Exploring competing perspectives on government-driven entrepreneurial ecosystems: lessons from Centres for Creative Economy and Innovation (CCEI) of South Korea

Recent research suggests competing aspects of how to promote an entrepreneurial ecosystem for sustainable economic growth from a linear entrepreneurial ecosystem to non-linear ones involving diverse stakeholders beyond the dichotomy between state and market. Competing views and interests embedded in these multiple stakeholders can contribute to understanding how an entrepreneurial ecosystem can emerge, flourish and vanish. However, little systematic research has explored what aspects multiple stakeholders have for a new rising entrepreneurial ecosystem. This paper, relying on Q-methodology, explores different perspectives of stakeholders surrounding the Centres for a Creative Economy and Innovation (CCEIs) in South Korea. Application of Q-methodology with a qualitative and statistical approach allows us to clarify various competing stakeholder perspectives on entrepreneurial ecosystems embodied by the 17 government driven CCEIs. We found six different views on how to evaluate the role and function of the CCEIs deeply connected with strong state intervention and big conglomerate companies (BCCs): (1) the BCC-led CCEI ecosystem, (2) the CCEI own ecosystem, (3) a strong critic of the state-led CCEI ecosystem, (4) a negative viewpoint on the politics-led CCEI ecosystem, (5) the state-led CCEI ecosystem and (6) a strong critic of the current Korean venture capital system.