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As drivers of economic growth, entrepreneurial ecosystems are an important focus of research. We propose a new theoretical perspective, in which the formation of entrepreneurial ecosystems can be tied the provision of pre-entry capabilities and complementary assets that are generic to participants within a regional entrepreneurial ecosystem but difficult to access to firms outside it. We apply this framework through a study of the formation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem focused on online games in South Korea. Through comparative research, we show that access to pre-entry capabilities was widely available across the online gaming industry, but that Korea was unique during the late 1990s in creating infrastructure policies to provide widespread access to broadband internet, which became an important complementary asset for Korean firms. A focus on mechanisms by which value drivers become available to entrepreneurs within a region is a promising approach to explain the formation of entrepreneurial ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The comparative capitalisms literature has developed an increasingly dynamic approach to conceptualizing capitalism variety, and has suggested mechanisms to explain shifts in institutional practices under the surface of formal stability of the institutional context. Less is known, however, about how new entrepreneurial firms engage with institutions to develop organizational arrangements needed to support their innovation activities. Such engagement with institutions can represent sources of heterogeneity within and across national institutional contexts, with incremental changes in practices resulting, in some instances, in major transformations in institutions over time. We draw on a study of fifty-three independent mobile games firms in the USA and Japan and the structures and processes used by these firms to develop innovative activities in their institutional context. Our research advances our understanding of organizational diversity and institutional change in two ways. First, our study identifies two new 'variants' of how entrepreneurial firms organize their innovation activities in their institutional context—digital creatives and digital engineers. Second, we characterize the mechanisms through which entrepreneurial firms engage and respond to institutions that support the establishment of these variants—defecting, intensifying, and positioning vis-à-vis large firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Customer service centers, call centers, engineering, and research and development divisions of a British telecommunications firm were examined to determine the effect of technological change on the development of competencies. Technology had different impacts on employment, career paths, skills, and competence development in different areas. (Contains 24 references.) (JOW)

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2006.04.002 Byline: Paul Dewick, Ken Green, Toby Fleetwood, Marcela Miozzo Keywords: Biotechnologies; Nanotechnologies; Technological diffusion; Industrial structure; Energy Abstract: Future disruptive, pervasive technologies will have important consequences for industrial structure, economic growth and the environment. Drawing on theories of technological diffusion, industrial evolution and long-term technological change this paper explores the effect of the development and diffusion of two future pervasive technologies on five industrial sectors in three regions during the 21st century in terms of their effect on economic structural change. Through semi-structured interviews with over 100 experts in the two technologies, the paper quantifies the effects of future biotechnologies and nanotechnologies on the industrial structure of the EU, USA and China in 2020 and 2050. The paper finds that as a result of the development and diffusion of future biotechnologies and nanotechnologies, some industries grow whilst others decline and some new ones emerge. The evidence suggests that the effect is different across countries and time; whereas the experts commonly believe that effect of the technologies on the industrial structure of the EU and US is likely to be similar, the effect in China is considered to be less by 2020 but the same as in the EU and US by 2050. This finding has important implications for the location of production, economic growth and energy demand in the future. Author Affiliation: Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, PO Box 88, Manchester M15 9JL, UK Article History: Received 11 August 2005; Revised 6 January 2006; Accepted 29 April 2006 Article Note: (footnote) [star] We would like to acknowledge the funding support of the UK Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. We would like to thank Cambridge Econometrics for the use of their input output data and the ETECH team for comments on earlier versions of this paper. Also, we would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers, whose comments were particularly insightful in clarifying the method and results.