A Multi-level Collaboration Process for Developing Relationships and Creating Value in an Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

Abstract

This paper explores how collaboration in entrepreneurship ecosystems is driven by individual and collective efforts to reach both common and private goals. We investigate how the collaboration roles of a university support efforts to create value and help shape the network of relationships that scaffold the ecosystem. We propose a multi-level collaboration process that reflects how micro-level positions and practices feed into meso-level outcomes. In turn, these outcomes support the collaboration roles a university plays in developing relationships within an entrepreneurship ecosystem. Based on this framework, we discuss the integration of technology in supporting internal positions and practices, as well as collaboration roles. Our research contributes to the understanding of collaboration as a multi-level process, in which meso-level outcomes that are rooted in micro-level positions and practices ultimately support macro-level collaboration roles that establish a network of relationships and contribute to value creation across the entrepreneurship ecosystem.