Speaker
Description
Research on the entrepreneurial ecosystem has significantly expanded in recent years (Isenberg, 2010; Stam, 2015), highlighting the importance of interactions among actors, institutions, and resources in supporting entrepreneurial activity. At the same time, the notion of resilience has become central in the analysis of organizations and systems (Lengnick-Hall & Beck, 2005; Duchek, 2020), particularly in contexts marked by crises and growing uncertainty. However, the articulation between these two fields remains fragmented.
On one hand, several studies emphasize the contribution of inter-firm relationships (alliances, collaborations, business networks) to strengthening adaptive capacities and the robustness of productive systems (Zaheer & Bell, 2005; Gulati, 1998). On the other hand, an emerging body of research focuses on the resilience of entrepreneurial ecosystems, analyzing how they overcome exogenous shocks and collectively reinvent themselves (Roundy, 2019; Cacciatori & Preziosi, 2023).
To address this dispersion and fill this gap, the present study adopts a systematic literature review based on the PRISMA protocol. The documentary research was conducted in Scopus and Web of Science, covering the period 2000–2024 to capture the recent evolution of resilience studies in the entrepreneurial and organizational fields.
This systematic review is structured around two complementary dyads:
1. Inter-firm relationships + Resilience
2. Entrepreneurial ecosystem + Resilience
This methodological choice enables us to conceptualize resilience as a pivot variable, playing a mediating role between relational dynamics (micro/meso) and systemic resilience (macro). The objective is to demonstrate how inter-firm relationships, by reinforcing resilience, ultimately contribute to the overall resilience of entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Thus, the systematic review aims to:
• Map the existing literature on each dyad.
• Identify relational mechanisms (trust, cooperation, resource sharing) that foster resilience.
• Highlight systemic levers of ecosystem resilience (diversity, redundancy, collective learning).
• Propose an integrative framework in which inter-firm relationships feed resilience, which in turn supports the sustainability and robustness of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Keywords: Entrepreneurial ecosystem, Resilience, Inter-firm relationships, Adaptive capacity
