“Close enough to speak; distant enough to learn?” A critique of the entrepreneurial ecosystem metaphor
本文批判了创业生态系统这一隐喻，认为其作为分析工具价值有限，并主张未来研究应聚焦于明确边界、减少模糊性，审视隐喻从生态学到创业领域的可转移性。
Abstract Over the past decade, publications about the ‘entrepreneurial ecosystem’ (EE) have increased. EE promotes entrepreneurship-based innovation, value creation, and economic development. It emphasises the role of human agents, mainly entrepreneurs, and their interconnected actions within complex adaptive networks. This paper builds on previous critiques of the ecosystem metaphor and its flawed application to entrepreneurship (Mars et al., 2012; Pickett and Cadenasso in Ecosystems, 5:1–10, 2002; Krivý in Digit Geograph Soc, 5:100057, 2023; Kuckertz in J Bus Ventur Insights, 11:1–7, 2019; Harrison and Rocha, in: Huggins, Kitagawa, Prokop, Theodoraki, Thompson (eds) Entrepreneurial ecosystems in cities and regions: emergence, evolution, future, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2024). At best, the EE is a weak and inappropriate metaphor, offering limited value as an analytical tool. This analysis lays the groundwork for a critical perspective on future research regarding entrepreneurial ecosystems. This should focus on a paradigm of ‘closing down’—setting clear boundaries, reducing ambiguity, and examining what can and cannot be transferred from the source metaphor (ecosystem) to the target domain (place-specific entrepreneurship-led economic development).