Current Projects

Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Resilience and Intersectionalities

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with Heike Mayer (University of Bern) as Co-Principal Researcher and Patricia Marquez (Universidad del Norte), Susann Schäfer (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena) and Carolin Schürr (University of Bern) as Co-Researcher

With this project we seek to examine the ways in which women entrepreneurs across different national contexts have been affected by and were able to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, we will examine the ways in which entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) in Colombia, Germany, Switzerland and the United States provided a supportive environment or not to women entrepreneurs with different intersectional characteristics to recover from the multi-layered challenges the pandemic put on them. Women entrepreneurs who have migration experience, are part of a minority or ethnic group, or who are older than 60 years and those who operate in an informal status may have faced multi-layered challenges to keeping their businesses afloat during this major crisis. Understanding the effects of COVID-19 on women entrepreneurs will be important if policymakers and practitioners want to reduce economic inequality and vulnerabilities. Moreover, we aim to inform mitigation and recovery measures particularly regarding gender-sensitive policies (e.g. economic, social) to build more resilient, inclusive and sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Our transatlantic project meets the requirements of the RRR Call in multiple ways: Our team consists of four research groups that are all headed by female researchers with a highly diverse background. Combining various intersectional attributes and experiences themselves, we identified common challenges across our national contexts. In Colombia, Germany, Switzerland and in the United States we find established entrepreneurial ecosystems (Bogotá, Frankfurt/M., Zurich and Pittsburgh) that play a central role in the respective national economy. It is, however, unclear whether and in which ways these EEs are inclusive for women entrepreneurs, particularly those with intersectional characteristics. Yet, the inclusive character of an EE becomes particularly relevant during crises and is likely differ across countries. As women needed to shoulder the brunt of the pandemic because they had to take on most of the care work during lockdowns (Adams-Prassl et al., 2020), and – in case of their entrepreneurial endeavors – they had to keep their businesses running (Grandy et al., 2020), focusing on the context and evaluating whether it is an asset or liability (Welter, 2011) of entrepreneurship is essential. Another common challenge across the four national contexts is that women-owned businesses are generally smaller, younger and often operate in sectors harder hit by the pandemic. There are also other gender-related differences between male and female owned businesses (Fairlie & Robb, 2009). Focusing on recovery and the question of whether disparities between entrepreneurs will increase is key to understand how we can build a more resilient and inclusive economy.

The research team has a proven track record of promoting an inclusive culture of collaboration in the social sciences. We are a group of researchers who engage in the spatial social sciences and combine expertise ranging from human and economic geography, economics, entrepreneurship studies, urban and regional planning and policy studies. We will utilize a diversity-oriented recruitment and training program that allows young researchers from the Global North and South to interact with each other.  The research team is supported by a network of collaboration partners in each country. These partners not only have expertise regarding intersectionality and/or entrepreneurship studies, but also regarding women entrepreneurs and policy practice. In addition to conducting research, we plan a series of workshops with policy makers, key decision-makers and research users in each country. This will ensure the uptake of our findings in the entrepreneurial communities in each context.

Our project addresses two challenges mentioned in the RRR call, namely (i) reducing inequalities and vulnerabilities and (ii) building a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable society. Examining the impact of COVID-19 on women entrepreneurs and the ways in which entrepreneurial ecosystems are supportive or hindering entrepreneurial endeavors during and post-crises is essential for various reasons. First, entrepreneurship is a key dynamic in modern economies (Audretsch et al., 2006) and increasingly EEs are understood as essential modes of spatial organizing (Spigel, 2020). Yet, if a large segment of humans (women in this case) is disadvantaged in or even excluded from such ecosystems we risk losing creative and innovative potential. Second, there is an implicit assumption that women entrepreneurs have an equal chance or are treated equally, but this might not be the case in reality (Brush et al., 2019). As a result, policies are often not gender-sensitive (UN Women, 2021). Yet, particularly in crises situation, policies would need to take differences across gender and other intersectional attributes into account. This is essential for building a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable society.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Intersectionality, Crisis, Resilience

Financial Support: This research project is financially supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation - Spirit Program. 

Practicas Empresariales en la Economía Informal: Una perspectiva interseccional de los Ecosistemas de Emprendimiento en regiones Colombianas 

with Norida Vanegas-Chincilla from EAFIT and Lina Martinez from ICESI as Co-Principal Researchers

and Patricia Rodriguez, Zahira Moreno, Gertrudis Ziritt (Universidad del Norte), Natalia Gonzalez, Angéla Maria Montoya, and Laura Isabel Rojas (EAFIT), and Valeria Trofimoff (EAFIT) as Co-Researchers.

El proyecto tiene como objetivo analizar, desde una perspectiva interseccional, las prácticas empresariales que se generan en los ecosistemas emprendedores informales en tres regiones colombianas. La informalidad es un fenómeno que ha permeado las economías de distintos países latinoamericanos, especialmente las ciudades principales, donde personas de todo género, etnia y edad ofrecen en las calles, plazas y semáforos, todo tipo de mercancías y servicios. Si bien la economía informal se caracteriza por estar fuera de estructuras hegemónicas formales y, por ello, ha recibido denominaciones como popular, negra o subterránea, el déficit de capital humano que enfrenta América Latina ha conllevado a que la población más pobre y con menores niveles educativos aproveche la informalidad como un mecanismo de generación de ingresos (Vega, 2015, p. 81-82). El estudio de la informalidad conlleva a cuestionar cómo las diferencias de género, la migración y otros atributos regionales afectan la creación y el desarrollo de prácticas empresariales. El modelo de EE ofrece un marco teórico enriquecedor para estudiar estos fenómenos complejos teniendo en cuenta elementos, desde lo político, financiero, cultural, soporte, capital humano y mercado para evaluar las fuerzas externas que apoyan o afectan al crecimiento empresarial (Mack & Mayer, 2015; Maroufkhani et al., 2018; Stam & Spigel, 2017).  

En estudios recientes sobre EE, la perspectiva interseccional es una consideración teórica pertinente para entender de manera holística cómo el género, el origen étnico y otros atributos propios del contexto, juegan un papel importante en el comportamiento emprendedor dentro de los ecosistemas emprendedores (Ozkazanc-Pan, & Clark, 2021). La perspectiva de interseccionalidad permite captar las múltiples relaciones entre diferentes dimensiones que construyen ubicaciones sociales y económicas complejas (Sultana, 2021; McDowell, 2008; Gill Valentine, 2008). En esta investigación, estudiar el EE bajo la mirada de esta perspectiva podrá enriquecer el análisis de las prácticas empresariales en la informalidad teniendo en cuenta atributos como las condiciones socioeconómicas, étnicas, de género, de migración entre otras. De ahí, la importancia de desarrollar investigaciones que permitan conocer en profundidad estos contextos vulnerables y hostiles para la construcción de ecosistemas emprendedores más inclusivos y resilientes.  

Colombia, similar a la tendencia latinoamericana, tiene una tasa de informalidad de alrededor el 50% que, a pesar de los esfuerzos gubernamentales por reducirla, ha variado poco en las últimas décadas (DANE, 2021). Hoy, según estudios del Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), se estima que el crecimiento del país en el 2021 fue jalonado, principalmente, por el comercio al por mayor y al por menor, transporte, alojamiento y servicios de comida, es decir, sectores económicos que se caracterizan por altos niveles de informalidad han sido cruciales en la recuperación económica del país durante la pospandemia. 

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Intersectionality, Informal Economy, Organizational Practices

Financial Support: This research project is financially supported by the "Alianza 4U", a collaborative effort of Universidad del Norte, Universidad ICESI, Universidad EAFIT and Universidad CESA

Publications:

Fuentes, N., Schmutzler, J. & Vargas, A. (2024). Unpacking the Multilayered Nature of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems. International Journal of Innovation Studies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijis.2024.08.001 

Complexity Theory and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

Los ecosistemas de emprendimiento reciben cada vez más atención de académicos (e.g. McAdam et al., 2019; Mack & Mayer, 2016) formuladores de políticas (Mason & Brown, 2014; Kreuzer et al., 2018; Scotland Can Do, 2018; World Bank, 2018), inclusive en Colombia, donde este marco conceptual no solamente fue adopatado por investigadores (p.e. Alvarado & Servantie, 2020; Porras-Paez & Schmutzler, 2019; Velez, 2013; ) como tambien los actores publicos (p.e. Innpulsa, 2018). A pesar de esta tendencia (Alvedalen & Boschma, 2017), la EE sigue estando poco teorizada (Stam & Spigel, 2016). Particularmente, la mayoría de las investigaciones sobre EE se han centrado en establecer los componentes clave (por ejemplo, Isenberg, 2010) y, en cierta medida, su interacción (por ejemplo, Motoyama y Knowlton, 2017, Spigel, 2017b). Aunque se ha destacado la necesidad de una perspectiva evolutiva en el pensamiento de la EE (Roundy, Brockman & Bradshaw, 2017; Kuckertz, 2019), en particular por parte de actores clave dentro de la geografía económica (Mack & Mayer, 2016; Alvedalen & Boschma, 2017), todavía sabemos muy poco sobre por qué las EE surgen en algunos lugares y fracasan o declinan en otros (Roundy et al., 2017). Para abordar este tópico se pretende construir un modelo del ecosistema de emprendimiento basado en la teoría de los sistemas complejos. Esta contribución de conceptualizar al ecosistema de emprendimiento desde la perspectiva de los sistemas complejos responde a la necesidad de ampliar la literatura desde otras áreas de la ciencia, que permita aumentar la base de conocimiento para todos los interesados en el tema.  

Keywords: Complexity Theory, Agent-Based Modelling, Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

Financial Support: This research project is financially supported by the Banco de la Republica - Fundación para la promoción de la investigación y la tecnología

Publications:

Fuentes, N., Schmutzler, J. & Vargas, A. (2024). Unpacking the Multilayered Nature of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems. International Journal of Innovation Studies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijis.2024.08.001 

Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and Innovation Systems in underexplored contexts

with Rhiannon Pugh (Lund University Sweden) and Alexandra Tsvetkova (OECD)

Systemic approaches to economic development have increasingly become popular in the spheres of economic geography, regional science, innovation and entrepreneurship studies and strategy. National, Regional and Local Innovation Systems (Cooke, 1998; Lundvall, 2007), Entrepreneurial (Spigel, 2017; Stam, 2015) and Innovation Ecosystems (Adner and Kapoor, 2010) as well as Business (Moore, 1993) and Knowledge Ecosystems are all examples of concepts that have proven popular as both academic and policy frameworks when studying and practicing local and regional economic development. Recent contributions and special issues have vastly expanded the body of work examiningsystemic perspectives, addressing the common critique of being undertheorized concepts. And while much has been achieved in this respect, it remains largely unclear to what extent these approaches – developed and tested predominantly in highly developed contexts – can be transplanted into other, less favoured settings. Whilst efforts have been made to apply and implement systems perspectives in developing and less-favoured settings (e.g. Tsvetkova et al., 2017; Lundvall et al., 2011; Sheriff and Muffato, 2015; Neymeyer et al., 2018) giving way for less “copy and paste” and more place-basedapproaches, this work is still in a minority with the focus remaining on exceptionally performing urban economies in the global North, most often with a high-growth or high-tech focus. We therefore posit that these rapidly expanding and popular systemic concepts require more testing and application in a variety of regional and sectoral contexts. 

Keywords: Innovation System, Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, Global South, Contextualization

Students:

• Andrea Porras-Paéz developed her PhD thesis (Business School, Universidad del Norte) on the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem of Barranquilla, Colombia.

• Norida Vanegas developed her PhD thesis (Business School, Universidad del Norte) on the EE of the informal economy in Cartagena.

• Nicolas Fuentes is developing his PhD thesis (Economics, Universidad del Norte) on Entrepreneurial Ecosystems from the perspective of Complex Theory.

Publications:

• Schmutzler, J., Pugh, Rh. & Tsvetkova, A. (2021). Contextual and evolutionary perspectives on entrepreneurial ecosystems. Insights from Chris Freeman’s thinking. Innovation and Development. 1-9.

• Tsvetkova, A., Schmutzler, J. & Pugh, Rh. (2020) (Eds.) Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Meet Innovation Systems: Synergies, Policy Lessons and Overlooked Dimensions. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar

• Tsvetkova, A., Pugh, Rh., & Schmutzler, J. (2019). Beyond global hubs: Broadening the application of systems approaches. Local Economy, 34(8), 755-766

• Porras-Paéz, A. and Schmutzler, J. (2019). Orchestrating an entrepreneurial ecosystem in an emerging country: The lead actor’s role from a social capital perspective. Local Economy, 34(8), 767-786

Diaspora and their role in the development of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

with Veneta Andonova (Universidad de los Andes) and Jonathan Perez (Universidad de los Andes)

Migration is among the main factors influencing economic development in the twenty-first century. And while much research has explored the role of migration on economic growth, the role of diaspora for the development of the country-of-origin entrepreneurial ecosystems remains virtually unknown. We analyze how the entrepreneurial activity in a country does not depend only on the activities of the current residents but also on the ties that keep them interconnected via its diaspora to global entrepreneurial hubs and on the (intangible) resources that the diaspora makes available to local entrepreneurs. 

Keywords: Diaspora, Migrant Entrepreneurship, Balkans, Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Innovation Systems

Publications: 

• Pugh, R., Schmutzler, J., & Gonzalo, M. (2024). Centring context within discussions of entrepreneurial ecosystems from a global perspective. In: Huggins, R., Thompson, P., Kitagawa, F., Theodoraki, C., & Prokop, D. (Eds.) Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Cities and Regions: Emergence, Evolution, and Future (pp. 388-403). Oxford University Press.

• Schmutzler, J., Andonova, V., & Perez-Lopez, J. (2021). The role of diaspora in opportunity-driven entrepreneurial ecosystems: A mixed-methods study of Balkan economies. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 17, 693–729

• Andonova, V., Perez-Lopez, J. A., & Schmutzler, J. (2020). The role of diaspora in entrepreneurial ecosystems and national innovation systems. In: Tsvetkova, A., Schmutzler, J. & Pugh, Rh. (Eds.) Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Meet Innovation Systems. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Risk taking, competitiveness and personality

with Diemo Urbig and Werner Bönte (Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany), Veneta Andonova (Universidad de los Andes)  

We are interested to further untangle the relationships between personality, competitiveness, risk taking and loss aversion and how these are related to entrepreneurial behavior. We have undertaken a large-scale survey during the second semester of 2018 with ~ 1500 respondents, conducted lab experiments with ~ 150 students and undertaken a follow-up survey during 2021.

Keywords: Competitiveness, Career Choice, Hexaco, Risk taking

Students:

• Andrés Zambrano wrote his Master thesis at the Universidad del Norte - co-supervised with Diemo Urbig - on the topic and received the distinction "cum laude".

• Jesús Mercado wrote his undergraduate thesis at the Universidad del Norte under my supervision and received the distinction "meritorio". Additionally, he placed second at the Regional Research Seminar Conference for Students in the category "finalized research". 

Publications:

• Urbig, D., Bönte, W., Schmutzler, J., Curcio, A. F. Z., & Andonova, V. (2021). Diverging associations of dimensions of competitiveness with gender and personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 176, 110775.

Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Collective Action in the informal economy

This project will explore in which ways economic actors in the informal economy interact and organize themselves and how such self-organization strategies potentially enable an upgrading of their products and services through innovation. Additionally, we analyze how the interconnection with the formal economy may foment or hinder such road for progress. We rely on a qualitative case study of the informal motor-cycle transport in a developing country to achieve a complete description and a holistic analysis of the phenomenon. We will contribute to the academic debate by providing insights into facilitators and barriers of self-organizing strategies aiming at upgrading the service offered in innovative ways. Additionally, the study’s results will enable the development of targeted public policies, which potentially affect economic and social development of actors within the informal economy.

In a side project, we evaluate whether innovation is related to the formalization of business ventures. For this, we rely on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) database. 

Keywords: Informal Economy, Collective Action Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Students: 

• Norida Vanegas is developing her PhD thesis (Business School, Universidad del Norte) on the topic.

• Daniela Fernandez developed her undergraduate thesis at the Unviersidad del Norte under my supervision and received the distinction "meritorio".  

• Yeri Tordecilla Ardila developed her undergraduate thesis at the Unviersidad del Norte under my supervision and received the distinction "meritorio". 

La Música Champeta - an Informal Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

With Jorge Julio-Rossi (Universidad del Norte), Norida Vanegas (Universidad del Norte) and Andrea Porras-Paez (Universidad de la Costa)

It is almost impossible to be living in the Colombian Carribean and not be infected by the vibrant cultural heritage present everywhere. When we moved to Barranquilla in 2014, I soon became aquainted with "Champeta" when my kids started singing "El Serruche". This initial interest has now turned into a research project where - together with Jorge Juliao (Universidad de la Salle), Eduardo Wills (Universidad de los Andes)  as well as my PhD students Norida Vanegas and Andrea Porras - I analyze the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) that formed around this music. We are particularely interested how this EE - born mainly in the informality - is different from formal EEs, what generated a slow but constant transition towards formality in certain parts of the system and what were strategies of first-movers in order to survive.

Keywords: Informal Economy, Creative Industries, First Mover Advantage, Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, Formalization, Demand side

Conference Presentation:

• Early Career Plenary Speaker: Schmutzler, J. (2019). An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in the Informal Economy: The Case of the Champeta Music in Colombia. Regional Studies Association Latin America Division Conference. September 2019. Bogotá, Colombia

Management Practices for Innovation

As part of a inter-institutional research team - together with Jaider Vega-Jurado, Jahir Lombana-Coy, Patricia Marquez (all from the Business School at Universidad del Norte) and Jorge Juliao (Universidad de la Salle) as well as Ana Garcia (INGENIO Valencia), Werner Bönte (Bergische Universität Wuppertal) and Edward Lorenz (GREDEC Nice) - we aim to extend the work of Nicholas Bloom and his colleagues beyond general management practices towards management practices for innovation, with a focus on developing country contexts. We have collected both qualitative and quantitative data on management practices for innovation in Colombia and are now currently in the phase of analysing the data.

Keywords: Management Practices, ISO, PDMA, Innovation Management

Financial Support: This project was financed by Colciencias. 

Students: 

• Luis Enrique Garces  is writing his PhD thesis (Business School, Universidad del Norte) on the topic.

Publications: 

• Vega-Jurado, J., Schmutzler, J., Manjarrés-Henríquez, L., & Vega-Cárcamo, J. (2019). Orchestrating absorptive capacity: organizational catalysts of TMT’s influence. Management Research: Journal of the Iberoamerican Academy of Management. Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 426-444.

Micro and small enterprises - Resilience and Recovery during and post-COVID-19

Together with Jorge Juliao-Rossi (Universidad de la Salle), Carlos Rincón (Universidad de la Salle), Maryi Cadrazco (Universidad de la Salle) and Cristina Velez-Valencia 

About 25% of the world’s covid-19 cases happened in Latin America, a region that concentrates a little over 8% of the world population (Dyer, 2020). General lockdowns and curfews at the outbreak of the pandemic generated a combined demand and supply shock and as such a major barrier for firms to sell their products or services (Becerra, 2020). A vicious circle of decreased sales met equal or even increased costs. As a result, Colombian micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) face severe liquidity problems (Confecamara, 2020), which may lead to a high firm mortality. MSMEs conform over 95% of Colombia´s productive landscape, posing a huge barrier for post-pandemic economic recovery. Many of the MSMEs had not applied for governmental help programs by the end of September 2020 (Confecamara, 2020). And of those who did, a large share had not received the help asked for. This situation calls for further and detailed analysis; particularly because not only do Latin American countries invest much less of their GDP for public policies supporting SMEs (ECLAC, 2014). Worse even, large firms disproportionally participate in these programs, showing deficiencies in the governments’ targeting capacity (Grazzi, Pietrobelli, and Szirmai, 2016). Thus the question arises as what can be done to better target MSMEs? Many of these MSMEs were more resilient than expected; they implemented new ways of contacting their consumers, new ways of doing business or expanded towards new markets. While the government mainly provided financial assistance; business associations, clients and suppliers collaborated in setting up mitigation strategies. Thus, the question of which kind of MSME assistance – beyond the financial – are needed in the current situation and what are ways to ensure their effectiveness. We rely on existent secondary data (Survey) and complement it with detailed interviews in order to answer the questions posed.

Keywords: MSMES, COVID-19, Resilience, Recovery, Survival

Students:

• Mauricio Villadiego, an undergraduate student of economics at Universidad del Norte developed his undergraduate thesis - co-supervised with Cristina Velez - on the subject under my supervision.

Resilience of informal workers during COVID-19: A case study in Colombia 

Together with Jairo Parada (Universidad del Norte) and Norida Vanegas (Universidad del Norte)

The informal economy is one of the most important alternatives for employment and survival, particularly in developing countries. The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has hit the informal workers particularly hard; not only are they unable to rely on the social security net. The very characteristics of their work rob them in most cases of their possibility to generate income during strict lockdown measures. Our research, relying on a case study of mototaxi drivers in the Colombian Caribbean and employing a mixed-method research methodology, analyses the impact of lockdown measures on their income and evaluates how strategies of entrepreneurial bricolage allow these informal workers to remain resilient. Our results convey that despite expressed intentions, governmental aid did not reach this vulnerable population in many cases, reinforcing the feeling of being abandoned by the state. And while individual strategies of entrepreneurial bricolage to overcome adversities, particularly once strict lockdown measures were lifted, were significantly and positively correlated with income recovery, the confiscation of mototaxis during lockdown when these informal workers tried to generate income for survival, severely hampered such recovery.

Keywords: Informal Economy, COVID-19, Resilience, Recovery, Survival, Informal Transport

Students:

• Irleth Soto, an undergraduate student of economics at Universidad del Norte developed her undergraduate thesis on the subject under the supervision of Jairo Parada. Her field work was supported by myself and Norida Vanegas, my PhD student.