Beyond basic institutions: External enablers of technology entrepreneurship in New Zealand

Abstract The study uses the institution-based view to explore how New Zealand can stimulate technology entrepreneurship. Data comprise 20 expert interviews of entrepreneurial actors, entrepreneurial support organizations, institutional stakeholders, and membership organizations. Nine second order themes; educating society about technology; introducing technology early to students; bridging the digital divide; developing a unified sector identity; fostering entrepreneurial capital; growing local talent pools; managing scale and scalability; exploiting technology opportunities; and effectively positioning New Zealand technology are the foundation of technology entrepreneurship. Three aggregate factors which encompass creating a digitally ready society, building an entrepreneurial ecosystem, and exploiting institutional endowments emerge from the analysis. The study extends scholarship by elaborating how external enablement serves as a causal mechanism. Cultural-, human-, political-, social-, and symbolic capital are integral to external enablement. Correspondingly, legitimation, resource access, resource combination, resource conservation, resource expansion, and uncertainty reduction underpin the venture- and pivot triggering enablement central to technology entrepreneurship. The study contributes to practice by depicting external enablers as the genesis of the institutional adjustments and transitions required to facilitate technology entrepreneurship.