Vol.:(0123456789) Asian Business & Management https://doi.org/10.1057/s41291-019-00070-6 ORIGINAL ARTICLE The distinctiveness and diversity of entrepreneurial ecosystems in China, Japan, and South Korea: an exploratory analysis Martin Hemmert 1  · Adam R. Cross 2  · Ying Cheng 3  · Jae‑Jin Kim 4  · Florian Kohlbacher 5  · Masahiro Kotosaka 6  · Franz Waldenberger 7  · Leven J. Zheng 8,9 Received: 19 February 2019 / Revised: 6 May 2019 / Accepted: 7 May 2019 © Springer Nature Limited 2019 Abstract Entrepreneurial ecosystems at the regional level have been intensively studied in Western countries, but much less so in East Asia. We study fve major ecosystems located in Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Suzhou, and Chongqing, focusing on the business conditions for information technology (IT) start-ups. Our domain analysis reveals that these entrepreneurial ecosystems difer in various important aspects from lead- ing Western counterparts such as Silicon Valley. Furthermore, we fnd diferences in the growth and internationalization of frms across entrepreneurial ecosystems in China, Japan, and South Korea. Public policy should focus on supporting high- potential start-ups and strengthening the ecosystems’ global outreach. Keywords Entrepreneurial ecosystems · IT start-ups · Domain analysis · China · South Korea · Japan Introduction Start-ups—understood to be small, newly founded frms that are designed to grow— are receiving increasing research and policy attention (Mason and Brown 2014; O’Connor et al. 2018; Stam 2015). Business researchers have studied start-ups from various perspectives, including fnance (Hellmann and Puri 2002), entrepreneur- ship (Powers and McDougall 2005), innovation (Anokhin and Wincent 2012), and internationalization (Cannone and Ughetto 2014). However, there is also a wide- spread understanding that start-ups tend to cluster at specifc geographic locations, as their foundation and growth are linked to intense knowledge exchange with vari- ous types of co-located organizations, including large and established frms, venture * Martin Hemmert mhemmert@korea.ac.kr Extended author information available on the last page of the article