategies and Development Policies of Territories: International, Country, Region, City, Location Challen, edition 1, volume 6, chapter 14, pages 146-155, Editura Lumen.
    3. Elvira Nica & Violeta Sima & Ileana Gheorghe & Andreea Drugau-Constantin & Catalina Oana Mirica (Dumitrescu), 2018. "Analysis of Regional Disparities in Romania from an Entrepreneurial Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-21, September.
    4. Oana Bărbulescu & Cristinel Petrişor Constantin, 2019. "Sustainable Growth Approaches: Quadruple Helix Approach for Turning Brașov into a Startup City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-19, November.
    5. Erik Stam & Andrew Ven, 2021. "Entrepreneurial ecosystem elements," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 809-832, February.
    6. Hall, Jeremy K. & Daneke, Gregory A. & Lenox, Michael J., 2010. "Sustainable development and entrepreneurship: Past contributions and future directions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 439-448, September.
    7. Thomas Leonard, 2008. "Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein, Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 356-360, December.
    8. Cinzia Colapinto & Colin Porlezza, 2012. "Innovation in Creative Industries: from the Quadruple Helix Model to the Systems Theory," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 3(4), pages 343-353, December.
    9. Pablo Muñoz & Boyd Cohen, 2018. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship Research: Taking Stock and looking ahead," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 300-322, March.
    10. Geoffrey G. Bell, 2005. "Clusters, networks, and firm innovativeness," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 287-295, March.
    11. F. Xavier Molina-Morales & Manuel Expósito-Langa, 2012. "The impact of cluster connectedness on firm innovation: R&D effort and outcomes in the textile industry," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(7-8), pages 685-704, September.
    12. Stefan Schaltegger & Marcus Wagner, 2011. "Sustainable entrepreneurship and sustainability innovation: categories and interactions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(4), pages 222-237, May.
    13. Gupta, Shivam & Chen, Haozhe & Hazen, Benjamin T. & Kaur, Sarabjot & Santibañez Gonzalez, Ernesto D.R., 2019. "Circular economy and big data analytics: A stakeholder perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 466-474.
    14. Pierre-Alexandre Balland & José Antonio Belso-Martínez & Andrea Morrison, 2016. "The Dynamics of Technical and Business Knowledge Networks in Industrial Clusters: Embeddedness, Status, or Proximity?," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 92(1), pages 35-60, January.
    15. Ron Boschma & Anne L. J. ter Wal, 2007. "Knowledge Networks and Innovative Performance in an Industrial District: The Case of a Footwear District in the South of Italy," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 177-199.
    16. Giuliani, Elisa & Bell, Martin, 2005. "The micro-determinants of meso-level learning and innovation: evidence from a Chilean wine cluster," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 47-68, February.
    17. Paul Sarango-Lalangui & Jane Lucia S. Santos & Esther Hormiga, 2018. "The Development of Sustainable Entrepreneurship Research Field," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-19, June.
    18. Åstebro, Thomas & Bazzazian, Navid & Braguinsky, Serguey, 2012. "Startups by recent university graduates and their faculty: Implications for university entrepreneurship policy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 663-677.
    19. Jose Ramon Saura & Pedro Palos-Sanchez & Antonio Grilo, 2019. "Detecting Indicators for Startup Business Success: Sentiment Analysis Using Text Data Mining," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-14, February.
    20. Melissa A. Schilling & Corey C. Phelps, 2007. "Interfirm Collaboration Networks: The Impact of Large-Scale Network Structure on Firm Innovation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(7), pages 1113-1126, July.
    21. Cristiano Antonelli, 2000. "Collective Knowledge Communication and Innovation: The Evidence of Technological Districts," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(6), pages 535-547.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nadezhda Shmeleva & Tatyana Tolstykh & Viktoria Krasnobaeva & Diana Boboshko & Denis Lazarenko, 2024. "Network Integration as a Tool for Sustainable Business Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-25, October.
    2. Jiao Feng & Nannan Wang & Guoshuai Sun, 2022. "Measurement of Innovation-Driven Development Performance of Large-Scale Environmental Protection Enterprises Investing in Public–Private Partnership Projects Based on the Hybrid Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-21, April.
    3. Angelica Duarte Lima & André Luiz Przybysz & David Nunes Resende & Regina Negri Pagani, 2024. "Innovation Reefs (I-Reef): Innovation Ecosystems Focused on Regional Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-21, November.
    4. Cristina Nicolau & Eliza Nichifor & Daniel Munteanu & Oana Bărbulescu, 2022. "Decoding Business Potential for Digital Sustainable Entrepreneurship: What Romanian Entrepreneurs Think and Do for the Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-21, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Oana Bărbulescu & Cristinel Petrişor Constantin, 2019. "Sustainable Growth Approaches: Quadruple Helix Approach for Turning Brașov into a Startup City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-19, November.
    2. José-Vicente Tomás-Miquel & Gabriel Brătucu & Manuel Expósito-Langa & Oana Bărbulescu, 2018. "The Relevance of Collaborative Networks in Emerging Clusters. The Case of Muntenia-Oltenia Regions in Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-16, July.
    3. Aikaterini Argyrou & Nicolas Chevrollier & Andre Nijhof, 2023. "The versatile role of sustainable market entrepreneurs in market transformation: An intervention framework for institutional change," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 259-273, January.
    4. Fiorenza Belussi & Silvia R. Sedita, 2012. "Industrial Districts as Open Learning Systems: Combining Emergent and Deliberate Knowledge Structures," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 165-184, April.
    5. Montoro-Sanchez, Angeles & Diez-Vial, Isabel & Belso-Martinez, Jose Antonio, 2018. "The evolution of the domestic network configuration as a driver of international relationships in SMEs," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 727-736.
    6. F. Xavier Molina-Morales & Josep Capó-Vicedo & M. Teresa Martínez-Fernández & Manuel Expósito-Langa, 2013. "Social capital in industrial districts: Influence of the strength of ties and density of the network on the sense of belonging to the district," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 92(4), pages 773-789, November.
    7. Christine Volkmann & Klaus Fichter & Magnus Klofsten & David B. Audretsch, 2021. "Sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems: an emerging field of research," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 1047-1055, February.
    8. Trin Thananusak, 2019. "Science Mapping of the Knowledge Base on Sustainable Entrepreneurship, 1996–2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-20, June.
    9. Sanjay Chaudhary & Puneet Kaur & Hind Alofaysan & Jantje Halberstadt & Amandeep Dhir, 2023. "Connecting the dots? Entrepreneurial ecosystems and sustainable entrepreneurship as pathways to sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5935-5951, December.
    10. Expósito-Langa, Manuel & Molina-Morales, F. Xavier & Tomás-Miquel, José-Vicente, 2015. "How shared vision moderates the effects of absorptive capacity and networking on clustered firms’ innovation," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 293-302.
    11. Sándor Juhász, 2021. "Spinoffs and tie formation in cluster knowledge networks," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1385-1404, April.
    12. Kaihuang Zhang & Qinglan Qian & Yijing Zhao, 2020. "Evolution of Guangzhou Biomedical Industry Innovation Network Structure and Its Proximity Mechanism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-20, March.
    13. Díez-Vial, Isabel & Montoro-Sánchez, Ángeles, 2016. "How knowledge links with universities may foster innovation: The case of a science park," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 50, pages 41-52.
    14. Stefano Ghinoi & Riccardo Vita & Bodo Steiner & Alessandro Sinatra, 2024. "Family firm network strategies in regional clusters: evidence from Italy," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 87-103, January.
    15. Torbjörn Ljungkvist & Jim Andersén, 2021. "A taxonomy of ecopreneurship in small manufacturing firms: A multidimensional cluster analysis," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 1374-1388, February.
    16. Francesca Ricciardi & Cecilia Rossignoli & Alessandro Zardini, 2021. "Grand challenges and entrepreneurship: Emerging issues, research streams, and theoretical landscape," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 1673-1705, December.
    17. Uwe Cantner & Holger Graf, 2011. "Innovation Networks: Formation, Performance and Dynamics," Chapters, in: Cristiano Antonelli (ed.), Handbook on the Economic Complexity of Technological Change, chapter 15, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Joan Crespo & Raphaël Suire & Jérôme Vicente, 2016. "Network structural properties for cluster long-run dynamics: evidence from collaborative R&D networks in the European mobile phone industry," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(2), pages 261-282.
    19. Yawen Qin & Xiaozhen Qin & Haohui Chen & Xun Li & Wei Lang, 2021. "Measuring cognitive proximity using semantic analysis: A case study of China's ICT industry," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(7), pages 6059-6084, July.
    20. Fokko J. Eller & Michael M. Gielnik & Hendrik Wimmer & Corinna Thölke & Sara Holzapfel & Silke Tegtmeier & Jantje Halberstadt, 2020. "Identifying business opportunities for sustainable development: Longitudinal and experimental evidence contributing to the field of sustainable entrepreneurship," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1387-1403, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:21:p:11762-:d:663917. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.