Entrepreneurship as a self-organizing ecological process

This paper argues that entrepreneurship on a small scale can usefully be studied in terms of industrial networks as well as individual businesses. Within a certain industry, in a certain region, businesses may come and go, but the industry as a whole can remain sustainable. The key proposition is that entrepreneurship in such a situation can be viewed as an ecosystem of self-organizing entities, with the foresight of the various parties acting as a force for sustainability. The foresight that impels some businesses to enter the industry may be counterbalanced by foresight that impels others to leave. From the literature on self-organizing systems, five criteria were established for viable self-organization: purpose, capacity, holarchy, social networking, and sustainability through feedback mechanisms.