Small and Medium Enterprises and New Ventures in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: The Case of Industrial Districts and Innovative Startups in Italy

To date, contributions in the field of EEs have mainly focused on EEs' definitions, actors, key attributes, and consequences on new ventures' creation and growth. To the best of our knowledge, the few studies that explicitly examine the relations among EEs' actors under-remark the linkages between Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and new ventures. We deem that this relation is important, especially for EEs located in countries characterized by an underdeveloped Venture Capital (VC) market, a limited number of large corporations and a massive presence of SMEs, often operating in traditional industries, which are the main engine of local and regional development. This study sets the stage for advancing our understanding of this under-explored relation to stimulate novel directions for academic research and practice-oriented conversations on EEs and, more generally, on regional development. To this end, first, we systematize the (limited) extant knowledge on the relation between SMEs and new ventures in EEs. Then, for the shake of relevance, we provide descriptive evidence of this relation in the context of Italian Industrial Districts (IIDs), a peculiar case of EEs, where Italian SMEs tend to agglomerate. Specifically, by using GIS techniques, we found evidence that Innovative Startups tend to locate within IIDs. Interestingly enough, no evidence supports the view that Innovative Startups operate in the same industry of specialization of the IID. Finally, the study presents a possible research agenda on the topic, which we hope can be of interest for both academics and policymakers.