The influence of the entrepreneurial ecosystem model on sustainable innovation from a macro-level lens

The present article investigates entrepreneurial sustainable innovations (ESIs) that work against the five elements (policy, finance, human capital, support and culture) of the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) model (Isenberg, 2011). By conducting empirical research on 14 European countries, the study addresses how an EE can support entrepreneurs in creating sustainable innovations. Overall, the study contributes to exploring the relations between the EE and the relevant classes of ESIs, providing entrepreneurs and policymakers a framework by using a holistic examination of the EE and contributing to more effective policy solutions to encourage sustainable and resilient entrepreneurship-led economic growth. As shown by a quantitative analysis, ESIs are positively correlated with policy, finance and support in terms of infrastructural and administrative support, whereas culture and human capital do not significantly influence ESIs. The results also highlight that the EE’s key factors have different impacts on ESIs over time because the effect of EEs can be considered a complex system because of its heterogeneous and dynamic nature. In addition, the country-level capability of ESIs are measured, showing that Ukraine, Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic demonstrate a low-level capability of ESIs, while Germany, the UK, Sweden, Netherlands, France and Belgium show a high-level capability. By contributing to the entrepreneurial literature, the research invokes sustainable mechanisms of innovation to boost national economic performance in European countries.