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The impact of Brexit on London’s entrepreneurial ecosystem: The case of the FinTech industry

The impact of Brexit on London’s entrepreneurial ecosystem: The case of the FinTech industry

Sohns, Franziska ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5641-7433 and Wójcik, Dariusz (2020) The impact of Brexit on London’s entrepreneurial ecosystem: The case of the FinTech industry. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 52 (8). pp. 1539-1559. ISSN 0308-518X (Print), 1472-3409 (Online) (doi:10.1177/0308518X20925820)

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Abstract

This paper analyses how different entrepreneurial actors respond to political uncertainty and changing institutional settings. Moreover, it discusses the impact of those actor-level responses on the resilience of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs), focussing on how they affect the diversity of and the connectivity among its actors. To address these questions, the paper examines how the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union has influenced the financial technology (FinTech) industry in London, applying data collected from in-depth interviews, covering different groups of stakeholders in London’s FinTech industry, such as angel investors, banks, legal advisors, lobby organisations, and private companies. Our results show that political uncertainty and the prospect of institutional change can trigger actor-level responses, which have the potential to modify the diversity as well as the local and non-local connectivity of an EE. Moreover, we demonstrate that the nature of strategic responses of entrepreneurial actors varies significantly, depending on their firm’s characteristics, such as age, size, product specialization, and the structure of their egocentric networks. With regard to the latter, our results show that anchor firms play an important role in other firms’ egocentric networks and have the power to shape their strategic responses.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: FinTech, Brexit, entrepreneurial ecosystems, institutional change
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences
H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group: Faculty of Business
Faculty of Business > Department of International Business & Economics
Last Modified: 06 Nov 2020 12:35
URI: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/27987

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