The entrepreneurial ecosystem clock keeps on ticking – A replication and extension of Coad and Srhoj

A key hypothesis in the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) literature is that a positive relation exists between the quality of EEs and the prevalence of productive entrepreneurship. Recently, Coad and Srhoj (2023) argued that the quality of EEs should also be positively related to the persistence of productive entrepreneurship. However, using two different measures for high-growth firms in regions in Croatia and Slovenia, they found no consistent evidence for the persistence of productive entrepreneurship. This led them to conclude that the EE framework is not valuable for policymakers. This papers contends that their generalization is incorrect and that their findings are consistent with a further articulation of the EE approach.