Abstract
The literature on entrepreneurial ecosystem places emphasis on understanding the surrounding business environment for entrepreneurial activities of individual actors in a system, typically at the city or regional level. While gaining prominence as a useful concept to provide guidance for innovation and entrepreneurship policy, the framework at its current stage faces conceptual as well as empirical challenges with regards to the structural boundary of the ecosystem and measurement. This chapter aims to jointly address these issues by deploying a novel combination of methods and data sources to map the interaction within a dynamic emerging ecosystem in Nairobi, Kenya. We do so by identifying start-ups and investors utilising data from CrunchBase and exploring the dynamics of the relevant actors in the Twitter network, where we use manual categorisation as well as data-driven community detection algorithms to identify social networks in the ecosystem. We identify distinct communities in the ecosystem based on the technological focus, the types of support organisations, and interaction patterns in the network. We show how technology start-ups in developing economies are connected to support organisations of various geographical origins, which implies that ecosystems for supporting entrepreneurship can emerge across borders.
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Notes
- 1.
Stam (2014) include activities by ‘entrepreneurial’ employees in established firms as a form of entrepreneurship in the analysis of Dutch entrepreneurial ecosystem.
- 2.
- 3.
Ndemo and Weiss (Ndemo and Weiss 2017) noted that, although new ICT technologies may seem to democratize distribution of information, one need to be aware that few players take control over how seemly abundant information is being created and disseminated.
- 4.
Table 2 in the analysis section reports a description of these supporting organizations.
- 5.
The tweets were fetched in January 2017, and 3200 is the maximum number of tweets made available by Twitter.
- 6.
Data collection, treatment and visualization required the use of Python, R and Gephi.
- 7.
A table with a summary of the different networks, communities and their respective topics can be found in Appendix 2.
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Table of Topics
Topic | Theme words | Topic name |
|---|---|---|
0 | Number, kindly, account, apology, sorry, transaction, inconvenience, dm, phone, assistance | Customer service |
1 | Road, traffic, thika, police, mombasa, jam, accident, county, sexual, rd | News |
2 | Expo, livestock, kicc, agri, conf, nairobi, agriprenuership, investment, africa, jobseeker | Agri/Business |
3 | Climate, change, city, energy, impact, socent, globalgoal, sector, sustainability, impinv | Climate/Energy |
4 | Technology, news, development, ict, story, late, startup, tech, innovation, finalist | Technology/Innovation |
5 | Chat, twitter, sast, african, p.m. , nov, april, enviroed, future, august | Social media |
6 | Woman, girl, health, icpd, young, adolescent, violence, iwd, female, pregnancy | Women/children |
7 | Cnbcafrica, ceo, sub, journeysofar, air, dstv, saharan, director, archive, commerce | Tv/News |
8 | %, country, low, high, government, quality, president, datum, cost, access | Economy |
9 | School, teacher, student, bridge, pupil, primary, parent, bridgetosuccess, chain, o | Education |
10 | Year, people, child, life, old, family, ago, safe, non | Demographics |
11 | New, entrepreneur, business, opportunity, mentor, world, company, founder, solar, kenya | Entrepreneur |
12 | Driver, trip, asap, partner, date, specific, close, trouble, rider, pickup | Transport |
13 | Education, valley, eneza, ukaid, silicon, liberia, daily, edchat, cycloneidai, century | Education2 |
14 | Mobile, app, service, money, payment, bank, m, available, option, user | Mobile service |
15 | Happy, birthday, mumsvillage, valentine, mum, love, bob, day, christmas | Lifestyle |
16 | Tv, pm, event, live, session, press, application, open, episode, release | Tv/Leisure |
17 | Market, customer, product, transforminglive, hotel, travel, food, care, constantly, huaweiy | Market |
18 | Egfellow, chief, justice, deep, speech, right, staff, important, action, freedom | Legal |
19 | Free, online, update, ticket, website, page, course, feature, note, apple | Marketing |
Appendix 2: Summary of Communities and Their Respective Topics
Network brief statistics | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Core start-up accounts | Core start-up accounts | |||||||||
Communities | Number of accounts | Number of core accounts | Number of local accounts | Number of support organizations accounts | A sample of users | Topics | N | Core | Local | Support |
1 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 1 | BitPesa, BritamEA, steamaco, KeEquityBank, CelIulant, mkopasolar | 0, 4, 7, 11, 19 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 1 |
2 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 0 | Africastal king, Eneza Education, totohealth, BridgelntlAcads | 6, 9, 11, 13, 19 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 0 |
3 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 1 | GreenhouseKenya, brcknet, AnganiLTD, ongair_,farmdriveke, mfarm_ke | 6, 11, 16, 17, 19 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 1 |
4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 0 | SendyMobile, Sanivation, Sanergy, HaltonsCares, BigSquareKE, letsokhi | 0, 3, 11, 12, 19 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 0 |
5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | Mdundomusic, HiviSasa, BookNowKenya | 1, 2, 15, 19 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
Total | 37 | 37 | 37 | 2 | 37 | 37 | 37 | 2 | ||
Kenyan based accounts | Kenyan based accounts | |||||||||
1 | 33 | 12 | 33 | 5 | whiteafrican, iHub, iLabAfrica, JessicaColaco, EnezaEducation, mlabeastafrica, PIVOTEast, Afri castalking, mfarm_ ke, kenyanpundit, brcknet | 9, 11, 13, 16, 19 | 33 | 12 | 33 | 5 |
2 | 30 | 6 | 30 | 0 | SendyMobile, KenyanTraffic, Sanergy, KTNKenya, TechTrendsKE, Sanivation | 1, 2, 11, 17, 19 | 30 | 6 | 30 | 0 |
3 | 25 | 10 | 25 | 5 | VC4Africa, Cellulant, GrowthAfrica,BitPesa, farmdriveke, GreenCharKenya | 0, 4, 5, 7, 11, 19 | 25 | 10 | 25 | 5 |
4 | 17 | 5 | 17 | 3 | NestNairobi, NairobiGarage, 88mph_Africa, ongair_, DEMOAfrica, letsokhi | 0, 4, 12, 15, 19 | 17 | 5 | 17 | 3 |
5 | 16 | 3 | 16 | 0 | mkopasolar, Safa ricomPLC, KenyaCIC, PowerGen_ RE, steamaco, Safaricom_Care | 0, 3, 8, 11, 19 | 16 | 3 | 16 | 0 |
6 | 11 | 2 | 11 | 1 | GreenhouseKenya, Muriuki_Farm, Top_ Farmer, futurepump, FarmbizAfrica | 5, 6, 11, 16, 17 | 11 | 2 | 11 | 1 |
7 | 10 | 1 | 10 | 2 | thenailab, MumsViIIage, MKaigwa, UNFPAKen, KenyaRedCross | 1, 6, 10, 15, 19 | 10 | 1 | 10 | 2 |
8 | 9 | 3 | 9 | 1 | bantigito, BD_Africa, dailynation, ShelterAfrique, KeEquityBank, mDaktariKE | 0, 3, 8, 11, 14, 19 | 9 | 3 | 9 | 1 |
9 | 8 | 1 | 8 | 0 | ntvkenya, OfficialJMbugua, BigSquareKE, antoneosoul, mssheilakimani | 0, 2, 15, 18, 19 | 8 | 1 | 8 | 0 |
10 | 7 | 2 | 7 | 0 | JuIianKyula, PesapaI, thiskenyan, AIRTEL_ KE, MODEGLOBAL, OjayGreene | 0, 1, 11, 114, 19 | 7 | 2 | 7 | 0 |
NA | 11 | 3 | 11 | 3 | 11 | 3 | 11 | 3 | ||
Total | 177 | 48 | 177 | 20 | 177 | 48 | 177 | 20 | ||
All accounts including international | All accounts including international | |||||||||
1 | 32 | 10 | 29 | 5 | iHub, brcknet, whiteafrican, PIVOTEast, EnezaEducation, mlabeastafrica, JessicaColaco, mfarm_ke, africamanager | 1, 4, 11, 16, 19 | 32 | 10 | 29 | 5 |
2 | 30 | 3 | 26 | 3 | NairobiGarage, bobcollymore, CKirubi, SafaricomPLC, NestNairobi, KenyaCIC | 0, 7, 11, 15, 19 | 30 | 3 | 26 | 3 |
3 | 28 | 4 | 26 | 0 | CarolineMutoko, SendyMobile, MumsVillage, KTNKenya, TechTrendsKE | 0, 1, 15, 17, 19 | 28 | 4 | 26 | 0 |
4 | 19 | 6 | 16 | 2 | Cellulant, farmdriveke, DPOGroup, Fintech_Africa, mkopasolar, MadeItInAfrica | 0, 5, 7, 11, 17, 19 | 19 | 6 | 16 | 2 |
5 | 17 | 1 | 4 | 1 | WorldBank, GSMA, wef, DFID_ UK, UNESCO, UN, BridgeKenya, BridgelntlAcads | 3, 6, 9, 10, 13 | 17 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
6 | 15 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 88mph_Africa, googleafrica, GrowthAfrica, BookNowKenya, VirtuaICityLtd | 2, 4, 11, 15, 19 | 15 | 4 | 9 | 2 |
7 | 14 | 2 | 11 | 1 | GreenhouseKenya, futurepump, Cropnuts, Top_Farmer, lador_foods | 5, 6, 11, 17, 19 | 14 | 2 | 11 | 1 |
8 | 12 | 2 | 11 | 1 | bankelele, HapaKenya, roomthinker, kenyanpundit, KeEquityBank, ShelterAfrique | 0, 8, 11, 14, 19 | 12 | 2 | 11 | 1 |
9 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 2 | Sanergy, NextBillion, gatesfoundation, echoinggreen, Sanivation, GreenCharKeny | 3, 4, 6, 11, 18, 19 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
10 | 11 | 2 | 11 | 1 | ntvkenya, BigSquareKE, DEMOAfrica, JumiaFoodKE, AirKlip | 0, 1, 2, 12, 19 | 11 | 2 | 11 | 1 |
11 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 2 | BitPesa, villagecapital, AppsAfrica, VC4Africa, PayGo_Energy, OjayGreene | 4, 5, 11, 16, 19 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
12 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 0 | MODEGLOBAL, JulianKyula, Pesapal, thiskenyan, kevinouma, AIRTEL_ KE | 0, 1 , 7, 11, 14, 19 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
NA | 12 | 3 | 10 | 3 | 12 | 3 | 10 | 3 | ||
Total | 215 | 44 | 167 | 23 | 215 | 44 | 167 | 23 | ||
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Martins, R.M., Park, E., Hain, D.S., Jurowetzki, R. (2021). Mapping Entrepreneurial Ecosystem for Technology Start-ups in Developing Economies: An Empirical Analysis of Twitter Networks Between Start-ups and Support Organizations of Nairobi’s Digital Economy. In: Daniels, C., Dosso, M., Amadi-Echendu, J. (eds) Entrepreneurship, Technology Commercialisation, and Innovation Policy in Africa. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58240-1_4
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