Natural resources in entrepreneurial ecosystem evolution: leadership challenges in peripheries

Resource-based regions have been overlooked in the analysis of the evolution of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs). This article extends Stam and van de Ven’s framework by incorporating natural resources as a structural component of EE dynamics to study the role of the sector in leadership formation in resource-based peripheral regions. Using a qualitative case study of Antofagasta, Chile’s main mining region, between 2007 and 2023, the analysis draws on interviews, documentary sources and participant observation. Although natural resources have promoted significant growth of the EE, the dominance of external actors has led to fragmented leadership and structural constraints that limit resource mobilisation and entrepreneurial transformation.