ABSTRACT
The desire to stimulate economic and job growth via the application of entrepreneurship and innovation has been a common theme in government policy since at least the 1970s. The concept of the entrepreneurial ecosystem can be traced back to the study of industry clustering and the development of national innovation systems in the 1990s. This chapter shows that the major elements considered important to the generation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem. James F. Moore defined a business ecosystem as an economic community supported by a foundation of interacting organizations and individuals –the organisms of the business world. The supporting ecosystem sprang from adventurous venture capital investors, more willing to accept risks than their East Coast colleagues. The first wave of successful founders/entrepreneurs in turn invested heavily in the startups of friends and even competitors. Innovation clusters are sector and spatial concentrations of business and non-business enterprises that allow the exchange of ideas and information across product or service networks.
