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Start‐up Communities as Communities of Practice: Shining a Light on Geographical Scale and Membership

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  • Marijn A. van Weele
  • Henk J. Steinz
  • Frank J. van Rijnsoever

Abstract

The development of start‐up communities is seen as critical to the successful development of entrepreneurship in a region. However, it remains unclear what exactly start‐up communities are and how they can be facilitated. Ambiguity concerning the geographical scale and membership of start‐up communities leads to different conceptualisations. In this paper, we apply communities of practice (CoP) theory to understand how conceptualisations of start‐up communities work and how they can be facilitated. To this end, we qualitatively study start‐up communities in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, Australia. Our results show that start‐up communities that are confined to a particular workspace strongly resemble a CoP. Furthermore, many elements of CoPs can also be found in regional start‐up communities. Finally, we find that workspace communities have more direct and top‐down facilitation activities, while regional start‐up communities have more indirect and bottom‐up facilitation activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Marijn A. van Weele & Henk J. Steinz & Frank J. van Rijnsoever, 2018. "Start‐up Communities as Communities of Practice: Shining a Light on Geographical Scale and Membership," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 109(2), pages 173-188, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:tvecsg:v:109:y:2018:i:2:p:173-188
    DOI: 10.1111/tesg.12277
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    Cited by:

    1. van Rijnsoever, Frank J., 2022. "Intermediaries for the greater good: How entrepreneurial support organizations can embed constrained sustainable development startups in entrepreneurial ecosystems," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(2).
    2. van Rijnsoever, Frank J. & Eveleens, Chris P., 2021. "Money Don't matter? How incubation experience affects start-up entrepreneurs' resource valuation," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    3. Kuebart, Andreas, 2022. "Open creative labs as functional infrastructure for entrepreneurial ecosystems: Using sequence analysis to explore tempo-spatial trajectories of startups in Berlin," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(9).
    4. Kuebart, Andreas & Ibert, Oliver, 2019. "Beyond territorial conceptions of entrepreneurial ecosystems: The dynamic spatiality of knowledge brokering in seed accelerators," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 63(2-4), pages 118-133.
    5. van Rijnsoever, Frank J., 2020. "Meeting, mating, and intermediating: How incubators can overcome weak network problems in entrepreneurial ecosystems," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(1).
    6. Noack, Anika, 2022. "Knowledge and Technology Transfer under Digital Conditions: Transfer Intermediaries in Eastern Germany and the Role of Digital Means, Trust and Face-to-Face Interactions," fast track to transfer – Working Paper Series 004, Technical University of Wildau and the Brandenburg Technical University of Cottbus-Senftenberg, Innovation Hub 13 - fast track to transfer.

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