Entrepreneurial finance and regional ecosystem emergence

We present a novel framework for studying the evolving role of entrepreneurial finance over the stages of emergence for a regional entrepreneurial ecosystem. Drawing on entrepreneurial ecosystems, entrepreneurial finance, and territorial servitization, we explore how three different finance sources impact firm survival and how they relate to each other during ecosystem emergence. We analyze entrepreneurial firms in one industry and region over 36 years. We find that firm survival is differentially affected by funder type based on the stage of ecosystem emergence. Finance sources also have different interrelations depending on the stage of emergence. Based on our results, we abductively articulate a framework for stage-dependent ecosystem emergence microfoundations. This rectifies contradictory results that examine single sources of finance and use cross-sectional data. Had we not measured the emergence process, the results would have led to markedly different theoretical implications and practical takeaways for entrepreneurial finance and ecosystem emergence.