A socio-cognitive model of the emergence of entrepreneurial regions and the influence of venture capital availability on regional entrepreneurial outcomes.

The first part of this dissertation focuses on the question of how does a region that lacks an entrepreneurial tradition change and become an entrepreneurial center. The demand side perspective---which suggests that regional entrepreneurial outcomes are driven by region specific contextual factors---implies that a major environmental transformation needs to take place for the emergence of large scale entrepreneurial activity. However, formal models that provide an understanding of the process by which such a major environmental transformation takes place are elusive. I develop such a model by integrating ideas from institutional theory, theories of complex systems, learning and cognition as guided by observations from a case study of a region that has recently gone through an entrepreneurial transformation. I present a complex systems view of entrepreneurial regions such that (1) the gathering of a diverse set of heterogeneous actors in an emergent opportunity space, and (2) a continuous disequilibrium state generated by interactions between these actors facilitate the evolution of local entrepreneurial environments. The model describes how early micro actions by pioneering actors drive the macro evolution of entrepreneurial regions through environmental changes they create and amplifying processes of social learning and institutionalization.