From Top-Down to Bottom-Up to…? Ecosystem Building and Ecosystem Builders

Abstract

Economic, community, and workforce development models have evolved significantly over decades, from nearly nonexistent to focuses on large firms, then to business attraction, retention, and expansion and now some that include business incubation. Given the disproportionate impact on new and small business, it is surprising that while support for them is becoming more commonplace, the dominant logics and allocated resources remain largely fixated on business attraction, retention and expansion, and industrial-era education and career planning, led from the top down by institutions and other entrenched players. The authors provide here a conceptual overview of the emerging model of the ecosystem builder (EB) model and what the authors know to be true about entrepreneurial ecosystems. The authors then follow with expert commentaries from four of the United States’ most knowledgeable and productive professional EBs. EB is emerging as the future of how to most effectively grow entrepreneurial economies and entrepreneurial communities.