Entrepreneurial ecosystem and urban innovation: Contextual findings in the lens of sustainable development from China

Entrepreneurial activities constitute a critical antecedent to urban innovation (UI), which reflects the levels of innovation and creation activities in cities and is strongly related to their economic development. Existing research on UI focuses on the net effects of individual explanatories in isolation while leaving the synergistic effects between these factors under-examined. Drawing from the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) theory, we constructed an entrepreneurial ecosystem composed of market, finance, human capital, internet access, transportation, and government, adopting the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) of 34 representative cities in China to analyze the combined effects of multiple elements underpinned UI. Consequently, the following findings were observed. First, no single entrepreneurial ecosystem element constitutes a necessary condition for a high UI level. Second, large markets and well-designed government services correspond well to high UI levels. Third, the lack of mature transportation and a large market lead to a non-high level. This study advances antecedent research on UI by addressing the complex mechanism of multi-factor linkages.