Essays on the Political Economy of Innovative Startups

The thesis examines the political economy of innovative startups through three essays. The three main chapters of the thesis comprise three individual research papers written to answer separate research questions, but they are all bounded together by a common aim of investigating the political economy of innovative startups and how the wider contextual environment affects startup growth. In this regard, the first paper is a theoretical piece that positions startup-centric innovation policy in the wider literature on industrial policy. Together with my co-authors, we conceptualise startup-centric innovation policy in terms of four key attributes – age/newness, type of firm, target audience, and instruments used. The second paper investigates the role and influence of government policy on the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in terms of its coordinative aspects and underlying ecosystem dynamics. Finally, the third paper examines cultural change in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and its role on startup venture creation.