Mushrooming entrepreneurship: The dynamic geography of enthusiast-driven innovation

Abstract

Communities of interest encompassing manifold sophisticated users, highly skilled enthusiasts and dedicated hobbyists are increasingly being taken seriously by economic geographers as sources of innovation. The article applies a time-spatial approach to empirically access the process through which entrepreneurial activities arise and proliferate within such communities. In a qualitative ex-post analysis of two case studies of evolving communities of interest – geocaching and fingerboarding – the article will trace how the social composition of these communities changed over time and how entrepreneurial ambition co-evolved with these changes. Particular emphasis will be put on the tensions between the communities’ norms of sharing knowledge freely among peers and the entrepreneurial logic of monopolizing knowledge. Moreover, the interplay between community evolution and entrepreneurial moves offers a fresh view on the complex and dynamic spatiality of innovation.