EIT Digital: leveraging ecosystems for international entrepreneurial innovation.

Building on earlier work on entrepreneurship and holistic innovation policy, the paper elaborates on the concept of "entrepreneurial innovation ecosystem" and applies it in the empirical analysis of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) partnership operations. The analysis focuses on the EIT Digital, which is one of the EIT "Knowledge and Innovation Communities" (KICs) formed by partners from higher education, research and business. The empirical research with primary data from semi-structured interviews and secondary data from desk research provides evidence on the different perceptions between EIT Digital managers in six accelerators around Europe compared to partners and start-ups in the Madrid co-location centre. Ecosystem dimensions are intertwined in EIT Digital activities and the actual performance of the whole depends on their effective alignment. Hence, further research is suggested on the interconnections between the ecosystem dimensions with particular attention to ecosystem integration, international networking and adaptive governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]