The wisdom of ecosystems: A transactive memory theory of knowledge management in entrepreneurial ecosystems

Abstract

The contextual turn in entrepreneurship research has shifted scholars' attention to the place‐based forces that shape entrepreneurship in vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems, such as Silicon Valley, Stockholm, and Bangalore. Studies find that an important component of ecosystems is the knowledge they contain about the entrepreneurship process. However, the critical questions of how entrepreneurs overcome challenges associated with acquiring tacit knowledge, how entrepreneurs leverage their ecosystems to organize knowledge, and what factors influence an ecosystem's ability to serve as a knowledge repository remain unexamined. To formulate a theory explaining how entrepreneurs use their ecosystems to facilitate knowledge management and organizational learning, insights from group cognition are adapted to introduce the concept of entrepreneurial ecosystem transactive memory. It is theorized that ecosystem‐level characteristics, including diversity, coherence, connectivity, prosociality, and interdependence, influence an ecosystem's transactive memory structure and processes. By examining the linkages between ecosystem characteristics and transactive memory, a more nuanced understanding of the cognitive dynamics of entrepreneurial ecosystems is provided. The theoretical model charts a path for interdisciplinary research on knowledge management in entrepreneurial ecosystems and generates implications for practitioners.