Private entrepreneurial support organizations in European fintech entrepreneurial ecosystems

Abstract The importance of Entrepreneurial Support Organizations in promoting the development of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems is well recognized in the literature. Surprisingly, no research has addressed how governments can promote the emergence of Private Entrepreneurial Support Organizations in parallel with Public ones. Using the European FinTech Entrepreneurial Ecosystem as an empirical setting, we investigate through a Qualitative Comparative Analysis which enabling factors the government can intervene on to foster the development of Private Entrepreneurial Support Organizations. We then determine how much the same factors can influence the availability of such programs through a Poisson fixed effects model. The results suggest that Private Entrepreneurial Support Organizations are consistently present in regions with a combination of enabling factors that are conducive to market competition. Policies aimed at simultaneously increasing private R&D spending, reducing subsidies to industry, developing talent, strengthening the knowledge economy and increasing demand could not only encourage the emergence of more startups but also have a positive impact on the overall availability of Private Entrepreneurial Support Organizations.