Re-contextualising start-up communities as social learning systems

Abstract

Start-up enterprises are perceived as key drivers of economic growth within a region and as a result have been subject to increased interest from governments and researchers. However, little research has focused on social learning within start-up communities and the broader start-up ecosystem. This study focuses on the start-up community in Perth, Western Australia. It has two research aims: firstly, to re-contextualise start-up communities as social learning systems (SLS), as defined by Étienne Wenger. Secondly, to explore the place of social learning within the start-up ecosystem. The two research aims are pursued through semi-structured interviews, and theoretically directed thematic analysis, both informed by Wenger’s work on communities of practice and social learning systems. The study finds that the start-up community’s role within the ecosystem is to act as a forum that accumulates and disseminates knowledge, that is essential to direct social interaction with others and shapes individual and community identities, grounding the start-up ecosystem in norms of Alignment, Engagement and Imagination. This article enhances understanding of the start-up community as an object of study in its own right, which can be approached as a social learning construct.