The entrepreneurs’ experiences of access to resources in the entrepreneurial ecosystem

Abstract

Research on the entrepreneurial ecosystem has focused attention on the macro system dynamics and its elements. Despite an increasing myriad of entrepreneurial ecosystem research studies that have been conducted that aim to enhance its theory, the perspectives of entrepreneurs’ access to resources in the entrepreneurial ecosystem have received limited attention. Notwithstanding the concept of an entrepreneurial ecosystem gaining considerable recognition amongst researchers and policymakers, there is still criticism that how the entrepreneur operates in the ecosystem remains under-theorised. Therefore, although entrepreneurial ecosystem research continues to receive attention, one specific area that has not received much empirical research is how entrepreneurs access resources, especially in an undeveloped entrepreneurial ecosystem. Given the importance of the entrepreneurial ecosystem to drive economic activity, research is critical to gain a better understanding of how entrepreneurs access resources in a resource-constrained environment with weak system linkages. Through an interpretive phenomenological approach, with twenty-five interviews conducted in Gauteng Province where there is higher economic activity relative to the rest of the country. Further, relative to the other Provinces, Gauteng has entrepreneurial ecosystem components although not be sufficient, some not effective and not interconnected. The study found that there are four master theme perspectives: environmental, agency, linkage, and resource access. The four perspectives consist of eleven themes and their supporting sub-themes to create a model on the entrepreneur’s experiences of the entrepreneurial ecosystem to access resources. The model shows that entrepreneurs concerned about their environment and entrepreneurial resource gaps look to the pool of entrepreneurial actors to identify and create linkages to access resources. The resources are accessed from the entrepreneurial actors using relationships -personal, collective, professional - and their prior knowledge and experiences. This model contributes to theory demonstrating the practices and routines of the entrepreneurs to access resources in a resource-constrained context with weak ecosystem linkages.