Recycling in entrepreneurial ecosystems: the phenomenon of boomeranging

Abstract

The ‘recycling’ of people, capital and ideas is a key process that can support activity in an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Previous research has shown that knowledge recycled from prior employment is important for the entrepreneurial ecosystem and we expand upon this to understand which types of knowledge, as well as individual motivations for transferring this knowledge. We have created a novel dataset to track employee career trajectories within an ecosystem, showing the extent to which employees derive experience from within the ecosystem as well as the extent to which they recycle their entrepreneurial experience by returning to employment. A sample from this dataset participated in semi‐structured interviews. The interviews provide early empirical evidence on entrepreneurial recycling through career mobility and development within entrepreneurial ecosystems. In contrast to prior findings of a low prevalence of direct entrepreneurial activity through entrepreneurial recycling, we show a high prevalence of entrepreneurs who have previously worked in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and that these entrepreneurs often recycle back to employment within the ecosystem. In this process the individuals develop and transfer tangible skills developed in entrepreneurship. This is motivated by a need for regrouping and further developing the tacit knowledge to put them back in a position to seek self‐realisation through entrepreneurship. In the process this exposes them to new activities that enable the development of tangible skills and the motivation to regroup once again, and complete the loop of entrepreneurial recycling.