Agata Kapturkiewicz

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>One of the challenges in existing research on entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) is that it can strongly emphasize either the structure aspect of the EEs or agency—especially that of entrepreneurs. These emphases can sometimes make it difficult to untangle the mechanisms of how various EE actors interact with and co-create their EEs, and understand how such mechanisms might vary across locations and bring about different types of entrepreneurial and socio-economic outcomes. In this chapter, we follow in the footsteps of several pioneering EE studies using the theoretical lens of organizational fields (e.g. Thompson et al., 2018; Auschra et al., 2019). We elaborate on how the focus on fields’ institutional infrastructure (Hinings et al., 2017) can be a useful analytical tool to examine the link between EE actors’ agency and EE elements and structures. Our discussion highlights how the institutional infrastructure concept can help researchers to uncover key EE mechanisms, their variations, and diverse outcomes. We illustrate our conceptual propositions with case vignettes from comparative contexts of Japan, India, and Finland, which are based on in-depth empirical studies conducted by the authors of this chapter. The vignettes from these diverse contexts, coupled with insights from relevant past literature on organizational fields and EEs, highlight a spectrum of possible modes of engagement—and outcomes of such engagement—of EE actors with their EEs’ institutional infrastructure. Overall, this chapter offers a contribution to how researchers can better understand EE processes by using the theoretical lens of organizational fields—especially the institutional infrastructure concept.</jats:p>