Entrepreneurial ecosystems have been a topic of study and focus for emerging businesses and
policymakers. Entrepreneurial ecosystems make a conducive environment for entrepreneurs to
function by creating a network of favorable stakeholders, aspects, and activities that both
encourage and support growing businesses. On the other hand, entrepreneurial activities are
performed by different entrepreneurial stakeholders to create and expand economic activities
that involve the identification and exploitation of new markets, processes, and products. These
entrepreneurial activities include sustainable entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and
digital entrepreneurship. An entrepreneurial ecosystem has to effectively combine all the
different factors to favor the other entrepreneurial activities. In Brussels, the entrepreneurial
ecosystem is uniquely characterized and has additional features that affect the various
entrepreneurial activities differently, an example is favorable startup culture. Generally, the
Brussels ecosystem comes first place in Belgium. However, it ranks 16th in Western Europe
and 72nd globally (StartupBlink, 2022). Furthermore, the ecosystem has been characterized by
an adverse shift; this has been most felt since the pandemic in 2020. These factors have affected
the different entrepreneurial activities differently, resulting in favorable conditions for some
activities while some have been greatly affected.
This paper will study Brussels's entrepreneurial ecosystem to reflect on its effects on the various
entrepreneurial activities. A very open nature characterizes the entrepreneurial ecosystem of
Brussels to potential entrepreneurs and startups due to its focus on creating a conducive
ecosystem to attract entrepreneurs and help them grow. Brussels offers a rich culture of
supporting and enabling entrepreneurs and activities associated with entrepreneurship. It
provides an affordable and quality living standard, good public services, and affordable
accommodations. Moreover, Brussels has a dense population and easy access to international
customers, which results in a sufficient market that guarantees consumer purchase power due
to high income. These unique factors in the entrepreneurial framework of Brussels have enabled
it to affect its entrepreneurial activities in different ways.
The first entrepreneurial activity that this paper will study is digital entrepreneurship. Digital
entrepreneurship involves all the processes and the activities involved in developing, marketing,
and earning through digital spaces. This entrepreneurial activity involves almost zero use of
physical spaces. The advantage that goes with this particular activity is its demand of low capital
to start compared to the offline market. Moreover, it is very flexible as it allows an entrepreneur
to work from different locations as they desire; coupled with the rapid adoption of internet
technology, this domain has been seeing significant and positive growth. The entrepreneurial
ecosystem of Brussels has also tapped into this domain; the economy of Brussels has
significantly been digitalized with applications and business models that are digital based, an
example is digital commerce and digital advertising-based options (PricewaterhouseCoopers,
2022). This has been done in all the different sectors of the economy. The result of digitizing
the economy has made Brussels one of the economies with the most intertwined and
interconnected sectors. This has, in effect, made Brussels very conducive for digital-based
startups, which are usually supported by a well-structured and connected ecosystem. Due to its
support for digital-based businesses, Brussels holds about 33% of all digital-based Belgian
startups. Moreover, the city provides more than 30000 ICT-related jobs in more than 2000
digital-related companies, including international companies like Proximus, Huawei, Twitter,
and Google, this in turn provides adequately to the ecosystem of Brussels (hub.Brussels, 2022).
Overall, Belgium ranks 5th in terms of its integration and connectivity of digital technology,
with a digital industry net value of 129 billion Euros. Moreover, considering that Brussels hosts
numerous international organizations such as the EU, Eurocontrol, and NATO, together with
having programs such as 80 billion euros for research projects and Horizon2020, it provides
the confidence and trust for enabling businesses to grow. Initiatives of the government to create
Brussels smart city which incorporates IoT innovative SMEs, Big Data and AI startups, easily
accessible public Wi-Fi, open data, and a broadband expansion that will target the whole city
reinforces an ecosystem to support digital entrepreneurial activities.
Furthermore, social entrepreneurial activity has also been supported. Considering that social
entrepreneurship mainly involves all the entrepreneurial activities of startups, individuals of
coming up with solutions that focus on social issues. A social entrepreneurial activity focuses
on creating an impact on environmental or social problems as a means of making a profit.
However, social entrepreneurial activities focus on creating a significant change in the
environment. Brussels has provided a conducive entrepreneurial ecosystem that supports and
steers social entrepreneurial activities. Being a substantial challenge to the European Union,
social entrepreneurship has been among Brussels's key agendas through the creation of policies,
supporting agencies, and legislation such as the Declaration of the general policy of Brussels
for 2019-2024 (be.Brussels, 2022). These initiatives are meant to provide entrepreneurs with
well-structured business models to help them succeed. Brussels also enjoys the support of
organizations such as the European Regional Development fund which help to create an
ecosystem that enhances collaboration and cooperation among different stakeholders of
Brussels’s social economy. Such initiatives have helped to bring together different participants
and players to create a conducive environment for social entrepreneurial activities in Brussels.
The next activity is the sustainable entrepreneurship. As the name suggests, sustainable
entrepreneurship is involved in researching and coming up with entrepreneurial suggestions
and options which are sustainable based in terms of their contribution to the environment and
society. Sustainable entrepreneurship is involved with coming up with ecofriendly alternatives
to promote sustainability. Belgium has been among the most active EU capitals to emphasize
on promoting sustainability in the business world as a means of fostering sustainable
entrepreneurial activities, an example is the liaison office of Brussels to the European Union
(EU) and its partnership with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to foster ecofriendly based strategies to the EU (United Nation Environmental Programme, 2022). Brussels
has developed different initiatives to promote the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and resources
among different stakeholders to promote sustainable oriented ideas. Charters such as the
303030 charters have been initiated and have developed specific objectives such as reducing
CO2 emissions by at least 30% in the next ten years (Brussels Chamber of Commerce, 2022).
Moreover, such initiatives have helped in fostering and defining clear objectives for
entrepreneurs to follow coupled with supporting bodies to ensure that entrepreneurs are
successful.
It is evident that Brussels has adequately strived to create an enabling environment by fostering
different elements of its entrepreneurial ecosystem to ensure that it supports the different
entrepreneurial activities. Despite facing economic challenges, Brussels has adequately ensured
that it provides a conducive environment for startups and businesses to thrive by creating an
environment that encourages their efforts and supports key strategies such as sustainability.
Such initiatives undertaken by the city have enabled it to become a key entrepreneurial hub in
the continent.
References
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