Entrepreneurial space and the freedom for entrepreneurship: Institutional settings, policy, and action in the space industry

Abstract

AbstractResearch SummaryAnticipating that innovation nurtures entrepreneurship, we began an extended case study of an innovative start‐up in the space industry. We quickly saw that institutions imposed formidable barriers to implementing entrepreneurship from innovation. Curious about how, why and the extent of this situation, we widened our study to other start‐ups, CEOs of existing businesses, an incubator, a technology transfer office and key influencers in large space companies and agencies. We found that institutions and policies had, in effect, shrunk the entrepreneurial field, leaving little room for enterprise. Conceptualizing from this, we propose the institutions create an “entrepreneurial space.” Theoretically, we explain how this concept of an entrepreneurial space can be usefully applied in other contexts.Managerial SummaryThe space industry is extremely innovative. It is also dominated by two powerful incumbent firms and a third that is highly regulated. This research examines how entrepreneurship in the space industry is shaped by institutions, and what this implies for the freedom to be entrepreneurial. We investigate this question in the French European context. We find that while the industrial context and institutions had completely pushed entrepreneurship out of the upstream segments it flourished in the margins of this industry. The upstream segment is not at all entrepreneurial; downstream is the entrepreneurial milieu of the space industry. We recommend that policymakers (a) strengthen private‐public‐partnership arrangements; (b) implement policies to attract venture capitalists to transform and reinvigorate the upstream segment; and (c) design specific incubation mechanisms for space start‐ups.