The AI technological shock and sustainable development: a systemic analysis of entrepreneurial ecosystems

Abstract In a context of increasing global uncertainty and accelerating digital transformation, it is analysed how frontier technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robot density, constitute an external technological shock that influences and reshapes entrepreneurial ecosystems and sustainable development. To analyse this effect, the entrepreneurial ecosystem scheme developed by Galindo and Méndez [34], based on Parsons’s AGIL framework and incorporating external factors, is adopted, considering technological shock as the sole external factor. The empirical analysis is conducted using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) for a panel of 12 European economies over the period 2022–2024. The results reveal that the technological shock associated with AI has asymmetric effects across ecosystem dimensions, with strong and significant effects on economic and juridical factors, more moderate effects on the political dimension, and weaker effects on the cultural dimension. Furthermore, the findings show that technological shock contributes to stimulating both entrepreneurial activity and sustainable development. The study also highlights the key role of institutional quality and economies’ absorptive capacity in translating technological change into sustainable outcomes. By integrating a systemic sociological approach with entrepreneurial ecosystem theory, this research provides new evidence on how emerging technologies reshape the structural functioning of entrepreneurial ecosystems and this has import implications for policymakers seeking to align innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainable development.